Walk around Damien Dempsey's patch of Dublin's northside and the places and people are like ancient dolmens round his lyrics. Turn a corner near his family home and there still are the 'factories, trains and houses' he sang about on Shots, albeit quieter now, and more subdued.

Tradesmen walk around mid-morning with rolled up tabloid newspapers under their arms. A generation lies idle in a community struggling to re-establish its identity and sense of self.

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