Clondalkin is a notorious district in West Dublin inhabited by labourers’ families. Many are now on the dole as a result of the crisis. The neighbourhood seems decent: renovated houses, cars parked in front of most of them.
Every Dubliner knows, however, that the district is seamy, dangerous and full of drugs. Clondalkin still preserves the cultural phenomenon of so-called urban cowboys – teenagers illegally keeping wild horses.
In spite of the ban, cowboys spend all days riding their horses bareback. Dylan is a good-looking 14-year-old Dubliner with blond hair and blue eyes. A day before his mother died in May, she gave him money to buy his first horse.
In spite of the tragedy, Dylan soon bought a little white mare he had dreamt of, and called her Shelly, after his mother. Dylan’s grandparents, who raise him, try to maintain discipline. They’d love to get rid of the horse but they realize just how much the animal means to the boy.
