The back story to the Leixlip feuds.

Jackz

Off topic but what happened in Leixlip between the two sides of the town?

Some sort of area warfare like Gangs of New York?

Terry

Jackz wrote: »

Off topic but what happened in Leixlip between the two sides of the town?

Some sort of area warfare like Gangs of New York?

Back in late 1987 / early '88 there were two groups of teenagers from opposite sides of the town.
They all got along together until a girl came between them.

The girl lived up the hill and dumped the guy from the far end for the guy from the hill.

There were a few scuffles between the two groups, but nothing major.

Then one night far end guy and his friends come up the hill, call into the ex girlfriends house and drag her brother out. They gave him a kicking, his father came out and they gave him a kicking too.
A couple of phone calls were made and the far enders ended up getting the crap kicked out of them.

Now it should have ended there, but the new boyfriend decided otherwise.
He went and stabbed the old boyfriend in the leg and then gave him a few boots in the head before the ambulance arrived.

Over the next couple of years, it was fairly quiet until far end guys brother and his friends hit puberty and decided to get some revenge.

Again, nothing major. Just a few scuffles or some guy on his own getting a kicking by a gang of cowards.

The worst that ever really happened was when a few of my friends were walking home from a nightclub on the other side of town and they were all bottled.
They went up the far end the following night and got few of them back.

Pretty much all of the people involved in that crap during the late 80's/ early 90's get along and regularly bump into each other in the pub and laugh at how stupid they were.

Some of today's teenagers still carry in on though, even though they have no idea why they are supposed to hate the people from the opposite side of the town.

Edit. I was just thinking. Their daughter is almost 20. Now I feel old.

Corruptedmorals

Terry wrote: »

Back in late 1987 / early '88 there were two groups of teenagers from opposite sides of the town......

Wow, never knew there was a story about it. No fights in years now though, occassionally cars are robbed and burned from the bottom of some roads in Ryevale though..thankfully always the road behind mine. Agghh, off-topic.

Terry

Split from an AH thread.

Goat Mouth

yeah, things have been quite now for a good few years...
the last dispuit between hillers and far enders was a brawl down the village during the Salmon festival.... someone in my class started it, load of ****e.

In work, i'd come across the od co worker from leixlip, the first thing we'd always find ourselves asking is Hiller or Farender? both are usual followed with the word 'scum' but we just its as a humour ice breaker nowadays!

r3nu4l

Old thread but just saw it now. Thanks for that Terry I was about 12 in 1987 so I remember all of this quite well. Being a Lucan lad I was of course shocked by the babarity out in the sticks but unsurprised really considering they were Leixlip people

I do remember that the Hill Siders and Far Enders row actually brought a halt to a lot of the rivalry between Leixlip and Lucan...at least in Coláiste Phadraig it did.

I sometimes wonder if Gary Larsons "Far Side" was a combination to Far end and Hill Side but that would be stretching it a bit wouldn't it?

Goat Mouth

r3nu4l wrote: »

Hill Side

Hmm, lived in the Hill all my life and never once have I heard it being refered to as "Hill Side"... must be some old Viking name for it.:rolleyes:

r3nu4l

Goat Mouth wrote: »

Hmm, lived in the Hill all my life and never once have I heard it being refered to as "Hill Side"... must be some old Viking name for it.:rolleyes:

Well I think "Hill Side" sounds far better than "Da Hill" as I've seen grafittied around parts of Leixlip in the past...but whatever yer into, like. :rolleyes:

I've heard it called Hill Side a lot actually but whatever...

Amz

Lived here for 24 years and never heard it called "Hill Side" either.

I see Lucan people have yet to get a grasp on the English language.

r3nu4l

Amz wrote: »

Lived here for 24 years and never heard it called "Hill Side" either.

I see Lucan people have yet to get a grasp on the English language.

Apologies, from now on I shall refer to it as 'Da Hill' which is clearly a better use of English than the (imo) more civilized "Hill Side".

Either way, as long as these feuders stay in Leixlip and leave the peaceful, law-abiding folk of Lucan alone, I'm happy.

