SINCE HIPSTERS FIRST arrived in Dublin, they’ve been mocked, derided and scorned.

They’ve been subjected to “How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb?” jokes and cutting remarks about their beards and bikes, as well as alarmist headlines like this…

But are we being too hard on them?

Here are 9 reasons we have a little soft spot for Dublin’s hipsters.

1. They surely deserve a little bit of credit for making beards fashionable again.

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During the Celtic Tiger, a bearded man was a rare beast. But now you can’t swing a cat without hitting a lumbersexual male, much to the delight of red-blooded women (and men) everywhere.

#blessed

2. Dubliners finally have a choice when it comes to decent beer

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Sure, people chatting about craft beer might be borderline insufferable, but at least the hipster obsession with craft beer has resulted in customers having a choice beyond Heineken, Carlsberg and Guinness.

Cheers to that.

3. Ditto coffee.

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If there’s one thing hipsters love, it’s their coffee.

And thanks to coffee connoisseurs forcing coffee shop owners to up their game, Dublin is now positively spoiled for choice when it comes to finding a good cuppa joe.

4. And we haven’t even talked about the food!

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Yes, places like Cereal Café take the whole “hipster food” thing way too far.

But think back to 2003 when Dublin was a culinary wasteland in which the only reasonably priced thing you could purchase was a panini.

But thanks to hipsters and their ilk, Dublin is now home to countless cafés and restaurants doing genuinely interesting things at affordable prices.

Sure, some might try too hard to cultivate an “image” or whatever, but if the food is delicious, we can overlook the vintage birdcage sitting in the corner or whatever.

5. You don’t need to go to, like, a specialist mountain bike shop to buy a bike anymore…

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There are so many bike shops! And places to buy bike accessories! And people to nerd out about bikes with!

It’s wonderful.

6. We might mock skinny jeans, but at least Irish men stopped wearing bootcut/stonewashed/ill-fitting jeans like this:

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And for that we are eternally grateful.

7. If it weren’t for hipsters, there would be a whole load of grim, empty shopfronts dotted around Dublin

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Just think of The Fumbally and how it completely transformed its little pocket of Dublin!

Love them or loathe them, these hipster favourites are making Dublin a lovely, vibrant place to be.

8. They’ve made delicious food go mainstream

Burritos, cronuts, pulled pork… Once embraced by hipsters and now beloved by the general populous.

You can even get pulled pork in Abrakebabra now, if you so wish.

Abrakebabra Abrakebabra

9. But mostly? Mostly we love hipsters because they give Irish people something new to moan about.

The most beautiful gift of all.

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