I have never been so ashamed to be Irish

tolosenc

sturgo wrote: »

"The Northeast Blackout of 2003 was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and Ontario, Canada on Thursday, August 14, 2003, at approximately 4:15 pm EDT (20:15 UTC), with virtually full restoration by the following day. At the time, it was the most widespread electrical blackout in history.[1][2] The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in the Canadian province of Ontario and 40 million people in eight U.S. states."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout

Yes it happens in the land of the free also.

Somehow, somehow, I think people there may have reacted. Y'know, put the drink down and get home. Whatever about 5 minuted, if it's hours it's surely in breach of health and safety.

Also, the tills wouldn't have been working, unless the owner was there, I'd say the cash was pocketed... :P

Pointing to another group of people and saying youre better than them only goes to show how unprepared you still are. When theres another tragic death smeared across the irish papers ill be there to say i told you so.

Its that whole We Dont Give a **** attitude that the OP is talking about thats going to end up with someone hurt. The bouncers going to be turned away when some girl is raped in an unlit corner. The "This isnt America" argument wont save her.

+1

The responses to this thread are so typical - 'if you don't like it, go back to Boston', 'sure it's not as bad as in America'. This country is turning into an absolute kip, and people just accept it and don't complain because they don't want to be seen as whingers. There's violence everywhere, but the level of unprovoked attacks here is shocking. I'm a petite female and have been started on twice while walking down the street minding my own business. I've lived in Spain, France and the USA for considerable lengths of time and nothing of the sort happened there. A workmate was started on by a group of skangers the other night as he walked home, for absolutely no reason.

Don't even get me started on the shambolic public transport. I have to laugh at the ads on Dublin Bus trying to make it look like the Nitelink is some amazing deal - ONLY 5 euro to get a bus filled with drunken yobs - if you're lucky, as the Nitelink doesn't serve half of the city. The fact we are ripped off left, right and centre, the fact people happily pay 65 euro for a top marked as 40 pounds sterling and try to claim the cost of business is higher in Ireland.

The quality of life in Dublin is crap considering the cost of living. It's one thing to pay 600e/month rent for a small room and 15 euro to go 3 miles in a taxi if you're living in a nice, well kept city, but the place is covered in litter and chock full of scumbags. I'm paying world class city prices to live in a dive. I'm sure I'll be told to leave if I don't like it, well that's exactly what I plan to do as soon as I'm able. I'd far rather stay in Ireland and see things improve, but it's getting scummier and scummier and more and more of a rip off. And yes, I am someone who complains to the relevant authorities, I report things to the guards, I complain to Irish Rail and Dublin Bus, I don't just sit back and moan.

If you're all happy to accept third rate service at top prices, fair play to ya. But don't act like those of us who expect better are whiners. I don't want a utopia, I want to walk down the street in broad daylight without feeling threatened and to be able to buy more than the bare essentials when I'm working 40+ hours a week and to be able to get from point A to point B without it taking an hour and a half with 3 buses and a DART. Yes, things could be a lot worse here. Yes, it's better than Zimbabwe. That doesn't mean it couldn't be a LOT better!!

Dr_Phil

Hazys wrote: »

I have never been ashamed to be irish in my life.

There is absolutely no point to be ashamed because of your nationality, as well as there is no point to be proud of it.

Balmed Out

I actually like the way that in Ireland people wouldnt complain about the lights going out like that. Oh and thered be emergency lights so it wouldnt be pitch black. Always found cork to be extremely safe till the last year or so, think its gotten rougher

Fighting Irish

Ireland is a ****ing joke, but so are you

Fighting Irish

and how did you find the bouncer with your phone light?

pitch dark? or just dark?

jaffa20

Jesus calm down the lot of ye.

Bloody stink of too much Irish pride on this thread!

Phew!

mental07

jaffa20 wrote: »

Jesus calm down the lot of ye.

Bloody stink of too much Irish pride on this thread!

Phew!

Mmmm.......

