The worlds toughest Town

Rubberbandits

Is Limerick Still being featured on that documentary "The Worlds toughest Towns" with the journalist Donal McIntyre? Its starting this week on Bravo I think?

1huge1

First im hearing of it but ill check it out.

Liam Byrne

Given some of the ****e that's on about "Britain Uncovered" etc, they've got some cheek.

I know Limerick has a dodgy side (I'm not that blinkered) but to compare occasional (if severe) gang-related stuff to regular thugs and drunk idiots causing severe carnage is pretty blinkered.

Ardscoil Ris

What a croc of... Limerick is nothing compared to what's outside the Western World.

I would rather take my chances in Moyross (Which I grew up in when I was young and still live quite near it) then the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Tijuana or Mogadishu.

Worlds toughest town my eye, sure Dublin is just as bad if not worse.

TheLoc

Ardscoil Ris wrote: »

What a croc of... Limerick is nothing compared to what's outside the Western World.

I would rather take my chances in Moyross (Which I grew up in when I was young and still live quite near it) then the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Tijuana or Mogadishu.

Worlds toughest town my eye, sure Dublin is just as bad if not worse.

Yea Dublin is worse i'd say. Them english city's are fair bad too. The police are better but the scumbags are far more numerous.

baza1976

TheLoc wrote: »

Yea Dublin is worse i'd say. Them english city's are fair bad too. The police are better but the scumbags are far more numerous.

Do you mean them english cities like Dublin !!! :rolleyes: lol.. sorry couldn't resist

TheLoc

What?
That doesn't make any sense. why would you say that?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Ardscoil Ris wrote: »

Worlds toughest town my eye, sure Dublin is just as bad if not worse.

I'm from Dublin.

Based on the stories I've heard from people that have lived in Limerick for their whole lives, Dublin is nowhere near as bad.

TheLoc

Everyone has different opinions. I have cousins in Bray. one of them was held by scumbags with an injection of blood to his throat. They told this was aides and robbed him blind. then they beat him.
There are stories everywhere but I think the limerick ones are far more publicised because its like a gossip column in the news. everyone wants to know how bad it is. I've been here 14 years and a few bad things have happened. but not as bad as a vile of blood held to my neck.

baza1976

Sean_K wrote: »

I'm from Dublin.

Based on the stories I've heard from people that have lived in Limerick for their whole lives, Dublin is nowhere near as bad.

Sean how could a "culiche city" be more violent then the "big smoke". What all us inbred lower class know about this kinda thing??? YOu are obivously a more intelligent man than i (has u can tell by my grammer).
Go fcuk urself!!!

TheLoc

baza1976 wrote: »

Sean how could a "culiche city" be more violent then the "big smoke". What all us inbred lower class know about this kinda thing??? YOu are obivously a more intelligent man than i (has u can tell by my grammer).
Go fcuk urself!!!

Jaysus.... Someone woke up on the wrong side today. I don't think sean was saying anything offensive. SETTLE DOWN

Thomas_S_Hunterson

baza1976 wrote: »

Sean how could a "culiche city" be more violent then the "big smoke". What all us inbred lower class know about this kinda thing??? YOu are obivously a more intelligent man than i (has u can tell by my grammer).
Go fcuk urself!!!

Jesus if that's all you have to do to get an aggressive reaction from a Limerick-man then QED.:p

TheLoc

haha

baza1976

Sean_K wrote: »

Jesus if that's all you have to do to get an aggressive reaction from a Limerick-man then QED.:p

Well I'm just sick of people from outside of the city with no personal experience of Limerick downing us.

Sean tell us the stories you have heard?? I wil be able to tell you ten stories to show dublin is not any better than Limerick.

I don't think we need to be applogitic to anybody who is going to claim how much better their town/city is versus Limerick. Makes me bloody angry when people jump on the media band wagon.

We should be strong in opinions of our city.. while I agree I was too strong in my first response to Sean. Sorry Sean.
But it Still P***es me off when some has heard a " story" lets here them Stories!!!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

baza1976 wrote: »

Well I'm just sick of people from outside of the city with no personal experience of Limerick downing us.

I thought I was being fairly reasoned in my original post when I specifically said I live in Dublin and that my opinion was based on stories.

baza1976 wrote: »

Sean tell us the stories you have heard?? I wil be able to tell you ten stories to show dublin is not any better than Limerick.

