How did Dublin become such a ****hole?

Liamario

In fairness, Dublin is generally speaking, a kip. Of course there are worse places, but that doesn't make Dublin any less of a kip.
Unfortunately, its kip levels have been mainly generated by a small minority of scum bags who mainly come from the north side of the city centre. Yes, I went there and unfortunately, it is true.
With regards to those canadians, **** them. They think it's bad, but they're not the ones who have to live there

tempura

LarrytheLantern wrote: »

Collected 3 friends of mine from Canada @ the airport last week.
They were keen to see Dublin so we stopped for a quick look around O'Connell Street, and a few drinks & some bites just off Grafton Street, and the obligatory stroll about Temple Bar etc.

Some days afterwards I asked them what was their impressions of our fair city. They seemed hesitant to reply, so I pushed them for an answer.

Eventually they confessed what a dump they thought Dublin was. And how full of scummers the place is.

I was shocked and more than a bit annoyed.

The weird thing is I hadn't seen it myself.

Poor Canadians ! They were probably just in a bad mood that day.

Most of the major cities on the world have an ugly side. Having lived in a few i know this. Take Paris for example, there are some fairly seedy, dangerous places there that would rival the Dublin boardwalk on any given day. Rome is another one, plenty of weird experiences had there, they have their own scumbags, they're better dressed ,but still scumbags. I could go on.

Dublin is ok, i can think of far worse places to live.

greeno

Ah yea Dublin has its scumbags and dealers. But never do they bother the ordinary man or woman heading to work. I work right beside Tara st station and its crawling with junkies and in the 4 years I'm there never once have I felt threatened.

southsiderosie

Liamario wrote: »

In fairness, Dublin is generally speaking, a kip. Of course there are worse places, but that doesn't make Dublin any less of a kip.
Unfortunately, its kip levels have been mainly generated by a small minority of scum bags who mainly come from the north side of the city centre. Yes, I went there and unfortunately, it is true.
With regards to those canadians, **** them. They think it's bad, but they're not the ones who have to live there

Em, have you been around parts of D8? The whole north side/south side thing is absurd, unless you think south Dublin only exists east of Christ Church.

RMD

tempura wrote: »

Poor Canadians ! They were probably just in a bad mood that day.

Most of the major cities on the world have an ugly side. Having lived in a few i know this. Take Paris for example, there are some fairly seedy, dangerous places there that would rival the Dublin boardwalk on any given day. Rome is another one, plenty of weird experiences had there, they have their own scumbags, they're better dressed ,but still scumbags. I could go on.

Dublin is ok, i can think of far worse places to live.

Yup, areas like Clichy-Sous-Bois would make the boardwalk look like an upper class area in comparison. Paris has some incredibly dodgy areas, much worse than Dublin. Of course though people only see the nice side to it when they go abroad :pac:

Terry

Dudess wrote: »

Honestly, when I lived and worked in Dublin for two years, I really did not see evidence of this cesspit of depravity it's regularly depicted as. And I don't recall ever feeling unsafe. That is the absolute truth.

That's because it's really isolated.

When I was 15 I bunked off school and got the bus into town (dear pedants, I don't care to even tell you to STFU). There was a cinema beside the bus stop. Went in and took a seat in the middle. Some creepy **** sat behind me.
I got up, went to the toilet and sat somewhere else. He had followed me to the toilet and then followed me back.

I knew it was time to leave.
Feeling guilty about bunking off school, I didn't say anything to the people in the cinema. Walked outside and my bus was there.

At 16 I went to the Paddy's day parade with an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman (honestly). The Scottish dude got a slap from some scumbag who was backed up by about 15 others. We knew to just walk away.

When I was 17 and on crutches a few of us bought some cans and headed up to Stephen's green. We walked by some scumbags. They threw abuse, so we knew they were going to follow us. We hid in a bush.
When they walked by (one of the braver ones said "I'll take the cúnt on the crutches") we headed down to the quays and waited for the bus home.

Three incidents in 34 years and quite a lot of time spent in Dublin.
I had much more hassle growing up in Leixlip, and 5 months of trouble during my brief stint in Maynooth post primary school. I left there because I didn't feel safe.

ILA wrote: »

I've been to cities through Europe and America, and none of them have anything similar to some of the destitutes that are to be found in Dublin. Like everything in Ireland, a lot of Dublin has a dingy and dirty feel to it that I haven't found elsewhere, apart from maybe Broadway in Seattle but that's just one small area of a city, not a whole city.

