How i feel as a foreigner living in Ireland

Utik

Hi,
I have been living in Ireland for 5 years with my Irish husband.
I do admire kindest that shown by old generation of Irish, but excuse me the young generation in general are so ignorant.
Three weeks ago, two youths followed me home from work and grab me from behind.
I contacted the nearest Garda station and two police persons took my statement.
Honestly that make me so worry that another attach will follow.
We (me and my husband) actually knew the youths.
The police promised me that they would speak to those youth and would ring to advise me about the progress of my complaint.
Those youths keep hang around our home and last day they shouted racist abuse to me.
To make the matter worst, Gardai seem did not take my case seriously, as they fail to give me a call despite my 10 times phone calls to them.
My husband could not do anything to protect me as those youths are juveniles.
This is really unacceptable.
I am really disappointed with the police who does not treat racism seriously.
I have spoken with the sergeant in that station, but seem it does not make any different.

TanG411

True.

Not all young Irish people are racists. You just came across a couple of scumbags who probably wear hoodies in the sun and tracksuits all the time. The Gardai should take it seriously though.

Iwasfrozen

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Really 5 years ? If you don't mind me saying your English isn't very good.

Does that have any relevance to the point she's trying to make? No.

But tbh you shouldn't call all young Irish racist because of a few inner city knobs.

Exactly. OP, don't stereotypicalise the entire Irish youth over the actions of a few idiotic thugs. You'll find that the vast majority of the Irish youth are friendly and downright good people.

chachabinx

Ye unfortunately this country has gone to the dogs... Im Irish & when I was in Australia I was told to go **** off back to my country by both males & females a few times.. I have to admit it felt horrible & really made me realise how horrible it is to be treated like that...
I would ring Gerry Ryan (he's on either 2fm or 98fm presuming your a dub) & go on air because he seams to be the only way you can get though to anybody in this country...

Them little hood rats would victimise anybody for anything... you being foreign is just their excuse...
To be honest I'd get someone to break their legs... so its not that they wont but they can't do it again!

dlofnep

If the Gardaí have not responded suitably, contact the Ombudsman here: http://www.gardaombudsman.ie/

Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time with these youths, but understand that they do not reflect the wider Irish population - which is tolerant and respectful.

grizzly

This isn't just a problem for foreigners, my Irish friend lives in north Dublin city and gets stones and coke cans thrown at her. Has happened more then once this year. I think the trouble is just neglected kids without any imposed boundaries.

grizzly

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Really 5 years ? If you don't mind me saying your English isn't very good.

That's quite rude and beside the point.

eightyfish

Utik wrote: »

I do admire kindest that shown by old generation of Irish, but excuse me the young generation in general are so ignorant. Three weeks ago, two youths followed me home from work and grab me from behind.

I feel sorry for you. Please do complain to the Ombudsman about the Gardai not responding to your complaint. And don't pay any attention to the comments about your English - at least you can punctuate. I've seen more un-readable posts from Irish people.

meditraitor

Sorry to hear your troubles but it a difficult area to police, racial abuse is hard to procecute unless you have witnesses and if the offenders are juveniles it would probably only result in a caution....

The "grab me from behind" incident... what happened exactly?

anthony4335

This isn't just ireland ,and not just a recent thing. I have a cousin that is married to english born indian, and I remember them getting racial abuse 15 years ago in a small town in ireland. And it is not just a age problem, I remember the reaction of an uncle of mine who did not seem to approve even though it was none of his business and was told as much.
They also go the same abuse at home, and not just white people but from all races.
Plus by the sounds of the incident this was not a racial thing, this was just scumbags been scumbags, might have happened what ever race you happened to be.
As for the gardai, if you believe that they are not taking the incident serious, do something about it ,complain. Demand to talk with the gardai who were to take care of it, talk to the sergent ,get a apointment to meet with the super.

BLITZ_Molloy

Hard to prosecute alright. I'm sorry you had to go through that though.

If it's any compensation I've been attacked by 3 young people before. My ex-girlfriend had a knife pulled on her (and some brave passing soul punched the guy, god bless him if he's reading. ) These things aren't always racially motivated. Scumbags will just pick on the most obvious thing about you and use it as an excuse to attack you.

It's a sad fact but you're likely to have an incident like this once in your life wherever you live (except maybe Singapore, but then the government might hang you instead). I don't think Ireland is particularly worse than anywhere else in the developed world, but that's not to say it couldn't do with some improvement.