Well one of the points I've heard is that Limerick is a much smaller place than Dublin. Both Dublin and Limerick have dodgy spots however in Dublin, it's fairly easy to completely avoid the dodgy spots. In Limerick however, people must travel through them as part of their routine.

I've also heard of people having run-ins with unpleasant types and getting continuing hassle about it. In Dublin, you have a run-in with someone in a club or pub and you'll probably never see them again.

baza1976 wrote: »

I don't think we need to be applogitic to anybody who is going to claim how much better their town/city is versus Limerick. Makes me bloody angry when people jump on the media band wagon.

I think other posters in this thread are just as guilty of hopping on a media bandwagon as me with the references to the English cities.

Documentaries are produced to get viewers and a lot of them aim to have a shock factor. They will expose the very worst elements for an area. I'm sure there are English people who would completely disagree with the image portrayed of their city in one of these documentaries.

When you see stabbings, rapes, drug-wars and pitched-battles all in the space of a 30 minute documentary, it probably makes out that things are worse than they are.

If this documentary does go ahead, they you're not going to like it.

baza1976 wrote: »

But it Still P***es me off when some has heard a " story" lets here them Stories!!!

The stories are mainly about opportunistic muggings, joyriding and hassle in night-clubs so I wont bore you with them as I'm sure you're sick to death of them, but one of the more memorable ones, which is perhaps entirely anecdotal was that houses don't sell in the dodgy estates not just because they're dodgy but because the local scummers will be around and demand, less than politely, "Get outta my house kid!".

Maybe this is all wrong, after all, I'm pretty far away here on my high horse in dublin, but it's what I've heard, and I've never really experienced it in Dublin.

Liam Byrne

The facts are that hype and exaggeration sells, so ALL so-called "documentaries" on the tabloid-style stations will do the same thing. RTE is even guilty of it at times when it comes to Limerick, for some reason.

What Sean W said in relation to the effects of Limerick being smaller is true, in the sense that if you stood up to a scumbag in Dublin you probably wouldn't run into them again, while you might if you were in Limerick.

But there are 2 additional factors. Firstly, for some reason anything that happens in Limerick is either exaggerated to imply that it affects the whole city or used as an excuse to list anything that's happened for the last ten years, making it look worse and secondly - because of the above - Limerick people are - rightly - defensive of their city, but maybe slightly overly-so.

I mean, shows like CSI make Las Vegas and New York look desperate, and even EastEnders makes living in London look like a crap excuse for a life, but there isn't a big furore about "our city isn't like that!"

If the media stopped exaggerating and people who don't know Limerick stopped taking cheap shots, it'd let Limerick people relax about the insults and then it might become "normal" - a city with its share of thugs and scumbags but with 99.9% of decent folk - just like anywhere else.

Aidric

Following on from the last post, I think it's the reporting from the Irish media that gets up Limerick peoples' backs the most. It will inevitably report it with a slant implying the city is in some sort of lockdown. If they just referred to the specific areas where the troubles occur than we could call it balanced reporting. As it is its just sensationalist nonsense that will continue to irk those who care about their city.

hallstatt

Lynn - Massachussetts,Thoughest town ive ever been in.Been in and worked in many rundown projects around the world but this place takes the biscuit. Its like the michael jackson thriller video.Gunshots every couple of hours is the norm.
“Lynn, Lynn,
The city of sin.
You don’t go out
The way you came in.”
“Over there is a crack house,” said lifetime Lynn resident Drew Russo as he gave me a tour of his hometown. “It got busted a few months back, and all the dealers and hookers had to leave. Oh, and over there, on the left…that’s another crack house.”

blow_in

Ummm..
Massachusetts is a state...
Granted, its not very big...but still a state...

getz

as an ex merchant seaman i have been in some bad ones -like kingston-baltimore-and new york but i must say the worst one is nearer home and that is the city of salford- manchaster it has the highest population per sq mile in europe all of them scumbags

hallstatt

blow_in wrote: »

Ummm..
Massachusetts is a state...
Granted, its not very big...but still a state...

LYNN in mass!

TheLoc

blow_in wrote: »

Ummm..
Massachusetts is a state...
Granted, its not very big...but still a state...

