The walls of Boxx Barbers in Finglas speak to its original status as a record shop. There are posters of Bob Marley, Blur, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Ramones and many other luminaries of the music industry.
Boxx was opened in 1996 by Declan Moloney to sell records and concert tickets. Within a decade the internet had largely made record shops a relic of the analogue age and it became a barber shop in 2008.
There are now nine barbers operating in Finglas village. The competition is tough. Saturday is the busiest day and customers enter at half-hour intervals for a haircut and/or a shave.
Mr Moloney says the cost of living is the primary concern of staff and customers. He charges between €20 and €22 for a haircut.
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“I would love to increase the wages but I’d have to increase the price. That would kill the business,” he said. “This is a working-class area and people are pinned to their collars. The guys who used to come in every couple of weeks are leaving it for four or five weeks. That’s understandable. They’re smashed.”
Shaun Reid, who came in for a haircut and a shave, is turning 30 and is living at home with his parents. He and his partner have four children between them. He is minded to vote for Sinn Féin because of the housing crisis.
“It’s another opportunity for change,” he says. “I’m saving with my partner for a house. You are looking at the housing crisis and you are getting less motivated as the prices go up. You look further out from Finglas and houses are going up there as well.
“It’s a hard situation for anyone in power. I’d rather give the opportunity to Sinn Féin because they haven’t had the chance. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have had the chance and it has not worked out well for them.”
Ciaran Doran feels lucky. He moved into Finglas from Bray a year and a half ago having bought his grandmother’s house.
“I’d lean towards Sinn Féin but they don’t seem to be doing great. I would have traditionally voted Sinn Féin or centre-left, but I’d imagine Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael will get in.”
How does he feel about that? “I don’t have strong opinions against either of them. I would be more concerned about far-right candidates. That’s who I wouldn’t vote for.”
He is a qualified electrician and his girlfriend is a primary schoolteacher. “We budget well. We are not struggling. We are not living paycheck to paycheck. We are doing okay, but not everyone’s like that.”
Alan Grange (37), a self-employed horse trainer, will vote for the first time in this election. “The working classes are getting robbed. The shopping bills have gone up. The cost of living is shocking. You go into your local SuperValu and you wouldn’t come out of it without having spent €50. People don’t have the extra money.”
Who does he blame for that? “I won’t be voting for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They promised us everything, but they gave us nothing.”
Around the corner from Boxx is the constituency office of Sinn Féin’s Dessie Ellis. He polled one of the highest personal votes in the State in 2020 in the predominantly working-class three-seater Dublin North West constituency, with 44.39 per cent of the first-preference vote.
Social Democrat co-leader Róisín Shortall, who took the second seat in 2020, is retiring and housing lecturer Rory Aherne is vying to retain her seat for the party. Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe is the other sitting TD in a fight to return to the Dáil, while Fine Gael’s Noel Rock is hoping to make a comeback, having lost his seat in 2020.
“I’ll be voting locally for Dessie Ellis for a number of reasons,” said Graham, a barber shop client who declined to give his surname.
“He does a lot for the community. I had a nephew with autism and I struggled to get him assessed. I reached out to Dessie and he helped me. He’s very popular in the area.”
He won’t be voting for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. “They lie through their teeth. USC was only supposed to be a temporary thing but we are still paying it. Why is that? I’m struggling, like everybody.”
Steve was another man who didn’t want to give us full name for fear of being branded far left or far right. He identified housing as the root of much discontent.
“If the homeless and housing crisis was solved, you’d see a lot of our problems would disappear. You wouldn’t be as able to stoke up too much hatred against immigrants,” he says.
So, who will he vote for? “I don’t even know who I’m not going to vote for yet,” he replies.
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