Urban myths

The One Doctor · 19-10-2014 11:19PM

Urban myth: People living on the dole are living in the lap of luxury. Free house, champagne on tap and 3 tonnes of caviar per year.

megadodge · 19-10-2014 11:21PM

DBB wrote: »

Ooh! This one reminds me of another one...
Marc Almond of Soft Cell (an 80s pop band for you kids out there :pac:), had to be rushed to hospital to get his stomach pumped, and it was full of horse semen
:eek::eek::eek:

I thought that was yer man from Eurythmics.... the actual man, not Annie Lennox!

DBB · 19-10-2014 11:30PM

megadodge wrote: »

I thought that was yer man from Eurythmics.... the actual man, not Annie Lennox!

Twas always Marc Almond in my neck of the woods, but is it beyond the realms of belief that Marc Almond, Rod Stewart AND Dave Stewart all had their equine jizz-filled stomachs pumped out?
And who was this horse who liked male 80s pop icons?

DazMarz · 19-10-2014 11:43PM

Prince (the Artist formerly and currently known as) was rumoured to have had his two lowest ribs in his back removed in order to be able to perform auto-fellatio.

Pinch Flat · 20-10-2014 12:01AM

Planemo wrote: »

Anytime I've heard it, it was Rod Stewart. (Also in the same vein - Richard Gere and a gerbil...)

My favourite urban myth: La-a
"The dash don't be silent!"

One I heard about Rod Stewart was that he had a few ribs removed so he could bend down and do his own bjs on himself. Ah 1980s schoolyards have a lot to answer for.

Chunners · 20-10-2014 12:01AM

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy

...Two magpies never brought me joy, they did cover my car in s**t though so I suppose thats something

Planemo · 20-10-2014 12:08AM

DazMarz wrote: »

Prince (the Artist formerly and currently known as) was rumoured to have had his two lowest ribs in his back removed in order to be able to perform auto-fellatio.

Pinch Flat wrote: »

One I heard about Rod Stewart was that he had a few ribs removed so he could bend down and do his own bjs on himself. Ah 1980s schoolyards have a lot to answer for.

I heard that about Marylin Manson! Seems like every generation of kids just recycles the same stories about dodgy popstars.

Chunners · 20-10-2014 12:18AM

Pinch Flat wrote: »

One I heard about Rod Stewart was that he had a few ribs removed so he could bend down and do his own bjs on himself. Ah 1980s schoolyards have a lot to answer for.

That wasn't Rod Steward, it was Prince although there is another one kinda related where Marc Almond was brought into an emergency room once and they pumped his stomach and apparently found 1.5 liters of horse semen

K.Flyer · 20-10-2014 12:25AM

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

What are your favorite Irish urban myths?

I'll start.

Asylum seekers get free buggies and leave them at bus stops.

The best ones are those that are obviously untrue yet so many actually believe it:D

Errm... in the last 24 hrs I have seen 3 buggies left at 3 different bus stops, two northside one southside, all looking in very good condition and nobody at or near the bus stops.
No idea how they got there, but someone just left them there, smoke / fire and all of that.

Kevin McCloud · 20-10-2014 12:26AM

K.Flyer wrote: »

Errm... in the last 24 hrs I have seen 3 buggies left at 3 different bus stops, two northside one southside, all looking in very good condition and nobody at or near the bus stops.
No idea how they got there, but someone just left them there, smoke / fire and all of that.

You should have brought them home and put them up on ebay.

K.Flyer · 20-10-2014 12:41AM

To be honest I did think later I should have picked them up and dropped them off at a charity shop.

Sprog 4 · 20-10-2014 12:47AM

If you eat the seeds of an apple, a tree will grow in your stomach.

Ave Sodalis · 20-10-2014 12:56AM

Chunners wrote: »

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy

...Two magpies never brought me joy, they did cover my car in s**t though so I suppose thats something

This was actually about the fact that magpies mate for life, well the first two lines anyway. Someone stuck in the rest to be fancy and "poetic"

pablo128 · 20-10-2014 01:28AM

K.Flyer wrote: »

Errm... in the last 24 hrs I have seen 3 buggies left at 3 different bus stops, two northside one southside, all looking in very good condition and nobody at or near the bus stops.
No idea how they got there, but someone just left them there, smoke / fire and all of that.

We left my daughters buggy at the long term bus stop at Dublin airport. A wheel had started to act up in Spain, and gave up the ghost as we got to the airport on the way back.