Didn't he say Lynn?

blow_in

Sorry bout that-thanks for editing it!

There are loads of places within the states are are super dodgy. Ya just hear more about the things that happen in Limerick due to it being so small. It doesn't help that the media blow everything outta proportion as well.
The scumbags may spray paint titties on Richard Harris but at least they are not beating homeless people and hookers to death..
Least that we know of...

hallstatt

getz wrote: »

as an ex merchant seaman i have been in some bad ones -like kingston-baltimore-and new york but i must say the worst one is nearer home and that is the city of salford- manchaster it has the highest population per sq mile in europe all of them scumbags

Yea salford is pretty bad too.Couple of mates livin there, visited them a couple of times.Home of mancs indigenous scum. St.louis is another crazy hole. The only city in the world where ive ever actually feared for my life.

blow_in

hallstatt wrote: »

Yea salford is pretty bad too.Couple of mates livin there, visited them a couple of times.Home of mancs indigenous scum. St.louis is another crazy hole. The only city in the world where ive ever actually feared for my life.

I have only ever driven thru St. Louis and that was enough for me. I had to get gas and was terrrified just to go in and pay for it! Super dodgy!

getz

i had a problem in salford 3 years ago when on security in the shopping centre one gang member put a shotgun to my head and said if you hadent been a mank i would have pulled the trigger -i said smile you are on camera-he did a runner

Jane Doh!

Its great to see that we are all supporting each other.

Limerick is a small place. This adds to the problem and explains some of the resentment that decent people have against anyone who dogs Limerick. Its a natural response to defend our city, it does not deserve the rep that it being given.

The hardest part about living here is we all know its a small minority of scum that are getting us the bad press and we all know who they are.

Karmafaerie

Dublin has three times the headline crimes (rape/murder/armed robbery/assault/GBH/etc) than Limerick, per capita.

Limerick has less than the national average in crime.

Limerick has less crime per capita than Cork.

Half the murders in Ireland every year take place in the Dublin metropolitan area (this doesn't include murders in the surrounding counties which are when people are taken from Dublin and killed in the countryside).

Around 75% of the drugs in Ireland come through Cork.

Galway has more than double as many rapes per year than Limerick.


Etc, etc, etc


I'd go on, but I wouldn't want to upset TC.;)

D-A-V-E

to be fair i think the reason for the drug smuggling in county cork is because of its large coastal area and tharefore supposidly easier entry into the country

RINO87

Jane Doh! wrote: »

Its great to see that we are all supporting each other.


The hardest part about living here is we all know its a small minority of scum that are getting us the bad press and we all know who they are.

..yes and the fact that sweet tcuk all is being done to deal with these scumbags.

"nice half a million euro car there bud, shur isnt the social welfare great"!

"oops burnt my house out again!, I'm such an accident prone fool! Lucky i have a council full of bloody TWATS that will give me a new one, and in a lovely new estate where everyone else will be working the rest of their lives to pay off a mortgage on a property that my presence alone is going to devalue, ah well must run, have to get the local kids to shoot up a few of the neighbours houses!"

Liam Byrne

D-A-V-E wrote: »

to be fair i think the reason for the drug smuggling in county cork is because of its large coastal area and tharefore supposidly easier entry into the country

Oh for people to have the same response regarding Limerick...."to be fair" followed by a vaguely relevant excuse.....

It's a pity that the city can't be incorporated or something so that we could sue for libel......

I mean, if someone could somehow PROVE it was "the world's toughest town", then let them print / broadcast it, but in the obvious absence of proof (given that there is none) then they should be sued.

I mean, if we gave extensive coverage to "Sky - the world's crappiest TV", they'd probably try to sue us, even though it's closer to the truth than the slur on Limerick.

dh0661

Karmafaerie wrote: »

Limerick has less crime per capita than Cork.

Cork is at least ten times bigger than Limerick. But there seems to be ten times more scumbags in Limerick ?.

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

D-A-V-E

dh0661 wrote: »

Cork is at least ten times bigger than Limerick. But there seems to be ten times more scumbags in Limerick ?.

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

bit of an overstatement really..id say given the two greater city areas cork might be just over twice the size..population wise that is..the statement i made above with easy smuggling etc is probably true..nothing to do with cork people like, its usually foreigners bringing that stuff in..and i wasent 'defending' limerick either..i dont really mind people saying stuff about different places..sure its a forum!

cooperguy

dh0661 wrote: »

Cork is at least ten times bigger than Limerick. But there seems to be ten times more scumbags in Limerick ?.