Obviously other cities have way more homeless people and street violence, but it just seems a lot more noticeable in Dublin. The UK seems to suffer from the same sort of problems, like parts of London, and Liverpool almost resemble the destitute parts of Dublin as do the people living in them. Must just be shared genes between both nations or something!

lol.
How are the tourist spots in those places?

evercloserunion wrote: »

Where did you live? Obviously that's an important factor.

She's from Cork.
It's like the Wales of Ireland. They think they are important, but really are insignificant.

I make this post in the knowledge that I will never set foot in Cork again.

flash1080

Dublin is a complete ****hole. There's no denying it.

Dudess

I deny it.

Terry wrote: »

She's from Cork.
It's like the Wales of Ireland. They think they are important, but really are insignificant.

I make this post in the knowledge that I will never set foot in Cork again.

Oh no, you can visit any time - more than welcome.


/cradles crowbar

Zebra3

Sadly over the last few years parts of Dublin have become ropey/rundown.

The Boardwalk. €50M(?) spent on a place for junkies to hang out and deal in open.

O'Connell St is full of poxy newsagents, fast food kips (who eats out of dumps like McD's and BK? :rolleyes: ) and even some sort of arcade. Talbot St and Marlborough St? Wtf? :rolleyes: :mad:

Then again places like the Docklands have vastly improved over the last twenty years.

Tbh, I think Dublin's biggest problem is a nationwide problem and that's that people seem to think that wearing sports jerseys/tracksuits (mainly of foreign football teams) is socially acceptable while outdoors and not partaking in a sports event of some sort.

dunsandin

Don't know wtf this is all about, of all the capitals I've been in, and its a fair few, Dublin is the most friendly, inocent and welcoming place I've ever been to. Never a bit of bother in all my times to walk around its fair boulevards, nothing but a thousand welcomes from its citizens...but then I am an evil looking cnut myself, even the missus says it, so that could have somthing to do with that.... But I think Dublins lovely, and seriously, its where I choose to spend my free time. I think all those who run it down are just predjudiced, and are closet culchies. Even the Canadians. Jasus, who listens to canadians anyway??? Whats that all aboot?

southsiderosie

dunsandin wrote: »

Don't know wtf this is all about, of all the capitals I've been in, and its a fair few, Dublin is the most friendly, inocent and welcoming place I've ever been to. Never a bit of bother in all my times to walk around its fair boulevards, nothing but a thousand welcomes from its citizens...but then I am an evil looking cnut myself, even the missus says it, so that could have somthing to do with that.... But I think Dublins lovely, and seriously, its where I choose to spend my free time. I think all those who run it down are just predjudiced, and are closet culchies. Even the Canadians. Jasus, who listens to canadians anyway??? Whats that all aboot?

I don't think Dublin is unfriendly. It's a great place to be a stranger actually.

Innocent though? Ah, c'mon now...

I am fairly scowly myself, and I had to travel through some VERY rough neighborhoods to get to school growing up, so it's not that I've never seen drugs or hoodlums before. What's surprising about Dublin is how much of this you see in the city center, which can be startling for tourists/outsiders...and it's especially surprising considering how expensive staying in the city center is.

HavingCrack

Dublin's main problem is that it's a far smaller capital city than say Paris or Rome or Brussels and therefore the city centre is smaller which means the inner city areas (generally scruffy in most cities) are much closer to the centre hence a spill over of scum.

IvySlayer wrote: »

Homeless people should be forced into hostels, so no sleeping on the street is necessary. The government needs to build more homeless shelters.

I do believe Mr. Hitler had a similar idea...without the homeless shelters..

Degsy wrote: »

Montreal's a shiithole...full of canadians.

Even worse, it's full of French Canadians... :pac:

southsiderosie wrote: »

I thought the quays/East O'Connell street/Tara DART station areas were noticeably worse this summer than they were last year.

Those parts of Dublin have always been areas that are rough at the edges and they attract the scum to match. Every city has them but to be hoenst, I'd say Tara Street has definately gotten better rather than worse..

DundalkDuffman

I was very aware of the dodgy elements only this evening, I wouldn't usually be in the city centre at all. Came in from Goldenbridge to Abbey Street, several pissheads and a few junkies on the tram, what I couldn't believe on the short walk from Abbey Street to Parnell Street along O'Connell Street. It wasn't that I felt unsafe at all but I was very conscious of obvious visitors (map in hand etc) noticing the homeless and junkies. I don't be in the city centre often enough to comment really but just something I noticed this evening.

southsiderosie

HavingCrack wrote: »

Dublin's main problem is that it's a far smaller capital city than say Paris or Rome or Brussels and therefore the city centre is smaller which means the inner city areas (generally scruffy in most cities) are much closer to the centre hence a spill over of scum.

