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Child Item

"They don't have the facilities"

pgj2015

Why is this excuse always used when trying to come up with an explanation for tear away kids looting, criminal damage, fighting, taking drugs or joyriding etc?

I grew up in the sticks, we had zero facilities as well and we didn't do any of the above.

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Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334261/they-dont-have-the-facilities

You can't compare the sticks to the inner city though

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707131#Comment_121707131

not to be funny here, but why?

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707131#Comment_121707131

why not?

we had neighbours and they were the same age as myself. so its not like we lived on our own, we could have done all the things the youngsters in my op did if we wanted to.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334261/they-dont-have-the-facilities

In the sticks, did you have fields to play in? A bog to walk around? Trees to climb? Frogs to catch?

What if you couldn't go play in the fields because there aren't any? Or the ones that are there are covered in burned out cars or scumbags selling gear? What if the closest you ever got to a bog was the outside toilet shared between you and the other 4 families in the rundown Georgian house you called home? Where are the trees to climb if you grew up in Pearse Street flats? Merrion Square? That you aren't allowed in because the park ranger doesn't want the riff raff ruining it for the suits on their lunch from Government Buildings. What if it was rats you had instead of frogs? And what if there was 200 families living in a 300 sq. metre block of flats with nothing to do because you're not allowed off the balcony due to the neglect and poverty around you?

Were you raised by junkie parents or alcoholics? Were you rearing your younger siblings at the same time you were struggling with "text and tests 3"? Did you have to wear your school uniform at the weekends because your auldfella pawned the fecking washing machine and you've no clean clothes? Have you ever been refused entry to a pub/nightclub because of your accent? Or refused a job interview because they saw your address? Or gotten the shite kicked out of you by some redneck plough-jockey fresh from Templemore who hasn't got the balls to tackle the real filth in the area, so he takes it out on the kids playing with a burst football because there'll be no repercussions?

People who spout this crap like you've posted have zero clue what they're talking about. Stop trying to judge that of which you have no experience. And stop punching down. Access to better facilities and proper, structured sports and leisure activities does wonders for kids. There are countless studies which show this. Idle hands do the devil's work.

Sure, there are people who use this as an excuse (considerably fewer nowadays, thank fcuk) for their own malicious intentions. But for every one of them there's 100 budding hurlers who live too far away from a pitch to ever get into it properly. And another 100 gymnasts who'll never put on a leotard because the playground equipment has been dilapidated for 12years and is full of knackers selling 10 spots from their y-fronts.

If you tell a kid they can grow up to be anything, then they will.

If you tell them they will grow up to be nothing, then they will too.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334261/they-dont-have-the-facilities

Socialists want to blame the State and society. They don't want to blame the children/teenagers or their parents.

They believe that these criminals don't have any agency - they are oppressed, so they react with violence.

It's the same with travellers life outcomes - it's always society's fault.

Yeah Right

Also, if you think there's no drugs, looting, criminal activity, fighting or joyriding in the sticks, you must be taking the piss.

Every town and village has a few bad eggs. Multiply the population by 1,000 and now you've a few thousand bad eggs.

Geuze

In the 1950s, my mother had no elec, and could not afford some textbooks.

She walked 1km to another house to borrow textbook, and studied by candlelight.

She did not resort to crime.

Poverty is not an excuse for crime.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707217#Comment_121707217

WTF has socialism got to do with anything? Talk about shoehorning your own nonsense in so you can give out about it. Reacting with violence is the dictionary definition of agency, dumbass.

"Hurrr durr socialism baddd".......is the reserve of right-wing shitebags who've been reading too much Trump and consider themselves Conservatives.

Geuze

My apologies.

Many old-style socialists have more sense, and would blame the children / parents.

Kurooi

What you're missing is that those kids don't have happy homes. So the hope is that they will find a school, a sport, a community center - anything to rally behind. If the only influence and the only thing they witness is their home life, be it daddy bringing in stolen bikes or mommy overdosing, then they will become their parents.

