Lack of Security at Pope and Irish Safety from Terrorism in general

CK22

Just a post to rant about the dangerous inadequacies I found at the Phoenix Park

SmartinMartin

Very informative post, thank you for your insight.

CK22

So I went to the pope the other day in the Phoenix Park, and having heard that approximately €32 million was to be spent on security, I had expected some level of decent security. This may have been the case for the Pope himself, but as a patron I felt incredibly unsafe. When walking from the City Gate, and in through the Red Route, I expected airport style security with metal detectors, body searches etc. I would also have assumed that my ticket would be scanned. The reality was that none of this happened. A harmless “bag search” took place. When walking up with a bag, I was asked, is there any cans inside. I said no and I was allowed to proceed with no actual bag search. Many people had large bags, and with the large crowd, even if it was below 100,000 or so, there was still a viable threat. In the modern world, most western countries are at risk, and that certainly includes us. Frankly it’s an absolute disgrace that this was allowed to happen, and I am delighted that I got home safely.

Bunny Colvin

it's a miracle from God himself that you got out of that place alive. I heard the reports of pensioners being armed with sawn offs

CK22

Yeah whatever about the sarcasm above, it was no laughing matter. It would have been very simple to orchestrate something there. And with a majority of older people who are less mobile, there could have been a lot of issues. It’s another example of the incredibly lax attitude we have to terrorism.

Bunny Colvin

CK22 wrote: »

Yeah whatever about the sarcasm above, it was no laughing matter. It would have been very simple to orchestrate something there. And with a majority of older people who are less mobile, there could have been a lot of issues. It’s another example of the incredibly lax attitude we have to terrorism.

Nothing happened. The security in place was a success. It sounds like you're moaning for the sake of it TBH.

Guy:Incognito

While we're on the subject, we have a very lax attitude to missile and meteor strikes. Huge numbers of us could be wiped out at any minute and what are the government doing about it? Nothing. Thats what. A disgrace.

mickdw

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

it's a miracle from God himself that you got out of that place alive. I heard the reports of pensioners being armed with sawn offs

To be fair, people shouldn't be allowed into such events with bags unsearched.
2 issues - terrorist bomb to inflict damage to large numbers of people and secondly, someone shooting the Pope. He got very near to each cordoned off area and considering he was on the Pope mobile with open sides, he was an easy target.
I personally believe anywhere he was outside should have had full screening of all people attending via searches and body scanners. Tickets should also be scanned.

CK22

Ah lads will ye cop on. How do you know security worked? What if some lad with a bomb in his bag came in? There would be nothing stopping him. If you ever go to some major event, sports, arena concerts these days in the UK or elsewhere in Europe, these kinds of securities are there. If a meteor comes and destroys us, **** it what can you do, but when there is a real threat of terrorism to the western world, you have to be realistic, and you have to be prepared. Simply, in Ireland, we are not. No need for sarcasm. This is a genuine concern that many people held at the Phoenix Park.

CK22

Mick DW, spot on.

Guy:Incognito

CK22 wrote: »

Ah lads will ye cop on. How do you know security worked? .

Apply the simple death count test. How many people were blown up/shot/stabbed?

Guy:Incognito

mickdw wrote: »

To be fair, people shouldn't be allowed into such events with bags unsearched.
2 issues - terrorist bomb to inflict damage to large numbers of people and secondly, someone shooting the Pope. He got very near to each cordoned off area and considering he was on the Pope mobile with open sides, he was an easy target.
I personally believe anywhere he was outside should have had full screening of all people attending via searches and body scanners. Tickets should also be scanned.

The Vatican were obviously happy with the arrangements and they're the ones that ferry him around at events all over the world. I'll defer to their judgement on the matter.

CK22

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Apply the simple death count test. How many people were blown up/shot/stabbed?

How many people could have been?

Guy:Incognito

CK22 wrote: »

How many people could have been?

50 bazillion?

You could be murdered/run over/ have a piano unexpected fall on you any time you leave the house. Maybe it's best to stay at home?

CK22

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Apply the simple death count test. How many people were blown up/shot/stabbed?

It’s not as if I made this post for a laugh. It’s all in the hypothetical sense that something could have happened due to lack of security. Yes nothing happened, and yes nobody died, whatever, but my point is, Ireland clearly doesn’t have a strong enough attitude towards preventing terrorism. We don’t live in a terrorism free world, and we can’t believe that Ireland is safe.

CK22

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

50 bazillion?

You could be murdered/run over/ have a piano unexpected fall on you any time you leave the house. Maybe it's best to stay at home?

Do you actually care, or are you just here to troll all night?

Guy:Incognito

CK22 wrote: »

Do you actually care, or are you just here to troll all night?

No, I don't really care about a load of people that nothing happened to. Nothing happens to huge numbers of people all the time.

Edit. I rephrased that so it reads less like I wanted people to be killed or injured

Bunny Colvin

CK22 wrote: »

It’s not as if I made this post for a laugh. It’s all in the hypothetical sense that something could have happened due to lack of security. Yes nothing happened, and yes nobody died, whatever, but my point is, Ireland clearly doesn’t have a strong enough attitude towards preventing terrorism. We don’t live in a terrorism free world, and we can’t believe that Ireland is safe.

Why can't we believe Ireland is safe? The fact is Ireland is an extremely safe place to live. To say it isn't because something MIGHT happen is a bit daft.

donegal_man

Probably a fair number of undercover lads wandering about with concealed weapons. The people running the security have plenty experience of this sort of event and would know how to police it in a low key yet effective manner.