Jumpy

Heh. When this thread started I knew it would be easy to spot the ones losing the argument.

Just watch for something similar to "Well why dont you go home then?"

Classical Irish reaction to someone criticising their country.

Hazys

Get over I love Boston over Ireland BS.(Although i can see now the morning after how i could be precieved as a wannabe U-S-A chanter). The point i was trying to make was comparing the situation in Ireland to another country, since i have only lived in Boston its the only one place i can compare to. I dont think people in many coutries would have stood for some of that sh1t last night. If we dont compare our drinking habbits and general safety to other countries we might just think its normal and acceptable. Of course every other city has their problems but all the problems last night stemmed from our obsession with drink.

For the people who dont want to believe this country is obsessed with drink, the government raises the price of drink, we still buy it at the same quantities, the service is sh1t in a bar, we still queue...etc Id say crack addicts are more picky.

45 mins on the street looking a garda no matter if you think my crusade was worth it or not, is a disgrace.

Seeing a girl trying to stop her boyfriend from stopping a fight getting slapped down to the ground by him, outside the main night time area, not a Garda in sight, is a disgrace

Cork is a very unsafe place to be on nights out. Tru the years, I have had a few close calls for walking down the wrong street looking for a taxi, but i have been lucky. Id say a fight a night after a Sat nite in Cork is not a far fetched statistic. Yes am I am ashamed to be Irish if i worry for the safety of my 20 year old brother when he goes on nightouts in Cork especially after what happened to my friends brother and i guess im not the only one who knows somebody with a similar story.

Hazys

Jumpy wrote: »

Heh. When this thread started I knew it would be easy to spot the ones losing the argument.

Just watch for something similar to "Well why dont you go home then?"

Classical Irish reaction to someone criticising their country.

I wasnt critizing their country, i was critizing my own city and country.

Obviously i went around it the wrong way and i let the idiots avoid the points i was trying to make and let them make their own agenda

Biggins

Jumpy wrote: »

Heh. When this thread started I knew it would be easy to spot the ones losing the argument.

Just watch for something similar to "Well why dont you go home then?"

Classical Irish reaction to someone criticising their country.

Anyone can criticise our country as we do theirs.
Its the standing around and doing nothing while mouthing off about others doing the same that understandably upsets some.
Its called hypocrisy.

The example of giving out about €15 at the door is a classic example.
Giving out about it after he actually had handed over!
Did he refuse to pay it, take a stand and walk away?

I take it he wasn't giving out about it to what would have been a better direction - a relevant manager and/or owner, you know, the ones that any brain filled person would actually go to if they felt that incensed about it!
...no, instead he went on a rant on a public forum where his wasted efforts will be probably forgotten about in 24 hours!

StiffLitlemicky

Hazys wrote: »

I wasnt critizing their country, i was critizing my own city and country.

Obviously i went around it the wrong way and i let the idiots avoid the points i was trying to make and let them make their own agenda

Your the only one that looks idiotic, running about the city for 45 minutes to tell a guard that the lights were out in some pub you were drinking in.

colly10

Serving with the power gone for an hour is fairly strange alright, but the OP stayed for a full hour, if ye don't like it then leave, it's hardly the only place serving in Cork.

As for people being mad enough for a pint that they wouldn't leave, id say it was that they were enjoying themselves in good company and were happy to stay, if they just wanted a pint they'd go elsewhere

StiffLitlemicky wrote: »

Your the only one that looks idiotic, running about the city for 45 minutes to tell a guard that the lights were out in some pub you were drinking in.

+1 - Noting better to worry about on a nightout that a potential lawsuit to some random club, let them worry about it

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Hazys wrote: »

But i have never been left feeling so angry after a night out. I went out to Havanna Browns in Cork this evening with my buddies which i havent seen in months. But the lights went out in the club. Half the club was pitch dark. I was sitting there in the dark enjoying my pint talking to my friend with only the light off my phone aluminating the area around us. Lights were out still after an hour but the bar was still serving...what a f*cking joke. Nobody seemed to care that this was seriously dangerous, my buddies were still drinking away having the time of their lives.