That said, the facilities thing is indeed an excuse, not for the children but for the adults in charge , it's effectively asking for more money and avoiding responsibility. We should be holding government and councils accountable for this behavior and this trend.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707207#Comment_121707207

The problem with the legal system in Ireland is everybody who breaks the law can create a sob story with some of these points but the reality is the majority of criminals didnt have junkie/alcoholic parents and nowhere to play, many criminals come from decent backgrounds.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707225#Comment_121707225

Well done for her. Tell me, would she have been allowed to walk that 1km distance if it was from Summerhill to Sherriff Street in the middle of the 80s during the largest heroin epidemic this country has ever seen? Would your granny have let her walk past all the junkies and brothels to go and study? How would she have studied by candlelight with no book?

Poverty begets more poverty. And poor people make poor decisions.

The lure of 'easy' money via selling drugs/your body is just too much for some, so they resort to criminal activities. It would benefit you greatly if you could spot the difference between those who choose a life of crime and those who are thrust into it by the actions of others. I'd a friend in school who was sleeping rough at the weekends because his ma was letting all sorts of weirdos into the gaff to ride her for drugs. He left school 18 months shy of his inter cert and ran away when one of the dirty auld lads tried to ride him for a few bob extra. Didn't see him for 25 years until I spotted him begging for coins in Temple Bar one night.

You should ask your ma what she'd have done in that situation.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707207#Comment_121707207

Great post. Thanks.

There is an incredible amount of money sloshing around that no kid should be left in a hopeless situation.

You see billions being pissed away in this country making some people and their kids very rich.

It's the opposite of the spectrum, kids who have all the opportunities because their parents or their parents have/had useless, pointless, even dangerous careers, that destroy society, but careers that pay well and that are encouraged and facilitates by the economy.

SEPT 23 1989

It’s all down to the parents

no amount of money thrown at them makes any difference

a lot of us who had very little money and very little to do as children turned out ok

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707252#Comment_121707252

Then take the children away from the degenerate parents.

Scummers who scum should not be allowed to rear more scum.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707207#Comment_121707207

I live in the Tallaght area and there are tonnes of facilities. There's plenty of parks with pitches, there's a leisure centre, public pool and gym, loads of different sports clubs and the mountains are a few minutes cycle from most of Tallaght where you can climb as many trees as you want or play in the bog. The place is still full of feral kids and anti social behaviour.

The majority of people from disadvantaged areas are hard working people, these people can somehow not become scumbags in disadvantaged areas yet the scumbags from the same areas claim they have no facilities and destroy everything provided for the area.

MrMusician18

I haven't actually heard the facilitieees line trotted out in years tbf

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707601#Comment_121707601

I heard it a couple of times last week, people from those areas in Dublin were saying it, I think its just a line people say because they have heard other people say it.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707148#Comment_121707148

I grew up in the sticks too. We had no end of things to do. Nothing formal and few things needing facilities. Kick football or play hurling down the green, go cycling, hanging out, go to tge woods. It's different to the city. Very little of what we did could be harmful but cities are so busy that things have to work a certain way. Children roaming about is a problem in a city, but it's not in the country.

In the country you pretty much know everyone and everyone knows you. So you talk to older people and you wouldn't really do anything to cause trouble. There wasnt animosity or fear of us as Children. We weren't treated as bad eggs and we didnt behave like bad eggs. Children in cities need facilities so they can burn energy like we did, but without causing disruption.

Strumms

If you bought them all a PS5…. “They don’t have enough games”

If you built pitches, floodlights etc…. “But they don’t have a gym”

If you bought them a week long holiday annually …. “But the weather wasn’t great / there weren’t enough facilities ”

some people like living in excuseville… it’s more convenient than taking responsibility for one’s own life and actions.

I live near a so called ’deprived’ / ‘working’ (cough) class area, all you hear is moaning and governments should be doing XYZ.. yet within 2-3 kilometres…

swimming pools x2

indoor soccer x2

parks - multiple

gyms - multiple

GAA clubs x4, soccer clubs x3 , tennis x2, cricket x1, basketball x2, volleyball, snooker halls x2…..

education opportunities and nothing third world…..so…

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121708428#Comment_121708428

i agree with most of what you say about the countryside

i disagree that it doesnt apply to cities. smaller communities within a particular area of a city can be incredibly tight knit

Speedsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707601#Comment_121707601

Outside the Kilmore West Recreation centre on Oscar Traynor road. Not sure how long it's there's or if it's still there (image from Google maps), but I passed it daily when I visited my mother in Beaumont for a few weeks last year.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121708638#Comment_121708638

I wouldn't know how much about that so I'll take your word for it.. I live in a suburb for the last decade and I know the people in tge few doors immediately around me, and I've chatted to some more who live nearby, but we're in no way connected (except one immediate neighbour. We've been in each others houses).

