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Is Dublin really safe? *Read OP for mod warning*

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,424 ✭✭✭✭John_Rambo


    You're misrepresenting me or haven't read the thread or are unfamiliar with Dublin. Most likely all three. I never said Dublin was grand, I've pointed out the problems and am currently lobbying for change (not on an internet forum, in real life), I've discussed the possible solutions on this thread.

    However, to say the whole of Dublin is dangerous is just stupid.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,109 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    Do you accept Dublin has a perception problem?

    The damage to Dublin is not the reality, it's the perception. The perception comes from the types you see on the streets, the dereliction, the almost comical lack of any regular police presence, the feckless "public realm", and stories that have emerged in the last couple of years.

    Whatever the reality the biggest issue is that people don't feel parts of the city center are safe. The perception is what damages business, tourism, shopping, visitor numbers etc etc.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,074 ✭✭✭skimpydoo


    Walking around Dublin over the past few days has been interesting. Because the American Football Game was here, we saw a lot more Guards on the streets. In 2 days time, this will change when the American's leave and the amount of Guards we have seen the past couple of days will decrease to the bare minimum.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,539 ✭✭✭Quitelife


    https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/dublin-in-crisis-once-a-thriving-capital-today-the-city-centre-is-dangerous-dirty-and-downright-depressing/a662570592.html

    Even the Sunday Independent has a big article today about how lawless the city centre is . Behind a paywall here



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,424 ✭✭✭✭John_Rambo


    I agree with you. The optics aren't good. That's why I am lobbying for change, metro police, transport police. I've said this a good few times over the thread but people are obsessing with the fact that I don't feel in danger in Dublin. I'm in the city weekly, my wife works in the city, my kids visit the city, we all live in Dublin, so do my folks, they're elderly and go to the city centre every week. They don't feel unsafe.

    I see things, I see open drug taking and dealing, I see addicts fighting, I see GAA fans littering and carrying out drunken acts, I see public urination, I see Romani people begging, I see Irish people begging, I see theft, I see a lot. But the good things I see and do in Dublin city centre outweighs the negative optics.

    And I don't feel unsafe, I know this infuriates people. But I don't.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,037 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    Was in city centre shopping last weekend and it was buzzing. No hassle seen anywhere. Was a great atmosphere.

    That's Southside though, i dont bother crossing the river anymore and thats mainly to do with the perception of OConnell St and surrounds.

    Thats just my personal choice though, may not be reflective at all of how others feel.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭lmao10


    It used to be the case that it was only after darkness has fallen that you'd know that most of these places are no-go zones if you don't want to get mugged or worse. But seeing feral scum and feeling at risk comes during daylight hours now too in many of these places. I'd feel safer during the day but I wouldn't be caught dead in some of these areas at night. Too scared. It's the fact that there are no consequences for these feral scum and many of them look at a stint in the Joy as a badge of honour. It does wonders for their street cred, is how it's looked at by many of them.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54 ✭✭GreenPanda99


    I used to work in the city center before covid. Started there again 3 months ago. Its definitely a hell of a lot worse now than it was then. And getting worse every week.

    Last week, after an obscene amount of harassment and a few muggings on staff there was an email went out in the company that asked if people would pair or group up going to the bus stop or train station after work as a lot of staff were scared now coming in and going home.

    They made a website where you just put in when you are going home or what train you are on coming in and going home on if you want company and people meet up in the lobby.

    Awful that its come to this.

    At least once a week now, sometimes more, ive seen an assault in the city center. And all in the daytime too. Havent been around after dark in the last few months, to see what its like then. I think i only ever saw 2 in the 10 years before covid. The city was becoming really nice back then, Its terrible now and getting worse.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,677 ✭✭✭mikethecop


    ‘No excuse for this outrageous behaviour’ – Drunk ‘spat all over garda van and in the station cells’ (msn.com)

    No excuse for his behavior says the judge but then he makes no meaningful effort to amend the mans behavior or protect the innocent from him. how is this doing your job eh ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,109 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    Every little scumbag going had the run of the place during covid. It set a new precedent for them. Hasn't recovered since and it won't until there is a permanent policing presence.

    There were gardai everywhere in town this weekend because a load of Americans were over for the football. Next weekend it will be business as usual.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,657 ✭✭✭yagan


    Look dublin is grand. Just stay close to UN convoys when needing to go anywhere, and don't make eye contact.

    Joking aside I worked north inner city before the pandemic and I never hung around longer than I needed to. There's no pleasure in doing so.

    It used to be that there were junkies and petty criminals in the city community, whereas now they dominate.

    Anyone who could moved out in the 90s and 00s.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,273 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Is Cork safe? 16 man brawl and Garda getting attacked last night. Woman murdered by her partner recently. French students attacked and their teacher stabbed a few weeks ago. Shots fired at Garda informant's house in Cork a few nights ago.

    Is it only Dublin you all think are dangerous in Ireland?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54 ✭✭GreenPanda99


    Ireland has a problem in general with anti social behavior and assaults and scum getting away with it. But Dublin is a whole different level now. Its out all by itself on the scale. It never used to be this bad.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,370 ✭✭✭✭suvigirl


    They were everywhere in Dublin, because there were none in their actual districts.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,273 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    well personally i think we have the same problems nationwide with the problems being magnified in places with bigger populations, obviously. the country has always loved piling on on dublin though, but you see similar issues around the country that dublin has, just on a smaller scale.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,657 ✭✭✭yagan


    One thing is for sure it's going to cost many times more than if Gardai numbers hadn't been reduced in the city centre.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,037 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    Certain parts of Dublin are rough. Plenty of parts are lovely and not rough at all.

