Does Ireland have a higher % of scum per capita than other countries?

magpie

I was at the zoo with the brother's kids yesterday, and literally 80% of the punters were short-sleeve shirt-wearing sunburned, tattooed, blade-1-ed, gold-sovereign-ringed, fag-smoking, red-faced, ham-fisted nick-nacks. It was unbelieveable how many gougers you can get into one space.

This made me think about when I lived abroad, and the sinking feeling I would get at airports when you would spot the obviously Irish people (by the description above). Frankly its embarrasing getting a flight in a foreign country and watching your fellow countrymen proceed to make a holy show of themselves.

So I was wandering, do any of our 'foreign' correspondents here feel the same way about their countrymen, or are we as a nation comprised of a higher percentage of settled itinerants then anywhere else in the world?

joejoem

magpie wrote:

I was at the zoo with the brother's kids yesterday, and literally 80% of the punters were short-sleeve shirt-wearing sunburned, tattooed, blade-1-ed, gold-sovereign-ringed, fag-smoking, red-faced, ham-fisted nick-nacks. It was unbelieveable how many gougers you can get into one space.

This made me think about when I lived abroad, and the sinking feeling I would get at airports when you would spot the obviously Irish people (by the description above). Frankly its embarrasing getting a flight in a foreign country and watching your fellow countrymen proceed to make a holy show of themselves.

So I was wandering, do any of our 'foreign' correspondents here feel the same way about their countrymen, or are we as a nation comprised of a higher percentage of settled itinerants then anywhere else in the world?

To be fair, yes. Its allways the ones you are ashamed of that you can spot a mile away. For the Yanks it must be the homeboys/esse's or the big fat yellow mak wearing type.

The english - Chavs.

The French - The ones on bikes with black & white stripy jumpers wearing Garlic around there necks.

The Scottish - The fat smelly ones that are allways trying to fight

Germany - The ones that look like scooter or the remaining Nazi youth

I could go on, but I cant be arsed

MrJoeSoap

In my experience, yes.

skywalker

joejoem wrote:

The French - The ones on bikes with black & white stripy jumpers wearing Garlic around there necks.

The rest of the nationalities you seem to have nailed, but thats just a stereotype surely?

joejoem

It was a joke, just to see if anyone was paying attention to my post

Civilian_Target

I would say simply that the zoo has a higher % of scum than other countries...

Lump

You clearly haven't been to some english towns.

John

HelterSkelter

magpie wrote:

I was at the zoo with the brother's kids yesterday, and literally 80% of the punters were short-sleeve shirt-wearing sunburned, tattooed, blade-1-ed, gold-sovereign-ringed, fag-smoking, red-faced, ham-fisted nick-nacks. It was unbelieveable how many gougers you can get into one space.

Live and let live will ya.

shellby

every country has there own version of scumbags
it's no big deal really, peaked caps and short sleeves are a fact of irish living i'm afraid

Sleepy

magpie wrote:

are we as a nation comprised of a higher percentage of settled itinerants then anywhere else in the world?

Don't worry, it's just Dublin

shellby

Sleepy wrote:

Don't worry, it's just Dublin

you'de think so but i was in cork this weekend (i live in dublin) and on the drve almost every village i drove through had there own little group of scumbags

*MmmPie*

Dundalk is the biggest scumbag-town EVER!

The Clown Man

Agreed.

whosthatmammal

Dont think so, you obviously havnt been to northern english towns, by jaysus!! And parts of france are very bad as well. Ireland isnt that bad, its getting better.

JackKelly

hey leave the blade one alone.

Sleepy

whosthatmammal wrote:

Ireland isnt that bad, its getting better.

You think? I don't understand how the section of the population that breeds fastest could be reducing in numbers!

egan007

magpie wrote:

I was at the zoo with the brother's kids yesterday, and literally 80% of the punters were short-sleeve shirt-wearing sunburned, tattooed, blade-1-ed, gold-sovereign-ringed, fag-smoking, red-faced, ham-fisted nick-nacks. It was unbelieveable how many gougers you can get into one space.

This made me think about when I lived abroad, and the sinking feeling I would get at airports when you would spot the obviously Irish people (by the description above). Frankly its embarrasing getting a flight in a foreign country and watching your fellow countrymen proceed to make a holy show of themselves.

So I was wandering, do any of our 'foreign' correspondents here feel the same way about their countrymen, or are we as a nation comprised of a higher percentage of settled itinerants then anywhere else in the world?

