Fair city views with Lord Mayor Hazel Chu

Fresh out of lockdown, Dublin has begun its reawakening. Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu talks to SIOBHÁN BREATNACH about growing up in the city, her love of surfing and what the county has to offer

“I’m a really terrible surfer but I miss surfing, I miss being able to hop in the car and drive.”

Elected just months into the Covid pandemic, Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu is chatting about the things she missed doing while the country was under lockdown and 5km restrictions. One of her great loves, family aside, is hitting the cool waves of the Atlantic with her partner Patrick Costello, another political heavyweight, recently elected as TD for Dublin South Central. Given their new roles, it’s no surprise the couple choose to stay close to home in recent years – making the most of what Ireland has to offer.

“We go surfing in Strandhill, surfing in Lahinch,” the Lord Mayor says.

“In Strandhill, take a seaweed bath afterwards, after you get pounded by the waves, it’s great. Then have some tea and cake in Shells Café or take a drive to Pudding Row in Easkey, then take a hike up to the tabletop mountain Benbulbin.” Outside of Dublin, Sligo is the heavenly port of call for the couple and their young daughter Alex.

“It used to be Lahinch but as we got a bit older, we realised we wouldn’t be pub crawling, so we started going to Sligo,” she jokes.

A born and bred Dubliner, Lord Mayor Hazel Chu grew up in Firhouse before moving to Celbridge.

She now lives in Ranelagh with her family and is full of praise of the capital. “A lot of people say it’s the people, which it is, but it’s also because it’s walkable,” she says when asked what makes her home city great.

“Dublin as a city is very walkable – you go from one place to another very quickly. Some people say it’s small but it’s not. It’s big enough for its size as a capital,” she adds. “Everything is commutable and accessible. I think after Covid - and with a lot of Covid mobility pedestrianisation happening - hopefully it’ll turn into something that’s a lot more accessible to having events and people sitting out. “We don’t have the big squares or plazas like Spain or France, Germany or Italy. It would be great to develop those and make that happen.”

Involved in politics since 2014 and elected a Green Party councillor in 2019, Hazel Chu is the city’s 352nd Lord Mayor and only the ninth woman.

A UCD politics and history graduate, she has also trained to be a barrister at Kings Inns and was called to the bar in 2007 working in Sydney, Hong Kong and Guilin. She also previously lived and worked in New York for Bord Bia and so is wellplaced to talk about the merits of Dublin as a global destination for travel.

“A lot of people say Dublin is great craic for drinking, for going out, but I’ve always found Dublin really great for eating out – brunches and lunches,” she says.

“We really missed that with friends during lockdown in so far as we would have gone on a Sunday or Saturday to anywhere from Tribeca in Ranelagh to Noshington in Dublin 8.

“It’s nice to have an hour with your friends and then go about your day.” “We’ve gotten very foodie,” she adds. “I lived in New York 10 years ago and it was amazing in terms of you’d walk down the road and have some amazing authentic traditional Mexican or Chinese. It was incredible.

“Dublin has definitely developed in the last five or six years. Now there’s a lot of chains but equally a lot of little pockets that have

been great like Richmond (in Portobello) - they’re not always in the centre of the city because it’s too expensive to run.” The Lord Mayor’s parents are originally from Hong Kong and met in Ireland in the 1970s.

Since she was a teenager she worked in her mother’s restaurant doing everything from the dishes to waitressing and taking on the duties of sous chef – little wonder she knows some of the best hospitality spots in town.

“My mum still owns a restaurant in Monkstown,” she says. “Monkstown is full of restaurants with tables and chairs outside. It’ll be one of those villages when you walk through, that if the sun is shining, it’ll feel like a different country.” Growing up, her parents were intent on making a success of their business so holidays were rare though not non-existent.

“This is going to sound really sad but we didn’t really have holidays because my parents were working non-stop,” the Lord Mayor says.

“They went from chip van to takeaway, they worked constantly so there weren’t any family holidays. The earliest memory of a holiday was when I was nine and we went to Italy. I remember my mum being so excited. “Anywhere with a coastal route is amazing,” she adds. “In Dublin, you’re talking about everything from Seapoint, you have the cycle route out there.

You can hop on a bike, cycle along the coastal route right to Dun Laoghaire to have an ice-cream and walk the pier. “Then if you’re going the other direction, you can hop on the Dart and go all the way. Go to Howth, take a walk there, have some seafood down the front. Or if you’re the hiking type, my mum has taken to hiking with a group every week now to the Dublin Mountains, you can go hiking or cycling through the Sally Gap.” Dublin has no shortage of lovely little things to do, she says.

“We went to IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) last weekend to check out one of the exhibitions and the garden outside was just amazing to sit in and have a coffee.

“I do love the museums. Around the city you have the National Gallery, MoLI, the Museum of Literature, you have the Museum of Dublin. If you do that trail and then go sit in

St. Stephen’s Green it’s lovely.”

Not to forget about the other side of the city, as the Lord Mayor is quick to point out. Dublin’s northside comes with an equally rich and diverse offering. “Everyone seems to forget about the north of the city, but it has a lot of amazing things,” she says. “You start off with The Hugh Lane, you go down Constitutional Hill to take a gawk at the King’s Inns, go through the gap and walk down Henrietta Street, there’s an award-winning museum there.

“Out the other side, down Capel Street and you can have everything from really good sushi to cake from Caramino.

Then you’re into Phoenix Park.

“I’m looking forward to going to the Central Hotel on a cold winter’s day and having a cup of tea by the fire or the Westbury hotel.

“There’s something very comfortable about sitting in a hotel,” she adds. “There’s lots of great spaces in

Ireland and in Dublin especially.”