Is Dublin really safe?

skimpydoo

Yesterday at 4:20 pm in Eden Quay right by Liberty Hall, a male in their 20's was attacked. The Man who was attacked with a machete needed over 50 stitches and staples.This attack took place in broad daylight in a busy street, so how can the government claim that Dublin is safe? How many more random attacks will we see this year? Is McEntee way out of her depth as Minister of Justice? I think she is.

HBC08

Helen McEntee is so out of her depth it's not funny.

She's beginning to remind me a bit of this guy

Screenshot_20240109-141946_Adblock Browser.jpg

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058330475/is-dublin-really-safe

How many thread do we need on the go at once for Sinn Fein supporters to have a go at government ministers?

It's almost as if an election will be happening soon

In terms of Dublin been safe, I never had an issue and I am in it most weeks. So is it safe? yes to me anyway

Rustyman101

McEntee is a complete joke, there seems to be zero accountability for the portfolio that you hold throughout the entire government.

All propping one another up.

Only seem accountable to Brussels or some whinging NGO.

Heaven forbid they would try and represent the majority of people who elected them.

Unfortunately theres very little alternative for the voter at the moment.

Farmer alliance or Indies.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058330475/is-dublin-really-safe

Do you expect her to be patrolling the streets?

It's a city of over a million people so it will always have every type of crime from shoplifting to murder.

Dublin is safe.

skimpydoo

If the justice minister was a Sinn Fein TD, I would still be voicing the same concerns. But it's worth noting that McEntee is a TD in the Law & Order party and so far we have not seen Law or Order.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592093#Comment_121592093

No I don't expect her to patrol the streets but I do expect to be able to walk down streets in the city centre without worrying is it safe? Why the deflection? Do you seriously think Dublin is safe?

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592124#Comment_121592124

Dublin's always had an edge but is getting safer. I think there's been an uptick in crime but in general it's getting safer.

Tombo2001

There has been anti social behaviour in Dublin city centre for decades, and this was accelerated by COVID. Is it a little bit worse now? Not sure, maybe / maybe not. Not sure why you so quick to connect this with the Minister for Justice, bar wanting to have someone to lash out at. Out of her depth? Yeah, cause there are so many easy fixes here.... as if.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592238#Comment_121592238

I remember being a kid growing up in the countryside and there was a primetime special on drug dealing on O'Connell st.

I think the Anna Livia fountain was still there. So that's going back.

Dublin's always been edgy

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592096#Comment_121592096

It's not hard to check your posting history which is a list of threads again FG.

It's a bit obsessive over a political party to be honest.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592124#Comment_121592124

What the actual F - i've been walking around Dublin streets for decades and have never once been attacked or had even the slightest bit of hassle.

Yes I do expect, and actually do, walk around all parts of Dublin expecting that its safe.

Sorry pal, but I live in the real world.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592053#Comment_121592053

This is rich coming from an account that mentions SF in practically every single one of their posts.

You had to do a bit of contortion to fit them into this particular thread but fair play you managed it.

And no. I'm not a SF supporter. Never voted for them. Probably never will (unless they make drastic but unlikely changes to their politics and internal workings)

Posters like you annoy me though. It's like Eoghan Harris writing the same bloody column in the Sunday Independent for 20+ years. Yes we get it. You despise them. Do you need to post 50 times a day about it though. Jesus Christ. Start a blog or something. You're polluting the site.

Thelonious Monk

I thought it was far rougher 20 odd years ago when I was younger, but could be down to just not being as much of a target as you get older, young guys are more likely to get in trouble, started on etc. Seemed like there were always fights when the pubs closed in the city centre and you don't see that nowadays really.

There was a serious assault in Mullingar yesterday, and a man beaten to death in Tipperary yesterday too, and not too long ago a man in his 70s hospitalised in Athlone after a burglary, stuff is happening everywhere but it's more likely to be in Dublin given the population.

Do I feel safe in Dublin? Yes totally. My other half works in the city centre and cycles in and out of work and she has no issues either. Even my parents are in there all the time and don't seem to have any problems.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592124#Comment_121592124

It’s not a deflection, it’s putting your question in some sort of context - safe relative to where else exactly? Or what else?

All you seem to be looking for is people to agree with you - Government can’t claim Dublin is safe because of a random attack in a notoriously antisocial black spot in the city, and somehow Helen McEntee, who isn’t involved in city planning or daily policing, is implicated.

Dublin IS safe, as evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of people go about their business daily in the city without issue, and addressing the existing issues will take more than just increasing the numbers of Gardaí on the streets:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41190067.html

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592326#Comment_121592326

I don't care if you vote for Sinn Fein or not.

