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What is the story with all the junkies in Cork City

Infernal Racket

This is my 3rd day in Cork City on a family break and there are junkies everywhere. We're staying in a hotel close to the bus eireann terminal and they are literally everywhere and I'm not exaggerating. They are lying on the street in the middle of the day off their faces. Oliver Plunkett St, Patrick St, more or less the whole city centre they are everywhere begging, hassling tourists for money and urinating in broad daylight. I haven't been to Cork City in nearly 20 years and can't believe what I'm seeing.

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NasserShammaz

It's really not. Nobody wants this life, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Should be more empathy to go round at the moment the way things are. I'm not talking about excusing violent behaviour, but spreading dehumanising rubbish isn't going to help anyone.[/quote]

Says someone who has never had to deal with the skum, clear up the blood and piss soaked **** in your doorway every morning face aggression and threats... live beside their constant fighting shouting and have you and your kids see ****iin junkie skum having a **** in broad daylight on a main street... empathy my hole...I'm sick of virtue signaling BS from people who don't deal with it and particularly self righteous clowns like inner city helping junkies ...these arsehole had the cheek once to tell me to not move 2 of these vermin from our doorway because " there doing no harm" as we were trying to open up and had kids as young as 7 -8 waiting listening to the abuse.. skum...why the should have places in city centres is beyond me. Focus in temple bar is a filth magnet, fights and open dealing and taking everyday..empathy yea ....personal responsibility

Pen Rua

We go to morning Mass at a city centre church that has space out front which is commonly used for rough sleepers.

Last summer, there was a group who slept rough there. The church community looked after them and brought them what they needed to keep themselves safe & comfortable as possible. There were plans for a night shelter to be opened but these were abandoned when COVID hit.

During that same summer, another group came to try use the space and that's when it all went downhill. They kept arguing amongst themselves and it was rather unsightly. Blood was often on the church steps. For a period, a certain man took it upon himself to "guard" the area and he was off his head 99% of the time. It was intimidating for the older people trying to get in. On more than one occasion, this man interrupted Mass and was threatening to the priest (and people). They would play music all day (and night - I live near by) and would be loud during Mass.

After back and forth w/Gardaí, he was moved on.

Now we're at this summer. Another group is sleeping rough but they are, for the most part, fine and keep to themselves. Over the last two Sunday's we have had more young, Irish people begging at the church. Pre-COVID it was Roma people (who we haven't seen since - curious!).

A couple of weeks ago, one of the men from last summer's group came back and would wander around the church during Mass. He would not interact with the people but his mere walking & nosing was intimidating. A call was made to the Gardaí and he hasn't been back since (but I see him around the city).

Speaking to the church community, similar groups have slept rough and the community has always tried to engage and help. In some circumstances, the group flat out refuses the aid.

Unrelated, a couple of weeks back myself and some friends went for food at Clancy's and sat outside. A man came up and was begging. Three of us said no, but a fourth said he would only buy the man food. The man refused and wanted cash. My friend persisted and said no cash, food only. The man refused again and my friend offered a drink instead, which the man reluctantly took. Offer them food/drink (what they "ask" for) and they will refuse...

It is so, so hard to pass these people. We do not know their story & do not know where they have been and what they have been through. Equally, I am hesitant to reach out for fear of being harmed (based on prior experience - see above) and seldom carry cash to begin with.

Herb Powell

NasserShammaz wrote: »

Says someone who has never had to deal with the skum, clear up the blood and piss soaked **** in your doorway every morning face aggression and threats... live beside their constant fighting shouting and have you and your kids see ****iin junkie skum having a **** in broad daylight on a main street... empathy my hole...I'm sick of virtue signaling BS from people who don't deal with it and particularly self righteous clowns like inner city helping junkies ...these arsehole had the cheek once to tell me to not move 2 of these vermin from our doorway because " there doing no harm" as we were trying to open up and had kids as young as 7 -8 waiting listening to the abuse.. skum...why the should have places in city centres is beyond me. Focus in temple bar is a filth magnet, fights and open dealing and taking everyday..empathy yea ....personal responsibility

Yeah yeah, lot of assumptions you make about me there based on absolutely nothing.

Biker79

With a comprehensive social welfare system in Ireland..( and is internationally regarded as a quality mechanism for redistribution of wealth ) .how can your circumstances be so bad that you end up like that?

The only answer that makes sense is that its personal choice. I remember genuinely poor people in the 80s, when I was a child. They were truly grateful for any help from people and the church.

