Often hailed as “the poster child of Europe” for its discipline and compliance in managing austerity despite the severity of the cuts meted on its population, Dublin presents an interesting case in austerity governance. This article focuses on the specific mechanisms whereby such compliance and public acquiescence has been achieved. Drawing on field research conducted from 2015 to 2017, it identifies three key practices of austerity governance – a collectivisation of blame and shame; a cutting, shaping and disciplining of civil society; and a reconstruction of the citizen-subject. It then goes on to uncover a diverse range of public responses to these practices which, oscillating between resistance and resilience, are playing a key role in rebuilding solidarity and community across neighbourhoods throughout the city. The findings presented here respond to recent calls for a re-insertion of the political into contemporary urban research and highlight the importance of dispersed networks of resistance and resilience in contemporary urban political struggle and transformation.