It's a lovely country where lovely people call their fellow countrymen scum because of the way they dress. It kinda really makes you wonder who the scum really are.

egan007

Sleepy wrote:

You think? I don't understand how the section of the population that breeds fastest could be reducing in numbers!

Anyone ever talk to you about death?

seamus

Clearly you've never been to London. % scum easily comparable to Dublin. Especially Fulham.

Nevyn

The zoo is currrently running a promotion that if you ahve a budlin bus rambler ticket they will admit one child free per full paying adult.
So you see all sorts in the zoo advailing of this offer.

Jesus Trash Can

It's not the way people dress that gets me down, it's the sheep mentality. English football, celebrity breasts, tacky consumerism, the latest useless gadget, Brittany Spears.....

jesus_thats_gre

*MmmPie* wrote:

Dundalk is the biggest scumbag-town EVER!

Can we include Navan, Drogheda and nearly every other town within 50 miles of Dublin..

Draupnir

Thaed wrote:

The zoo is currrently running a promotion that if you ahve a budlin bus rambler ticket they will admit one child free per full paying adult.
So you see all sorts in the zoo advailing of this offer.

The above post should carry a "toffee-nosed, arrogant, bullshìt generalisation" warning.

johnor

Hah, me and 6 of my friends took a road trip to a house in westmeath for the weekend...w/e went well all was rosey, on sunday coming home we stopped in to a cafe in trim had lunch and decided to take a strole around trim castle...we spotted some youths (13-16yr olds) hanging round the bus shelter near the castle and I think we later remarked, out of earshot, that they looked a bit like the Blazing squad....anyway. When we finished walkin round the castle etc. we sat down on the bench and these lads walked passed they proceeded to a near by apple tree, shook the tree until the apples fell out, they then threw a few apples at each other and walked off, came back later and were hanging round suspicously until they decided they'd throw them at us! completely unprovoked, funny all the same tho....anyway thats my lil contribution,,,,

egan007

Jesus Trash Can wrote:

It's not the way people dress that gets me down, it's the sheep mentality. English football, celebrity breasts, tacky consumerism, the latest useless gadget, Brittany Spears.....

How can you exclude the way people dress from your list - it's obviously the biggest example of 'sheep mentality' out there

P.s English football? :rolleyes:
I don't consider myself a sheep for supporting a team for the last 25 years

Prior Of Taize

what i dont understand is the guys who walk around in rugby jerseys 50 times too small for them with frankly the most feminine looking hair i have ever seen (mohawk + bleach+ pink shirts o_0)....at least the scum are consistent through the ages...

i mean its this metrosexual thing i worried about. everyone drinking mocha's and stuff...

I can honestly say that i will never ever do that but if all the hot women are going for the gayest guys then wtf is going on in the world??

Draupnir

Yes, you are correct, women should only date Lumberjacks. Manly men built for man work.

This thread is a shining beacon of Irish understanding and open mindedness.

chillywilly

egan007 wrote:

It's a lovely country where lovely people call their fellow countrymen scum because of the way they dress. It kinda really makes you wonder who the scum really are.

spot on egan.

A family at the zoo....sounds like scum to me :rolleyes: ,

egan007

Prior Of Taize wrote:

what i dont understand is the guys who walk around in rugby jerseys 50 times too small for them with frankly the most feminine looking hair i have ever seen (mohawk + bleach+ pink shirts o_0)....at least the scum are consistent through the ages...

i mean its this metrosexual thing i worried about. everyone drinking mocha's and stuff...

I can honestly say that i will never ever do that but if all the hot women are going for the gayest guys then wtf is going on in the world??

I like coffee - but i don't feel the need to dress differently to drink it

Why have you to class people just for doing one thing?
So what if i ,wear a mohawk/jersey/earing/drink coffee/
It's mostly -Norm in his high tower that has the problem with it.

Jeez people are becoming so fupin obsessed with being anti change that they end up looking like morons themselves. Just be what ever the hell you want to be but don't expect everyoneelse to be like you - if they start being like you then the whole thing is a contradiction.

eth0_

It's nothing to do with the tracksuit or the earring. You can tell by the persons demeanour and how they talk if they're a scumbag. Why do people defend them? Knackers are a waste of space and a total shame.

