Today – Thursday the 12th of November 2026 – over 50 heads of state and leaders of Government from abroad are visiting Dublin, as well as leaders of various EU institutions such as European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen. They’re all descending on the capital city for the Ninth European Political Community summit in Dublin as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency. God only knows what the dreaded “carbon footprint” will be for all those Government jets, but that’s for another article.
They’re calling it the biggest security operation in the history of the Irish State. But going through the city centre with my wife and toddler yesterday, “secure” is not really the word we would have used to describe the vibe. First we enjoyed a lovely ride on the F2 bus near an obviously mentally ill and aggressive man who smelled like he hadn’t showered in weeks, who berated a perfectly polite man for bringing a well-behaved therapy dog onto the bus. The dog-handler explained that he was on his way to a hospice and that the dog was to help people give comfort to people who are dying as part of palliative care, to which the other man replied “It shouldn’t be on the f*cking bus!” loudly in front of my 3-year-old son. The foul-smelling gentleman spent the rest of the trip muttering curse words under his breath and getting angry with other passengers over extremely insignificant perceived slights, as if he was just itching to fight someone and just needed any excuse to pop off.