But these people are just out and out self-destructive nihilists. Everything is paid for...in fact, with begging, the percentage of their disposable income is probably on par with most peoples in the country.

Pen Rua

Biker79 wrote: »

With a comprehensive social welfare system in Ireland..( and is internationally regarded as a quality mechanism for redistribution of wealth ) .how can your circumstances be so bad that you end up like that?

The only answer that makes sense is that its personal choice. I remember genuinely poor people in the 80s, when I was a child. They were truly grateful for any help from people and the church.

But these people are just out and out self-destructive nihilists. Everything is paid for...in fact, with begging, the percentage of their disposable income is probably on par with most peoples in the country.

Most nights when I come home where is a group of volunteers giving food to these groups. I do not know who the volunteer group is.

Moreover, they have loads and loads of clothes, tents and sleeping bags. More often than not, they just dump them in the church and move on to a new spot. There is commonly human s--t left in the tents which leaves it horrible for whoever has to clean it up.

They are seldom left wanting for food, water, clothing and bedding. When it comes to actual help (counselling, support, housing etc) I cannot comment.

Dbu

Just after witnessing a guy in grey tracksuit, take tabs out of the crack of his arse and give them to a couple on Patrick st right now at 11am.
They literally popped them into their gobs, gave him what looked like a €50 note and wandered off

First time ever witnessing something like this

Pkiernan

Thus us what we reap when we sow tolerance.

Biker79

Pen Rua wrote: »

Most nights when I come home where is a group of volunteers giving food to these groups. I do not know who the volunteer group is.

Moreover, they have loads and loads of clothes, tents and sleeping bags. More often than not, they just dump them in the church and move on to a new spot. There is commonly human s--t left in the tents which leaves it horrible for whoever has to clean it up.

They are seldom left wanting for food, water, clothing and bedding. When it comes to actual help (counselling, support, housing etc) I cannot comment.

Exactly right. The problem is not material poverty.

Housing wouldn't be an issue if they were capable of responsible behaviour. Plenty of social houses all over the country, if you're prepared to take a house anywhere, to keep a roof over your head.

hottipper

good video of whats going on in san fran at the moment - cork is a few years behind i guess but getting there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw8MACDZ3RI

the beer revolu

The life of Riley, it seems.

I think I'll move to the streets and live off charity and be absolutely minted from begging. Who wouldn't, when it's so fantastic?
Mmm, free soup and sliced pan sandwiches!
Ah the freedom of living in a tent in a city!
The comradeship of fellow, Rileys!
All the second hand blankets and duvets you can imagine.
The joy of shltting outdoors!
For the very occasional damp night, there's fantastic dormitory accommodation - great craic very secure, I believe.
Free sex, too on the streets - raping your fellow homeless people is all the rage, now.
What a life. Only a fool would reject this opportunity.

Gerry Hatrick

Drugs are a problem in the majority of European and US cities it's not just Cork. I passed through Naples last year on my motorbike for an overnight stay and it was like a scene from the walking dead. We've lost the war on drugs.

Infernal Racket

the beer revolu wrote: »

The life of Riley, it seems.

I think I'll move to the streets and live off charity and be absolutely minted from begging. Who wouldn't, when it's so fantastic?
Mmm, free soup and sliced pan sandwiches!
Ah the freedom of living in a tent in a city!
The comradeship of fellow, Rileys!
All the second hand blankets and duvets you can imagine.
The joy of shltting outdoors!
For the very occasional damp night, there's fantastic dormitory accommodation - great craic very secure, I believe.
Free sex, too on the streets - raping your fellow homeless people is all the rage, now.
What a life. Only a fool would reject this opportunity.

There's a lad right now sitting outside Centra on Oliver Plunkett Street in a full North face tracksuit and Nike Vapormax runners which look straight out of the box. He's begging away not a bother on him. His clothes and runners cost about 3 times the price of what I am wearing so yeah, begging seems to be lucrative enough around these parts

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

.............but over the past few weeks their numbers have exploded, with some much rougher / more intimidating looking heads around. The previous, mostly harmless older drinkers seem to actually have been hunted off by this new crowd and now tend to congregate down by the docks.

...................

The usual heads will be along now to downplay things and tell us every city has these problems, it's always been like this, just covid makes it more visible etc etc.

No. The place has actually deteriorated massively over just a few weeks /months. ...........

surely if it's the last few months it's likely that the Covid situation is a huge factor, there's definite correlation.