    Dublin isn't O'Connell St.

    There are plenty of nice areas to socialise that are not northside city centre.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54 ✭✭GreenPanda99


    Yes certain parts of Dublin are lovely. Its just a pity that within yards of our capital city its the way it is. Didnt used to be that bad at all. There was a time when Dublin city center was really sprucing up and a joy to be in. Nowadays … Well you just have to walk around there to see it. Its far worse than any other city center ive been to, in Ireland or in many other countries ive visited or lived in.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,718 ✭✭✭saabsaab




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,109 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    They are currently looking to prevent car traffic on certain parts of the quays like Bachelors Walk. Ironically the traffic itself provides passive surveillance along these stretches which along with police will also now be absent. It won't make these stretches more welcoming for pedestrians. It won't be the improvement they think it will be. It will be the opposite and not because of the lack of cars, because of the usual clientel that hang around the quays and on the Boardwalk.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,273 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    it's about 100 meters, and is still packed with buses and taxis and pedestrians. relax.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,273 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    it was in RTE, the Irish Times, The Journal… what more do you want?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54 ✭✭GreenPanda99


    Even when it does people are numb to it now. I have friends who are so sesensitized to this kind of thing happening in Dublin now that all they have to say is "Sure that could happen anywhere". Meanwhile the women at work and a lot of the men are not comfortable walking to the train station after work anymore.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,539 ✭✭✭Quitelife


    I agree with you Cork city like many places is on a downward spiral, Limerick city centre - Hyde Road etc are as bad as Dublin with a handful of gardai trying to stop the scumm attacking law abiding people



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,539 ✭✭✭Quitelife


    Its not removing cars that will make people go into the city centre….its removal of scum & Muggers from the streets will help get more people into city centre



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,657 ✭✭✭yagan


    In reality unless you're job is in the city, or you need to transit through the city centre for work, college, what reason do people have to visit Dublin for?

    The museums I like I can visit over a weekend in winter when there aren't the tourist hoards.

    There was a time when there was only stuff you only buy by going to the capital, but the internet is the high street now. Staff retention is a huge issue nationally but in the capital I know of hospitals whose long term immigrant staff are now quitting at a higher rate than they can be replaced. The feedback I'm hearing is that living in Dublin is just grim, and now dangerous if you feel specifically targeted by the leisure class.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,925 ✭✭✭ArthurDayne


    Part of the problem, as I see it anyway, is that people seem to prefer moaning or exaggerating the issues of Dublin instead of actually thinking constructively about them. There is a harm in that — because it feeds a wildly overbaked perception of Dublin as a dystopian nightmare which in turn puts people off from outside the city from coming in to shop or just enjoy a weekend. That also feeds into the decay of the city and so — if you are someone who just sits around moaning about Dublin and constantly shi**ing on it — you are part of the problem. Because while Dublin has issues, they are not starkly out of character with other cities the world over, which all have issues.

    Dublin has always had a grimy side to it. The nostalgic photos of College Green and O'Connell Street in the rare aul times you see popping up on Facebook (with the obligatory bleating with how great Dublin was back then) simply belie the fact that the city was once ridden with slums and impoverished areas — not to mention the general backdrop of socioeconomic depression which characterised the city and Ireland generally.

    Dublin has challenges. The failure to foster a housing culture aligning to Ireland's ever-growing urbanisation, by building tall and high quality apartment complexes close to the city centre, has damaged the sense of the city centre having a civic pride and community within it. Dublin centre is relatively small by European capital standards and thus you will see a greater concentration of anti-social behaviour, addicts and all sorts in a smaller geographic area — which makes them really stand out. The contrast between areas like Camden Street / Dawson Street and O'Connell Street remains stark. Our growing population means that there will be more issues to contend with, while Covid and remote working have created new phenomena on footfall around the city that has warped the business model.

    But Dublin has a lot of great things about it and a great energy. None of its problems are hopelessly intractable, even if you have to accept the inevitability that problems will always exist.

    But if you want things to change: pull up your pants, stop shi**ing all over the city and crying, and start being another constructive voice that can balance the negatives with the positives and help bring the wind back into the city's sails. Or I dunno, use this thread as yet another platform to whinge, then complain about the people who at least are in the arena of trying to make things work.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,657 ✭✭✭yagan


    People vote with their feet by choosing to not live in Dublin, even if they have to spend a good chunk of their time commuting to a Dublin city centre job.

    Who'd want to have their kids grow up in the crime academy environment of the city centre when they can have a much safer environment outside it?

    The simple fact is we as a nation never really gave a crap what happened Dublin and treat it as a dumping ground for the nations junkies and troublemakers, who in previous years would have been put on the mail boat to England and told not to come back.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 622 ✭✭✭Ozvaldo


    Living here last few years the city is a complete dive .



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭Viscount Aggro


    What can be done about the Liffey boardwalk? There's always dodgy looking people sitting around. Can the Gardai not patrol it more, and move these people on?



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