Begging around bus station

rurallake · 16-02-2012 12:35am #1

Was at the bus station today in the space of 5 minutes get begged by 3 different people one of them on more than one occassion even though I gave him the €2 he earlier required. Made me feel very uncomfortable.

Mc Love · 16-02-2012 12:37am

Why do you give them money!?

Insect Overlord · 16-02-2012 12:42am

Yeah, you shouldn't have given any of them anything.

Poxyshamrock · 16-02-2012 12:54am

I've been to stations in Dublin, Belfast, Rome, London, New York, etc., and there has been beggars at all the stations I've visited!

It happens everywhere unfortunately.

A woman at Euston in London even threw her shoes at me! :P

marketty · 16-02-2012 1:00am

Same thing happened to me when I fed a stray cat, he's still coming back 2 years later

Comhrá · 16-02-2012 1:11am

Same thing happened to me when I fed a stray cat, he's still coming back 2 years later

At least the cat doesn't want money for drink. I'd have no trouble giving him food.

Mc Love · 16-02-2012 2:53am

When I was in Secondary school - a lad from Focus came in and talked to us and said the best thing to do is offer to buy them food instead of handing over money as you are only helping them buy drink and drugs. And bankrolling the drug dealers in the process.

If they refuse food - then they are not worth it.

constantg · 16-02-2012 3:05am

the security in the station is hopeless....the security in heuston is far more effective imho

i was hassled for cash by the same guy twice recently....now whatever hope he had the first time, the second time he hadn't a cat in hell's chance, seeing as he was clearly too stoned to realise i'd already told him to f**k off...

maryk123 · 16-02-2012 8:45am

not even just around the station though. i went to town the other day - i have not been in ages and met 5 beggars between william street and o connell street - that and knackers o my god the place is full of them. it opened my eyes- young giels pushing prams-the tracksuit brigade-it was an awful sight and it doesnt help there are so many pound shops in william street attracting them. oh i got the shivers.

Ellis Dee · 16-02-2012 9:02am

Giving money to beggars is like leaving out food for rats. Something your neighbours would hardly thank you for. If everyone in Ireland decided not to give a cent - ever - to a beggar, there wouldn't be a single one left in a week's time. but when you give them money, you are in effect helping make life more difficult for your fellow-citizens, many of whom are old, infirm and more easily intimidated than the rest of us.:D

I never, never give to beggars in Europe. I do in India, but only in the places that are reserved for them outside temples, and I know the temple authorities only allow genuinely needy ones to beg there. Chancers are soon sent packing.

Just ignore beggars in Ireland. If one clutches at you, scream to high heaven for the Guards. You own them nothing, least of all your time and attention.:rolleyes:

Ireland is a welfare state, and no one really needs to beg, as hard as life is for some. If you feel bad about not giving to beggars, you can always pop into a church and put something in the poor box, or give it to that admirable body the Vinnies or their Protestant equivalent, or help out some people you know are genuinely in need and not just feeding a drink or drug problem.

The Snipe · 16-02-2012 11:25am

On Tuesday, I was asked by the same guy twice in a half hour outside Pennys - couldn't help but piss myself laughing :P

HorseRadish · 16-02-2012 12:41pm

Fella in the station asked me for 50c for tea then 30 seconds later he asked the person beside me for 75c for tea. On asking me again,I just said "Man,I havent got it for myself".

roast · 16-02-2012 1:22pm

maryk123 wrote: »

not even just around the station though. i went to town the other day - i have not been in ages and met 5 beggars between william street and o connell street - that and knackers o my god the place is full of them. it opened my eyes- young giels pushing prams-the tracksuit brigade-it was an awful sight and it doesnt help there are so many pound shops in william street attracting them. oh i got the shivers.

Wtf?

RonMexico · 16-02-2012 1:59pm

William Street is like Fifth Avenue for the tracksuit brigade.

Kess73 · 16-02-2012 2:34pm

RonMexico wrote: »

William Street is like Fifth Avenue for the tracksuit brigade.