After an hour of pitch dark i went up to the bouncer to ask why they hadnt cleared people out of the pitch dark areas because if any1 fell the club would be extremely liable. The bouncer made a joke about how the club was trying to reduce its carbon footprint (Im pretty sure this joke would still be that funny if the place had been Stardust2). I was shocked at his response. The club didnt give a sh1t as long as it was making money and the customers didnt give a sh1t as long we were getting served. Are we that dependent on alcohol that we dont care if our safety is being threaten in the persuit of getting hammered?

You seem to be the only one that was not enjoying yourself. Oh and stardust was due to locked fire exits, not lack of light.

I got pissed of and went downstairs to demand a refund, i got my 15 euro back(the most expensive night club in boston is $15)

You are not in boston, you are in Ireland, we also have a much higher minimum wage. What exactly is your point?

So i went to find a Garda to complain about it. It took me 45 mins to find a Garda on the streets of Cork city on one of the busiest drinking nights of the year.

Yes, taxpayers should pay more money to facilitate whining. Where do you think you are expecting to find Gardai on every street corner.

I found two Gardai outside the coal quay on their way to the bridewell station, explained the situation to them, they said they'd get on it right away after they went into the station to fill out some paperwork. W*nkers completely blew me off, didnt give a sh1t.

How exactly do you know they didn't follow your complaint up? You are speculating. I guess you expected them to sort it out right away. Reality check, the gardai have better things to be doing.

Whats amazing is last year my best friend's brother, a 1st class primary school teacher was jumped from behind on MacCurtain street and beaten within an inch of his life 3 days before christmass. The only thing that saved him was his girlfriend screaming as the scumbag jumped on his head. On MacCurtain street not a garda in sight!!!! The Gardai are dicks.

Yes, the gardai are dicks because they are not stationed every 100 meters on every street for your protection.

After the Gardai blew me off I went to Hillbillies to get food. Got my food, crossed the road to eat it in a bus stop. As i was eating, outside hillbillies a fight broke out. What i could see from across the road was a guy's girlfriend trying to stop him from fighting, ending up ur1 getting slapped to the ground by her boyfriend for getting in the way. Eventually friends stopped the fight and ur1 and the boyfriend hopped in to a taxi together! Again not a Garda in sight

Instead of watching the fight, did you do anything to help? I.E. Ring the gardai? I doubt it.

Im not trying to come across as holyier than thou.

You done a damn good job of it anyway.

as i like to go on the piss just like every1 else. I normally wouldnt even complain about service in a restaurant or a bar but what i witnessed in Havannas was a disgrace. I was talking about how it was a disgrace to my friends, they were agreeing but really didnt care as long as they had a pint in their hands, just like every1 else in the club. At least i know in Boston this wouldnt happen as their is generally a police pressence in most clubs every odd week and also americans wouldnt stand for it. But are we so reliant on getting hammered that we dont give a sh1t about anything else? Are the same people who complain about getting ripped off in Ireland sitting in a pitch dark night club paying for drinks and admission that are way more expensive than the top notch nightclubs in Boston and other cities?

Aren't Americans so great, gotta love them... You're not in America, deal with it or leave.

You bitch and whine about it, but yet you stayed in the club. I don't know Cork that well since it has all changd, but I would think there are more places than one open on a saturday night. You are like so many, rather complain and whine about it yet not do much about it. You should have left and gone to another pub/club before waiting an hour.

Pfft, you disgust me.

Nodin

colly10 wrote: »

Serving with the power gone for an hour is fairly strange alright, but the OP stayed for a full hour, if ye don't like it then leave, it's hardly the only place serving in Cork.

If it turned off the ****e music they usually play in these places, I would have tipped them to do it again the next week.

Overheal

Chinafoot wrote: »

<riff raff>

This has nothing to do with people laying hate on America, its about Feelgood's attitude that gun violence doesnt happen in Irish Society. Not to single him out - I get the feeling he's not the only one that thinks like that.