CK22

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

Why can't we believe Ireland is safe? The fact is Ireland is an extremely safe place to live. To say it isn't because something MIGHT happen is a bit daft.

Yeah I agree that Ireland is a safe country, easily one of the safest in the world. I feel that out of all Western European countries, we are the safest from a terrorist attack. However, what was expected to be the largest event in Europe this year, and which celebrated Christianity, don’t you think that it would’ve been seen as the perfect opportunity to do damage?

CK22

donegal_man wrote: »

Probably a fair number of undercover lads wandering about with concealed weapons. The people running the security have plenty experience of this sort of event and would know how to police it in a low key yet effective manner.

Yeah probably true. I just think I would’ve felt more comfortable with some walk through metal detectors. Like other than that, I felt very safe. Lots of Gardai and Army personnel around. No security was carrying machine guns, which is something I do like about Ireland.

P_1

Well there were plenty of searches done on people protesting this thing. Section 21 of the public order act was liberally used. No harm there, nobody had a anything to hide and by all accounts the gards doing the searching didn't really want to be doing it.

flas

CK22 wrote: »

It’s not as if I made this post for a laugh. It’s all in the hypothetical sense that something could have happened due to lack of security. Yes nothing happened, and yes nobody died, whatever, but my point is, Ireland clearly doesn’t have a strong enough attitude towards preventing terrorism. We don’t live in a terrorism free world, and we can’t believe that Ireland is safe.

You do realise that for a very long time us Irish were the ones who were referred to as the terrorists

Wesser

There was too much security in my opinion.
Place was crawling with guards most of them bored and not needed.
The only reason you want the security is because thhe media has filled you with unnessesary fear and your expectations of security is heightened due to fear mongering security checks at other venues.

NIMAN

Even the Islamic terrorists couldn't be @rsed to go along and assassinate see the pope.

Rain must have kept them away too.

"allahu akbar !!"

, ah bollix to that, there's a fine drizzle out there.

Philipx

Metal detectors on all gates, every single bag searched & person frisked.

Visibly armed Gardaí and soldiers patrolling the site.

Drones on constant overflight.

"It was a disgrace Joe, huge delays getting in. Ridiculous, it was. All those poor pensioners made to queue in the rain. Scandalous. All that money spent for nothing, could have been spent on the homeless. Total overkill. Disgraceful Joe."

ectoraige

I guarantee it was a safer place to be than, say, the middle of O'Connell Street on a random afternoon. If somebody wants to kill people at random, they can start anywhere, once they have the means to do so. They don't have to wait for a Pope to visit.

donspeekinglesh

CK22 wrote: »

having heard that approximately €32 million was to be spent on security,

That was the total projected cost for the visit. Not just security.

98q76e12hrflnk

NIMAN wrote:

Even the Islamic terrorists couldn't be @rsed to go along and assassinate see the pope.

NIMAN wrote:

Rain must have kept them away too.

NIMAN wrote:

"allahu akbar !!"

NIMAN wrote:

, ah bollix to that, there's a fine drizzle out there.

NIMAN wrote:

, ah bollix to that, there's a fine drizzle out there.

NIMAN wrote:

"allahu akbar !!"

NIMAN wrote:

Rain must have kept them away too.

NIMAN wrote:

Even the Islamic terrorists couldn't be @rsed to go along and assassinate see the pope.

Its good to know we have people like you keeping us safe by knowing when terrorists will "be @rsed" killing people.

So many morons on this thread ****posting because something didnt happen.

Guy:Incognito

Lily Shrilling Society wrote: »

.

So many morons on this thread ****posting because something didnt happen.

Every post on the thread is about something that didn't happen. Even the ones you agree with.

Shame on us for not whipping up a big batch of fear. Just remember to wear clean underwear going out in case you get hit by a bus.

Beechwoodspark

I’d say lot of undercover were there discreetly watching and scrutinizing the crowds. That’s on top of the guards in uniform

NIMAN

Lily Shrilling Society wrote: »

Its good to know we have people like you keeping us safe by knowing when terrorists will "be @rsed" killing people.

So many morons on this thread ****posting because something didnt happen.

Get a sense of humour would ye!

mickmac76

In fairness there would be no point in scanning the tickets as they were free and anyone planning an attack could have gotten as many tickets as they wanted before the event. And as for checking peoples bags well they were expecting up to half a million people on the day. That's about six times as many people as use Dublin airport on your average day. Checking the bags of that many people would have led to huge delays and backlogs. An airport is designed to check people and the security area is designed into the airport but the Phoenix Park wasn't designed for that. Besides that the terrorists would simply detonate their explosives in the backloged crowd long before the security screening which would have caused just as many causalities. I'm sure the Gardai have an idea of potential terrorists in the country and they would be monitored during the build up to the visit.

98q76e12hrflnk

NIMAN wrote: »

Get a sense of humour would ye!

If thats what you call humour

It would have been stricter but everyone was on the lookout for lovelife92's missing wallet.

AndrewJRenko

My main security issue was the ridiculous notice sent by OPW/Gardai to people in Church St that they could only have four people in their house and these needed to be registered in advance.

It was ridiculous because there was no way they could enforce it. They can't enter any house just to check who's there, and they can't limit the number of people in any house - it is literally none of their feckin business.

https://twitter.com/NewstalkFM/status/1032451109212827648

gem112

It will happen one of these days.....it is only a matter of time....