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Non-homeless people just begging for the craic.

124

Comments

  • #92
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,772 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    jungleman wrote: »
    I know the difference between the two, but refer to them as Romanians out of habit. Everyone does, in fairness.
    No, just the ill-educated do.


  • #93
    John_Rambo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 11,739 ✭✭✭✭John_Rambo


    Simon2015 wrote: »
    Having a mobile phone back in the 90s would be like having an iPhone 6 today.

    But he had no shoes. Do you see my point?


  • #94
    Penny Tration
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,687 ✭✭✭✭Penny Tration


    John_Rambo wrote: »
    But he had no shoes. Do you see my point?

    There's still a guy doing the no shoes act on henry street.

    My sister felt awful for him during the winter and went into penneys and bought two pairs of runners (size 11, too big would be better than too small she reckoned), socks, a hat, gloves and a scarf and gave them to him. He acted extremely grateful.

    Three days later, we're back in town and he has no shoes or scarf or anything on.

    There's a few in the city centre who I know are alcoholics and they DO sleep rough. I won't give them cash because I know they'll spend it on drink, but if I see them, I'll get a roll and a cup of tea for them. They're usually delighted and very grateful. When I smoked, I'd usually give them five smokes too.


  • #95
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,085 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    It's been pretty bad for years in Dublin though. I remember being fairly shocked at it as far back as 2003 which was Celtic Tigre peak era.

    It's associated with lack of affordable rental property and a broken / non existent social housing system that's relying on rent allowance.


  • #96
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    The Corinthian wrote: »
    No, just the ill-educated do.

    Thanks for your input into my post. It's not like I haven't explained myself already for it, you ****ing paragon of virtue. Now everyone knows how educated you must be, well done.


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  • #97
    The Dark Side
    Closed Accounts Posts: 290 ✭✭The Dark Side


    Simon2015 wrote: »
    Having a mobile phone back in the 90s would be like having an iPhone 6 today.


    It'd be more like having an iphone 7.


  • #98
    darkdubh
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,628 ✭✭✭darkdubh


    I was passing some boyos drinking cans in a car park a couple of years ago and one of them called out to me "gimme two Euros for an oul can will ya?"His exact words. :rolleyes:


  • #99
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,772 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    jungleman wrote: »
    Thanks for your input into my post. It's not like I haven't explained myself already for it, you ****ing paragon of virtue. Now everyone knows how educated you must be, well done.
    Everyone does not confuse the two, as you claimed. In reality only a small, generally poorly educated and otherwise ignorant part of society does. So, to know the difference, would not say anything about someone other that they're not completely illiterate.


  • #100
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    The Corinthian wrote: »
    Everyone does not confuse the two, as you claimed. In reality only a small, generally poorly educated and otherwise ignorant part of society does. So, to know the difference, would not say anything about someone other that they're not completely illiterate.

    You live in an utter fantasy land if you don't think that a hell of a lot of people just say "Romanians" when referring to gypsies. Seriously. I'm glad though that you have managed to point out that you are

    1. Not poorly educated. Well done on that, I'm very impressed by how educated you must be.

    2. Not ignorant. Correct, you are so wise that you use an internet forum to let everyone know how poorly educated I must be in comparison with you, O Great Moderator.

    I've already explained that I used the term out of bad habit. That was me, holding my hands up and saying "yeah I was wrong". But congratulations for skipping past that and using your posts to put me in my place as some ignorant, out-of-touch troglodyte who is obviously not as educated and clever as you.

    But seriously, I am just so impressed at how educated you must be, that is so great. I'm just gonna toddle off now and learn how to count and maybe try and spell stuff good too.


  • #101
    fatknacker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭fatknacker


    darkdubh wrote: »
    I was passing some boyos drinking cans in a car park a couple of years ago and one of them called out to me "gimme two Euros for an oul can will ya?"His exact words. :rolleyes:

    I'd much prefer to be asked like that instead of 2 yuuuuro for a hostel or change fer de bus, etc.