More to Follow? Columbine was the first of many.

Get a grip for christ sake, this is why I tend to ignore your posts. So quick to froth at the mouth if anyone dares comment on some horrible thing that happened in America.

Only at generalized comments that, leveled at any other nation, would be regarded as baseless racism. "Anyone can criticise our country as we do theirs." as Biggins puts it well. Feel free to criticize us all you like, but I only ask you construct an argument, and that you Irish stop thinking "That could never happen to us".

Biggins wrote: »

Have you ever considered maybe then, actually staying in Ireland and making a difference then?

If you feel that strongly about things, why jump ship and go elsewhere. only to return here and just moan!
Sure there are other moaners here, but at least they are staying here, paying their taxes and some even standing up and trying to make a difference.

Indeed. +1. But as it happened to him just the other night, and he's only gotten back I imagine it will take some time for Bruce Wayne here to arrange his batsuit and fight Falconi at the docks of Cork. God forbid he might want to share a rant with us before he drives out in the batmobile for the good of the city :pac:

Dr_Phil wrote: »

There is absolutely no point to be ashamed because of your nationality, as well as there is no point to be proud of it.

And yet Ireland and the United States are the two most patriotic countries I know of.

311

O.P ,in all fairness how safe do you think a club full of angry people would be ,when they're all told to get out.
Especially in the dark with a room full of glasses.

Now that would be a real Irish thing to do ,wouldnt it ?

Karoma

Folks, take a deep breathe and chill before posting again.

Chinafoot

Hazys wrote: »

2 Gardai for the whole of Cork City on a Sat night is acceptable to you?

With all due respect, unless you have the ability to be on every street in the city at the same time you have absolutely no way of knowing how many gardai were out last night. Do you really think there were 2 for the whole city? Come on now, that's stretching things a bit.

Hazys wrote: »

2 guys were fighting, both sides had buddies trying to stop it, a girl got slapped to the ground. So you wanted me to run across the road to intervene, im sure that would have ended well. Contact the gardai, i didnt fancy another 45 min walk to tell the gardai a fight had broken out 45 mins ago

Telephones are a wonderful thing.

Look the reason you're getting so many people's backs up is because you started this thread generalising about a country that you don't live in. Yeah, you're from here but you don't live here and you've compared it to Boston in a "this would never happen where I live!!" kind of way. You then call people idiots for calling you out in things in your post that you can't back up.

For example, nobody forced you to pay the price of admission to the club.
Nobody forced you to sit in said club for an hour with the lights off if you were so worried about the dangers.
You should have directed your complaint to management. Do you really think that bouncer didn't have enough to be doing? They have a hard enough job when the lights are on.
Going to the gardai about a fuse/power failure in a club is not going to be top priority for them.
Moaning about a fight on one street in the city that you sat and watched (there are ways to help without getting your head kicked in) isn't really going to spark much empathy here, particularly when you could have easily found a phone and called the nearest garda station. Your argument of a 45 minute walk is complete bull tbh.

Hazys wrote: »

So i have to accept the drink related violence here or i have to leave?

But you did accept the drink related violence. You sat and watched a girl get slapped to the ground and did nothing. Then you moaned about the fact that the gardai weren't there to stop it. Yeah how dare they not know in advance that a fight was going to break out right there at that particular time... How on earth do you expect the gardai to help in these situations when people sit on their arses and just watch these things happen. Thats exactly what you did. Moaning about how ashamed you are to be Irish on an internet forum isn't really going to change things now is it?

For someone who is so ashamed of being Irish you certainly have one of the traits of thic country....pissing and moaning and doing absolutely nothing to change the situation.

joenailface

Maybe that guy wouldnt have gotten kicked half to death due to lack of guards if some idiot wasnt complaining to them about the fusebox in a ****ing nightclub

Feelgood

Overheal wrote: »

This has nothing to do with people laying hate on America, its about Feelgood's attitude that gun violence doesnt happen in Irish Society. Not to single him out - I get the feeling he's not the only one that thinks like that.