The_B_Man

lol never knew the back story to this. thought it was funny tho when i used to hang around down there.

Amz

r3nu4l wrote: »

Apologies, from now on I shall refer to it as 'Da Hill' which is clearly a better use of English than the (imo) more civilized "Hill Side".

Either way, as long as these feuders stay in Leixlip and leave the peaceful, law-abiding folk of Lucan alone, I'm happy.

The sooner people from Leixlip can avoid Lucan altogether the better.

If local people call it "The Hill" which is obviously what "Da" is supposed to mean, then there's no reason for you to call it Hill side, when nobody from the area refers to it as such.

There were no "Hillsiders" involved, it was "Hillers" and "Far Enders".

Now, get back to the Dublin forum, you're lowering the tone around here.

r3nu4l

Amz wrote: »

The sooner people from Leixlip can avoid Lucan altogether the better.

Agreed! That would indeed be a dream come true for the people of Lucan

I spent 22 years living in Lucan and 7 years living in Maynooth, I was so happy when the M4 was built...I could finally bypass Leixlip when travelling between the two towns.

/Wow, local rivalries are great! War of the Buttons ftw!

Amz

Lucan is where all the traffic problems are. The sooner it's nuked from orbit the happier most people will be. Nobody in Leixlip wants Lucan people or Maynooth people congesting our roads and polluting our area with your horrible accents and Dublin jerseys.

When I say Lucan I'm also including you Lucan Dublin 22 suckers, who paid extra for your houses because you were taken in by estate agent speak and can't read maps.

r3nu4l

Amz wrote: »

When I say Lucan I'm also including you Lucan Dublin 22 suckers, who paid extra for your houses because you were taken in by estate agent speak and can't read maps.

That's funny because it's actually true! Some shock for people who thought they were buying houses in Lucan

Getting back on topic for a minute (or at least closer) what parts of Leixlip are actually covered by "The Hill" and "The Far end"?
The hill bit is obvious but how far does the area extend before the Hillers territory ends? What about the Far End?

Amz

It's all a question of geography. The River Rye is what the official boundary is. Anything to the North of the river (Confey) is considere the Hill. Anything south of it is the Far end.

The Village of Leixlip and the Mill Lane area past the Garda Station where the abatoir and Fire station are is known as the Disputed Zone. People from there tend to define themselves by what school they go to/went to and what GAA club they'd play for.

r3nu4l

Ah.
/Light of understanding dawns

Thanks Amz.

Amz

Nay bother.

I'm too lazy to do a map type illustration.

So you'll just have to visit "The Leixlip Feud: Visitors Centre" sometime.

Terry

Just bumping this due to a conversation I had with someone earlier.


Over Christmas I had a drink with the guy affectionatley known as the head GJ (Green Jacket. There was a gang of farenders who wore green bomber jackets. We decided not to go with the Black Jacket look) and we had a good laugh at the stupidity of the crap that went on when we were teenagers (half my life ago).

There he was sitting in the Riverforest hotel (hill pub) with three hillers and we all just laughed at the silliness of it all.
We then lamented over the fact that it's still going on.
I cringed when I showed him some graffiti as we were on our way back to my neighbour's house. It was just so pathetic and I'm not going to post the wording of the graffiti because I don't want to give the perpetrator any publicity for their lameness.

He told us how some of the older farenders used to take the piss out of him and call him the leader of the farenders.
I sympathised with his plight as I used to get leader chants from my fellow hillers.

I attached a map showing which areas are the hill, which are the farend and which are what Amz calls the disputed zone (I call it the village, but Amz is a farender, so forgive her lameness . Although I loved your replies to the Lucaner, Amz. )

Red is Confey, Green is the farend, black is the village.

Edit: Map does not show surrounding townlands. It is also out of date as there are far more houses up the far end now.
R149 third right, fourth left, third house in and you can find me should and far enders want to exact some revenge. . Really, that's my house. Just make sure you get the right one.