But don't get too paranoid about this. Keep your wits about you and the odds are things will be fine. No point in living in fear.

Joey the lips

Hi OP,

Your situation is unfortunate regardless of weather or not your an immagrent

have you considered contacting these people for help.

http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/policies_projects.php

mikemac

You just labelled all young people

This isn't anything to do with you being a non-national (yes, I know people hate that term but hey, the government departments use it so I do too!)

You got jumped by scumbags, happens people every day of the week.
And you have people hanging around your house? It's a horrible situation but don't judge this country and all young people over it.

You need to follow up with the gardai constantly. Maybe they are overworked or maybe they are lazy, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
If you get nowhere with the sergeant then go to the superintendent.

Utik

Thanks for all your replies.
I posted this thread as i was attacked and racist abuse was shouted at me. Despite contacted the police, they have failed to prevent this incident from happening again.
I do not mean to offend Irish youth, i just told this forum my story according to my experience while living in Dublin.
From where i come from, i never feel affraid to walk on the street.
I am dissapointed by the police as they seem reluctant to charge criminals.
When I phoned Garda station for so many times, my name and my statement was not even recorded in their system (as they could not find my name and my statement in their system).
I also contacted Irish Immigrant council and they refered me to legal aid organisation.
I appreciate their help, but this will not stop those youths to attack and shout racist abuse at our house again.

eightyfish

See this post:

dlofnep wrote: »

If the Gardaí have not responded suitably, contact the Ombudsman here: http://www.gardaombudsman.ie/

the_syco

Utik wrote: »

My husband could not do anything to protect me as those youths are juveniles.
This is really unacceptable.
I am really disappointed with the police who does not treat racism seriously.

Sadly, as the people who are doing this are juveniles, the most the Gardai can really do is warn them to behave themselves.

TBH, I'd advise you taking up kickboxing. Most schools start doing evening classes around now, and your local school may do something like this.

Dades

Utik wrote: »

I am dissapointed by the police as they seem reluctant to charge criminals.

You case would be very difficult to prove, and even if they were found guilty they'd be straight back out on the streets, after having used a lot Garda resources. I'm not saying this is right, it's just reality.

A slap on the wrist from a judge isn't going to mean anything to these scumbags. Only a change of attitude will help. The best you can hope for is they get bored or picked up for something serious that will get them out of your face.

I assure you if I was King, people like that wouldn't be bothering people like you.

irish_bob

Utik wrote: »

Hi,
I have been living in Ireland for 5 years with my Irish husband.
I do admire kindest that shown by old generation of Irish, but excuse me the young generation in general are so ignorant.
Three weeks ago, two youths followed me home from work and grab me from behind.
I contacted the nearest Garda station and two police persons took my statement.
Honestly that make me so worry that another attach will follow.
We (me and my husband) actually knew the youths.
The police promised me that they would speak to those youth and would ring to advise me about the progress of my complaint.
Those youths keep hang around our home and last day they shouted racist abuse to me.
To make the matter worst, Gardai seem did not take my case seriously, as they fail to give me a call despite my 10 times phone calls to them.
My husband could not do anything to protect me as those youths are juveniles.
This is really unacceptable.
I am really disappointed with the police who does not treat racism seriously.
I have spoken with the sergeant in that station, but seem it does not make any different.

im sorry to hear about your trouble but the fact is , the police can do very little when it comes to juveniles regardless of whether they are harrassing people of another nationality or not , its not much different when it comes to irish people being hassled

Porkpie

It's a shame that these scumbags can get away with such vile actions, all because of the fact that they are juveniles. No one should be immune from punishment, regardless of age.

OP, sorry to hear of your troubles. Unfortunately the cops are useless in this country. The only options I could see are to move to a nicer area if possible or to keep raising awareness of your problem, try Gerry Ryan or Joe Duffy on the radio. As a last resort you could get some male friends to wear balaclavas and kick the sh*te out of them, although this is risky, if it came back to you it could make things worse.

Best of luck.

username4321

I had a problem with little scumbags in my area (not race-related) and rang the gards, they didn't do much for me.

A lot of the time young teenagers are hard to deal with, either their parents dont give a crap and/or all the gards can do until they are 18 are give them a slap on the wrist from the Junior Liason Officer (JLO)

Im not saying shouting racist remarks is in anyway right, its disgusting and unnacceptable, I'm just saying the gardai probably did tell them off but they actually cant do much.

You'd be better off going to the parents of the youths yourself but even then you dont know what the parents are like.