I've lived in other cities the same size or similar to Dublin (which also have rivers that cut through it) and, nope, Dublin is "special". It's actually pretty pathetic how little the government seems to care about the quality of life in the city center. It's even more pathetic considering that Bertie Ahern is FROM Dublin, yet the city seemingly had/has no real cheerleader in the Dail. And local government has little power and/or accountability to clean things up. TBH the only reason why I think things may have improved recently is because conditions were seen as bad for tourism, not because conditions were considered bad for residents. And that's a sad commentary on both local and national government.

HavingCrack wrote: »

Those parts of Dublin have always been areas that are rough at the edges and they attract the scum to match. Every city has them but to be hoenst, I'd say Tara Street has definately gotten better rather than worse..

God help Dublin if Tara street is better today...

Warper

I work in the city centre and in fairness it is a kip. I can just imagine what the tourists think getting off the Aircoach on O'Connell St.. They are suddenly surrounded by Roma beggars on every street, junkies out of their heads on every corner and winos crashed out on every monument. That said I have rarely felt threatened by any of these as they generally dont bother anyone but themselves but I say it could be intimadating for a lot of people that weren't used to the city. Marlborough St. and Lower Abbey St are prob the worst areas in the city as dealers deal openly there and no one seems to give a fcuk. It has gotten to the stage where a kind of needle park similar to what was introduced in Switzerland is needed. Allocate some area to them but keep them off the main streets as it has to be affecting tourism. People might come once but they wont come back.

twinytwo

IvySlayer wrote: »

The problems with scum on the street is that the Gardaí have no motivation for arresting them. And they exist in every city.

Every day in the city I see a junkie or a drunk completely out of it, puking in the street and just casuing general nuisance. It is in my opinon that anyone who is so far gone like that, should be locked up in a room for their own safety. Not until they are completely sober/off the drugs no matter how long it takes.

Homeless people should be forced into hostels, so no sleeping on the street is necessary. The government needs to build more homeless shelters.

I think you will find they cant do anyhthing about them.. but then the cops cant do much in this country if they could could give the scum a good flogging you be surprised how fast they would vanish

Tusky

Yeah....I really dont get these threads. Dublin is a really nice city. Ok, It may not compare to New York, Barcelona or Sydney but you have to compare apples to apples.

I showed someone around Dublin last weekend and they loved it and only had good things to say. I work in a hostel and constantly hear good things from the guests. The way its depicted on here is totally inaccurate. The childish rest of the country v Dublin brigade plays a big part in this. Probably something to do with having to travel here for gigs and events which makes them bitter. Little brother syndrome innit ?

Warper wrote: »

I work in the city centre and in fairness it is a kip. I can just imagine what the tourists think getting off the Aircoach on O'Connell St..

Ever been to potsdamer platz in Berlin ? or central areas of London/Liverpool/Manchester ? All cities have this probably. Although I do agree that there are too many junkies in the city center.

southsiderosie

Tusky wrote: »

Yeah....I really dont get these threads. Dublin is a really nice city. Ok, It may not compare to New York, Barcelona or Sydney but you have to compare apples to apples.

I showed someone around Dublin last weekend and they loved it and only had good things to say. I work in a hostel and constantly hear good things from the guests. The way its depicted on here is totally inaccurate. The childish rest of the country v Dublin brigade plays a big part in this. Probably something to do with having to travel here for gigs and events which makes them bitter. Little brother syndrome innit ?

Ever been to postdamer platz in Berlin ? or central areas of London/Liverpool/Manchester ? All cities have this probably. Although I do agree that there are too many junkies in the city center.

OK, so let's compare apples and apples. The two comparable places to Dublin I've lived are Bilbao and Boston, two other cities that are built around a river, have an older core, an extensive "greater" area, and sketchy areas close to the city center. In neither of these cities will you see the kind of **** that you see in central Dublin every day. Bilbao has invested millions in refurbishing the waterfront; do you think they would tolerate heroin dealers in front of the Guggenheim? I've never seen people shooting up on Newbury Street. And there are a LOT of homeless people in Boston (and a lot of open-air pot smokers in Bilbao). I can tell you where there are open-air drug markets in both of these cities, but they aren't in areas that tourists are going to see (unless they are trying to score) or that locals are paying a fortune to live in.

I'll also add that I lived 3 blocks from a methadone clinic in the Boston area, and although there were clearly a lot of people who had obviously struggled with substance abuse in the area around 10 am every day, again it was NOTHING like Dublin city center. The main difference was that dealers were NOT tolerated by the police.

