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What is happening in Longford town?

Gussie Scrotch

I lived in the town Longford right through the seventies. But haven't been back there for more than thirty years now.

It was a friendly, easy going, relatively safe typical small rural Irish town. The Longford Leader courts section featured mainly speeding offences, shoplifting, the odd drunk and disorderly charge and maybe one or two punch-ups.

Recently, it seems to me, the place has been persecuted with multiple drug busts, targetting of local crime lords, endless violent feuding and even a couple of shootings.

What has happened to turn a sleepy harmonious little backwater into such a chaotic state?

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chosen1

I would put the current problems in the town down to a number of issues.

Firstly unlike others on the thread saying it was a quiet town years ago, I'd disagree as there was always a relatively tough element living around there going back years. It has gotten worse in recent years though through an influx of many undesirables of various types and creeds into the cheap rental houses built during the Celtic tiger.

The main problem is law and order. I found this case today where a gang smashed up a house in broad daylight and has since intimidated a neighbour who gave CCTV footage to the guards.

https://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/1030314/woman-tells-of-threats-from-gang-at-centre-of-longford-house-attack.html

All involved got suspended sentences for no apparent reason. This is absolutely typical of the type of sentencing that goes on week in, week out in the town.

The Judges are clearly delusional and are obviously not living near effected areas but the buck ultimately stops at the government and more particularly, the minister for justice. It's been a long time since any one of them suggested building more prison space, and when he did, he was shot down and vilified.

It is an expensive process to build and maintain this prison space but it's clearly necessary unfortunately. If these people were put of the streets for a while, they wouldn't be a danger. The guards would also have more respect as there would be a clear deterrent instead of lads getting away scot free after committing serious crimes.

I love the town and it's got great potential, with a few good employers, good cafes, good facilities for kids and a few decent pubs left. Most around are good people but until this problem gets tackled, I can't see it getting any better unfortunately.

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120217434#Comment_120217434

It is funny. If the judge opened youtube they could see one of the lads before them making call out videos only two weeks ago in a different feud.

Count Dracula

I must admit i find the call out videos very entertaining?

It shows that the average native clansman was constantly adept with adapting to modern forms of communication and its' attributes . I would be proud of that. They are the smartest group of people I am aware of, they run rings around everyone and live how they like. Who doesn't want to live as free?

I get where the begrudgery stems from now, it is the way they embrace their freedom and live lie they like? More settled lifestyles vent their resentment at this in cyberspace..... how meaningless and futile can you get?

It shows great initiative in using the tech, to enable to announce what part of absolute nowhere, they are hooking up at for a settler. I would admire the transparency of it. Tell the truth and shame the Devil n all, do you no wha i mean boss? Dohin bee schlaggin yeh book it of shight, yeah?

Lots of country boys n girls getting off their chops also. It is only 8 generations since the land acts of 1870. They were simply left behind and i would doubt their behavior's are dramatically different. Albeit they are certainly wealthier now. But once again that indicates the power of resolve.

buzzerxx

Yep OP, it's mostly because of the ''do what ye likey, pikey''

Ham_Sandwich

the usual lock em up brigade and traveller bashing because all this has worked before hasnt it

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058282983/what-is-happening-in-longford-town

The world moved on since the seventies, Ireland is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world and so it has it has all the economic and social issues that every rich country has. Ideally people would like to have the wealth of today and live in the seventies but that is simply not possible.

It is expensive to run a rich country and no one wants to pay the taxes to do it. So it’s the governments fault, the HSE’s fault, the foreigner’s fault , the refugees…. or whatever group is currently popular…. the same story as in every other rich country… in the end it comes down to the voter.

[Deleted User]

Yeah, definitely don't blame the criminals responsible for crime.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120223156#Comment_120223156

Well making excuses for criminals and downplaying their behaviour isn't a good strategy either.

Terrier2023

In time Ireland and many european countries will have to privatize the jails make them into money making units like america then there will be space for every miscreant and wrong doer in the country and we know whats coming if Sweden is anything to go by. That or else send all violent criminals over to the war to use up their excess fighting energy.

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120223156#Comment_120223156

Travellers are great to be fair. Look at all they bring to the country.

Quitelife

Longford & Limerick are the two counties most impacted by traveller crime & traveller feuds but local politicans & Judges dont care because they live in nice houses nowhere near the worst areas of these counties .

Gaspode

Dodgy Looking website.

