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Why does the whole area around Cork Street / Dolphin Barn have such a bad reputation?

  • 28-11-2014 5:32pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭


    Ask only because a load of my friends are living around this area at the moment, our college is in the Coombe near St Patrick's Cathedral so closest area to live.

    First time I was heading to a session there my dad explicitly warned me that I should watch my back, googled it out of interest to see if he was just being OTT but it seems around here on Boards as well, any time someone's made a thread about potentially moving there they've been warned off it.

    Just wondering why, and is this essentially an out of date view of the area, or have I simply been lucky enough never to have seen trouble near it? I've walked to and from apartments around the Coombe women and infants hospital, both during the day and in the small hours of the morning, never had even the slightest air of menace or fear - had I not heard from so many people that one should watch out in the area, I wouldn't have guessed it at all and wouldn't have been searching for evidence online.

    Not thinking of moving there, just wondering how these reputations develop in seemingly quiet areas, or whether I'm simply missing out on a very obvious "dodginess" around there which others are aware of but has slipped past me?

    The only nearby spot that has ever actually frightened me is Marrowbone Lane, and that was at 4AM when I was lost and drunk and came across a smashed in van near the Guinness Storehouse. One such incident in four years of hanging around the general vicinity isn't bad going, I live in Sandycove and I've seen far worse around here over the years :D

    Thoughts?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 981 ✭✭✭Stojkovic


    Walk a bit further past da Coo-emm and you'll find out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Stojkovic wrote: »
    Walk a bit further past da Coo-emm and you'll find out.

    Well once you pass the intersection with South Circular Road (which is where some of my friends live) you're on Crumlin Road as opposed to Cork Street, aren't you?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭FloatingVoter


    You could shoot a horror movie in Marrowbone lane at 4AM in the morning but its just a long winding road. Staggering lost around any part of Dublin in the wee small hours is dangerous - you could get knocked down by another drunk in a car.
    Cork Street is just a long deserted street - busy trafficwise by day and empty after midnight. I've often walked home (off Cork Street) from town after the pubs shut and the buses stop running. No problems. Anybody approaching ahead of or behind you can be seen a mile off. You'd be more likely to get jumped walking down some leafy avenue in Ballsbridge.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    You could shoot a horror movie in Marrowbone lane at 4AM in the morning but its just a long winding road. Staggering lost around any part of Dublin in the wee small hours is dangerous - you could get knocked down by another drunk in a car.

    To be fair it wasn't the street itself that freaked me out, it was the burnt out van with piles of broken glass surrounding it that got me. Also passed an apartment block which had "Garda scum" or something to that effect spray painted across one of its walls, very shortly after the aforementioned van. :p
    Cork Street is just a long deserted street - busy trafficwise by day and empty after midnight. I've often walked home (off Cork Street) from town after the pubs shut and the buses stop running. No problems. Anybody approaching ahead of or behind you can be seen a mile off. You'd be more likely to get jumped walking down some leafy avenue in Ballsbridge.

    That's what I thought, so why is it that it has such a reputation? As I said in my OP, many many people have emphasized that I should be extra careful whenever I've mentioned to them that I'm going to a session there, and as I say if you search for the general vicinity on Boards or elsewhere online you'll find hordes of people saying "AVOID!"

    Just wondering why this is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,333 ✭✭✭tampopo


    Well once you pass the intersection with South Circular Road (which is where some of my friends live) you're on Crumlin Road as opposed to Cork Street, aren't you?

    No. Dolphins Barn Street starts at the pedestrian crossing outside the Coombe hospital. Crumlin road starts south of the canal. fwiw.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,333 ✭✭✭tampopo


    That's what I thought, so why is it that it has such a reputation? As I said in my OP, many many people have emphasized that I should be extra careful whenever I've mentioned to them that I'm going to a session there, and as I say if you search for the general vicinity on Boards or elsewhere online you'll find hordes of people saying "AVOID!"

    Just wondering why this is.

    Ignorance on their part, I suppose. Good description, busy by day, abandoned late at night...keep yer wits about you and you'd be fine....