"You're polluting the site" 😂

I haven't created any thread on Sinn Fein or any political party. I have posted on threads already created.

It's a discussion forum, if you want to change what or how or quantity of posts then get the mods to inform me and I will change. Till then you are more than welcome to ignore me as the feature is available. Thanks

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592124#Comment_121592124

The city center is buzzing at the moment or at least it was before Xmas.

OCS particularly. There will always be a few dodgy types hanging around but you can just avoid them.

Most violent assaults and murders are personal. It's rare for strangers to be attacked although obviously it does happen, but statistically the likelihood is tiny. You're far more likely to get hurt in a car crash.

Dublin's getting safer all the time despite the recent uptick in some crimes.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592435#Comment_121592435

The city centre was great before, during, after Christmas.

This is taking an isolated incident and painting it as if the whole of Dublin is not safe, which is nonsense.

How many people pass in and out of Dublin weekly without incident?

John_Rambo

Been in and out of the city over xmas day and night. It's very safe!

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592447#Comment_121592447

There's millions of interactions every week. We've a small city centre relatively so everything is condensed.

I've witnessed two muggings in my time. Lots of other stuff like drug taking, people arguing, fighting etc but it still doesn't make me feel unsafe.

One thing that we don't have much of is pickpockets and scammers which you see loads of in Europe.

I've been to loads of cities in Europe and Dublin is as safe, if not safer than all of them.

The likes of Barcelona or Glasgow or London are far edgier.

It would be great if DCC could come up with a plan for the NE inner city. The square km around Connolly station is too dodgy for my liking.

No offense to anyone but there's too much social housing, homeless hostels, drug treatment centers in one area. It's traditionally always been deprived but it should be better.

Tombo2001

Its a bit like saying - there was a crash somewhere in Leinster yesterday. Driving isnt safe. Can you seriously say driving is safe. Eamon Ryan is out of his depth.

Yes I know everytime I get in a car that I could be in a crash. Yes I know everytime I walk through Dublin city centre, or any other city centre, that I could be mugged.

Meanwhile, life happens.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592518#Comment_121592518

Glasgow I have been to twice, no issues in it but I was meeting scottish friends and they would just point to section and say no go.

Barcelona loads of times, it's a f**king nightmare at nighttime. Even during the day once on Las Rambles two lads started beating the heads off each other. At night time the pick pockets and groups of women/men jumping around you is daunting, especially with a few sangrias.

Dublin has section, dodgy of course, but I have never had an issue in over 20 years in the city working and socializing. I did notice prior to Christmas they did seem to have a higher Garda presence that I would have seen before but I think the riots had people out looking more than usual.

I have no answers to inner city. More than trying to resolve the issues it seems the TD's in that area prefer to make excuses and cover up. Like the riots and TD's on TV saying it wasn't anyone involved from North Inner city Dublin when the entire country knew it had people from that area, also from others.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592518#Comment_121592518

Funny enough, that part of town has improved beyond all recognition. I was walking down Talbot Street late in the evening recently, could not believe the buzz; compared to what it was like 20 years ago, when genuinely you would not have ventured down some of the side streets.

Council has done a lot to improve gardiner street and the area around the gloucester diamond.

Doc07

I was mugged twice as a teenager in Dublin (temple bar area) in the mid 90s.

I was a naive ‘culthie’ up for the day.

I now live and raise a family in Dublin. Last weekend I walked with 2 primarily school age kids from north inner city, through temple bar, over H’Penny bridge to meet the missus in Grafton st. We all felt safe and had a great day out.

Admittedly that is a small sample size(no smaller than the violent attack mentioned in OP) and of course scummy things happen in Dublin but in general I feel it is a very safe city. despite the last couple years /Covid era higher profile on violence /youth gangs/scobes etc I actually still think it’s better and safer than the 90s

Ezeoul

I think an important question is does it FEEL safe, and for many, it simply doesn't.

I'm a Dubliner, through and through, I love Dublin and I have no real desire to leave it (other than the occasional speculative look at DAFT and the temptation of more rural house prices.)

I've talked about this at lenght with my daughter (27). When I was their age, indeed, for most of my 20s and 30s I was working 5 days a week and socialising 3/4 nights a week in Dublin City Centre. I couldn't count how many times I've walked down O'Connell Street on my own at 2/3am without giving it a second thought, no problem, but I wouldn't do it alone now. And I'd be terrified if they did it. If I had a son, I think I'd be even more terrified at the thoughts of it. Violence seems to kick off so easily nowadays.

