Alive Alive O - A Requiem For Dublin I was running a little scared on Tuesday evening. It was the title of the film that had me so, 'Alive Alive O'! What was I to expect? Clichés are as one might say, grist to the mill for television programme makers. Just look, 'Home Sweet Home', 'Treasure Island', Big Brother, 'Wheel Of Fortune'Š So 'Alive Alive O' didn't inspire me as a title even if it was the title that most suited the film. But I decided to watch Sé Merry Doyle's film regardless. For a little while, I thought it was going to live up to the title in that it started off in quite a clichéd way. Surely but slowly Sé began to get the message across. Sure, we'd seen all these Dublin types before. We'd seen endless interviews with street traders; countless programmes about parents fighting the scourge of drugs, myriad pieces about parts of old Dublin being wiped away. So far, interesting but not inspiring. Interesting to me as one who lauds progress but still found it necessary to join the Wood Quay protest. But it wasn't grabbing me, it wasn't making me sit up. Quite when it did, I can't pinpoint. But unlike many, many programmes and films before it, Sé's effort finally, subtly and brilliantly made the point that it wasn't just buildings we were bulldozing and clearing from the city centre. It was people, whole families and communities. There is of course, a good argument to be made for clearing slums and tenements, for better roads, for new offices and hotels. And it's an argument I often make. But its like every argument, there is another side. And the other side in the case of Dublin's Inner City is not the ethnic cleansing of its people, but the economic cleansing of its people. Those who lived in the flats of Sheriff Street and the Gloucester Diamond simply weren't considered rich enough to live there anymore. Mick Rafferty made the point on a visit back to the flats where he lived and grew up and where U2 played one day almost twenty years ago (fascinating film of the band with youngsters on stage with them singing and laughing). "They were", said Mick, "perfectly good flats. It was a nice place to live." And in this particular part of the film, he predicted that the area would become occupied by the rich while the poor would be dispersed around the suburbs. He was right. Tony Gregory popped up in the piece of the film which no doubt inspired the title of the title. It was filmed around the time the independent TD was jailed for supporting the street traders. There are, like I said, two sides to every argument. But this film strongly made the point that street trading is a tradition and custom, going back generations. And strenuous efforts have been and are being made to kill it off, most notably in relation to the closure of the Iveagh Market. One of the best points made in the film perhaps, was that made in relation to those markets and the swimming pool and flats that form part of the Iveagh complex. Back then, millionaires such as Lord and Lady Iveagh, ploughed money back into the community. Such gestures, in these days of wealth and prosperity are hard to find. The poems of Paula Meehan, the songs of Frank Harte, the old photographs, the film clips from different times, different place - it all gelled beautifully. This was an important film. I could go on and about clichéd titles but at the end of day its what a film says that counts. And this said lots. It isn't too late to save at least some of the heart of Dublin. Glass buildings wide thoroughfares, posh hotels and trendy bars don't make a city. People do. And Sé Merry Doyle made that point very, very well indeed. Paddy Murray