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  • #102
    Kermit.de.frog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,372 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    The other night a man in a suit (drunk) asked me for a smoke in return for some euro coins. I told him I had none left. He got on the same bus so I walked up and just handed him one and told him I didn't want money and I would have given him one had he not offered money.

    This happens a lot in town. Don't offer people money for smokes or whatever it is because your less likely to get one because it is insulting.

    As for the obvious begging rings - I just ignore them. If you give them money it makes a bad situation worse.


  • #103
    fatknacker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭fatknacker


    It's a well established thing / fact in all AH threads that Roma aren't the same as Romanians, (although the confusion should be understandable as many of them have come from Romania)
    Yet Irish Travellers have no other identity.
    How come the Roma gypsies get their identity as a nationless separate ethnic group, but Travellers are as Irish as bacon and cabbage.


  • #104
    fatknacker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭fatknacker


    Smoking rollies was the best defence rom getting fags scabbed from you each time in public. Turns out beggars can be choosers.


  • #105
    tradhead
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 369 ✭✭tradhead


    I saw a girl outside the GPO arcade about a fortnight ago when I was leaving Penneys heading back to the office on my lunchbreak. She was barefoot, dressed in ragged clothes and looked absolutely terrible, wailing and crying and begging passers-by for some money.

    I couldn't pass her, and had just got some fairly good news so I decided to give her a fiver. She thanked me profusely, called me an angel and asked me to sit with her for a minute. I was happy to do so as I thought she just wanted some company. She started to tell me how she is depressed and cuts herself (showed me the marks on her forearm), how she was abused from the age of six and is currently 12 weeks pregnant. To top it all off, her shoes had been stolen the previous night. She told me that she needed 40-odd euro per month to pay for her hostel which is run by Fr. Peter McVerry.

    This is when I got annoyed. She asked me for more money, and I said that I couldn't give her anymore. As her feet were all bruised and sore-looking, I offered to run into Penneys and buy her a little pair of runners instead. She thanked me but said she would manage to get a pair from a charity shop later that day, and would I give her the price of the shoes instead. I opened my wallet to take out some change, and went to hand her another €4. She asked could I not give her more money, and when I said I couldn't she said "what about that paper money I can see in your wallet".

    I probably should have left at this point, but told her I needed the money to pay rent, and offered her the €4 again. She took it, thanked me, and then asked would I buy her the runners now anyway!

    I was late back for work at this stage so I just said I'd have to see, wished her the best of luck and walked away. I only wanted to help and although it wasn't a huge amount of money, it was a lot to me and I walked away feeling completely disillusioned and that I hadn't really made a difference at all.


  • #106
    fatknacker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭fatknacker


    That sucks that you felt fleeced and your kindness taken advantage of by someone desperate.
    Everyone is much better off donating to the McVerry Trust and similar organizations, that way you can be sure your money is going out to to people genuinely in need, and gets them what they need too.


  • #107
    Roquentin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭Roquentin


    can someone please explain why the homeless dont just go on the dole and live in council flats instead of begging on the streets?


  • #108
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,772 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    jungleman wrote: »
    You live in an utter fantasy land if you don't think that a hell of a lot of people just say "Romanians" when referring to gypsies. Seriously.
    You appear to be confused by what I said. When I suggested small, I meant relative to the population, it might still be a sizable enough number - or at least appear so, especially if those are the social circles you are limited to, as you appear to be.
    But seriously, I am just so impressed at how educated you must be, that is so great. I'm just gonna toddle off now and learn how to count and maybe try and spell stuff good too.
    Whatever. I'm not really interested in your faux pas opinion - I thought that was clear. But if it makes you feel better to rail against me, fire ahead.


  • #109
    Tiddlypeeps
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,103 ✭✭✭Tiddlypeeps


    I think people really like to buy into the professional beggar myth because it makes them feel better about ignoring them. Nobody is making a killing from begging. There are certainly a few "chancers" out there who aren't homeless begging on the streets to try make up the money for whatever their substance of choice is but I don't really see them as being any more deserving of the vitriol thats spewed at them than actual homeless people. The vast majority of them are people who are down on their luck for whatever reason. Who the hell would reduce themselves to that for pittance if they didn't feel they needed to.

