Cork City an increasingly dangerous place

rob316

I love my city, I work and live in the city center and wouldn't change it but every single day I'm hearing things that have happened and seen myself an increasing level of violence in the city.

Walk down the street today and I challenge you to find a Garda presence on the street, you just wont find one.

I know its a bit tabloid but turn on Neil Prendeville in the morning it paints a very bleak and dangerous place. Young women been assaulted by men, people getting jabbed by needles left on toilet bowls in public places, a couple mugged by a man with a machete, kids picking up needles left in parks.

Junkies and violent offenders have free reign of the place.

When will enough be enough, parents are afraid to leave their children go into the city.

Ice Maiden

Can't relate at all tbh. Is this happening or is the Prendeville show (hysterical programme) just saying it? Are these constant incidents or isolated individual ones? Cork is amazingly safe. Much more so than Dublin/Limerick.

What parents are afraid to leave their children go into town? I agree there is a lack of police but no way do junkies and violent offenders have free reign of the place.

xabi

Ice Maiden wrote: »

Can't relate at all tbh. Is this happening or is the Prendeville show (hysterical programme) just saying it? Are these constant incidents or isolated individual ones? Cork is amazingly safe. Much more so than Dublin/Limerick.

What parents are afraid to leave their children go into town? I agree there is a lack of police but no way do junkies and violent offenders have free reign of the place.

Take your head out of the sand, city is disaster zone.

gimmick

I've go to agree re the Prendeville show. I honestly reckon that since he has gone to Red he has gotten very Jeremy Kyle/tabloid. Nothing like a bit of red top rage to get people to tune in.

Cork is a big city in Irish terms. Unfortunately cities will always have an element of scum about them. I would say Cork is just as good/bad as anywhere else. That said, I do not work in the city centre so am removed from any troubles in there. People who work there will see more unsavoury elements because there are more people around where they work more often.

Ice Maiden

xabi wrote: »

Take your head out of the sand, city is disaster zone.

How can my head be in the sand when I walk through the city alone regularly (including after dark) and see minimal trouble

I also live in an area that would be at the rougher end of the scale for Cork.

xabi

that's your impression, mine is different and a lot of people I know have the same opinion, Cork is not a safe city. I recently had reason to be in Gurranabraher and Shandon Street, I felt really uneasy there and couldn't wait to get away.

Used needles left in parks, outside schools, in family restaurants, muggings with machetes', unprovoked attacks every weekend, drunks freely pissing on the street, being accosted by junkies and drunks every single time im out, the list goes on...

beer enigma

xabi wrote: »

that's your impression, mine is different and a lot of people I know have the same opinion, Cork is not a safe city. I recently had reason to be in Gurranabraher and Shandon Street, I felt really uneasy there and couldn't wait to get away.

But what makes it any different from any other city ? I live in Cork, was brought up in the east end of London and now work in Dublin during the week - I don't feel particularly easy in certain parts of Dublin or London - I look forward to coming home to Cork of a weekend and personally don't feel threatened, but I'm sure as with Dublin & London there are areas to avoid.

I think the likes of Prenderville are causing damage to the city by putting people off visiting when the reality is that whilst not perfect, Cork is far safer than many cities.

hytrogen

When a people have been demoralised to the brink of self destruction their resurrection can only be in ashes unless a helping hand is extended to show them the light.
Last weekend seemed to be, as usual, a time when the waking dead roam the streets, "a right of passage" it seems that has consumed Dublin over every consecutive Patrick's day festival over the past decade and now has shown it's darkest veins to extent out to the other cities of Ireland.
I love Cork city for it's ability to walk to a pub the other side of town in 10mins to see friends. However it does have many troubling problems of it's own to tackle

thomasm

In Cork City center a bit with work and surprised by number of junkies/zombies I see. Cant compare with Dublin or Limerick as I'm never there

Ice Maiden

People demoralised to the brink of self destruction?

xabi wrote: »

that's your impression, mine is different and a lot of people I know have the same opinion, Cork is not a safe city. I recently had reason to be in Gurranabraher and Shandon Street, I felt really uneasy there and couldn't wait to get away.

Used needles left in parks, outside schools, in family restaurants, muggings with machetes', unprovoked attacks every weekend, drunks freely pissing on the street, being accosted by junkies and drunks every single time im out, the list goes on...

Shandon and Gurranabraher (some of it) are rough areas - always have been.
I thought the opening poster was referring to the centre of town though?

