If you have just arrived in Dublin, you cannot have failed to notice the two horrific chimneys that dominate the skyline. The big red and white ones, you know the ones I'm talking about.
These would be the cooling towers of Ringsend's Poolbeg Generating Station, better known by the name of the power station that formerly occupied the site, the Pigeon House.
The Poolbeg chimneys are the tallest structures in Dublin, and are visible from most of the city. While not exactly aesthetically pleasing in any obvious sense, the chimneys are quite cool in a type of post-apocalyptic way. And if that's your thing, you should head down to Dublin Port, just turn left past the East-Link bridge, and see them closer up: there's loads of scrap yards and derelict buildings, it would be a great location for another Mad Max film.
Even though I don't find them particularly pleasing to the eye, nor do I even notice them most of the time, if I am ever returning to Dublin after any length of time and I see the Pigeon House towers on the horizon, I get a little choked up. Then I feel a little disgusted by their monstrous incongruity. But then I get a little sad again.
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