    As an aside, Marrowbone Lane has been resurfaced recently and it's a JOY to cycle on. Much improved....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,767 ✭✭✭La_Gordy


    It's snobbery that has people saying avoid. It's a grand area to live, not a vast amount of amenities nor a huge selection of pubs or places to eat but nothing to be frightened of either.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 981 ✭✭✭Stojkovic


    Well once you pass the intersection with South Circular Road (which is where some of my friends live) you're on Crumlin Road as opposed to Cork Street, aren't you?
    You're still in the Barn, aren't you ?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,333 ✭✭✭tampopo


    Stojkovic wrote: »
    You're still in the Barn, aren't you ?

    You're still in the Barn, but you're on Dolphins Barn Street.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 981 ✭✭✭Stojkovic


    tampopo wrote: »
    You're still in the Barn, but you're on Dolphins Barn Street.
    Road actually !!!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    ...That's what I thought, so why is it that it has such a reputation? As I said in my OP, many many people have emphasized that I should be extra careful whenever I've mentioned to them that I'm going to a session there, and as I say if you search for the general vicinity on Boards or elsewhere online you'll find hordes of people saying "AVOID!"

    Just wondering why this is.

    Dunno what its like now. Years ago there was a lot of crime in that area. In recent years I think a lot of the bad area's got better, and the better area's got a little worse. Its not as black and white as it used to be. Crime is more dispersed than in the past. Also theres been a lot of immigration into many areas which have completely changed them. So a lot of the old opinions are no longer true.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,974 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    It's all passed to the honest, there was a time not too long ago that Dolphins Barn flats had round the clock garda presence, likewise with St. Teresa's Gardens. All finished with. Living just off Donore Ave for 24 years and I've encountered minimal problems.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,221 ✭✭✭braddun


    I worry about the ladys of the night outside my door


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,260 ✭✭✭Joekers


    braddun wrote: »
    I worry about the ladys of the night outside my door

    A fine asset to the community :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,417 ✭✭✭reprazant


    It's all passed to the honest, there was a time not too long ago that Dolphins Barn flats had round the clock garda presence, likewise with St. Teresa's Gardens. All finished with. Living just off Donore Ave for 24 years and I've encountered minimal problems.

    This completely. You also had Fatima Mansions just around the corner. The area as a whole was a heroin blackspot as well. Maybe I am just a bit older but I can't believe people have forgotten what these areas used to be like not that long ago.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,383 ✭✭✭✭Birneybau


    There was also one of the first heroin dealers in the country living on Rutland Avenue, Larry Dunne.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,333 ✭✭✭tampopo


    Stojkovic wrote: »
    Road actually !!!

    Actually no. Street.WP_000137_zps46d98398.jpg

    from across the pedestrian crossing....

    WP_000138_zpsfcccc6c3.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Lived there for a spell about 15 years ago right beside Fatima and I thought it was grand. Never had any issues apart from the house getting broken into and my female flatmate did get mugged. There was definitely a bit of a junkie/burglary problem. Sure it's improved these days though. Wouldn't have any issues living there again.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,151 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    anncoates wrote: »
    I thought it was grand. Never had any issues apart from the house getting broken into and my female flatmate did get mugged.

    While I agree the area is grand, I'm not sure I agree THAT experience is grand.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 57 ✭✭letsgetloud


    Just wondering why, and is this essentially an out of date view of the area, or have I simply been lucky enough never to have seen trouble near it? I've walked to and from apartments around the Coombe women and infants hospital, both during the day and in the small hours of the morning, never had even the slightest air of menace or fear - had I not heard from so many people that one should watch out in the area, I wouldn't have guessed it at all and wouldn't have been searching for evidence online.

    Ask only because a load of my friends are living around this area at the moment, our college is in the Coombe near St Patrick's Cathedral so closest area to live.

    First time I was heading to a session there my dad explicitly warned me that I should watch my back, googled it out of interest to see if he was just being OTT but it seems around here on Boards as well, any time someone's made a thread about potentially moving there they've been warned off it.