JungleBunny

I don't really mind the scumbags in Ireland that much. I lived in Germany for a good few years and there is a lot of scum there too. The only difference is you can't really spot one a mile away. So by the time you have figured out that you are dealing with scum, it's usually too late. :eek:
I came back from the north of England recently and they were pretty bad up there too. I was actually quite comforting to come back from the airport and see a couple of scumbag kids hanging around near my apartment. Sadly there was a hint of appreciation for our fellow dublin scumbags on my part that day.
This is however starting to wear off slowly but surely and I am reverting back to the old me.

Draupnir

So everyone with an accent which you dont consider to be "well spoken" is instantly a knacker? Good call.

I know a hell of a lot, a hell of a lot, of good, honest, hard working people who would probably be considered knackers by people in this thread.

If I came on here and made a post about all Black people living in trees and eating bananas or all gay people floating around in pink tutus and being super queer, there would probably be uproar. But its ok to be intolerant towards normal people going about their normal lives, of which you have no knowledge?

Why dont you people just STFU and go back to your crystal mansion and let Jeeves serve you some tea, safe from all those "scumbags" at the zoo. Man, sometimes the intolerance on Boards is hard to fathom, considering you would expect a level of intelligence is necessary to access the site.

disillusioned

I don't know if we have a higher % than other nations, every country has its problems. What seems to be obvious (IMO) in Ireland is that the "scumbag" population appears to have exploded while the "civilised" population has diminished.

JungleBunny

I dont have anything against most scumbags. It's only the ones with an absolutely blatant disregard for other peoples property that really get up my nose. I have plenty of them around the area I live in. The majority of people would consider that place to be knacker-ville, but a lot of them are actually nice people. Decent people. But if you start messing with my sh!t, yes, I will consider you a scumbag! They bring on the bad reputation themselves.

whosthatmammal

disillusioned wrote:

I don't know if we have a higher % than other nations, every country has its problems. What seems to be obvious (IMO) in Ireland is that the "scumbag" population appears to have exploded while the "civilised" population has diminished.

Have to disagree with you there completely, compare the city centre of dublin today then 10 years ago... slight difference.

Rb

eth0_ wrote:

Why do people defend them? Knackers are a waste of space and a total shame.

I couldn't agree more, why do people defend these people? Also,I would definately say we've a higher percentage of scum per capita than other countries, but I think it also seems to be getting better, though i may be wrong statistically.

disillusioned wrote:

What seems to be obvious (IMO) in Ireland is that the "scumbag" population appears to have exploded while the "civilised" population has diminished.

The effects of Global Warming?

Draupnir wrote:

Why dont you people just STFU and go back to your crystal mansion and let Jeeves serve you some tea, safe from all those "scumbags" at the zoo. Man, sometimes the intolerance on Boards is hard to fathom, considering you would expect a level of intelligence is necessary to access the site.

So based on the posts you've made the assumption that everyone posting is like a loaded snob or something?We're making generalisations based on experiences with these people and on things we've observed i.e the majority(all that i've seen) of people wearing tracksuits, 90 degree caps, perhaps with 'taches, and those on the dole(but thats another matter) are total scum who have absolutely no positive input to the economy or society in general. Unless you count government revenue through alcohol taxes, of course
But at least WE'RE not making generalisations based on a few sentences posted on the internet.

disillusioned

whosthatmammal wrote:

Have to disagree with you there completely, compare the city centre of dublin today then 10 years ago... slight difference.

Sorry, I don't understand your point.

GUBU

Draupnir wrote:

So everyone with an accent which you dont consider to be "well spoken" is instantly a knacker? Good call.

I know a hell of a lot, a hell of a lot, of good, honest, hard working people who would probably be considered knackers by people in this thread.

If I came on here and made a post about all Black people living in trees and eating bananas or all gay people floating around in pink tutus and being super queer, there would probably be uproar. But its ok to be intolerant towards normal people going about their normal lives, of which you have no knowledge?

Why dont you people just STFU and go back to your crystal mansion and let Jeeves serve you some tea, safe from all those "scumbags" at the zoo. Man, sometimes the intolerance on Boards is hard to fathom, considering you would expect a level of intelligence is necessary to access the site.

Agreed - I couldn't have put it better.

Mariana

In response to the original poster, in the last 6 years I've lived in (in chronological order) Chicago, Dublin, San Francisco, Siena, Florence, Basel.
Ireland appears to have more scum than other places, although there are scum everywhere.
There's three important things to note though about other countries vs Ireland:

1. Skangers are everywhere in Ireland. In other countries you wouldn't run into scum in the normal course of events, I mean out drinking, shopping, walking in town as you do in Ireland. They seem to keep to their own scummy areas and why would you go there?