    I'm not saying giving any of them (homeless or not) money is the solution as in most cases it's likely going to be spent on drugs/alcohol but spewing venom at them seems particularly unhelpful, and stealing their cup or whatever the OP was suggesting seems like a particularly scummy thing to do. Just say no and walk away, no need to "confront" them or "put them in their place", just walk away if you have no interest in helping them.

    The reason a lot of them play up to maintaining the hobo look is because of people like the ones in this thread. If someone buys them a pair of shoes and they wear them, then other people who come along will see them and judge that they are clearly not homeless because they have new shoes.

    I don't generally give money to beggars, I don't feel like it would be helpful. I can't say no if they ask for food tho.


  • #110
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    The Corinthian wrote: »
    You appear to be confused by what I said. When I suggested small, I meant relative to the population, it might still be a sizable enough number - or at least appear so, especially if those are the social circles you are limited to, as you appear to be.

    Whatever. I'm not really interested in your faux pas opinion - I thought that was clear. But if it makes you feel better to rail against me, fire ahead.

    The only thing I'm railing against is that your only contribution to the thread has been to repeat the fact that I misrepresented Roma gypsies as an entire ethnic group. This was something I admitted was wrong and had written out of laziness.

    Bringing the matter up again, and in the manner you did, was just an exercise in self indulgence and a look-how-superior-my-intellect-is type of attitude. Which is something I have no time for, but you obviously seem to enjoy. Your comments reek of delusions of grandeur, particularly regarding your enlightened social circle which you seem to be a member of.

    I had already explained my comments and held my hands up admitting they were incorrect. I then considered the matter to be resolved. Obviously it isn't for you, for some reason.


  • #111
    Tiddlypeeps
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,103 ✭✭✭Tiddlypeeps


    Roquentin wrote: »
    can someone please explain why the homeless dont just go on the dole and live in council flats instead of begging on the streets?

    You need an address to sign on to the dole. There is emergency housing that they can avail of if things manage to get that far but in most of these cases you won't be allowed to drink or do drugs on the premises and I'm not sure how consistent the council are at providing this.

    There are some hostels that offer cheap or free accommodation to the homeless but again most of these don't allow drink or drugs or allow intoxicated people entry.

    Some have sever mental disabilities, some due to substance abuse and others just unlucky. These can make it difficult for them to interact with society at all so sometimes they end up on the streets.

    Substance abuse and mental illness makes up the vast majority of cases. This makes it extremely difficult to help them, especially once it's progressed that far. The best thing people can do is put money into preventative services, mental health services in particular, but also drug addiction and drug prevention programmes.


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  • #112
    traprunner
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,887 ✭✭✭traprunner


    John_Rambo wrote: »
    Anyone remember the barefooted beggar on Henry street in the 90's? His feet were mud scattered and trembling... but he had a mobile phone! Absolute chancer!
    Edit... I saw so many elderly inner city women and men give him cash. Not good.

    Are you sure it wasn't 2011?

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056493052


    Personally I would buy food and a drink for homeless. I donate money and food to Inner City Helping Homeless.


  • #113
    Lux23
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,134 ✭✭✭Lux23


    I was coming out of the post office just before Christmas and a woman stopped me and said. "I have a fiver which is enough for a sandwich, crisps and coke from Tesco, but what I really want is a Chicken burger and chips so I need another €5".

    I was so impressed with her neck that I gave her a tenner and told her to get a cream bun as well.


  • #114
    readyletsgo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,276 ✭✭✭readyletsgo


    I work on Store St Dublin, across from the MASSIVE store st garda station. Been here 8 years. The bus station is here......

    The fu!king dregs of the junkies & drunks 'society' hang around this area from 8am till 7 or 8pm each every God damn day, its shocking. And it's mostly the same faces every day.