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

Well a "per capita" figure takes into account the differences in sizes between the cities. I genuinely dont know how anybody can feel more uneasy in Limerick if they are in the city centre than any other city centre (I assume that's where you would be visiting)

Jane Doh!

dh0661 wrote: »

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

Interesting.....would your "unease" have anything to do with the media coverage?

Or, do you just have a fear of anyone who you perceive to be a scumbag?

baza1976

Jane Doh! wrote: »

Interesting.....would your "unease" have anything to do with the media coverage?

Or, do you just have a fear of anyone who you perceive to be a scumbag?

+1 ... Good post

Karmafaerie

dh0661 wrote: »

Cork is at least ten times bigger than Limerick. But there seems to be ten times more scumbags in Limerick ?.

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

And you're at least ten times as wrong as you think.

Metropolitan Cork (Cork City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 190,000.
Metropolitan Limerick (Limerick City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 100,000.

So about twice as big, not "at least ten times".:rolleyes:

miders

my my my what an interesting read!!!!!!

personally im born and bred limerick....if that makes me a culchie so be it!
i know it may be unusual but i go out a fair bit and have never witnessed a crime or act of violence.now i know encountered scumbags..and agree the city doesnt look its best at 2am but what city does?i drive home after a night out and see a few hoodies hanging out .....but i also saw this living in cork and dublin.i dont think its fair the media image that has been protrayed of limerick.

Aidric

dh0661 wrote: »

Cork is at least ten times bigger than Limerick. But there seems to be ten times more scumbags in Limerick ?.

BTW, I love both cities and visit them regularly, but I always feel more unease in Limerick.

Dear god. Have you had a formal education?

Karmafaerie wrote: »

And you're at least ten times as wrong as you think.

Metropolitan Cork (Cork City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 190,000.
Metropolitan Limerick (Limerick City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 100,000.

So about twice as big, not "at least ten times".:rolleyes:

Someone had to point it out, it really shouldn't have come to that.

rebs23

Karmafaerie wrote: »

And you're at least ten times as wrong as you think.

Metropolitan Cork (Cork City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 190,000.
Metropolitan Limerick (Limerick City and surrounding suburbs) is roughly 100,000.

So about twice as big, not "at least ten times".:rolleyes:

Nothing to do with anything and completely off topic but the population of Cork City Metropolitan area is 2750,000. The overwhelming majority of Cork City is outside the city boundary if you include outlining towns eg Cobh that figure reaches 380,000. Sorry bit of a hobby horse of mine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Cork
I know wikipedia but based on cso tables.

baza1976

rebs23 wrote: »

Nothing to do with anything and completely off topic but the population of Cork City Metropolitan area is 2750,000. The overwhelming majority of Cork City is outside the city boundary if you include outlining towns eg Cobh that figure reaches 380,000. Sorry bit of a hobby horse of mine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Cork
I know wikipedia but based on cso tables.

Well you said/typed it yourself the overwhelming majority is not in the city. But as you also said it's completly off the topic. This thread is getting boring. zzzzzzzzz I'm off for a sandwich.....:rolleyes:

bucks73

And back to the original question....;)

MacIntyres Underworld started tonight on Bravo and was about the younger members of a crime family in Manchester. I definitely read a few months ago in one of the local papers that MacIntyre planned to record an episode here but dont know if it ever happened.

http://www.darefilms.co.uk/prodtv.aspx

His site lists all the programmes so dont know which are new but the one aired tonight is the third one down.

rebs23

baza1976 wrote: »

Well you said/typed it yourself the overwhelming majority is not in the city. .:rolleyes:[/QUO
For the sake of completeness of understanding and because I'm feeling pedantic, the majority of Cork City is administered by Cork County Council (similar to Limerick) so therefore to the real population of the city including these suburbs administered by the county is as stated above.

Azphyxi8

Where is everyone getting their stats and figures? I'd like to see something official.

Jane Doh!

Sean_K wrote: »

Both Dublin and Limerick have dodgy spots however in Dublin, it's fairly easy to completely avoid the dodgy spots. In Limerick however, people must travel through them as part of their routine.