2. They don't tolerate the antisocial behavior in other countries. So, outside of the scum centres, people can live their lives peaceably because if the scum act up, the law is (a. present, (b. down on them like a ton of bricks.

3. They don't appear to carry out the wanton destruction general vandalism that you see in Ireland. Don't know why. grafitti doesn't count, I elan is the only county I've seen melted public phones in and burnt bus seats, and burnt out cars.

So, in Ireland it only seems that there are more skangers, when it could be that they are just more visible and actually more badly behaved.

Lump

You obviously not been to london....

John

cashback

I have to say i'm not comfortable with this new trend of calling anyone that appears to be of a working-class background 'scum'. True there is a certain percentage of people out there who deserve the tag, i.e. those youths who beat a man to death outside his house in Leixlip a few days ago.
But I get the impression a lot of the posters here who talk about 'the scum' are from affluent areas like Ranelagh or Donnybrook and have a fear of anyone who talks in a normal working-class accent. They instantly label these people Knackers because of how they look or sound when in fact the vast majority are honest, decent people. At least the 'knackers' don't put on that awful American-style accent so beloved of many wealthy Dublin teenagers. I'd much rather hear a real Dublin accent than all that 'Loike' and 'Roysh' stuff.

aphex™

The Zoo has alot of scum bags becuase alot of scum have kids. Same if you go to a pram shop.

Now after going to the USA and seeing gangs etc i wouldn't take Irish scum very seriously at all. Its all about image, they like to be seen to look mad but if you in any way look like you're not going to put up with it then they're like lambs, until you turn your back.

Irish scum are very weak people, they live off chips and cereal for dinner. Not to mention all the cigs and drink they consume. Frankly, the only thing they have to intimidate is their lould voices and accents and shapes. Sadly, it works on most people.

Executive Steve

what utter rubbish is being spoken in this thread....

quite apart from the utterly discomforting choice of words from the OP ["settled itinerants" indeed!] i think that this whole recent demonisation of "chavs" and "scangers" is merely a means for the chattering classes to not have to bother about gettin society to a level where these people don't have to hang out in macdonalds, wearing ****ty clothes from the market and live off the dole in ghastly estates where there's nothing for the kids to do AT ALL ... So they get bored ,they're excluded from a woefully underfunded and mismanaged education system in a society with one of the most unequal distibutions of wealth in all of europe - no wonder they see no future and want to break stuff...

they're growing up in broken homes with no male role models because of absent fathers, their mothers are pregnant at fifteen and cant get an abortion because of some man in a dress in rome, and this "chav" hatred is hust a fashion that lets YOU off the hook for not wanting to ANYTHING about it.

disillusioned

cashback wrote:

I have to say i'm not comfortable with this new trend of calling anyone that appears to be of a working-class background 'scum'.

But I get the impression a lot of the posters here who talk about 'the scum' are from affluent areas like Ranelagh or Donnybrook and have a fear of anyone who talks in a normal working-class accent.

Firstly, I didn't read any posts that even suggested working-class = scum. Yours is the only post which mentions class.

Secondly, your impression about where posters are from is probably quite inaccurate and judgemental. I live on Dublin's Northside in an average area and there are scumbags hanging around all the time.

Rb

cashback wrote:

I have to say i'm not comfortable with this new trend of calling anyone that appears to be of a working-class background 'scum'. True there is a certain percentage of people out there who deserve the tag, i.e. those youths who beat a man to death outside his house in Leixlip a few days ago.
But I get the impression a lot of the posters here who talk about 'the scum' are from affluent areas like Ranelagh or Donnybrook and have a fear of anyone who talks in a normal working-class accent. They instantly label these people Knackers because of how they look or sound when in fact the vast majority are honest, decent people. At least the 'knackers' don't put on that awful American-style accent so beloved of many wealthy Dublin teenagers. I'd much rather hear a real Dublin accent than all that 'Loike' and 'Roysh' stuff.