Herb Powell wrote: »

Have had some try initiate physical altercations recently alright. Won't say they "threatened" me, as I'm a physically fit young man and most of these poor fucckers can barely stand while they're roaring abuse at me. Still, not good. I don't know for sure if it's getting worse, but a lot of them seem to be more on edge...............

Many of them make money from begging/harassing passers by, that revenue stream has been reduced with reduced footfall. They are likely desperate for a fix in many instances.

Biker79 wrote: »

With a comprehensive social welfare system in Ireland..( and is internationally regarded as a quality mechanism for redistribution of wealth ) .how can your circumstances be so bad that you end up like that? .............

Many just tried heroin once and presumed they'd not turn into junkies I imagine. I know a few lads in their 30s and 40s who I remember looking down their noses at junkies who are now smack heads themselves, none of them ever worked etc but they'd have been functioning enough as normal people (ish). One got addicted in jail after trying it out of boredom presumably, he was a hardened criminal back in the 90s, he's now back in on drug offences after being caught with heroin.

I can see where the OP is coming from, I don't live in Cork anymore but am a frequent visitor (less frequent of late due to Covid etc) .......... back in April or May I walked half of Oliver Plunkett Street to go to the AIB by McDonalds and I was surprised at the amount of junkies etc that were about on a Sunday afternoon.

I used to be in town at least two Saturdays/month prior to Covid.

Infernal Racket

Infernal Racket wrote: »

There's a lad right now sitting outside Centra on Oliver Plunkett Street in a full North face tracksuit and Nike Vapormax runners which look straight out of the box. He's begging away not a bother on him. His clothes and runners cost about 3 times the price of what I am wearing so yeah, begging seems to be lucrative enough around these parts

Oh hang on, he's just moved on only to be replaced by 2 more off their head types. Holy crap, this city is ****ed

JackieChang

Dbu wrote: »

Just after witnessing a guy in grey tracksuit, take tabs out of the crack of his arse and give them to a couple on Patrick st right now at 11am.
They literally popped them into their gobs, gave him what looked like a €50 note and wandered off

First time ever witnessing something like this

Haha!

I passed a guy taking a shyte on the street in broad daylight. One of the streets off Oliver Plunket, near that new hip gym. Not a bother on him. He looked directly into my eyes as he was squeezing it out.

Biker79

hottipper wrote: »

good video of whats going on in san fran at the moment - cork is a few years behind i guess but getting there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw8MACDZ3RI

Interesting that the policies of empathy and personal rights/ liberty have only made the situation much worse.

LuasSimon

Visited Cork city lately and at the bottom of Patrick street near the river there was drug addicts fighting with two of them kicking another on the ground . My teenage children were upset and we cut short our day in cork city and headed out of it as they were scared to walk round .
Went out to Crosshaven which was lovely but I’d be slow bothering going into cork city again unless crime is tackled there . Serious drug problem according to a workmate and the judges don’t care about the city giving suspended sentence after suspended sentence to the dealers .

JackieChang

LuasSimon wrote: »

Visited Cork city lately and at the bottom of Patrick street near the river there was drug addicts fighting with two of them kicking another on the ground . My teenage children were upset and we cut short our day in cork city and headed out of it as they were scared to walk round.

I'm the same as you and I don't even have kids! I try to avoid it as much as I can now.

I've just found the city increasingly menacing over the last few months.

I was sitting outside the Electric one evening and the guards chased a junkie around the corner and caught him right in front of us on the grass. He was resisting arrest and the guard warned him that he'd be pepper sprayed if he didn't stop resisting. The junkie said "GO ON AND F&^ING PEPPER SPRAY ME SO" and one second later he was screaming in agony after being pepper sprayed into the eyeballs.

Another time myself and the missus went into town to get something to eat and have a pint, about 6pm. We were sat out the front of Riardens, getting ready to order a pizza but there was some mad junkie woman in the middle of the road screaming at any car that passed by. Then she made her way over to us and started shouting again, couldn't understand a word she was saying as she had no teeth. Riardens bouncer came over and moved her along but at that point we said f&%ck this and went home.

Literally every time I've gone to town I've witnessed some unsavoury stuff.

jimgoose

Biker79 wrote: »

Interesting that the policies of empathy and personal rights/ liberty have only made the situation much worse.

And there it is. Progressive policies/politics are well-and-fine, but you need the Wallopers on the street as well, or chaos reigns.

NasserShammaz

Herb Powell wrote: »

Yeah yeah, lot of assumptions you make about me there based on absolutely nothing.

