Sunday 30 August 2009

Pyjama Girls in Dublin

We all know that the country sleepwalked itself into deep recession whilst dreaming a fluffy dream about ever-multiplying property values that would sustain the economy forever.

Nobody shouted “wake up”, of course, and now all the would-be tycoons are stuck paying for properties they can’t afford, are worth less than they were bought for, and can’t be let out. Oh… and many of them are losing their jobs.

And speaking of sleepwalking, what about all those people – usually female – going around the place in pyjamas all the time? For any of you who haven’t been to Ireland in a while – particularly Dublin – it’s a common sight. Young ones and women right up to their 20s, 30s and 40s who have given up on the idea of getting dressed, and walk the streets in their jim-jams instead - the ensemble usually accessorised by a packet of John Player Blue in the breast pocket.

I noticed it a good few years ago, and often marvelled upon it. But each to their own, and if people want to wear pyjamas 24-7 then grand, that’s their business. But you can’t help noticing and wondering what’s behind it all. The phenomenon, I mean – not necessarily the pyjamas.

Today’s Sunday Times reports that a documentary is in the making, called “Pyjama Girls”. Set around the Basin Street Flats complex near Guinness Brewery, its director, May Derrington, has an interesting take on the subject, theorising that “There is a sense among the communities where pyjama-wearing is prevalent that the home doesn’t stop at your front door…. It’s the wider area you live in. There is more of an old-fashioned sense of belonging, of an identity. Obviously there are also negative sides to those communities in that another reason for wearing pyjamas is because these people are not necessarily going to work”.

In that case, given the rude awakening the Irish economy has had, we might all be donning the pee-jays yet.


Best get down to Penneys and grab a few sets while you still can.


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13 comments:

Ella said...

Hi GM, LOL here! Do you know that the pyjama girls have those fluffy/fleecy type pyjamas for if they are just nipping out locally for their dvd and jp blue, but that if they are going further afield, like say to Tescos in Finglas they don their posh, shiny pyjamas. They are making a statement alright. I guess what you think that statement might be depends on your point of view.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't believe it when we were in Dublin and I saw the pyjama girls. It doesn't seem to have taken off in Sligo.....yet.

Das.Ding said...

My neighbour is a pyjama-girl, and i can confirm the theory. If she is just "hanging out" she wears her fluffy fleece pj. She has gotten into the habit of actually getting dressed when driving to Tescos lately.

Hmm i wonder, she started doing that after i laughed at her and called her a knacker for not dressing properly when being out and about. She now hates me guts, but i can live with that.

Saving Dublin, one Pyjama-Girl at the time :D

The Gombeen Man said...

Glad the blight hasn't reached Sligo yet, ML.

Keep up the good work, DD! Dublin needs more people like you!!!

MaryMack said...

It IS totally mad that carry on. As you say yourself GM, each to their own and all that, I agree. I just find it such a shame - have they NO respect for themselves or a tiny ounce of pride about their appearance? or indeed the same feelings regarding their own neighbourhood? Any 'visitor' to the area or passer by (be it Irish or tourist) surely must think, what the hell is this? (I know I did when I saw my first pj girl). A common sight is indeed the fags and DVDs in hand on the way back from visit to local shop for their stock up for the day, as per Ella's comment. By the way, have also spotted on one occasion a man dressed in boxer shorts, flipflops and short dressing gown flying open (and nothing else) on the way back from shop with a litre of milk! Now that was a sight to behold (NOT!) :-)

The Gombeen Man said...

Oh stop the lights MM... I don't even want to think about that last one!!!!

Anonymous said...

gdayGM Its more than a decade since iclapped eyes on such glamour and that was on coronation st,my x used to watch thats why its now x it cost me a few bentlys but well worth it they make them every day,my stomach is much better nowadays ,iguess BERMINGHAM has a major impact in oirland cheers

The Gombeen Man said...

Good to hear from you Mr BH. Don't suppose you see many walking round in the old PJs in Bev Hills?

Anonymous said...

As a one-time proud Dublin Northsider, currently living in low-rent Leitrim, I am constantly confoodled when visiting my oldest mate in Cabra by these floppy-footed, drowsy-eyed, flaccid-faced, slothfully-suited, pyjama-clad ladies out on their early morning, or sometimes early sfternoon, shop n slop mission. I mean to say - pavement beggars, junior infants on mini-motorbikes, tiny pubescent Paris Hiltons, shushy Southside pub-jazz audiences, 9-carat blinged-up future corpses, mumbling Methadone fans ruining the Liffey quays and vomiting/Eurinating Eurocomrades all over Temple Bar - Ah.... so that's why I prefer to live where people still say "hello", or at least drop round to apologise after they've hit you the night before.

JAP

Ella said...

Hi GM, it would appear that there are also pyjama girls in Limerick. See attached link from today's Indo.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pyjamaclad-attackers-stab-girl-outside-village-school-1947875.html

The Gombeen Man said...

No really too surprised by that Ella. And knives too!

Ella said...

Hi GM, it appears wearing pjs whilst shopping in Tescos in Cardiff is now banned. So us Dubs don't have exclusive rights to this phenomenum.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8484116.stm

Additionally many girls in Dublin's inner city schools wear their pjs to school under their uniforms, so say the texters to Matt Coopers show of today 29 Jan 2010.

Anonymous said...

I see they're now wearing those "paedo pyjamas"(the all in one baby grow type for adults)Just sickening.Only the dregs of society wear this shit

IHS