A young nordie girl came up to us on the bus and said, "I think you've left your buggy there mister." I looked out the window and mumbled something about her being mistaken. Looking back, they probably thought we were Dublin benefit scrounging scum!:pac:

Pinch Flat · 20-10-2014 07:45AM

pablo128 wrote: »

We left my daughters buggy at the long term bus stop at Dublin airport. A wheel had started to act up in Spain, and gave up the ghost as we got to the airport on the way back.

A young nordie girl came up to us on the bus and said, "I think you've left your buggy there mister." I looked out the window and mumbled something about her being mistaken. Looking back, they probably thought we were Dublin benefit scrounging scum!:pac:

So you just abandoned it for for someoneelse to dispose of it?

zetalambda · 20-10-2014 07:53AM

The MGM lion being from Dublin Zoo,

First drive through McDonalds in Europe being Rathfarnham,

Smithfield the biggest open air plaza in Europe,

O' Connell street being the widest street in Europe,

Phoenix park the biggest park in Europe.

It's all complete horse shit.

No doubt someone will post a link to an article in the times or the indo written by some shitebag who believed this crap and wrote about it, as proof of these.

RDM_83 again · 20-10-2014 07:57AM

Planemo wrote: »

I heard that about Marylin Manson! Seems like every generation of kids just recycles the same stories about dodgy popstars.

Nah sure the kid from the Wonder Years would never get up to stuff like that ;-)

Limecube · 20-10-2014 08:43AM

zetalambda wrote: »

The MGM lion being from Dublin Zoo,

The first lion was born in Dublin Zoo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_the_Lion_(MGM)#Slats_.281917.E2.80.931928.29

More info

http://www.snopes.com/movies/other/mgmlion.asp

Pinch Flat · 20-10-2014 08:57AM

Chunners wrote: »

That wasn't Rod Steward, it was Prince although there is another one kinda related where Marc Almond was brought into an emergency room once and they pumped his stomach and apparently found 1.5 liters of horse semen

Oh yeah hold on a sec while I find the article to that particular urban legend.

So we've established

Late 70's - early 80's - Rod Stewart

Early / late 80's - flick up between Marc almond and prince

1990's / naughties - Marilyn Manson

So who's the next generational contender for the urban legend?

gramar · 20-10-2014 09:04AM

Pinch Flat wrote: »

So you just abandoned it for for someoneelse to dispose of it?

Abandoning things and littering create jobs.

Pinch Flat · 20-10-2014 09:24AM

zetalambda wrote: »

Phoenix park the biggest park in Europe.

It's all complete horse shit.

The Phoenix park is huge in an urban context. Twice the size of Central Park in New York for example http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park

And all the London parks would fit in it:
Hyde park - 350 acres
Kensington gardens - 275 acres
St James park - 23 acres
Green park - 47 acres

There's a few more to go like Regent's Park, Holland Park but I barely got to 700 acres with the few above.

Whether or not it's the biggest in Europe I'm not sure - but you'll struggle to find over 1750 acres so close to an urban city centre.

Subacio · 20-10-2014 09:42AM

GerB40 wrote: »

There's the one about the town councillor who wanted to rejuvenate the town park. When somebody suggested putting gondolas in the pond he replied "that's all well and good but who'll feed em".

I swear every town with a pond claims that yarn. I just hope it actually happened...

Edit: This is where "Don't feed the gondolas" got it's name..

This was first attributed to a councillor in a fairly large midlands town which is situated on the Grand Canal. Trying to come up with ideas to attract tourists to the town, one suggested putting a gondola on the canal. This led another to suggest putting 2 gondolas on the canal, so that they could mate with each other, which in turn led to the feeing question.

irish_goat · 20-10-2014 09:43AM

That the 2-part pour effects the taste of the pint.

Hoop66 · 20-10-2014 09:47AM

That 2 muslim doctors at "a hospital" asked for a nativity scene to be removed because it offended them.

Pinch Flat · 20-10-2014 09:53AM

Hoop66 wrote: »

That 2 muslim doctors at "a hospital" asked for a nativity scene to be removed because it offended them.