You could try the county council? Say there is anti-social behaviour going on etc?

Its a horrible situation to be in, nobody should be discriminated because of their race, but don't generalise OP.
Not all young people are like this (coming from an 18 year old)

Utik

Thanks for your replies.
I just want to say that the Garda did not even speak to those youth, as they still hang around near our home.
Back in May, my husband already left 4 messages over the space of a month -trying to contact the sergeant who responsible for community policing about anti social and criminal behaviour, he only ever talked to that person by accident 2 months later, with no outcome.
At this stage, my husband's point of view is that since the gardai are determined to do nothing, at least they should have the common decency and courtesy to let him solve the problem himself. His words not mine.
The Garda Ombudsman would be fine if this was not on-going, they can not stop them for doing it again, but my husband can if he was let. But why he should get into a trouble to protect me.

Utik

Just to let you know how bad the situation in our area is, to night my husband rang the police ( twice an hour apart) in relation to two junkies who tried to recover their drugs from a bin. They spent an hour and a half, firstly pulling the rubbish out everywhere, thumping and kicking it until it broke open.
All the while half a dozen of their friends were running up and down the road screaming and shouting.
An hour and a half after our first call the youths are still in the area and the police yet to appear.
I really feel sorry for the irish people who have to put up with the police force like this.

The Big Red Button

It sounds like you're just living in a dodgy area, not all areas in Dublin or in Ireland are like that!

Rent prices have gone way down these days, if you don't have a mortgage, would you consider moving?

Utik

My husband's family is actually living here for over 70 years and this is a private housing area.
Those criminals and trouble makers are coming from other roads.
I do not see the reason why we the one who should move because the police unwilling to stop the crime in our area.

irish_bob

Utik wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.
I just want to say that the Garda did not even speak to those youth, as they still hang around near our home.
Back in May, my husband already left 4 messages over the space of a month -trying to contact the sergeant who responsible for community policing about anti social and criminal behaviour, he only ever talked to that person by accident 2 months later, with no outcome.
At this stage, my husband's point of view is that since the gardai are determined to do nothing, at least they should have the common decency and courtesy to let him solve the problem himself. His words not mine.
The Garda Ombudsman would be fine if this was not on-going, they can not stop them for doing it again, but my husband can if he was let. But why he should get into a trouble to protect me.

when it comes to offences which wont make the 9 o clock news or in anyway expose garda inaction , the guards often perfer to look the other way , also , whether or not they bother doing anything often depends on who is doing the complaining

DublinDes

Utik wrote: »

My husband's family is actually living here for over 70 years and this is a private housing area.
Those criminals and trouble makers are coming from other roads.
I do not see the reason why we the one who should move because the police unwilling to stop the crime in our area.

This is truly awful. Maybe areas of Dublin will have to reintroduce what was called block watch back in the late 80's and 90's. It was were local men ( my father been one, I was a nipper then ) would make a presence at the entrance to an estate etc to keep the scumbags out. Some people will be surprised that it worked, but let's say, the scumbags knew that, let's say ' others ' who knew them and were they hung out would deal with them if neccessary. Rough but it had to be done.

I hope you don't mind me asking, where are you from ? The reason I ask is it just people from Asia, Africa, Middle East etc who get this sort of trouble, or is it just anyone who is a foreigner. Again, I say I am very sorry for your trouble.

deadhead13

Utik wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies.
I posted this thread as i was attacked and racist abuse was shouted at me. Despite contacted the police, they have failed to prevent this incident from happening again.
I do not mean to offend Irish youth, i just told this forum my story according to my experience while living in Dublin.
From where i come from, i never feel affraid to walk on the street.
I am dissapointed by the police as they seem reluctant to charge criminals.
When I phoned Garda station for so many times, my name and my statement was not even recorded in their system (as they could not find my name and my statement in their system).
I also contacted Irish Immigrant council and they refered me to legal aid organisation.
I appreciate their help, but this will not stop those youths to attack and shout racist abuse at our house again.

The only other suggestion I can think of is going to your local td's constituency clinic and bring it to their attention.

spurious

username4321 wrote: »

You'd be better off going to the parents of the youths yourself but even then you dont know what the parents are like.

Anyone reading this thread knows EXACTLY what their parents are like.
They didn't lick their racism off the stones.

NickNolte

The blindingly obvious thing to do is to hire a solicitor if something like this happens again and take him/her along to the Garda station when you go down to make a statement. You'd be amazed how well they'll do their jobs when a solicitor is sitting there, waiting to take them to court for gross negligence of duty.