Nah it is their Rodeo Drive, with O' Connell Street being their Santa Monica Boulevard

O' Connell Street in Dublin is the tracksuit Fifth Avenue.

europa11 · 16-02-2012 5:37pm

Tracksuited f*cker outside Centra on O'Connell st. last week as I was passing during the early evening, the usual "Giss a euro Bud"......"No" says I walkin past "You're a mayyn fuggin'cuunnin' parik" (skanger-english trans. = you are a mean ***** penis).
:cool:

Like a fool I then decided to call him something in his own language and briefly felt like going back to allow him to feel the weight of my sportsbag before common sense descended and I walked on with further insults being directed at me.

So what. Well now imagine that rare breed, a tourist, running into the same piece of shlte and multiply his/her experience by many more drug tappers up, down O'Connell Street and off it. then consider by contrast the number of Gardai on foot-patrol at any given time on our main street....:rolleyes:. and we wonder why our image is so negative.

As for the area around the Railway Station. Christ on a bike, talk about "cead mile failte"......in our case it's "gimme the price of a can, bud" that greets arrivals at one of the main entry points to the city. At least it might stop them observing the abandoned Corporation flats on exiting the Bus Station on the left, another gem in that area.

Limerick City Council, Shannon Tourism, CIE and Gardai - hang your heads.

ZombieBride · 16-02-2012 5:41pm

With Beggars on the side streets off Cruises Street, then you hit the Cruises Street Chuggers, and onto the William Street tracksuits, while avoiding the O'Connell Street Socialists, actually I haven't seen the Anti-Abortionists lately, though the Bible Bashers are out in force, then there are the doorstep tables for "charity" outside Easons/Tescos, and finally at the bottom are the Charity Can shakers.

Is it any wonder that people prefer to shop in the freedom of the supermarkets, than to be harassed at every step in the city centre. Thank goodness for headphones.

hattoncracker · 16-02-2012 5:43pm

The first time I ever visited Limerick I was really nervous, given all the negative publicity! I only got out of the train station and someone was asking me for money!

V offputting, but it's the same in Dublin, worse even!

constantg · 20-02-2012 6:43pm

I was on Patrick Street in Cork one day, just window shopping and some guy approached me with a duffel bag and asked would I have the price of a ticket home for him....reeking of drink and clearly hammered and glassy eyed.

Really weird experience tbh, very out of the blue, didn't see him approaching anyone else before he came to me either!

phog · 20-02-2012 6:55pm

Anyone worried about begging in Limerick would want to avoid the ticket machines at the LUAS stops in Dublin. It's like bears to honey there.

constantg · 21-02-2012 5:59am

phog wrote: »

Anyone worried about begging in Limerick would want to avoid the ticket machines at the LUAS stops in Dublin. It's like bears to honey there.

Same with the machines in Limerick station.....comes back to the same thing again and again....security there is sh1t!

Aglomerado · 21-02-2012 10:00am

There's a guy who hangs around at the traffic lights at St Mary's in Athlunkard Street... when traffic is stopped he shakes a paper cup at all the drivers. He seems harmless enough, but I'd rather give to the Simon commuity or SVP than encourage begging!

Jeebus · 21-02-2012 10:10am

I have been to many bus stations in my time. Limerick station is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most horrible, dingiest and disgusting one I have ever had the pleasure to use.

I'm not sure if it's because of all the dodgy, imposing people around that it is so horrible. Or it might be that I was held at knife-point ten seconds after walking out of my bus a few years back. It could be the multitude of knackers waiting around the corner to harass you. It might be the huge number of beggars inhabiting the place - far more than I have encountered anywhere else, with one of them being the fine fellow who pulled a knife on me.

I've been to some dodgy places in my time, and even as a Limerick native, that bus station is still the place I feel most uncomfortable. Horrible, horrible station in need of knocking down, relocating and a new car park!

Kess73 · 21-02-2012 11:54am

Limerick station is a dump. It is more like a back water railway/bus station than one that services a city.

I see that Belfast station got mentioned in this thread. As someone who uses the Belfast station every month I fail to see anything that station has in common with Colvert station. It does not have beggers going around inside the station, the security there is visible and very proactive, and the station itself is modern and clean.

Mc Love · 21-02-2012 8:52pm

Jeebus wrote: »

I have been to many bus stations in my time. Limerick station is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most horrible, dingiest and disgusting one I have ever had the pleasure to use.