Warper

Tusky wrote: »

Yeah....I really dont get these threads. Dublin is a really nice city. Ok, It may not compare to New York, Barcelona or Sydney but you have to compare apples to apples.

I showed someone around Dublin last weekend and they loved it and only had good things to say. I work in a hostel and constantly hear good things from the guests. The way its depicted on here is totally inaccurate. The childish rest of the country v Dublin brigade plays a big part in this. Probably something to do with having to travel here for gigs and events which makes them bitter. Little brother syndrome innit ?



Ever been to postdamer platz in Berlin ? or central areas of London/Liverpool/Manchester ? All cities have this probably. Although I do agree that there are too many junkies in the city center.

Where is your hostel by any chance. If you cant see the problem then it definitely isnt in the North inner city. Everyone that works in and around O'Connell St, Abbey St. sees how bad the problem has become on a daily basis. The South city centre is nowhere near as bad as the North. Grafton St is a lovely street to walk on as is around the Green but cross over the bridge and bam, its a different city centre. I think the cops deliberately move the junkies and that off Grafton St as quickly as possible wheres they do fcuk all around Abbey St bar the odd search.

I live in Dublin and I like the city or I wouldnt live here. Dublin has a lot going for it, especially the people and things to do. Its just a shame that parts of the city centre has become the way it has. I know part of the problem is that the city centre is tiny compared to other European capitals. They need to move the drug treatment centres outside of the city centre. They also need to crack down on the amount of Roma beggars all over the place.

The cops also seem to crack down on this sort of stuff a lot more on the South city centre compared to the North city centre which is typical of the law in this country.

evercloserunion

Tusky wrote: »

I showed someone around Dublin last weekend and they loved it and only had good things to say. I work in a hostel and constantly hear good things from the guests. The way its depicted on here is totally inaccurate. The childish rest of the country v Dublin brigade plays a big part in this. Probably something to do with having to travel here for gigs and events which makes them bitter. Little brother syndrome innit ?

Are you sure this ridiculously inflammatory attitude doesn't play a part as well? It's pathetic. (And before you start, I'm from Dublin :rolleyes:)

Also, I've been to Potzdamer Platz, I didn't think it was that bad.

ddef

Don't care if this fair city turns into an international sewage dump, I will always love Dublin as it's part of who I am, my culture and my home. non-Dubliners will never get it.

HavingCrack

southsiderosie wrote: »

I've lived in other cities the same size or similar to Dublin (which also have rivers that cut through it) and, nope, Dublin is "special". It's actually pretty pathetic how little the government seems to care about the quality of life in the city center. It's even more pathetic considering that Bertie Ahern is FROM Dublin, yet the city seemingly had/has no real cheerleader in the Dail. And local government has little power and/or accountability to clean things up. TBH the only reason why I think things may have improved recently is because conditions were seen as bad for tourism, not because conditions were considered bad for residents. And that's a sad commentary on both local and national government.



God help Dublin if Tara street is better today...

Fair enough

Tusky

southsiderosie wrote: »

OK, so let's compare apples and apples. The two comparable places to Dublin I've lived are Bilbao and Boston, two other cities that are built around a river, have an older core, an extensive "greater" area, and sketchy areas close to the city center. In neither of these cities will you see the kind of **** that you see in central Dublin every day. Bilbao has invested millions in refurbishing the waterfront; do you think they would tolerate heroin dealers in front of the Guggenheim? I've never seen people shooting up on Newbury Street. And there are a LOT of homeless people in Boston (and a lot of open-air pot smokers in Bilbao). I can tell you where there are open-air drug markets in both of these cities, but they aren't in areas that tourists are going to see (unless they are trying to score) or that locals are paying a fortune to live in.

I'll also add that I lived 3 blocks from a methadone clinic in the Boston area, and although there were clearly a lot of people who had obviously struggled with substance abuse in the area around 10 am every day, again it was NOTHING like Dublin city center. The main difference was that dealers were NOT tolerated by the police.

Your entire argument is based around junkies and I agree with you on that. However, in this thread people are referring to it as a ****hole for other reasons also. Its only really the northside which has the major junkie problem. Even without the junkies the northside of the inner city isnt v.nice and barely worth visiting (im from the northside). The South side of the city is lovely though.

Warper wrote: »

Where is your hostel by any chance.