We all know there has always been anti-social behaviour in the City Centre. I worked steps away from Liberty Hall for the guts of ten years, my bus terminus was on Eden Quay, and I walked around that area all the time, at all hours of the day and night, and there was no FEAR.

My brother in his forties was recently caught up in the riots when walking home from work that evening. He is 6'4", keeps himself very fit, and is well able to look after himself, and he said he scared by the scenes going on. He just kept his head down and kept walking.

I find it very sad.

We could debate all day long on whether it is or isn't actually safe (statistically), but what's important is many people no longer feel safe in Dublin City Centre any more, and that is what needs to be addressed.

Montage of Feck

You can't even be sure the gear they're selling is even real heroin any more.

Thelonious Monk

People also get more disgusted and ashamed of seeing crime in their own city/country. I was in Berlin not too long ago, my first time there in 18 years. I was very surprised to see how littered some parts of it were. I saw open drug use a couple of times, and I don't mean keys of ketamine in Berghain, I mean homeless addicts smoking what was probably crack out of pipes. There was also a riot on Alexanderplatz one of the nights I was there where they were shooting fireworks at the police.

Get off the u-bahn at Kottbusser Tor as I did, looking for a Turkish place to eat in nearby Kreuzberg, and you'll see some pretty rough stuff. There was also a tent-city by the Spree beside the hotel I was staying in at Potzdamer platz.

I was surprised at all this as people go on about German and other Euro cities being these idyllic places compared to Dublin. Still absolutely loved Berlin though, same way a few dodgy things aren't going to put the vast majority of tourists off Dublin.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592598#Comment_121592598

So nothing happened to anyone then.

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592053#Comment_121592053

Let there be no confusion here,SF will not do any better,in fact I think things will get worse under their watch.

Most things in this country from health to housing to immigration are not going to be tackled unless there's a radical approach and that's not going to happen under SF either.

Tourism has been destroyed and once the multi nationals get better deals elsewhere then the sh1t will really hit the fan.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592598#Comment_121592598

People get more risk averse with age. Dublin's much safer than when you were younger, but as you get older, you get more cautious, so your perception of danger has changed, that's all.

I slept rough when I was younger travelling the world. Not a hope I'd do that now. I experimented with drugs and would meet dealers down a dark alleyway. Silly stuff. That's why young men are ideal for warfare, they don't perceive risk or danger.

A drug abuse report a couple of years ago showed there's a huge reduction in heroin and opioid dependency in younger people as they know how dangerous it is. So over time, the amount of addicts are reducing.

yagan

I've lived and worked city centre on and off since the late 1980s and I can see an ebb and flow going on. I reckon the biggest difference now is that communities are more fragmented compared to the 90s and are less able to push back against drugs. Anyone who could sold out of the city centre during the boomtime and that left behind a vacuum that drug dealers exploited, they own the city centre now.

Plus in the past the city centre was the mecca for shopping, whereas now many most suburbs have their own shopping centres and people can get nearly anything they want without ever going near the city.

Overall my take on it is Dublin takes more than it gives, and the worst part of it is a lot of the north inner city feels like the post industrial kips all around Britain. Belfast is actually more pleasurable.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592683#Comment_121592683

is it not still a mecca for shopping? it's rammed all the time, have you been around the shopping streets before Xmas and after during the sales? never seen it as packed.

i found belfast to be pretty soulless and its nightlife is shite compared to dublin.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592558#Comment_121592558

It's still a **** part of town. I feel on edge there and I'm pretty relaxed.

If we had a greater supply of social housing, we could move people around and make it more of a mixed area.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058330475/is-dublin-really-safe

It depends on what you want to base it on. Generally speaking Dublin ranks relatively high in most surveys when it comes to safety. Perhaps it is time that the old DMP was resurrected and the residence of Dublin taxed accordingly. But I'm betting that if that happened you'd be singing a different song and most Dubliners would suddenly decide it is fine as it is. It does not matter who the minister is or what party is in power, it always comes down to who pays the piper and who gets to call the tunes.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592683#Comment_121592683

It's still the best place for socialising despite the cost of everything. Not much places to socialise in the suburbs.

Belfast has it's merits but lots of dereliction and deprivation. It's much smaller also.

Former Former Former

The solution to inner city crime is to move the inhabitants of the inner city out to the suburbs.

Nothing else will work. You can sink as much money as you want into urban regeneration, community schemes, social welfare, but the fundamental problem is that there are thousands upon thousands of degenerate scumbags living at taxpayer expense in what should be the prime tourist, cultural and business centre of the city.