If this documentary does go ahead, they you're not going to like it.

This is not entirely true. They can be totally avoided as routine. There are some main roads that go by some of the estates but commuters or locals by the thousands manage to escape unharmed on a daily basis!

blow_in wrote: »

The scumbags may spray paint titties on Richard Harris..

I wonder where the scumbag was from, did they catch him/her/them?

bucks73 wrote: »

And back to the original question....;)

They could potentially base the documentary on any city. Depending on how far back dated the material used is.

They may have considered Limerick due to the overwhelming intertest other parts of Ireland have in any negative press it gets. Projection.

It sells newspapers, will get a huge amount of viewers and glorify local scumbags who will be given air time. Great!

D-A-V-E

well if we want to get all technical, Limerick city council have drafted up a plan for a boundary extension..(athhough somewhat controversial).. (the first of its kind since 1950) and its to include a realistic figure for the metropolotin area of the city 150,000 within its boundary as upposed to the 50000 figure that has been there since 1950..if this actually goes ahead Limerick will overtake cork from 4th biggest to 2nd biggest city in the country..eventhough i agree cork is about twice the size as Limerick..but no bigger

CItyBExt.jpg

Liam Byrne

Jane Doh! wrote: »

This is not entirely true. They can be totally avoided as routine. There are some main roads that go by some of the estates but commuters or locals by the thousands manage to escape unharmed on a daily basis!

+1 and then some.

While I agreed earlier with what Sean K said in relation to "if Limerick is smaller you might meet a particular scumbag more than once", I want to distance myself from the completely false statement about people having to go through dodgy places on a daily basis!

Sean K - have you ever been in Limerick and what "dodgy places" are you referring to ?

As I said earlier, people from Dublin seem to view O'Connell St, Dublin as FAR dodgier at night than O'Connell St, Limerick, and there are absolutely NO major routes involved.

Are you basing your incorrect assumption on the incorrectly-captioned photos that you might have seen in the tabloids or the Sindo [one and the same thing, really, but anyways...] about armed response units on "the streets" of Limerick ? I'd respectfully suggest that you either come see for yourself or else improve the standard of paper that you buy before spouting rubbish, please.

Yes, there are lots of decent people in the depths of a few estates who have to daily pass scumbags and dodgy areas - just as there are in EVERY city and town in the country, but your statement earlier - the one Jane was reffering to - has absolutely no truth.

rebs23

D-A-V-E wrote: »

well if we want to get all technical, Limerick city council have drafted up a plan for a boundary extension..(athhough somewhat controversial).. (the first of its kind since 1950) and its to include a realistic figure for the metropolotin area of the city 150,000 within its boundary as upposed to the 50000 figure that has been there since 1950..if this actually goes ahead Limerick will overtake cork from 4th biggest to 2nd biggest city in the country..eventhough i agree cork is about twice the size as Limerick..but no bigger

CItyBExt.jpg

The link refers to a pop of 86,000 not 150,000.
If the boundary extension you refer to is granted it would mean Limerick overtakes Galway as Irelands 3rd city. Even with that boundary extension, it would still not overtake Cork as Irelands 2nd city!

Anyway I originally just wanted to point out the inaccrucies in the thread about the the population statistics stated by a poster for Irish cities. All of the cities in Ireland with the exception of Galway do not have city boundaries which reflect their real populations, that is all. No point in arguing about size!

D-A-V-E

rebs23 wrote: »

The link refers to a pop of 86,000 not 150,000.
If the boundary extension you refer to is granted it would mean Limerick overtakes Galway as Irelands 3rd city. Even with that boundary extension, it would still not overtake Cork as Irelands 2nd city!

Anyway I originally just wanted to point out the inaccrucies in the thread about the the population statistics stated by a poster for Irish cities. All of the cities in Ireland with the exception of Galway do not have city boundaries which reflect their real populations, that is all. No point in arguing about size!

that includes only the urban area including suburbs for 2002..nothing to do with the townland areas outside of that..which makes up the rest of the figure

Liam Byrne

Lads, can we stay on topic because regardless of what size Limerick is, the impression and media coverage are usually WELL out of order/proportion.

Even if Limerick was the biggest or smallest city in Ireland it still wouldn't deserve it's reputation.

RINO87

...haven't we been here before???