Yeah yeah..... you said empathy....anyone who deals with this **** day in day out has had all their empathy exhausted, no doubt you would have us all believe that all junkies / homeless are just down on their luck philosophers and artist...

LuasSimon

How do businesses put up with this and what are they getting for their rates ?
Is it any wonder so many units are idle in cork city centre when people are afraid of going about city centre . The Judges and free legal aid liars have a lot to answer for too allowing scum to destroy what was a lovely city .

the beer revolu

NasserShammaz wrote: »

Yeah yeah..... you said empathy....anyone who deals with this **** day in day out has had all their empathy exhausted, no doubt you would have us all believe that all junkies / homeless are just down on their luck philosophers and artist...

You're really getting the hang of making ridiculous assumptions about people who you don't know!

[Deleted User]

LuasSimon wrote: »

Visited Cork city lately and at the bottom of Patrick street near the river there was drug addicts fighting with two of them kicking another on the ground . ............ .

That area, the bus station and around by Jury's Inn, The Clarion were always like that ....... I used to be a member in the clarion gym back in 2006/2007 and folk used to feel intimidated driving in some nights. Some of the few houses in the area had gates on their front doors for extra security.

Clazbeag

I feel really sorry for older people who have to go into town or who used to love going into town to meet up with friends. I feel nervous in there and I'm in my 30's and somewhat fit and I feel intimidated in there when approached, even if by only one person.
I can't imagine what it would feel like if you were frail or can't walk away quickly- it must be horrendous and fairly scary.

Herb Powell

NasserShammaz wrote: »

Yeah yeah..... you said empathy....anyone who deals with this **** day in day out has had all their empathy exhausted, no doubt you would have us all believe that all junkies / homeless are just down on their luck philosophers and artist...

Again, you're just throwing out assumptions on me, as if I don't have to deal with this shhit on a daily basis like everyone else. I'm not sitting in some gated community ivory tower, nor am I trying to make excuses for people's violent and nasty behaviour.

I'm saying the dehumanising rhetoric is tiresome because it doesn't actually reflect the complex reality of addiction and the circumstances surrounding it. If the solution was simple, great, have at it, but the hard-man moralistic approach has never done anything to help save for satisfy the egos of those making the judgement calls. I have seen all sides of this, so ironically feel I am LESS removed from the reality than some who prefer to posture.

Does me saying this do anything to help you and me deal with the consequences of those with addiction issues? No, but that was not really my point either.

NasserShammaz

Herb Powell wrote: »

Again, you're just throwing out assumptions on me, as if I don't have to deal with this shhit on a daily basis like everyone else. I'm not sitting in some gated community ivory tower, nor am I trying to make excuses for people's violent and nasty behaviour.

I'm saying the dehumanising rhetoric is tiresome because it doesn't actually reflect the complex reality of addiction and the circumstances surrounding it. If the solution was simple, great, have at it, but the hard-man moralistic approach has never done anything to help save for satisfy the egos of those making the judgement calls. I have seen all sides of this, so ironically feel I am LESS removed from the reality than some who prefer to posture.

Does me saying this do anything to help you and me deal with the consequences of those with addiction issues? No, but that was not really my point either.

God I bet your so right on.....ha

NasserShammaz

the beer revolu wrote: »

You're really getting the hang of making ridiculous assumptions about people who you don't know!

Why thank you il take that as a compliment...

Herb Powell

NasserShammaz wrote: »

God I bet your so right on.....ha

Do you have anything of substance to say or do you just get off on slinging buzzwords?

NasserShammaz

NasserShammaz wrote: »

Says someone who has never had to deal with the skum, clear up the blood and piss soaked **** in your doorway every morning face aggression and threats... live beside their constant fighting shouting and have you and your kids see ****iin junkie skum having a **** in broad daylight on a main street... empathy my hole...I'm sick of virtue signaling BS from people who don't deal with it and particularly self righteous clowns like inner city helping junkies ...these arsehole had the cheek once to tell me to not move 2 of these vermin from our doorway because " there doing no harm" as we were trying to open up and had kids as young as 7 -8 waiting listening to the abuse.. skum...why the should have places in city centres is beyond me. Focus in temple bar is a filth magnet, fights and open dealing and taking everyday..empathy yea ....personal responsibility

I feel great empathy for you no doubt your off to do a soup run for the homeless....x

the beer revolu

Infernal Racket wrote: »

Oh hang on, he's just moved on only to be replaced by 2 more off their head types. Holy crap, this city is ****ed

You saw three beggars in a city centre and you're losing your shlt!
Have you been in any other cities?