Utik

Thank you for your replies,
To answer DublinDes question, i am of south east Asian origin.My husband
remembers some communities in Dublin where that was done and agreed fully
with it. He said; fair dues to your father.
I do not think this incident only happens to certain races (people with
dark skin), as we have seen racist abuse also being shouted to eastern
European in the past. Our local garda station is responsible for the area
in which two polish men were murdered a while back.
The same youth who shouted abuse at me tried to start two fires today. One
of which was underneath a car.......wonder what it will be tomorrow?
Last night a group of 20 youths (already drunk), turned up (with more drink
in bags). Magiclly, this time the gardai turned up with four squad cars.
Despite them being obviously under age, from what i could see there was no
attempt made to take the drink off them.
The same group of youths (in smaller numbers) came back tonight. In
addition to what they were doing on previous nights, tonight they set about
trying to break steet lights with glass bottles.
Despite ringing the Garda several times, they turned up two and a half
hours later and just drove straight by them - without stoping.
In relation to what i said in an earlier post,
Thanks for your advise NickNolte, i will consider it.

Monkey61

That's a shame OP, but as others have mentioned, it's not a race issue, it's just a scumbag issue.

I know your husband's family have lived in the area for 70 years, but honestly, if it is a dodgy area (which it must be, because incidents that you have described do not happen in the majority of decent areas in Dublin) then you have the option of either putting up with it, or moving. Yes you could launch a crusade to clean up the streets, but it would be fighting a losing battle and would take a lot more spare time than anyone has on their hands. Personally I know which option I would choose. The beauty of Dublin is the fact that you can easily choose (and afford) to live in a decent area as long as you are earning money.

Utik

Monkey61, to move somewhere else is not an option. Many people who live in
Dublin told us that it is difficult for someone to be able to enjoy his/her
coffee and TV in peace, as we have to keep our eye on the situation outside
our house.
October is the most terrible month in Ireland. The gang of youth starting
lid a fire yesterday and again to night.
God, this is not yet October!
They just use Hallowen as an excuse to create
trouble-fire,drink,canabus,fire works etc.
At this point, we do not know what to do, except ask help from a journalist
who might has an interest in criminal issue.
What happen in our area is really out rage.

boars.ie

Sad but true, Ireland is the forth country I live in, and what I noticed at first,
were surprisingly numerous, mindlessly aggressive, cattle minded teenagers.
As for the rest, excluding unparalleled weather, Ireland measures up pretty
well to other places, good beer, nice chicks etc. things of the first need are ok.

Whosbetter?

Why not get some video footage of the scummers messing about ?

Most households nowadays have videocams,camera-phones & the like.

If the trouble is bad, it shouldn't take too long to get enough footage to be of use to the authorities.

It can be done descreetly, but the sight of someone videoing can drive away the more harmless cases.

c montgomery

Get onto your local TD, councellor or any public representive in your area.

I live in cork and my dad was having trouble with youths drinking in the lane next to his house. They made it a no go area for the residents and they were not even from the neighbourhood. There was my dads wall on one side and bushes on the other so they could easily hide drink and drugs when the cops came. The minute they were gone the drink and drugs were out. This happened every night.

My dad at his wits end called to Micahel Martins(minister for forign affairs) brother who was a councellor at the time. 3 days later the bushes were cut down by the council and the cops called to the lane every night for 2 weeks until the scumbags got sick of being harassed and f'ed off.

If you can get someone in power to hear your case and help you you would stand a much better chance. My dad lived in fear for nearly 6 months and all it took was one councellor to sort it out.

Best of luck anyway

DeCoR18

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

How is that related to racism ?
I can see how an overly sensitive person would see it as being sexist, but racist ?

Ok I'll break it down for you.

This man made a comment about Irish women? Implieing he would have relations with them and also confirmed he is not Irish. I implied these sorts of actions encourage racism in Irish men. I have found a common consenus that Irish men would approve of beating a foreign man with an Irish woman into a bloody bloody mess. I also said there was some concession made among the people I talked to if he was white.

So I think comments like that encourage racism.

Thanks.

spongeman

Before this thread gets any more bloody........

It would appear that the boys in blue could be doing more.

The OP comes from SE asia, where gangs of young lads hang out on corners at their own risk. If they do its only because the local police have been paid off. They know who they are.

Depends on the guards as well. I lived beside something similar in Kildare, and they told the landlord to move the guys on.