    Not thinking of moving there, just wondering how these reputations develop in seemingly quiet areas, or whether I'm simply missing out on a very obvious "dodginess" around there which others are aware of but has slipped past me?

    The only nearby spot that has ever actually frightened me is Marrowbone Lane, and that was at 4AM when I was lost and drunk and came across a smashed in van near the Guinness Storehouse. One such incident in four years of hanging around the general vicinity isn't bad going, I live in Sandycove and I've seen far worse around here over the years 

    Thoughts?


    I went to school with alot of lads from there. Some really are rough as a bears hole but some are genuine enough. Also had my first job delivering papers up there one problem in three years that got sorted with a phone call.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,383 ✭✭✭✭Birneybau


    I went to school with alot of lads from there. Some really are rough as a bears hole but some are genuine enough. Also had my first job delivering papers up there one problem in three years that got sorted with a phone call.



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,464 ✭✭✭Celly Smunt


    Its just full of students and Brazilians now. In fact a lot of the liberties seems to be that way too.

    Moons ago I recall I being dodgy when the place was riddled with heroin but those days seem to be gone. The place might look a little shady but it seems to be as safe as anywhere else in the city. In fact in 10 years it might even be the new hip place that everyone telling you to "avoid" will be living due to the location.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    ^ The Dolphin House flats look shady purely because of the God-awful colour scheme which seems to pervade older apartment complexes in Dublin (that sort of wine-on-cream contrast) but the area itself has always seemed ok to me. On the other hand, just googled "Barn House" out of interest (one of the local pubs) and apparently someone got kneecapped there a few months ago and there were one or two stabbings, so maybe it's not as innocent as I had assumed ;)

    IDK, as I say I'm just fascinated as I've walked home from sessions at the Cork St / SSR intersection so many times over the last few years and never got a whiff of anything scary or dodgy, and yet this is sharply contrasted by the views of the area expressed online in which it's painted as some kind of war zone. :p
    Even the Lidl which is the only decent supermarket nearby has a bit of a reputation owing to an estate directly behind it (the name of which escapes me) but again I've never seen any evidence to support it.

    I think perhaps those who are saying it's a past tense stereotype might have a point - my parents lived on Donore Avenue in the 80s and my mum has said she was terrified being alone in the house during the day, I walk down it fairly regularly these days to get to the Unit-1 rehearsal studio and I'd just describe it as a fairly quiet, bog standard city street. Same for Cork Street, indeed.

    Nice to see that people seem to generally agree and I'm not just a deluded optimist ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,419 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    My mother is from that area of the city , she'd have no problem stabbing you in the face and telling you it's your fault or so me Da always said.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 12,514 Mod ✭✭✭✭miamee


    Its just full of students and Brazilians now. In fact a lot of the liberties seems to be that way too.

    Moons ago I recall I being dodgy when the place was riddled with heroin but those days seem to be gone. The place might look a little shady but it seems to be as safe as anywhere else in the city. In fact in 10 years it might even be the new hip place that everyone telling you to "avoid" will be living due to the location.
    I'd say that might be sooner than 10 years! I live close enough to there, a little closer to the city though and already since I moved in almost 2 years ago I can see the little signs of things on the up. House prices, houses being bought, renovated and sold on for mad money (a lot to be said for proximity to town I suppose), empty shop units all filling up in recent months. So in my humble (and inexpert :D) opinion, it won't be too long before that radiates out a little more towards the Cork Street area.

    I don't know Cork Street too well but any time I have driven down it, it has seemed really quiet. I've never felt unsafe walking down there the couple of times I have or down The Coombe which I'd walk a little more often to meath Street. Usually in the day time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭Greenmachine


    It has one of Dublins worst drug problems, 30 years of antisocial behavior, gangland terror, joyriding etc.

    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/double-gang-deaths-208721.html


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,467 ✭✭✭✭salmocab


    tampopo wrote: »
    Actually no. Street.WP_000137_zps46d98398.jpg

    from across the pedestrian crossing....