I'm not sure if it's because of all the dodgy, imposing people around that it is so horrible. Or it might be that I was held at knife-point ten seconds after walking out of my bus a few years back. It could be the multitude of knackers waiting around the corner to harass you. It might be the huge number of beggars inhabiting the place - far more than I have encountered anywhere else, with one of them being the fine fellow who pulled a knife on me.

I've been to some dodgy places in my time, and even as a Limerick native, that bus station is still the place I feel most uncomfortable. Horrible, horrible station in need of knocking down, relocating and a new car park!

the greyhound station in LA is probably on a par with in terms of being dangerous and full of homeless, skobes and beggars, but much better in terms of facilities

justbmad · 23-02-2012 3:54pm

The original poster was some muppet for giving one of those skangers 2 euro instead of telling em to f**k off, as for giving money to svp, a lot of what they get goes to buying cigarettes with your hard earned money & dishing them out at night , probably to the same skanger who demanded money with menace in the first place.

constantg · 24-02-2012 11:23am

justbmad wrote: »

The original poster was some muppet for giving one of those skangers 2 euro instead of telling em to f**k off, as for giving money to svp, a lot of what they get goes to buying cigarettes with your hard earned money & dishing them out at night , probably to the same skanger who demanded money with menace in the first place.

A trifle angry are we? Bit of a difference between giving homeless people on the street a few fags and maybe a quid or two at night and giving cash to some gowl in the station, CLEARLY off his head on something that comes from a syringe!

Melion · 24-02-2012 12:50pm

Aglomerado wrote: »

There's a guy who hangs around at the traffic lights at St Mary's in Athlunkard Street... when traffic is stopped he shakes a paper cup at all the drivers. He seems harmless enough, but I'd rather give to the Simon commuity or SVP than encourage begging!

My daughter calls him the no money man. If we pass and he isnt there then she asks "Where is the no money man?" Hes a horrible individual, i dont even shake my head at him to say no more anyway. Its been nearly 4 years ive been going in and out that road every day and he still stops at my window every time. Its what he does to women in cars alone that annoys me.

Kess73 · 24-02-2012 1:10pm

Melion wrote: »

My daughter calls him the no money man. If we pass and he isnt there then she asks "Where is the no money man?" Hes a horrible individual, i dont even shake my head at him to say no more anyway. Its been nearly 4 years ive been going in and out that road every day and he still stops at my window every time. Its what he does to women in cars alone that annoys me.

What does he do?

I know that there were some regular beggers at Punches cross some time back, as well as down near where the Lobster Pot used to be that turned into real wannabe hard men when any lone woman would not roll down the window of her car. Had words with two of them at Punches cross when I saw them banging the bonnet and window of a car with a woman on her own inside of it.

Melion · 24-02-2012 1:13pm

Kess73 wrote: »

What does he do?

I know that there were some regular beggers at Punches cross some time back, as well as down near where the Lobster Pot used to be that turned into real wannabe hard men when any lone woman would not roll down the window of her car. Had words with two of them at Punches cross when I saw them banging the bonnet and window of a car with a woman on her own inside of it.

If he goes to a car with a man driving and is told no, he stands there for a second and then moves on. Different story if its a woman on her own though, he will not leave the window for at least 10 seconds while pleading with her and shaking his cup, now i know that doesnt seem like a long time when you read it but id imagine its very intimidating for women. Im talking about the foreign guy in the grey jacket, not the fella selling the books of poetry.

All this just reminded me that it will be window washer season soon, fúcking cúnts.

Kess73 · 24-02-2012 1:52pm

Melion wrote: »

If he goes to a car with a man driving and is told no, he stands there for a second and then moves on. Different story if its a woman on her own though, he will not leave the window for at least 10 seconds while pleading with her and shaking his cup, now i know that doesnt seem like a long time when you read it but id imagine its very intimidating for women. Im talking about the foreign guy in the grey jacket, not the fella selling the books of poetry.

All this just reminded me that it will be window washer season soon, fúcking cúnts.

10 seconds or more of intimidation from a person to whom you have already said no to, is a long time.

Begging around bus station

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