Currently im working in Temple bar although the last place I worked was on Gardiner street so I certainly saw the problem. Something definitely needs to be done about the junkies. I would be v.interested in seeing statistics on heroin users. Do we have more than similar sized cities in the Uk/Europe ? And if not, how are we tackling the problem differently, because what we are doing isnt working.

My original point that the city itself is nice still stands though.

evercloserunion wrote: »

Are you sure this ridiculously inflammatory attitude doesn't play a part as well?

Wasnt intended that way.

evercloserunion

Currently im working in Temple bar although the last place I worked was on Gardiner street so I certainly saw the problem. Something definitely needs to be done about the junkies. I would be v.interested in seeing statistics on heroin users. Do we have more than similar sized cities in the Uk/Europe ? And if not, how are we tackling the problem differently, because what we are doing isnt working.

Have you ever been on Temple Bar square? I was walking through there the other night and some lad was being loaded into a stretcher, there was blood all over the place and Gardai were asking bystanders (mostly tourists) if they had seen what happened. There are constantly alcoholics hanging around harassing people and fighting with each other.

Warper

evercloserunion wrote: »

Have you ever been on Temple Bar square? I was walking through there the other night and some lad was being loaded into a stretcher, there was blood all over the place and Gardai were asking bystanders (mostly tourists) if they had seen what happened. There are constantly alcoholics hanging around harassing people and fighting with each other.

Lets face it, thats practically every town in Ireland on a Sat night.

southsiderosie

Tusky wrote: »

Your entire argument is based around junkies and I agree with you on that. However, in this thread people are referring to it as a ****hole for other reasons also. Its only really the northside which has the major junkie problem. Even without the junkies the northside of the inner city isnt v.nice and barely worth visiting (im from the northside). The South side of the city is lovely though.

Yeah, I don't get knocking Dublin as a whole. I quite liked my time there (although I lived on the south side most of the time and worked around Grafton Street). But the O'Connell Street - Connolly - Eden Quay area is a disgrace. That said, there are definitely areas outside of the Pale that aren't very nice.

Tusky wrote: »

Currently im working in Temple bar although the last place I worked was on Gardiner street so I certainly saw the problem. Something definitely needs to be done about the junkies. I would be v.interested in seeing statistics on heroin users. Do we have more than similar sized cities in the Uk/Europe ? And if not, how are we tackling the problem differently, because what we are doing isnt working.

I honestly think it boils down to policing and public pressure. In Bilbao, the red light district - where there are PACKS of drug dealers, people using in public, prostitutes, etc - is right across the river from the old city. Yet there is little to no 'spillover'. And like I said, I used to live by a methadone clinic in Boston, and there were never and serious problems in my area. But there I think it was a combination of policing and private citizens who would absolutely not tolerate a lot of nonsense and would harass the **** out of the city until they addressed it. Technically I lived in Cambridge, and it has the most responsive local government of any city I've ever lived in, and this is in large part due to having a very active, demanding citizenry. A lot of people in Dublin seem frustrated by the situation, but either shrug it off, don't care at all, or think that complaining won't do anything.

orourkeda

Awful_Bliss wrote: »

Hasn't it always been a sh!thole? You should bring them out to places like Dalkey, Killiney, Howth etc. Compared to main Canadian cities, Dublin's a dump.

No it isn't

evercloserunion

Warper wrote: »

Lets face it, thats practically every town in Ireland on a Sat night.

Yeah, but this isn't just on a Sat night.

orourkeda

Warper wrote: »

Where is your hostel by any chance. If you cant see the problem then it definitely isnt in the North inner city. Everyone that works in and around O'Connell St, Abbey St. sees how bad the problem has become on a daily basis. The South city centre is nowhere near as bad as the North. Grafton St is a lovely street to walk on as is around the Green but cross over the bridge and bam, its a different city centre. I think the cops deliberately move the junkies and that off Grafton St as quickly as possible wheres they do fcuk all around Abbey St bar the odd search.

I live in Dublin and I like the city or I wouldnt live here. Dublin has a lot going for it, especially the people and things to do. Its just a shame that parts of the city centre has become the way it has. I know part of the problem is that the city centre is tiny compared to other European capitals. They need to move the drug treatment centres outside of the city centre. They also need to crack down on the amount of Roma beggars all over the place.

The cops also seem to crack down on this sort of stuff a lot more on the South city centre compared to the North city centre which is typical of the law in this country.

Thats not entirely true. I've been mugged twice on the southside

Warper

evercloserunion wrote: »

Yeah, but this isn't just on a Sat night.

Every night is a Sat night in Temple Bar which is why its so popular. I have no problem with Temple Bar at all apart from the prices.