Inner-city blues: I’m sick of hearing the phrase ‘known to gardaí’ used as a dog-whistle

Young men from our inner cities are funny, sharp-witted striving to be good men in a world bombarded with criticism

'A lot of right-wing material pops up in my feeds. Macho man stuff.' Photo: Getty

Estelle Birdy

I was walking home ona wintry evening in the mid-2010s, near the St ­Stephen’s Green Luas stop, when I met a young man sitting on a blanket, looking for money.

Twenty-two and hoping to get the keys to his own front door through Peter McVerry soon, he just needed to survive another couple of weeks. He’d got kicked out of home, not without reason, in his late teens.