El Gato De Negocios

Im from Longford, lived there most of my life and a couple of years ago I moved back here with my wife and kids and built a house. There are a number of inaccuracies in this thread.

Longford has not always been a shithole. During the 90s and 00s the town was doing well (relative to its size and its location). There were loads of decent pubs and restaurants and employment was high. There was never any significant trouble during this period. Of course there were occasional rows at the weekends in pubs or after nightclubs but this happens in every single town across the country but there was nothing anomalous about it.

Employment was heavily construction centric with a huge amount of people employed in the industry. This kept the pubs busy during the day for people eating food and at night for drinking. Retail outlets, delis etc were also kept going because of this. Then the recession hit. It is no exaggeration to say it decimated the town and county. I can think of at least 20 people off the top of my head that emigrated during this time and never returned. My own brother went to Canada and will be there til the day he dies. The people that left werent just unskilled laborer's. They were carpenters, electricians, block layers, engineers, draughtsmen and other qualified jobs.

The county got the fringe benefits of the tiger but areas such as infrastructure and facilities were ignored or unfinished. A massive shopping centre was built, supposed to be the beacon for the town, Marks and Spencer was slated to be the flagship store but they got cold feet and ultimately the centre never opened and its sitting idle now as a monolith to poor ideas.

The army barracks was shut down in 2009 and consolidated with Athlone.

A number of industrial plants closed down as the owners were able to relocate to other countries where the cost of labour is much lower.

The N4 bypass also drained traffic through the town literally overnight.

All of these had huge negative impacts on the town.

Longford also has a huge problem with traveller families and their behaviour, people can say I'm being racist or throw out any other handwringing comments they want, that is the reality. They are above the law and they know it.

What the solution is I do not know. Ideally more policing and a zero tolerance attitude to anti social behaviour would be a good start but I fear its too late and the scum are too deeply embedded to make a tangible difference. It saddens me as outside of the town, there are some wonderful little communities and villages.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319693#Comment_120319693

This is by far, out of the listing of issues, the main issue with Longford.

Quitelife

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/staff-and-customers-forced-to-look-on-in-horror-as-two-young-men-traded-blows-in-a-shop-in-broad-daylight-42444393.html

More lawlessness in Longford in the middle of the day, lots of damage down to goods and stands in shop all to be paid for by shop owner. Is there any politicans in Longord to help law abiding people & businesses ?

[Deleted User]

This one is hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUUaAj-xsGk

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204286#Comment_120204286

Same nonsense in Ennis.

We have had some good judges at circuit court level who have refused legal aid in drug cases, and where the gardai have asked for bail to be refused, the judge has concurred. Long jail terms in uncomfortable surroundings-rehabilitation and the associated mollycoddling does not work-and seizure of all assets including garnishing of wages and welfare payments should be the norm.

The lawlessness and blatant parading of unexplained wealth needs to be stoppped, as well as cutting any funding to advocacy groups.

Being nice isn't an option.

GerUpOttaTa

Weak Gardai and weak justice system = Mayhem

Real Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514801#Comment_120514801

Wouldn't blame the guards, they have limited powers, it is the justice system that is definitely the big problem in this country, too many on the gravy train..

GerUpOttaTa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120533355#Comment_120533355

I am blaming the Gardai. Have you seen the state of some of them recently. 5ft nothing and made of paper. Scroungers laugh at them.

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204282#Comment_120204282

The problem has nothing to do with sitting TDs.

Longford is full of knacks,that's the long and the short of it.

I feel bad for the normal residents,cheapest place in Ireland to buy a house,there's a reason for that.

CramCycle

LOL, people have a rose tinted view of Longford in the past. We had razorblade alley that you didn't walk down alone, you had lads from slashers beating people to near death on a weekly basis. St. Joseph's NS teachers had to go down the road to warn parents not to come in because a fight at 9am with nine inch nails through bats had broken out on the first day of term. St. Mel's always had a good reputation but it was never deserved (in my time anyway). Longford town, not the county, has been and continues to be a sh1thole for 40years. It is not worse now, it's just more people are aware of how sh1t it is. Lads waiting outside pubs to beat lumps out of barmen because they were told they'd had enough. And it's not the travellers, although certain ones cause issues, there's more non traveller scum bags floating round that town and always has been.

Yes, large parts to do with economic inequality and being abandoned but there's a reason you get great works of fiction about Dublin and Limerick in the tough times, and that's because Longford was such a sh1thole that it would have been a tragedy (and also unbelievable that somewhere was so awful).

