6am in Dublin feels unusually still.
The commute hasn’t yet started for many. Shop shutters are wedged closed; streets are left with little trace of the night before and there is a stillness of the day yet to begin. Away from the city however, closer to the coastline people are gathering in dribs and drabs. Some arrive alone, with their fists balled into the pockets of a colourful fleece to hide from the cold (something always promised by a Dublin morning). Others come in pairs or groups. No one seems to mind how you arrive or where you hide your hands… as long as you Show Up.
Yoga mats or something to separate yourself from the dewy (wet) grass are soon rolled out. Strangers stretch, breathe and move together. A few kilometres away the city is slowly moving but on mat in Dún Laoghaire, the stillness stays. Afterwards, everyone walks for coffee together.
Ireland was recently named one of the loneliest countries in the world, a statistic that would be confusing to see painted along the kerbs of Drury Street on a Friday night or pitched in the grass of Stephen’s Green on a Summers evening. It feels like there’s always something going on here. People on their way somewhere, crowds queuing for something, gigs and events galore. There is chatter, traffic, music… and loneliness? Loneliness in cities carries its own unique weight. It can feel like a personal issue, to feel alone among the buzz of a place offering so many opportunities. Loneliness today exists alongside the buzz; in fact, it is undermined by it. It is rarely as simple as complete isolation, you can feel lonely on a crowded Luas, choked by surface level interactions, lost in the lives of others that appear to be moving around you.
People don’t need another trend to follow or a fitness goal to be guilted into. People need real, consistent connection.
Across Dublin a number of community-led groups are trying to bridge that gap and create the well sought after connection. These groups are not built to monetize; they aren’t your well curated Instagram account offering giveaways and flashing the new buzzword of ‘collab’. These are groups started by people who have felt that same lonely feeling. People who want to create a space where people can meet without pressure or the need to fit a certain brand, a space where we can simply exist alongside one another and hopefully connect.
On Capel Street, tucked away inside the unassuming Mish Mash Art Café, Tangent Workshop has found a home.
Founded by writer Maria Kelly, Tangent brings people together with the shared interest of creative writing. The workshop welcomes experienced writers and complete beginners, those who write for a purpose and those who don’t even know where to start. Kelly has mastered an art of allowing vulnerability and creativity to coexist within the same space, without any tolerance for intimidation. Spaces like Tangent encourage people to slow down and listen to one another, to show up in an authentic way. This atmosphere can be sensed immediately as you squeeze through the small door of a café open after hours. The business day is over for this particular establishment but the vibrations left by busy coffee lovers who have been and gone throughout the day can still be felt. People arrive with notebooks, scraps of paper and banks of half finished thoughts.
After returning to Dublin in her twenties Kelly felt the urge of that shared desire for connection. “I was at a place in my life where I wanted to make new friends but I was thinking how the hell do you do that? I wanted to create a bridge to get past the small talk, you know, I have always been interested in the depth of people. There are so many more things to someone than what we do, we are all walking around all day long thinking all of these thoughts, there is so much more to a person than what they do for work” she says. With the goal of meeting more of people, and sharing more herself, Kelly began Tangent. On the beach in Bray with her ears and arms open wide…and a jar of ‘prompts’. People would gather, sharing thoughts and stories, inspiring the next five minute window of writing that was offered. Each session began with a breathing exercise to unwind from whatever day people were coming in from. Kelly saw the benefit of Tangent for both herself and her new community, and as soon as Summer ended she knew she wanted to “take it inside”.
Kelly describes each person who comes to Tangent as someone with “ an open heart and a willingness to sit in the vulnerability of getting to know a new person”. Just off the busy street, there is an offer to slow down. A lot of communication today is done online, people can go from one end of the day to another, having communicated with numerous people, without having met anyone. When opportunities for communication do arise, they are often centred in transactions, a networking event, a way to perform, somewhere to gather content. Kelly explains she wanted to create a space offering quite the opposite, a space where “people can take off the mask, and relax into a more curious, playful version of themselves, which when they leave will make them feel more connected. And that will stay with them”.
There is something important about the physicality and consistency of these gatherings. With many people leading fast-paced lives, trying to keep up with some “hustle culture” no wonder there are feelings of loneliness. These communities don’t require big acts or efforts, for most you need only to show up, which is exactly what Amanda Russell had in mind when bringing ‘Show Up’ to Dublin almost four years ago. She attended this sunrise yoga event which started on the beach in Barcelona with just four people They had a couple of mats and a willingness to connect and she thought “We need this in Dublin”. Since then, the community has grown to see hundreds of people attending across Barcelona, Dublin, Copenhagen and Sitges.