Edit 2: R3un4l, did you ever go to the Leixlip GAA discos. You're roughly the same age as me and I used to watch the Lucan/Leixlip fights back in '87.
The Maynooth fights were particularly rough.
Good thing we have a functioning and full time Garda station now.

r3nu4l

<3BeingIN6th wrote: »

J
Over Christmas I had a drink with the guy affectionatley known as the head GJ (Green Jacket. There was a gang of farenders who wore green bomber jackets. We decided not to go with the Black Jacket look) and we had a good laugh at the stupidity of the crap that went on when we were teenagers (half my life ago).

Jayney mack, there's a blast from the past. There were a few of the Green (Bomber) Jackets in the Lucan CBS, they didn't like being called Green BJ's IIRC Those were the days.

Edit 2: R3un4l, did you ever go to the Leixlip GAA discos. You're roughly the same age as me and I used to watch the Lucan/Leixlip fights back in '87.
The Maynooth fights were particularly rough.
Good thing we have a functioning and full time Garda station now.

Funnily enough, I didn't get to the discos. I made the mistake of saying to my parents one night that a gang of us were going, that resulted in me being made to stay at home that night :rolleyes:
Another night I got caught sneaking out, got punished for that. Another evening, I had stayed out for most of the day, I intended on going straight to Leixlip...until my worried Dad started asking the neighbours if any of them had seen me. One of the neighbours had seen me and told my Dad where I was. Ended up getting grounded for that one. I gave up after that and of course, two years later, my parents had no problems with my younger brother going to discos

I did see some mid-afternoon fights though between some Green Jackets and some other guys and they were fairly hell for leather


EDIT: Just think, in 50 years time, all of this could be part of the course work in Local History diplomas :pac: People will be writing essays on the history of the Leixlip 'gang wars'.

bricky10

I have a lot of friends in the 'farend' side of Leixlip. They told me this fued is because of the GAA. St Mary's was like the only gaa club in leixlip for a long time and lads from Confey were not getting there game and made their own club. I was told thats where it started. And the divide is all down to that?? I could be very wrong so dont take it for gospel if you dont know!
I also heard all the young lads (15-16 year olds) are trying to kick it all up again. Absolute fools!

Terry

r3nu4l wrote: »

Jayney mack, there's a blast from the past. There were a few of the Green (Bomber) Jackets in the Lucan CBS, they didn't like being called Green BJ's IIRC Those were the days.

Funnily enough, I didn't get to the discos. I made the mistake of saying to my parents one night that a gang of us were going, that resulted in me being made to stay at home that night :rolleyes:
Another night I got caught sneaking out, got punished for that. Another evening, I had stayed out for most of the day, I intended on going straight to Leixlip...until my worried Dad started asking the neighbours if any of them had seen me. One of the neighbours had seen me and told my Dad where I was. Ended up getting grounded for that one. I gave up after that and of course, two years later, my parents had no problems with my younger brother going to discos

I did see some mid-afternoon fights though between some Green Jackets and some other guys and they were fairly hell for leather


EDIT: Just think, in 50 years time, all of this could be part of the course work in Local History diplomas :pac: People will be writing essays on the history of the Leixlip 'gang wars'.

I used to go to them with a well known local hackney base controller.
We hung around with the older farenders because he knew them from playing for Leixlip united.
They had a book and you had to sign it every time you went in.
I had to fake my date of birth because I was only 12.
The following year we would drink at the back of the P&T and then head to the GAA club through the back of the schools.

bricky10 wrote: »

I have a lot of friends in the 'farend' side of Leixlip. They told me this fued is because of the GAA. St Mary's was like the only gaa club in leixlip for a long time and lads from Confey were not getting there game and made their own club. I was told thats where it started. And the divide is all down to that?? I could be very wrong so dont take it for gospel if you dont know!
I also heard all the young lads (15-16 year olds) are trying to kick it all up again. Absolute fools!

This all kicked off before the establishment of Confey GAA club.