    It's a God damn sh!t hole, full of the worst low lives in Dublin, crawling the area and harassing people working in the area, people sitting in that hideous square outside the garda station on their lunch.

    Every two mins its the same damn filthy junkies screaming at you for money or smokes. I don't know how many times I've seen people give them pennies from their pockets only to get it thrown back in their face, literally. Cause it's pennies and not euro's.

    Only thing I can't understand is how the garda that ARE around do nothing about them. Tourists see this first when they get to Dublin and get harassed, or when they are leaving.

    Fcuking hell hole. Place drives me nuts when I get into work.


    *now I know there is genuine homeless of course, but I guarantee you, feck all homeless on Store St. All Irish btw too.


  • #115
    Joe prim
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 919 ✭✭✭Joe prim


    The most interesting part of this thread is the increasingly heated exchanges between Jungleman and Corinthian, which i hope may eventually peter out into a friendship, and maybe more.....(unless they're both the same person?)


  • #116
    Dramatik
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 932 ✭✭✭Dramatik


    When I smoked, I used to give anyone who scabbed a smoke off me a silk cut ultra cigarette, oh the joy of seeing them light it up and realise that they couldn't get anything off it ha ha! I'd always be really nice to them as well, "Sure mate, no problem, there you go, have a good one!" Trying to keep a straight face while they're excessively thanking you is the hardest part.


  • #117
    boobar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,226 ✭✭✭boobar


    the groutch wrote: »
    had a guy a few years ago ask me for €2 to buy a coffee, he was wear a suit FFS!

    Dress for the job you want...not the one you have.


  • #118
    fatknacker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭fatknacker


    boobar wrote: »
    Dress for the job you want...not the one you have.

    Dressing as a porn star got me fired from my last school.


  • #119
    arayess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,707 ✭✭✭arayess


    when i worked in dublin city as a doorman , I got to know a fella looked mid 50s. was a big drinker by his own admission and had moved to limerick with some woman.

    he'd come to dublin for the weekend and stay in a hostel said he made about 700e from fri & sat night begging around the wicklow street area and then get the bus home on sunday . This was mid 2000s

    savage cash. Seemed a genuine story wasn't the usual "out of it" beggar.


  • #120
    colossus-x
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,202 ✭✭✭colossus-x


    jungleman wrote: »
    You live in an utter fantasy land if you don't think that a hell of a lot of people just say "Romanians" when referring to gypsies. Seriously. I'm glad though that you have managed to point out that you are

    1. Not poorly educated. Well done on that, I'm very impressed by how educated you must be.

    2. Not ignorant. Correct, you are so wise that you use an internet forum to let everyone know how poorly educated I must be in comparison with you, O Great Moderator.

    I've already explained that I used the term out of bad habit. That was me, holding my hands up and saying "yeah I was wrong". But congratulations for skipping past that and using your posts to put me in my place as some ignorant, out-of-touch troglodyte who is obviously not as educated and clever as you.

    But seriously, I am just so impressed at how educated you must be, that is so great. I'm just gonna toddle off now and learn how to count and maybe try and spell stuff good too.

    Your a jungleman, that's what you are.


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  • #121
    RDM_83 again
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,116 ✭✭✭RDM_83 again


    arayess wrote: »
    when i worked in dublin city as a doorman , I got to know a fella looked mid 50s. was a big drinker by his own admission and had moved to limerick with some woman.

    he'd come to dublin for the weekend and stay in a hostel said he made about 700e from fri & sat night begging around the wicklow street area and then get the bus home on sunday . This was mid 2000s

    savage cash. Seemed a genuine story wasn't the usual "out of it" beggar.

    There's definitely money to be made in it, know somebody that was heavy in the squat scene here (so not exactly right wing!) who lived with somebody that paid for foreign holidays with begging money. Also saw a lad begging with an Ipad!
    I know most are living a terrible life but if the money is there to support a serious addiction if you don't have an addiction its in your pocket


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