    WP_000138_zpsfcccc6c3.jpg

    well played


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭FloatingVoter


    It has one of Dublins worst drug problems, 30 years of antisocial behavior, gangland terror, joyriding etc.

    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/double-gang-deaths-208721.html

    Dublin's worst visible drugs blackspot is the Dublin 1 area. A national disgrace that includes Abbey street, Marlborough Street and the beautiful boardwalk.
    Two gangland killings back in 2012 have no bearing on health and safety for any normal person passing through the Coombe, Cork St., Sth Circular area. Those idiots kill each other regardless of postcode.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    ^ That's the way it seems to me all right, if the area is indeed full of dangerous gangsters they seem to keep to themselves. My friend's apartment is literally right around the corner from Dolphin House (didn't realize there was such a gigantic apartment complex right next door until recently) and again, never had the slightest problem there. If I had any complaints about walking back into town at night I'd actually say it's too quiet, living beside Dun Laoghaire which tends to be busy and noisy into the small hours of the morning the tranquility is a little unnerving :D

    Anyone know of St Anthony's Road, about a 10 minute walk further up the SSR? Even people who like the area tend to say they'd avoid it like the plague, had a look on Google Street View there and it looks like a fairly bog-standard residential street, modern looking development at one end which (I think?) is what replaced the Fatima building that's been mentioned here a few times.
    Seems a remarkably short road to have much of a reputation at all tbh, I'd expect such a notorious road to be a lot bigger.

    I also see Dolphin House might be getting a renovation soon enough if the council move on it, but does anyone know how they merge apartments together and change their size ("Three bedroom flats will become two bedroom, two bedroom will become one bedroom) while at the same time preserving the community of residents as they've said they intend to? Can't exactly see how that can be done if you have families of a particular size currently occupying apartments which are going to be reduced in sleeping room O_o

    Thanks for all the replies anyway, been very curious about this area and its reputation for a couple of years now since I started hanging out here so often. Have to say it makes me a little sad to see whole suburbs tagged as 'dangerous and rough' just because it has a couple of dodgy spots, there are some parts of Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove I'd be very wary of at night (between the baths and the east pier is one spot I refuse to go anywhere near after dark, the rowdy roaring which can often be heard from the street above would scare anyone off - wouldn't particularly fancy wandering the Sandycove end of the metals on my own at night either and I live right next to it!), bit of a heroin problem lately too according to some but I've never seen anyone tell someone not to move into a gaff here on account of the aforementioned, bit of bog-standard street wisdom is more than enough... As others have said though, I'm only in my mid twenties and have only started hanging out more in town than at home in the last few years so perhaps I'm just not old enough to remember where the stories came from.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,758 ✭✭✭RedemptionZ


    Dolphins Barn is in a league if it's own if you're comparing it to dun laoighre, which is one of the most affluent places in Dublin. Only thing it has is the methadone clinics, but most addicts are gone by the night and even then they're usually just harmlessly loud. I'm not necessarily saying Dolphins Barn is terribly dodgy, although I've had some bad experiences there with a lot of intimidating youths(10 years ago albeit) and it has obvious social problems in the flats, played a match in Terrsas Gardens and my god was glad to get out of there, but to give the impression Sandycove and Dun Laoighre are on the same or even similar level of anti social behaviour is ludicrous.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Dolphins Barn is in a league if it's own if you're comparing it to dun laoighre, which is one of the most affluent places in Dublin. Only thing it has is the methadone clinics, but most addicts are gone by the night and even then they're usually just harmlessly loud. I'm not necessarily saying Dolphins Barn is terribly dodgy, although I've had some bad experiences there with a lot of intimidating youths(10 years ago albeit) and it has obvious social problems in the flats, played a match in Terrsas Gardens and my god was glad to get out of there, but to give the impression Sandycove and Dun Laoighre are on the same or even similar level of anti social behaviour is ludicrous.

    Not saying it's the same, more that it certainly has a couple of "best avoided" spots after dark, which is the impression I'm getting of Cork Street and its surroundings from this thread - the difference being that as I say, there's a hysteria surrounding Cork Street online which I've personally found to be completely overblown. As I say, if anything it's the quiet that unnerves me, whereas the description of the place on Boards would give the impression that it's full of fights and what not.