Overall, Cork is safe. Calling it a dangerous city is setting the bar extremely low for what constitutes dangerous.

stefanovich

Ice Maiden wrote:

Can't relate at all tbh. Is this happening or is the Prendeville show (hysterical programme) just saying it? Are these constant incidents or isolated individual ones? Cork is amazingly safe. Much more so than Dublin/Limerick.

Limerick is very safe, not sure where you get your information.

j8wk2feszrnpao

xabi wrote: »

I recently had reason to be in Gurranabraher and Shandon Street, I felt really uneasy there and couldn't wait to get away.

I think Dara was talking about you.

gimmick

stefanovich wrote: »

Limerick is very safe, not sure where you get your information.

Ya, the name stab city is there as a joke.

A Rogue Hobo

Cork city centre is very safe. There's definitely rough areas to it but it is a fraction of the problems Dublin has trust me.

xabi

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

Cork city centre is very safe. There's definitely rough areas to it but it is a fraction of the problems Dublin has trust me.

Trust me, it's not safe.

testaccount123

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

Cork city centre is very safe. There's definitely rough areas to it but it is a fraction of the problems Dublin has trust me.

Neither Cork or Dublin are dangerous cities. Grow up lads.

A Rogue Hobo

testaccount123 wrote:

Neither Cork or Dublin are dangerous cities. Grow up lads.

Ha. I've been living in Cork City for a year now and overall it seems pretty safe, definitely come across a few undesirables but tend to leave you alone if you're smart. I've seen fights and drug deals (if you know what you're looking for, Parnell place is a hotspot for pretty open drug dealing) but as I said it's fairly safe as a city goes.

I lived in Dublin for almost 20 years, it's gotten a lot worse in the last 4-6 years mostly from a huge lack of Garda presence, and I'm not including the time 10 years ago when I was mugged.

It's still a great city to go to with terrific people. But to say it doesn't have dangerous elements when there are pickpockets everywhere and people using syringes openly in some of the main streets in broad daylight is being a little ignorant to say the least. And you could argue it, or you could just Google it and see for yourself it exists and it is there.

bk

Wow, Cork really isn't a dangerous city. Some of you are far too soft skinned.

I'm from Blackpool, a "rougher" area of the city, but now live in Dublin, but still back in Cork most weekends.

Sure you see a few junkies around, but they really aren't dangerous. I'd walk home alone through Blackpool at 3am most weekends and never had a single spot of bother. I'd see quiet a few drunk dodgy types around pubs there on the way home, but as long as you just walk by and keep to your self, maybe with a quick nod, it is all fine, really no danger.

Dublin has way more junkies and scum, but even it isn't really dangerous. My girlfriend use to live in one of the dodgiest areas of Dublin, D1 and use to walk home alone herself every night around 2am after work, no problems.

Sure you see junkies etc. but generally they keep to themselves (other then begging) and easily avoided.

Now if you want to see a real dangerous city, try Rio. They turn off the traffic lights there at 10pm as no one stops for the traffic anyway after 10 due to fear of armed car jackings. Every house is surrounded by 10 foot, razor wire tipped fences and has bars on all the windows and doors. Nice apartment buildings have private security at the door armed with shut guns/assault rifles and bullet proof jackets!

Now I'm not saying we should just ignore our junkie problem and that we shouldn't be doing more to tackle it, but Cork really isn't a particularly dangerous city.

bk

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

I lived in Dublin for almost 20 years, it's gotten a lot worse in the last 4-6 years mostly from a huge lack of Garda presence, and I'm not including the time 10 years ago when I was mugged.

True, but I think we are going to see a big reversal on this. It has become a major political issue and the government is now significantly increasing the numbers of Gardai and put a lot more on the streets.

This Paddy's day I was particularly impressed to see a massive number of Gardai on the streets all over the city. You literally couldn't walk 100 meters down a street without meeting at least two Gardai. Plus I was impressed to see at least a dozen Gardai from the Public Order Unit (riot squad) in the Jervis Shop center.

It seems the Gardai was out in force this year and I saw non of the violence this Paddy's day that I saw over the last few years. Fair play to the Gardai, I hope they keep it up.

A Rogue Hobo

bk wrote:

Now if you want to see a real dangerous city, try Rio. They turn off the traffic lights there at 10pm as no one stops for the traffic anyway after 10 due to fear of armed car jackings. Every house is surrounded by 10 foot, razor wire tipped fences and has bars on all the windows and doors. Nice apartment buildings have private security at the door armed with shut guns/assault rifles and bullet proof jackets!