Which is what happened.

partyatmygaff

Wow a hissy fit over spelling and use of correct english grammar. How typical....
When you can't be bothered thinking of a good response just critiscise their spelling and grammar....

Just give it a rest


As for the OP, you have a scumbag problem there, definitley. No offence to you or your family but you must be living in an absolute sh1tehole of an area for that type of scum to be around(Lighting fires under cars and breaking street lights sounds like Finglas)

Only real option is to move, I know you shouldn't have to and there are other ways to rid yourself of the scumbags but you have a lot of work on your hands and not to mention it can be a massive risk.

Beruthiel

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Typo, the OP probably had time to run her post through a spell checker.

Jesus. Give it a rest.
Have you any idea at all how difficult it is to learn english when coming from anywhere in Asia?
She may speak perfect english which is much more important.
Her written word can be understood.

OP
Find out who your local TD is and pop in to see them.
I had a problem with teenagers (not as bad as your problem). I contacted all politicians in my area, the local Labour representative was the only one who would help me. Thanks to him, my problem was solved.

someoneok

This whole thread is a sign that the current law structure is terrible. We have to feel alienated from the protection of our guardians of the peace. This is unacceptable. It will get even worse if the Lisbon treaty is voted yes too. We will be losing the system of common law under Magna Carta and will be accepting Napoleonic law which does not have trial by jury or the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and will be waving goodbye to habeus corpus too.

Little things like this girls complaint will be laughed out of then cop shop. I have some Gardai friends and I don't mind saying this about them but they change once they go into the force. It must be some sort of scare tactics they recieve down in Templemore. I have seen dramatic change in 2 of them and they tend to stick together and to me this is a form of alienation. These people are supposed to be guardians of the peace but have become policy enforcement agents for the cause of revenue extraction of the course of my life. It's pretty shocking and scary at the same time.

I hope these scumbags leave you alone.

Glitchy Tweak

OP,

I'm really sorry that you have had these terrible experiences. Especially in the city I come from, and love. I know how it is to be a foreigner a very long way from home. It's not always easy.

Ireland is facing a lot of problems at the moment and one of the most serious is thuggery. There have been a lot of posts with good practical advice already.

Lodging a formal, written complaint with the Gardai Ombudsman is a good start. Following up with a solicitor's letter could be a good next step.

IMO, on the general issue of thuggery, this is best tackled by the community. Remember the vigilante groups ran the heroin dealers out of town in the 90s. They were scary people too. The cops couldn't do it but the communities were successful in the end.

If the spirit to deal with this problem is not present in the neighbourhood then it's probably time to move. I hate to even suggest this because it shouldn't be necessary, but you have to take care of youself and your family.

I hope things will improve soon.

++++++++++++

There's one post here I just can't ignore.

DeCoR18 wrote: »

I have found a common consenus that Irish men would approve of beating a foreign man with an Irish woman into a bloody bloody mess. I also said there was some concession made among the people I talked to if he was white.

So I think comments like that encourage racism.

Thanks.

You really are WAY out of order with that comment. "Common consensus" just what do you mean by that? Most of us? A representative proportion? Or do you just mean quite a few?

The attitude you describe is despicable and the behaviour illegal.

Saying it's a common attitude positively REEKS of insecurity, not to mention self-pity.

Seriously, what are you trying to achieve with that rubbish?

A "concession" for white visitors. Come on, you're joking right? Or have you managed to surround yourself with the worst people in the country?

Esel

c montgomery wrote: »

My dad lived in fear for nearly 6 months and all it took was one councellor to sort it out.

That's the problem.

Danniboo

Utik wrote: »

Hi,
I have been living in Ireland for 5 years with my Irish husband.
I do admire kindest that shown by old generation of Irish, but excuse me the young generation in general are so ignorant.

I wonder if I went into someone elses country and said all their young people are ignorant. How long would it take before the racist flag starts flying.

KindOfIrish

Porkpie wrote: »

OP, sorry to hear of your troubles. Unfortunately the cops are useless in this country.

They are just busy protesting against public sector wage cut.

Bottle_of_Smoke

DeCoR18 wrote: »

Ok I'll break it down for you.

This man made a comment about Irish women? Implieing he would have relations with them and also confirmed he is not Irish. I implied these sorts of actions encourage racism in Irish men. I have found a common consenus that Irish men would approve of beating a foreign man with an Irish woman into a bloody bloody mess. I also said there was some concession made among the people I talked to if he was white.

So I think comments like that encourage racism.

Thanks.

Common consensus amongst who?