This isn't new by the way. You just hear about more of these incidents because of social media.

The sort of powers that Helen McEntee would need to sort it out would not get through the Dail in 2024, and Sinn Fein would be the very ones objecting to them. So what she's supposed to do about it isn't clear.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592711#Comment_121592711

The solution would have been to build apartments that could comfortable house an average family rather than the Liam Carrol shoe boxes of the Bertie bubble era and the short term student accommodation that are all over the city now.

There was never any community focused planning involved and I'm pretty certain that one person responsible for decisions made about the inner city between the north and south circular roads actually lives there. It was always a rent cash cow, if not for students then for payment from the welfare department.

It's essentially a dumping ground.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592276#Comment_121592276

I am not obsessing about FG. I should also add that I am a very good friend of Darragh O'Brien and I will openly admit that despite our friendship he is doing a bad job.

maninasia

I agree.

I think it's a worthless comment to say Dublin is 'safe' or 'unsafe'.

it has to be boiled down to which parts of it are unsafe.

Anybody familiar with the North inner city can see the problems themselves, kids dealing drugs on scooters, lot of random homeless and gypsies hanging about day or night. I mean that's the reality. Look at the luas stop at Dominick street, what a dump always alcos and junkies hanging around . It really doesn't feel safe at all especially in the evening.but many of these 'characters' are around in the daytime as well.

Talbot street is well dodgy when it is quiet in the evening . Having to walk up that way to get a train in the very run down looking Connolly station.....and then got on more run down DARTs and old diesel trains with their lack of security guards...not good.

I find it very disappointing how badly the whole area has been managed, the air of neglect . The streets were dirty as well because some areas had only bin bag collection and no wheelie bings until very recently.

There are also suburbs and estates that I just wouldn't want to go into.in the suburbs.

Areas that have been improving overall are Finglas and Cabra notwithstanding the occasional incidents. Probably Crumlin and Tallaght too many of which used to be really rough.

North inner city is main issue now stretching out to East Wall, Connolly st to docklands, to Croke park and the canal there.

Folks should make an effort to say where they actually are talking about.in Dublin. Dublin has always been fairly rough, but unfortunately I feel it is still fairly rough even if supposedly much much richer.

skimpydoo

12 years ago I got mugged on Amiens street when my mobile phone was stolen and since then I have kept my wits about me. I live in the Sobo area of Dublin and during lockdown it could get very violent at times. Thankfully it's gotten back to normal but there are parts of the city centre that I worry about walking through because I find it less safe.

maninasia

It goes back about a 150 years to the tenements. I agree that more of the flats should be demolished, and social housing distributed to other areas. But hard to do in reality. They seem very slow i.e. Dominic street area

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592612#Comment_121592612

Thank you for reminding me that dismissive replies like this are the reason why I really shouldn't bother with these threads.

Happy New Year.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592598#Comment_121592598

You have said it much better than I did. I too will never leave Dublin and I do sadly think it does not feel safe.

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592656#Comment_121592656

People get more risk averse with age. Dublin's much safer than when you were younger, but as you get older, you get more cautious, so your perception of danger has changed, that's all.

Well, risk aversion must be kicking in younger then, because my 27 year old wouldn't dream of walking down O'Connell Street on their own at night, whereas I did it no problem at that age.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm out.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592598#Comment_121592598

Its the North Inner City that can be dodgy. But as others have said, even that area is generally fine.

The South City Centre is like a different planet though.

Always great buzz around Grafton St environs and much more attractive as an area vs across the river.

If i have visitors I never dream of going over to the north side and all visitors go away thinking Dublin is amazing!

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592926#Comment_121592926

I think the Metro station, Carlton Site, Clerys and Parnell Sq Cultural Quarter will be the game changer for the north side.

Until then it's not really necessary to cross the Liffey.

Capel St is coming along nicely though also.

whisky_galore

It's safer than Tijuana, Detriot, Caracas...

You can safely walk the streets of Dublin as a government minister with a garda escort.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592945#Comment_121592945

Yep, good points.

But removing the drug treatment centres and the high concentration of social housing would also help.

And just tag any trouble causers with an ASBO like they do in the UK. Minute you come into the city centre your tag goes off and breach of bail, off to prison you go.

If the will was there its not difficult to clean up the area.

But until then, just avoid the North side. Job done.

L.Ball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058330475/is-dublin-really-safe

You will get 2 kinds of responses from people in denial

"I've never had a problem so there is no problem"

"I know all the heads in the area and they're sound"

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592843#Comment_121592843

What/where is the "Sobo area of Dublin"???

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592787#Comment_121592787

Course you are