Not to dispute your experience, I just haven't seen it.

In the country there's a set cast, not many people just passing through. My village had one pub so the adults knew each other (and gossip about the ones who were absent) and one school so the children all knew each other.

My point is that you couldn't get away with anything more than mild mischief without your parents finding out. So we roamed around, played games, did whatever we like up to and including mild mischief, and returned home exhausted.

Princess Calla

Change the word facilities to parents and you'll find the problem/solution.

In many cases it's a generational issue. Kids have a crappy childhood, don't know how /what a functional parent should behave....they go on and have their own kids with absolutely no skillset on how to bring children up. Plus the age for first time parents in these areas is usually very young so basically kids rearing kids.

There's often very little emphasis on education or schooling.....I seriously doubt the majority of parents are sitting down helping with homework etc.

You will hear of success stories from these areas but if you talk to them the key factor in their story is their parents. The parents who made sure they went to school, the parents who wouldn't let them hang around with the local gang, the parents that got them involved in whatever sport. Etc.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334261/they-dont-have-the-facilities

...you missed out, tis some craic!

whisky_galore

We mustn't blame people for their own sh1tty life choices. Oh no...

Hardly a month goes by without a bunch of sh1tbag kids with "no faciliteeees" fcuking up other kids' clubhouses, playing fields or playgrounds.

In ballincollig there's local ballbags that take delight in setting fire to play areas and park benches on a regular basis...you know "facilities".

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709445#Comment_121709445

thank god our educational and health care systems are well capable of meeting particular peoples needs now, so we dont have to endure such outcomes.....

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709486#Comment_121709486

They're not short of money, they're not going around in rags like an urchin out of Dickens. They got the best gear and tech. They take and give nothing back. Intergenerational breeding of scum.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707583#Comment_121707583

You're missing the point. I'm not saying that having these facilities close to home guarantees you'll have a load of goody-two-shoes walking around the place. It just makes it more likely and helps Pointing out that other places that DO have facilities and also have scumbags is completely reductionist. Kids get up to mischief everywhere. Without somewhere to play, they'll inevitably get bored and start playing where they're not supposed to be playing. If the place is a dump, they'll treat it like a dump. If the place is nice, they'll be less likely to treat it like a dump.

When Tallaght was first being developed, the place was a wasteland with nothing but open land. There were SFA amenities for kids, and most of what you describe only came about after the locals caused uproar.......hell weren't there campaigns to get shops to open at one stage? It is also much, much safer than it was, even 20 years ago. Plenty of kids don't become scumbags DESPITE the lack of stuff to do, it's just one way to channel energy that could end up being focused on the wrong thing. Kellie Harrington was turned away from inner city boxing clubs because she was a girl. She kept at it and we all saw how that ended up. Where would she be now without a combination of the club existing, then allowing girls in, her parents doing a good job at rearing her and a healthy combination of both talent and luck?

Plus, the leisure centre, public pool and gym, loads of different sports clubs all require money and/or membership to go to. If you can't afford to go to them, they might as well not be there. How can you cycle out to the mountains if you've no bike? Try asking a single parent to hand over a few bob every month when they haven't got enough to feed themselves. What you're saying is ridiculous when you look at it from that point of view......."why is that guy sleeping on the streets, when there's a hotel right over there?".

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709293#Comment_121709293

I'm afraid you're displaying your own ignorance, here.

This isn't someone justifying anti-social behaviour due to the fact that there's nothing for them to do, as described in the OP ......."sure they've no facilities Joe, what're they s'posed to do!!!". This is a well established club highlighting the fact that kids are getting changed in the cold and dark with no hot water and a handful of toilets between the lot of them. They were promised funding for an all-weather pitch years ago and the money has yet to materialise. They have to keep cancelling matches and training when the regular pitches get bogged down or waterlogged. Places like this are the solution, not the problem.

You'd do well to educate yourself on such simple matters before displaying your ignorance as you try to score points on an internet forum. It's as easy as typing "Kilmore Celtic facilities" into google.