Yeah, I don't think anyone here was claiming Rio is exactly the most tranquil place in the world though? Haha. Thankfully our cities will never be that bad, don't think anyone here is saying that. I'm more coming from the point of view that it's a bit sad to see our standards of cities dip, when our country is known to be such a welcoming place to come to.

xabi

You're comparing Rio to Cork, Cork is a small village compared to Rio. I find that its people from outside Cork that notice the dirt and danger more so than Corkonians, who have pride in their city but that can lead to being blind to its issues.

bk

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

Yeah, I don't think anyone here was claiming Rio is exactly the most tranquil place in the world though? Haha. Thankfully our cities will never be that bad, don't think anyone here is saying that. I'm more coming from the point of view that it's a bit sad to see our standards of cities dip, when our country is known to be such a welcoming place to come to.

But the OP was calling Cork dangerous when it really isn't.

Yes it has become a very little bit less attractive, with more obvious number of junkies on our streets, but that really doesn't make it dangerous.

Yes, we do need to tackle the junky problem. Yes we need more Gardai on our streets, we need more laws to move on beggars and troublesome people.

But we also need to tackle the root cause of these junkies. I think we need to follow Portugal's example of decriminalising drugs, while putting more resources into rehabilitation.

xabi

bk wrote: »

But the OP was calling Cork dangerous when it really isn't.

Yes it has become a very little bit less attractive, with more obvious number of junkies on our streets, but that really doesn't make it dangerous.

Yes, we do need to tackle the junky problem. Yes we need more Gardai on our streets, we need more laws to move on beggars and troublesome people.

But we also need to tackle the root cause of these junkies. I think we need to follow Portugal's example of decriminalising drugs, while putting more resources into rehabilitation.

Its the junkies that are making it dangerous, there's no telling what these scumbags are capable of.

Junkyard Tom

According to this Ireland ranks as the fourth safest country in the world.

Cork is probably one the safest cities in Ireland.

You're living in one of the safest cities on the planet.

12Phase

The biggest issue in *all* Irish cities and even mid-sized towns there's a huge issue with lack of visible police.

Overall, Cork never strikes me as dangerous. There are sensible precautions to take in any city.

There's less of an issue in Cork too because the city is actually in *much* better shape than Dublin or Limerick. I'm a Dub and I'm genuinely horrified at the state of the North Inner City.

I walked from Smithfield to Capel St and honestly it's just a mess of derelict buildings and the odd dodgy character.

Cork is very intensely packed with shops and activity in comprising. Dublin has a lot of areas that are basically dead at night and you get harassed and in trouble usually waking between areas.

Cork really doesn't have that.

A Rogue Hobo

Dangerous by Irish standards which is what we're talking about. Comparing to cities in different continents with different socio economic issues and cultures is just a bit redundant in my view. If the world was one huge country then fair enough compare away but it's not. It's a bit like saying the jungle is far more dangerous than Cork cos it has tigers. It's probably true, but it doesn't really have anything to do with Cork or Ireland.

Edit: just to make clear I don't think Cork city is particularly dangerous either. But I do understand where the OP is coming from.

j8wk2feszrnpao

xabi wrote: »

Trust me, it's not safe.

I walked through the city for a number of hours at the weekend, safely.
So I can't trust you.

xabi

munstermagic11 wrote: »

I walked through the city for a number of hours at the weekend, safely.
So I can't trust you.

So did I, saw at least 3 drunks /junkies pissing in the street, asked for a fag twice by zombies, its an intimidating place at night, cant see how anyone can say otherwise.

j8wk2feszrnpao

xabi wrote: »

So did I, saw at least 3 drunks /junkies pissing in the street, asked for a fag twice by zombies, its an intimidating place at night, cant see how anyone can say otherwise.

Because thousands of people frequent the city at night without issue, that's why.
If three people pissing and being asked twice for a fag end up frightening you, then you need to get out of the city fast and move to a remote location.

xabi

munstermagic11 wrote: »

Because thousands of people frequent the city at night without issue, that's why.
If three people pissing and being asked twice for a fag end up frightening you, then you need to get out of the city fast and move to a remote location.

Is pissing in the street and intimidatingly asking for fags acceptable in your eyes? How many pisses in the street is acceptable? I have taken my kids to town early on Saturday mornings, the amount of piss, puke, blood that we have to avoid is very off putting. I'm not making it up, its a filthy place!

Ludo

xabi wrote: »

that's your impression, mine is different and a lot of people I know have the same opinion, Cork is not a safe city. I recently had reason to be in Gurranabraher and Shandon Street, I felt really uneasy there and couldn't wait to get away.

But you "got away" right? And nothing happened to you. Says more about you than Cork to be honest.