    Just would have thought that if Dolphin's Barn was really all that scary, I'd have had or heard of at least one bad experience after four years of so many friends living around it. Walk along Donore Avenue pretty often as well (not from the Cork Street end though, find it quicker to take that little lane beside Fallons whatever it's called), would never have picked up on its reputation had people not actually said it to me at some stage. It's not just that you don't see any dodgy characters around, depending on the time of day I find you barely see anyone around at all!
    Mind you, people are always saying that the Boardwalk along the Liffey is best avoided and the only obvious junkies I've ever seen on it are usually pretty dead to the world and not at all intimidating :p

    EDIT: To be fair, one of my friends did have something stolen out of his car one night, but that was parked across the road from St Teresa's rather than Dolphin - which would appear to indeed be a spot you wouldn't want to hang around for too long.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Hysteria? Can you link to an example?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,974 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    Dolphins Barn is in a league if it's own if you're comparing it to dun laoighre, which is one of the most affluent places in Dublin. Only thing it has is the methadone clinics, but most addicts are gone by the night and even then they're usually just harmlessly loud. I'm not necessarily saying Dolphins Barn is terribly dodgy, although I've had some bad experiences there with a lot of intimidating youths(10 years ago albeit) and it has obvious social problems in the flats, played a match in Terrsas Gardens and my god was glad to get out of there, but to give the impression Sandycove and Dun Laoighre are on the same or even similar level of anti social behaviour is ludicrous.

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dun-laoghaires-decline-leaves-its-traders-reeling-30462027.html

    Also you say 10 years ago, I can tell you Teresa's Gardens isn't half of what it used to be, people being shot/found dead was a common thing 10 years ago, it's non-existent now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,676 ✭✭✭strandroad


    This is just last year:
    http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/five-injured-in-spate-of-stabbing-attacks-in-dublin-29504193.html

    But the low level crime/antisocial behaviour used to be quite consistent, it's much quieter now with St Teresa's and Dolphin flats being inactive and a lot of dodgy bedsits on SCR liquidated. You used to get a lot of burglaries, broken wing mirrors, keyed cars, fights etc. Hence the reputation.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    I think Dublin is a difference place now. So many transport options, cheap cars, mobile and the internet. Crime isn't constrained to hotspots as it was before. If you get a bad group in one area, they'll travel all over the country now using the motoways.

    20yrs ago you'd get stoned, or bricked, walking or driving near some areas on a regular basis. Any car or van you parked would be stripped of tools. So you'd see people plating over van handles and putting shackles with padlocks on them. A lot of that doesn't happen anymore.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 981 ✭✭✭Stojkovic


    Aah I was thinking of Dolphin Road anyway you went to alot of trouble so well done.

    Anyway I work at that junction with the SCR and the place is still a dirty kip.

    Not as bad as it was but still a dodgy filthy kip full of junkie scrotes.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,758 ✭✭✭RedemptionZ


    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dun-laoghaires-decline-leaves-its-traders-reeling-30462027.html

    Also you say 10 years ago, I can tell you Teresa's Gardens isn't half of what it used to be, people being shot/found dead was a common thing 10 years ago, it's non-existent now.

    I realise that it has improved, but saying that dead bodies aren't being found anymore isn't exactly the best endorsement! Dun Laoighre shopping centre and Main Street is a kip but it's just run down as opposed to being dodgy. One of the poshest places in Dublin id say, I just think it's disingenuous to compare it to Dolphins Barn. Don't live in or near either place either just been to both a lot.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    I realise that it has improved, but saying that dead bodies aren't being found anymore isn't exactly the best endorsement! Dun Laoighre shopping centre and Main Street is a kip but it's just run down as opposed to being dodgy. One of the poshest places in Dublin id say, I just think it's disingenuous to compare it to Dolphins Barn. Don't live in or near either place either just been to both a lot.