I live in South Dublin and can safely say I've never met a person from Donnybrook, Ballsbridge, Rangelagh etc who actually say "Roysh",however I've heard girls from the country using it cause they want to be "D4" and think thats how those from D4 literally talk, its hilarious to hear!
So you'd rather put up with "storeee buuuud gis a smoke for a spliff will ye" and so on?Thats not a working class accent, thats pure knacker.
But we're not really talking about the working class here, we're talking about knackers, who sure enough a lot may be from the lower class but that doesnt necessarily mean all the working class are knackers.
Sure, walk into the Institute on leeson street any day during the school year, among the normal kids, you'll find people who are from upper class homes but still act like absolute scum and talk with the "alree buudd gis a eurdo for a fix", they're upper class but they're still absolute knackers/skangers,
therefore, not all knackers are working class, and not all working class people are knackers, but we're concentrating on knackers here.

aphex™

[cm]tyranny, your post is wrong on so many levels.

[cm]tyranny wrote:

i think that this whol recent demonisation of "chavs" and "scangers" is merely a means for the chattering classes to not have to bother about gettin society to a level where these people have to hang out in macdonalds and wearing ****ty clothes from the market and live off the dole in ghastly estates where there's nothng for the kids to do AT ALL

Their "sh*tty" clothes cost a fortune. Hardly any shop in dunnes, they shop in whatever chain sports shops are near. Bit of a price difference between the market and those shops i tells ya. Some tracksuit (just trousers) cost €75 and they fly off the shelves. Their runners cost over €100 aswell. They live on the dole but you can be sure they have other jobs too, but just don't declare it.

What activities do they need? They all have playstations... why don't they do that for fun. There certainly wasn't anything else to do when i was a kid for me either, but my parents didn't want me hanging about the streets (you get that in all areas), so i just didn't do it.

[cm]tyranny wrote:

so they get bored ,they're excluded from a woefully underfunded and mismanaged education system in a society with one of the most unequal distibutions of wealth in all of europe

They dont want to be in school. I used to go to a skanger school (thats what other teachers nearby call it btw), and you literally couldn't go 2 mins without some muppet acting up and having to be given out to. I just sat there and shut up, these people couldn't seem to do that. [/QUOTE]

[cm]tyranny wrote:

no wonder they see no future and want to break stuff... they're growing up in broken homes with no male role models because of absent fathers, their mothers are pregnant at fifteen and cant get an abortion because of some man in a dress in rome, and this "chav" hatred is hjust a fashion that lets YOU off the hook for not wanting to ANYTHING about it.

Yes, thats the answer, abort them (sarcasm). The word chav describes scum who buy expensive tracksuits and fake gold soverigns. The people you're refering to don't exist to such an extent. Most of them HAVE money but are idiots when it comes to spending it. I'm pretty sure they spend more on Christmas AND entertainment etc than the rest of the population.

Rb

Check out RTE teletext page 117 "Figures on Dublin education trend",very interesting.
Noone can say anyones excluded from receiving an education, there's national primary schools, secondary schools & college is more or less free( ~€700 for registration) and the government will gladly dole out more free money to help along those "growing up in broken homes with no male role models because of absent fathers, their mothers are pregnant at fifteen and cant get an abortion because of some man in a dress in rome".

Rb

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Yes, thats the answer, abort them (sarcasm).

I was thinking more along the lines of sterilization?

Draupnir

some poster from the southside wrote:

they're upper class but they're still absolute knackers/skangers,
therefore, not all knackers are working class, and not all working class people are knackers, but we're concentrating on knackers here.

and not all the people considered to be knackers/scumbags by the original poster at the Zoo the other day actually are.

Normal, average joe's such as myself probably get misconceived as scumbags by certain people. I cant agree more that there is a certain section of our society which is undesirable, but that element is not defined clearly by dress sense/accent or attitude their moustache! Crikey, that just seems silly.

I have family members who wear peak caps at the 90 degree angle, wear sovereign rings and ben sherman shirts. They may not be rocket scientists and they may not hang around in the golf club, but to instantly think that they are complete scum and do not contribute to society is a sweeping unfortunate generalisation, very narrow minded and I hasten to add, insulting.

I can spot a real scumbag a mile away, not because they are obvious, because I am not blinded by the perversion towards seeing anyone not wearing what I consider respectable as a scumbag.

JungleBunny

Completely agree with you on that one. You can't judge them all just by the clothes they wear. It's all in the behaviour.

Rb

Draupnir wrote:

and not all the people considered to be knackers/scumbags by the original poster at the Zoo the other day actually are.

I suppose it all comes down to the individuals perception of what a scumbag/knacker is, i wont go into what i constititue as a knacker but the generalisation of one has been described a few times in this post so far.
For a better idea see http://www.chavscum.co.uk , switch the accents and then you've irish knackers, or at least what the majority of people would constitute as a knacker/scumbag.