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It is very clear that the Irish PAYE taxpayer is being squeezed every which way (Stock picture)

This week the column comes to you from New York - Hell's Kitchen, specifically. I'm sitting in a café, looking out at a bar called Mickey Spillane's. It's funny how that name would have once terrified locals.

Today the name is in bright lights over a welcoming pub. In the early 1970s, Hell's Kitchen was still run by the notorious 'Westies', the last of the Irish Mob gangs, under the leadership of Spillane.

Of course, these days Hell's Kitchen has moved with the city. It is becoming trendy, expensive and displays that great indicator of social gentrification - flamboyant gay men walking dogs in waistcoats.

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