    I challenge you to take a walk alone down to "Little Egypt" on a weekend night (between the baths and the East Pier, down all the steps) and not fear for your safety. I've lived in Sandycove for 20 years and I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It's improved recently, but a lack of decent street lighting and its sea-level down from the road make it an ideal spot for the handover of drugs, the settling of scores, etc.

    To contrast, Dolphin's Barn just seems to be empty most of the time at night. Last time I walked home it was maybe 3AM and I think I encountered about four people along the entirety of Cork Street, with only a handful of empty taxis occasionally racing past.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    beauf wrote: »
    Hysteria? Can you link to an example?

    Not on my laptop atm but will when I'm home later! The real hysteria tends to be more from Gen X folk (relatives etc) who are always telling me to watch my back in the area, which is why I wondered if the reputation came from a specific past era as opposed to a current scenario.

    Anyone know St Anthony's Road though? That seems to be the one spot that's universally agreed to be best avoided unless you have business there, looks very inconspicuous to me but there you go...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,417 ✭✭✭reprazant


    Fatima Mansions was there. They have been knocked now.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Just for those who are saying that Dun Laoghaire is very posh, this might change your minds :D

    http://www.independent.ie/videos/irish-news/video-a-look-inside-a-suspected-drug-den-in-dun-laoghaire-30784340.html


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    reprazant wrote: »
    Fatima Mansions was there. They have been knocked now.

    Ah, so presumably the current gang issue there comes from the modern units which replaced it? Or is that also overblown? There was an article not so long ago which described it as practically a no go area due to an alleged new generation of young gang folk hanging out there


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,758 ✭✭✭RedemptionZ


    I challenge you to take a walk alone down to "Little Egypt" on a weekend night (between the baths and the East Pier, down all the steps) and not fear for your safety. I've lived in Sandycove for 20 years and I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It's improved recently, but a lack of decent street lighting and its sea-level down from the road make it an ideal spot for the handover of drugs, the settling of scores, etc.

    To contrast, Dolphin's Barn just seems to be empty most of the time at night. Last time I walked home it was maybe 3AM and I think I encountered about four people along the entirety of Cork Street, with only a handful of empty taxis occasionally racing past.

    I have walked that! I don't like walking it no tbf, but it's in the same category as walking in a park late at night, ie. every place has them. Herbert Park in Ballsbridge is going to be dodgy at night! But Ballsbridge is normally touted as the place people who wear monacles and top hats live.

    Going by the thread dolphins barn is fairly inactive at night so can't disagree with that. And improving too which can only be a good thing. 10 years time who knows what the area will be like. But it's definitely a lot rougher on the whole than dun laoighre. Go to the worst council estate in either one and you'll see what I mean.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 723 ✭✭✭Luke92


    Living on the old coombe all my life. In the 90s cork street was basically where all the junkies and dealers met to give out the heroin, it then changed to Thomas street from around the 2000s to 2008. Its pretty much quietened down a lot since those days. Still a few junkies and dealers but not as bad as it was. All the flats getting knocked down has helped I think.

    There was literally gardai stationed at the entrance to theresas gardens 24/7 at one stage! Used to be terrible hard to buy some green!

    Like every area there are scum bags, but they make up a very small percentage.

    Are you in the new music college?

    And yeah with ncad and the like its all becoming a bit hip and very multicultural. I reckon it be like the Bronx in about 10 years. A place most people feared and is now a thriving multicultural community.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 233 ✭✭Kalman


    Ask only because a load of my friends are living around this area at the moment, our college is in the Coombe near St Patrick's Cathedral so closest area to live.

    First time I was heading to a session there my dad explicitly warned me that I should watch my back, googled it out of interest to see if he was just being OTT but it seems around here on Boards as well, any time someone's made a thread about potentially moving there they've been warned off it.

    Just wondering why, and is this essentially an out of date view of the area, or have I simply been lucky enough never to have seen trouble near it? I've walked to and from apartments around the Coombe women and infants hospital, both during the day and in the small hours of the morning, never had even the slightest air of menace or fear - had I not heard from so many people that one should watch out in the area, I wouldn't have guessed it at all and wouldn't have been searching for evidence online.