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120507830#Comment_120507830

It was not even the worst fight in the county that week. There was an awful incident in a village 4km from town late that night. A woman smashed a bottle over a mans face and the injured party then proceeded to beat up that lady.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120534095#Comment_120534095

Well she did smash a bottle over his face....I'm not sure I'd be all forgiving and turn the other cheek if someone smashed a bottle over my face (although it's unlikely I'd have aggravated/created such a situation and id probsbly be so shocked I might not react until any opportunity passed)

Tbh if it was unprovoked she got what was coming to her as far as Id be concerned ...woman or not.....total scumbag behaviour if it wasn't in defence.

Quitelife

Longford is the county in Ireland most impacted by Traveller crime / lawlessness , Limerick would be next .

Ex.LT

I left Longford to go to college and only vicame home at weekends. Then I immigrated in 2001 and only go home to visit family 3-4 times a year. I have witnessed the degradation of the town slowly and steadily over the last 20 years. It was never the best town but people weren't afraid to go out at night. Longford became an ideal spot for the social welfare to house certain "profiles" due to the abundance of rentalable accommodation built during the celtic tiger period. The greedy landlords at the time were only too happy to invest and rent the properties to whoever, resulting in complete housing estates with almost no owner occupation and with a significant population with a less than ideal socio-economic background. These estates have been transformed into no go zones controlled by certain families/groups and the worst thing is that the social welfare is paying almost all the rent for these people. The local and national authorities are solely to blame for creating these "ghettos ". The people of Longford need to much harder on the county manager and TD otherwise they will continue to sit on their hands and do sweet FA. The local businness rates imposed by the county have also forced many to shut and leave many buildings in the town empty which are now being used as squats, drug dens or whatever else. It's a sad state of affairs but as long as the council and its cronies continue to receive their perks and allowances without doing anything for the people of Longford nothing will change. The people need to assemble and get on the street to protest and say enough is enough !

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120611169#Comment_120611169

Tricky one , the media would smear any action group as far right due to the huge involvement of travellers in the town’s problems

Ex.LT

Yep, sure is tricky. I've lived In Germany for years and still live abroad. There are similar hot spots in places like Berlin, and Hamburg where "Families " control entire streets. They are generally from certain ethnic backgrounds but under no circumstances does this prevent the authorities from going in hard on them. There is no talk about being racist or prejudice. They are simply seen as a criminal clan and are dealt with accordingly. In Ireland we need to stop using the word traveller when it comes to these people. Most have never travelled anywhere, they are not comparable with travellers or "tinkers" from years ago who made a living doing odd jobs and dealing at fairs around the country. These are simply criminals and should be treated as such without mention of their traveller heritage, if they have one. Besides our own homegrown troubles we have many foreign citizens coming into the mix who are equally as dangerous and antisocial. Of course we shouldn't generalise but neither should we be afraid to defend our communities without fear of being branded racist or anti traveller. It appears in the age of the cancel culture and political correctness we have become afraid to say anything and call out what should be called out, the results of which are unfortunately visible on the streets of Longford.

Gussie Scrotch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120611485#Comment_120611485

A look at the front page of the Longford Leader this week is very revealing.

A litany of gang fights, assaults, bottlings, stabbings criminal targetting etc etc. All this in a town where, 30 years ago, you could get named in the paper for getting a speeding fine.

Like you, I also lived in Germany ......and Austria. You are absolutely right, behaviour like this would not be tolerated.

I feel for the decent, law abiding people of Longford who, if reports are true, now seem afraid to go into town of an evening.

El Gato De Negocios

Just look at some of the articles from THIS WEEKS edition of the local paper.

https://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/1172284/trio-to-stand-trial-accused-of-assaulting-man-in-longford-town-in-broad-daylight.html

https://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/1172224/i-could-never-feel-longford-could-ever-be-a-safe-place-for-me-or-my-family-says-stabbing-victim-as-attacker-is-jailed-for-six-and-a-half-years.html

https://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/1171853/longford-woman-jailed-for-ten-months-for-nasty-and-horrible-bottle-attack-that-left-victim-scarred.html

https://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/1172181/longford-street-row-involving-knives-bricks-and-machete-between-feuding-families-was-abject-savagery-says-judge.html

Its very obvious what the biggest issue facing the town is but its not those poor crayturs fault, sure the system is against them and is institutionally racist.

🤮