Only a matter of time before we see such headlines here. Anyone any idea if the Irish daily mail is running with it?

http://www.dailyedge.ie/the-poke-muslim-spiders-daily-mail-1709850-Oct2014/

zetalambda · 20-10-2014 10:39AM

Limecube wrote: »

The first lion was born in Dublin Zoo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_the_Lion_(MGM)#Slats_.281917.E2.80.931928.29

More info

http://www.snopes.com/movies/other/mgmlion.asp

Oh god, here we go! These are both user generated sources. A few of us could get together and make a Wikipedia page that says Dublin is the largest city in the world if we wanted to. I'm not believing about the MGM lion unless it's on the MGM website and it's not.

Galway K9 · 20-10-2014 11:02AM

ireland.man wrote: »

Can you share that info about people getting money for cars? Otherwise it sounds suspiciously urban myth-ish!

We are all entitled to free buggies under that allowance providing we qualify by being in acute need of the equipment. Singling out one minuscule group of people is absurd, it's like saying 'all red-haired Polish people who have stutters are eligible for free buggies in Ireland'. It's technically true but meaningless.

But what makes this a myth is its essence, that asylum seekers are supposedly given an extraordinary level of comfort and support. When you compare the reality, living in group homes, 19.10 euros a week and a bus ticket, to the claims of being handed cash for cars, free houses, free car, free phones, free holidays, etc, that's the thing we'd call a myth!

Although saying that my friend's cousin's caseworker saw an Asylum Seeker walking his pet crocodile in the Liffey one time.

The asylum standard of living in shared accomo, is only temporary to get into the country, after that, usually a child is born to gain citizenship,or marraige, or sneak off from the asylum accomo. Free houses, wouldnt call it free but their entitled to social housing like us, Free holidays, these are usually provide by SVP, and back in early 00's it was a common theme, i have personal experience with this. It is an extroadinary level of comfort and support compared to where they came from yes, compared to other Irish, pretty much the same.

Regards to my previous post: It may be a confusion with this, http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/transport_and_disability/motorised_transport_grant.html..but will keep looking.

dan1895 · 20-10-2014 11:59AM

zetalambda wrote: »

Oh god, here we go! These are both user generated sources. A few of us could get together and make a Wikipedia page that says Dublin is the largest city in the world if we wanted to. I'm not believing about the MGM lion unless it's on the MGM website and it's not.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31511/life-and-times-mgm-lion

MGM's first lion born in Europe's biggest park

whisky_galore · 20-10-2014 12:00PM

RTE have a fleet of vans covering the whole country that detect signals from your tv.

Also, county/city councils, a mysterious govt dept or Gardai, depending on who's doing the telling...have a helicopter looking out for backyard burning.
EDIT: apparently Cork Co Council did hire one in connection with finding illegal car scrap yards, maybe the source of this? Doubt if they can afford to hire so much as a paper plane these days...

ireland.man · 20-10-2014 12:11PM

Galway K9 wrote: »

The asylum standard of living in shared accomo, is only temporary to get into the country, after that, usually a child is born to gain citizenship,or marraige, or sneak off from the asylum accomo. Free houses, wouldnt call it free but their entitled to social housing like us, Free holidays, these are usually provide by SVP, and back in early 00's it was a common theme, i have personal experience with this. It is an extroadinary level of comfort and support compared to where they came from yes, compared to other Irish, pretty much the same.

Regards to my previous post: It may be a confusion with this, http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/transport_and_disability/motorised_transport_grant.html..but will keep looking.

So being an asylum seeker is a temporary step towards benefits - that means asylum seekers don't have those benefits 'yet' which in turn means IT'S A MYTH to say asylum seekers have free phones, free cars, free houses.

MYTH: usually a child is born to gain citizenship - Under the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004, children born of other foreign national parents in the island of Ireland on or after 1 January 2005 are not automatically entitled to Irish citizenship.

MYTH: Asylum seekers are given free holidays - Not a chance from the Vincents or anyone else giving out free holidays!! This is a common myth and comes from people seeing a black family staying in his guest house and then several stories later it was a family of asylum seekers sponging off the govt, etc. It also confused people when asylum seekers stayed in Mosney!

MYTH: It is an extraordinary level of comfort and support compared to where they came from yes - not all asylum seekers come from poor backgrounds, in fact most probably don't. There's plenty of very wealthy Syrian men and women coming and plenty of wealthy Zimbabweans, etc. They're fleeing death threats, war, political harassment and coming from mansions to direct provision homes here. Spending years in those conditions and with deteriorating mental health, I'm sure they'd laugh at the notion its the lap of luxury compared to their old lives.

Urban myths

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