    Not thinking of moving there, just wondering how these reputations develop in seemingly quiet areas, or whether I'm simply missing out on a very obvious "dodginess" around there which others are aware of but has slipped past me?

    The only nearby spot that has ever actually frightened me is Marrowbone Lane, and that was at 4AM when I was lost and drunk and came across a smashed in van near the Guinness Storehouse. One such incident in four years of hanging around the general vicinity isn't bad going, I live in Sandycove and I've seen far worse around here over the years :D

    Thoughts?

    Nowhere is 100% safe! However, if you dwell too much thinking about these things, you would not leave home. I have lived in some "so called" deprived areas and never felt in danger. I never worried about such things. Dolphins Barn? I used to go to a cinema there years ago, I think it was called the Tivoli>>>that was light-years ago. Spent some years in Whitechapel, a tough area and I felt safe. If you go looking for trouble, it will come to you.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,402 ✭✭✭nxbyveromdwjpg


    there are some parts of Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove I'd be very wary of at night (between the baths and the east pier is one spot I refuse to go anywhere near after dark, the rowdy roaring which can often be heard from the street above would scare anyone off

    I think if you were to pick up these lads being rowdy and roaring in Sandycove, and drop them in Dolphins Barn, they would quiet down pretty quick.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,526 ✭✭✭stanley1


    Been cycling through that area for the past 20 years,all hours, never seen any sign of bother.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Asked a mate of mine who lives there today, he was saying Dolphin House is actually pretty quiet and Anthony's Road on the way to the Luas is what he'd now consider the dodgy part of the area. Would make sense that I've never seen this as it's a fair bit along the SSR from where we usually hang out.

    Again though can someone explain something which isn't often mentioned in news articles about regeneration - how does a council both keep the same community and families in an area (which they've claimed they want to do with Dolphin's Barn and St. Teresa's) while not maintaining the same size of the individual living spaces? In Dolphin's House for instance they're turning 3 bedroom into 2 bedroom apartments, and 2 bedroom into 1 bedroom apartments (unless I'm misreading the proposal). So what happens to a family which was previously living in a three bedroom apartment? Move to a new two bedroom one and buy an adjacent one bedroom? That particular aspect of regeneration makes absolutely no sense from my own reading of it. The same kind of re-configuring would appear to have been done with the change from Fatima to Herberton, and yet in the same way the articles heralding the announcement of the project spoke of a desire to maintain the same community as per the resident's wishes.

    Maths has never been my strongest skill but someone needs to help me out here as I'm pretty sure even I can't be that bad at arithmetic :p


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,467 ✭✭✭✭salmocab


    Asked a mate of mine who lives there today, he was saying Dolphin House is actually pretty quiet and Anthony's Road on the way to the Luas is what he'd now consider the dodgy part of the area. Would make sense that I've never seen this as it's a fair bit along the SSR from where we usually hang out.

    Again though can someone explain something which isn't often mentioned in news articles about regeneration - how does a council both keep the same community and families in an area (which they've claimed they want to do with Dolphin's Barn and St. Teresa's) while not maintaining the same size of the individual living spaces? In Dolphin's House for instance they're turning 3 bedroom into 2 bedroom apartments, and 2 bedroom into 1 bedroom apartments (unless I'm misreading the proposal). So what happens to a family which was previously living in a three bedroom apartment? Move to a new two bedroom one and buy an adjacent one bedroom? That particular aspect of regeneration makes absolutely no sense from my own reading of it. The same kind of re-configuring would appear to have been done with the change from Fatima to Herberton, and yet in the same way the articles heralding the announcement of the project spoke of a desire to maintain the same community as per the resident's wishes.

    Maths has never been my strongest skill but someone needs to help me out here as I'm pretty sure even I can't be that bad at arithmetic :p

    I would imagine that they give a lot of people the chance to move elsewhere, lots of people would be happy to move to a house in the suburbs especially if they have family there already. Plus there are probably some empty units already which could be done first to allow movement.


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