Overheal, I never once in either of my posts mentioned gun violence nor was I even talking about anything in relation to gun violence whatsoever so I don't know how you know anything about my attitude to gun violence?. What are you talking about?.

The OP said that while she was in Boston there was a high police presence at all times, around bars etc - my post highlighted that a man killed himself on national TV which was 25 mins long and there wasn't a cop in sight?. Which was my whole point?.

So WTF are you talking about?. You know nothing about me or my attitude to anything in particular guns so please don't post anything like that about me again or perhaps read my posts next time before making foolish presumptions..

Chinafoot

Overheal wrote: »

Only at generalized comments that, leveled at any other nation, would be regarded as baseless racism. "Anyone can criticise our country as we do theirs." as Biggins puts it well. Feel free to criticize us all you like, but I only ask you construct an argument, and that you Irish stop thinking "That could never happen to us".

In this thread right here, the example of the man killing himself was brought for 2 reasons.
1: to show the OP that there is a lot worse happening in the world
and
2: while he is so ashamed to be from here, the country he's comparing it to (because, yes Overheal thats what he was doing) isn't exaclty a bed of roses. Where were the cops? But you know, feel free to do what you always do and take it a personal slight against you and miss the point completely.

Nobody on this thread is suggesting that bad things couldn't happen here. Tbh, that's your own issue and you should probably sort out that chip on your shoulder you have about it because it's really boring at this stage. The OP was one the trying to highlight how what happened in Cork wouldn't have happened in Boston.

Overheal

It was Raze_Them_All's post. Pardon the misunderstanding.

Raze_them_all wrote: »

Maybe but we dont run the risk of being shot by trigger happy police or our fellow countrymen. Why because we can go on the piss and if worse comes to worse have a lil scrap, Not go off home for a handgun

"Nobody on this thread is suggesting that bad things couldn't happen here."

As above.

Chinafoot

Overheal wrote: »

It was Raze_Them_All's post. Pardon the misunderstanding.

LOL...well in fariness we have an unarmed police force so he's right.

Congratulations in once more dragging a thread off topic with your "HOMGZ HOW DARE YOU DISS AMERICA!!111!¬!" bullshít.

x in the city

mmmmmmmmmm

my spider senses tell me that this thread will be locked soonish.

Overheal

Chinafoot wrote: »

LOL...well in fariness we have an unarmed police force so he's right.

Congratulations in once more dragging a thread off topic with your "HOMGZ HOW DARE YOU DISS AMERICA!!111!¬!" bullshít.

How was Raze dissing america, and how am I driving the topic there?

An unarmed police force is going to stop gun violence? really? I think you'd sooner see a Gard taken hostage. You might be safe from a cop doing you in, but not a 13 year old egging your house.

Kiera

Chinafoot wrote: »

LOL...well in fariness we have an unarmed police force so he's right.

Congratulations in once more dragging a thread off topic with your "HOMGZ HOW DARE YOU DISS AMERICA!!111!¬!" bullshít.

Haha i love you Couldnt have said it better myself.

Feelgood

Chinafoot wrote: »

Congratulations in once more dragging a thread off topic with your "HOMGZ HOW DARE YOU DISS AMERICA!!111!¬!" bullshít.

Yeah in fairness if I was trying to diss America it would go something like,

Total number of innocent Iraqi civilians killed by US soldiers: 604,000
Total number of innocent Iraqi civilians killed by Irish soldiers: 0

Chinafoot

Overheal wrote: »

How was Raze dissing america, and how am I driving the topic there?

An unarmed police force is going to stop gun violence? really? I think you'd sooner see a Gard taken hostage. You might be safe from a cop doing you in, but not a 13 year old egging your house.

What has this got to do with the topic? Seriously why dont you start your own thread and have the discussion you want to have instead of trying to do it on every thread that even remotely mentions something bad that happened in America.

Please.