As for the new kids, it never really stopped.
The only difference between this generation and mine is that we never used weapons (apart from the bottling incident, but that was a once off and was towards the end of our involvement).
The Confey college caretaker told me that he sometimes sees them at the back of the school throwing stones at each other from either side of the Rye.
There is also graffiti from both sides on the walls around the Rye bridge at distillery lane.
Idiotic stuff really.

BuffyBot

I'd suggest to anyone who is going to post in this thread from this point in that they take a deep breath beforehand, and ensure that what they post meets with the rules as laid out in the forum charter. Having had to delete a few posts, I thought a on-thread warning would be fair..because anyone who decides to post and break the rules will find their participation in this forum will be curtailed rather quickly

vektarman

julep wrote: »

Back in late 1987 / early '88 there were two groups of teenagers from opposite sides of the town.
They all got along together until a girl came between them.

The girl lived up the hill and dumped the guy from the far end for the guy from the hill.

There were a few scuffles between the two groups, but nothing major.

Then one night far end guy and his friends come up the hill, call into the ex girlfriends house and drag her brother out. They gave him a kicking, his father came out and they gave him a kicking too.
A couple of phone calls were made and the far enders ended up getting the crap kicked out of them.

Now it should have ended there, but the new boyfriend decided otherwise.
He went and stabbed the old boyfriend in the leg and then gave him a few boots in the head before the ambulance arrived.

Over the next couple of years, it was fairly quiet until far end guys brother and his friends hit puberty and decided to get some revenge.

Again, nothing major. Just a few scuffles or some guy on his own getting a kicking by a gang of cowards.

The worst that ever really happened was when a few of my friends were walking home from a nightclub on the other side of town and they were all bottled.
They went up the far end the following night and got few of them back.

Pretty much all of the people involved in that crap during the late 80's/ early 90's get along and regularly bump into each other in the pub and laugh at how stupid they were.

Some of today's teenagers still carry in on though, even though they have no idea why they are supposed to hate the people from the opposite side of the town.

Edit. I was just thinking. Their daughter is almost 20. Now I feel old.

This is fascinating stuff, it started like West Side Story, moved into tribal rivalry and ended up making 1970's Northern Ireland looking like a peace camp, an anthropologist would have a field day.

Varkov

Yeah, except Terry's version is quite biased.

If anyone won it was us

JCos

Trinny. wrote: »

I used to go to them with a well known local hackney base controller.
We hung around with the older farenders because he knew them from playing for Leixlip united.
They had a book and you had to sign it every time you went in.
I had to fake my date of birth because I was only 12.
The following year we would drink at the back of the P&T and then head to the GAA club through the back of the schools.




This all kicked off before the establishment of Confey GAA club.

As for the new kids, it never really stopped.
The only difference between this generation and mine is that we never used weapons (apart from the bottling incident, but that was a once off and was towards the end of our involvement).
The Confey college caretaker told me that he sometimes sees them at the back of the school throwing stones at each other from either side of the Rye.
There is also graffiti from both sides on the walls around the Rye bridge at distillery lane.
Idiotic stuff really.

Definitely Mincer, the creep!

Blue_Wolf

I used to get asked all the time "ya farender or hiller" I used to say I'm from Celbridge. You could kind of tell though that they were hillers asking as they looked imbred :pac:

lods

Blue_Wolf wrote: »

I used to get asked all the time "ya farender or hiller" I used to say I'm from Celbridge. You could kind of tell though that they were hillers asking as they looked imbred :pac:

Ok your from Celbridge but are you are hiller or a farender?:D . Hill always reminds me of deliverence.:P

Blue_Wolf

Well now I wouldn't really say i'm imbred so ill go for farender, as far as barnhall
Anytime I have been up the hill there was trouble. Not interested in the feud its stupid. We are all the same no matter where we are from....cough. :rolleyes:

cyrusdvirus

Christ, the GJ's........ hehehehe..

It really is funny, cos the (now) good natured slagging is still used today!

dara95

kwl. didnt know that. ive asked some of my farender friends that hate people from 'da hill' and they didnt even know!!!:D