Show Up are just starting back up their ‘Summer Sessions’ which run from May to September on a Wednesday morning. Each week at Dún Laoghaire Baths and Bull Island, people are encouraged to come along for yoga-based movement, breathwork, an ‘optional’ sea swim and a well needed coffee. Russell says that “these communities are out there but they can be hard to find, Show Up is different because of the consistency. You know we’ve never cancelled a sesh in the three summers it’s been going…and there’s been a lot of rainy mornings”. Many people can come up with an excuse to not wake up before the sun and attend an event, but if ‘no way to get there’ is on your excuse list, scratch that. Russell has created a group chat that offers a carpool which offers a mode of transport and another way to meet people because admittedly “it takes community to get people there”.
Like Mish Mash Café, Happy Out in Dún Laoghaire opens their doors an hour early on these mornings to provide a space post stretch where people can gather. For those anxious about going alone she promises that “you can go knowing there will be a lot of other first timers there, and you are encouraged to talk to your neighbour… we even finish with a hug”.
For this many people to drag themselves out of bed, early in the morning, in an unreliable Irish climate just shows how much these spaces are needed. Russell has seen how important this is for people “I’ve had messages from people who tell me how much it means to them, this one guy told me you know you don’t know how much the consistency means to me, to have something that I knew wouldn’t go away each week…it means more to me than you will ever know”. Show Up promises that consistency, that connection and “something they can count on”.
There is a demanding need for productivity today. For our days to be filled with purposeful outings, a focus on how we can achieve the next thing or reach a new goal. With this agenda as our main focus, connection cannot possibly coexist. Interactions feel rushed or consumed by the next thing that ‘needs’ to be done. These kinds of gatherings are a haven away from our own busy lives, allowing people to just exist, a lost art.
That same sense of ease exists within Runner Up run club.
Run clubs nowadays are possibly more popular than the actual club. People attend for their physical health, for social connection, routine… and I’m sure a few are using them as an alternative to dating apps. Like many things fitness has also managed to form its own ‘trend’. A Hyrox ticket is harder to get than an Eras tour one. Padel has replaced tennis and people don’t just run at a fast pace anymore, they have the Instagram story to prove it. Runners up was built on an agenda less flashy, but offering the same thing we all seek, something that no matter how hard we try cannot be found through a social media following, this event too offers a community.
After two years in Melbourne and attending cycling groups that were “a bit too fast”, Paul McCabe turned to run clubs that appeared a bit more friendly (for your soul, lungs and legs). He attended run clubs that offered long runs, short runs, track sessions and of course ‘the chats’. On his return to Ireland McCabe decided to mix all these together with his own personal offering, something that makes it all worth it, something that will get you running…coffee.
Runner Up was founded in February of 2025 and is described my McCabe as a “community-based run club”. “Community means doing this for other people without expecting anything back. Every week I brew coffee and bring it down; there’s no payment or anything but through doing that other people have given back. Some people bake, some people bring chopped oranges, one of the guys was even making juices for a while” he says.
The runners gather every Thursday at Kilbogget Park at the crisp hour of 7am (a scary time to wake, an even scarier time to start running laps). Two Fifty Square coffee make the early mornings slightly more bearable by supplying beans for McCabe to brew coffee for the community. He, like other community gatherers, finds the weekly aspect crucial, “Its really beneficial it being weekly, it can be hard even finding time to meet your mates, but this is something that’s set in the calendar”. People have expressed their gratitude in cards, claiming that the meet up has ‘added value to their life’ and that’s what keeps these communities alive and thriving, those who lay the foundation and those who maintain it.
There is rarely a time when our phones are off, and even when they are, they are still glowing in the corner of the room or buzzing against your thigh. Joining a real-life community allows you to take a step away from the one you’ve created for yourself online. McCabe recognizes this want for a shift “I think as we go more digital people actually want more time away from their devices and that’s how it is at the track, you know, everyone’s phone is in their bag and we’re just running and chatting, its that simple”.
That’s how these communities are built and maintained, in simplicity and consistency. Community events are a great way to connect with others, and these events are there to suit to the masses. But community comes in all shapes and sizes, not only in organised events. Community and connection can be built by looking up. By talking to the same person you share the bus to work with most mornings instead of drowning them out with earphones. By asking your local shopkeeper about themselves instead of the ‘Lost Marys’ behind the counter. Or even by sitting across from someone at a café, that way more of us could get in the door to even see the inside of these trendy spots popping up… Ah community!
Images: Ben Selmi, Tadgh O’Brien
