Scumbags on Quay St last night!

diverdriver

I lived in Dublin most of my life but worst incident I witnessed happened in Galway in Supermacs just up from Mill Street station. Plenty of Guards arrived quickly enough which begs the question for as to why they were all so close to the station.

The reality is everyone knows Spanish Arch is a trouble spot. In most countries, certainly in America in cities of similar size to Dublin, there would be cops standing around or patrolling regularly. Not that they would really need to in most US cities of comparable size to Galway. Yet how often do you see a uniformed presence there? Not enough is clearly the answer. I'm not in the business of blaming the police. But we really have to ask where they are. Possibly in Eyre Square? Who knows because I don't see them much.

It's not like the area is very big. Just a few streets with a concentration pubs. Trouble erupts so often in Spanish Arch that most sensible people avoid it completely so any you reading this here who chose to hang out there have only themselves to blame if they're accosted by a scumbag. Tourists don't know any better and they keep getting caught. Meanwhile the Guards are around 'somewhere'.

bigeasyeah

diverdriver wrote: »

Trouble erupts so often in Spanish Arch that most sensible people avoid it completely so any you reading this here who chose to hang out there have only themselves to blame if they're accosted by a scumbag. Tourists don't know any better and they keep getting caught. Meanwhile the Guards are around 'somewhere'.

Its a public place so if someone gets assaulted there its not their fault,they have a right to be there.
The Gardai have a reasonable presence around Galway City but they cant be everywhere at once and cant asked to act as childminders.

getonyourboots

The guards are too busy checking for car tax and bringing pensioners to court for having no TV license.

What did you see in supermacs anyway?

eamonnf

Was out with missus last weekend and this young scummer came up to me boasting how strong he was. Despite my best efforts to ignore him, he continued to inform me of how strong he was and he had hands of iron. Thinking fast, I said that if his hands were so strong, he should be able to hit the adjoining lamp-post as hard as he could to shake the light-bulb loose. After a little bit of winding him up, he decided to hit the lamp-post as hard as he could.

The expression on his face was priceless when he hit the lamp-post - he walked away with a busted hand. He must have done some damage to his hand. I'm still laughing.

This is the only way to beat the scummers - outsmart them.

diverdriver

Its a public place so if someone gets assaulted there its not their fault,they have a right to be there.
The Gardai have a reasonable presence around Galway City but they cant be everywhere at once and cant asked to act as childminders.

I knew someone would say that. That's like saying a person crossing the road with a green light doesn't have to look left or right because they have the right of way. Sure, they can put it on their tombstone when a car breaking the lights ploughs into them.

In any case I'm not actually sure you actually have the right to hang out around the area with a few cans of cider 'having a laugh' with your mates. Which is what too many people do. But whatever your rights you have to have common sense and avoid areas where the chances of being attacked are high. That's called commonsense.

No one is asking the Gardai to act as childminders, just to do their job. Crime prevention is part of that job. Their visible presence or potential presence is sometimes just enough. Is that too much to ask?
Incidentally on that point go to O'Connell street/Temple Bar in Dublin on any drinking night and you see a notable Garda presence. Spanish Arch and Quay street are tiny in comparsion.

Spanish Arch should be a pleasant place to visit. But almost every time. I've been there it's been blighted by the presence of the kind of people I wouldn't want to have anything to do with. Even on a day when there was an actual Garda video van sitting there.

As for what happened in Supermacs, well it was your usual. Drunken yobs make comments to girl, Spanish I think. Their male companion steps in and gets attacked by the mob for his trouble. The bouncers jump in and try to eject the trouble makers. The Guards arrive quite quickly, one gets slammed in the face for his trouble. After a lot of shouting and banging the yobs are dragged away, leaving the Spanish girl sobbing and the Spanish guy with a bloody nose. A very edifying spectacle and if I hadn't had a few drinks on me. I would have been horrified. Never saw anything like in Dublin and I spent plenty of time drunk on O'Connell street and Temple bar in my time.

lovelyhome

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padi89

lovelyhome wrote: »

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Alcohol has everything to do with it and you'd be foolish to think otherwise.Personally i haven't seen any trouble in town in years, then again i don't bother with clubs and chippers anymore.

bigeasyeah

diverdriver wrote: »

I knew someone would say that. That's like saying a person crossing the road with a green light doesn't have to look left or right because they have the right of way. Sure, they can put it on their tombstone when a car breaking the lights ploughs into them.

In any case I'm not actually sure you actually have the right to hang out around the area with a few cans of cider 'having a laugh' with your mates. Which is what too many people do. But whatever your rights you have to have common sense and avoid areas where the chances of being attacked are high. That's called commonsense.

No one is asking the Gardai to act as childminders, just to do their job. Crime prevention is part of that job. Their visible presence or potential presence is sometimes just enough. Is that too much to ask?
Incidentally on that point go to O'Connell street/Temple Bar in Dublin on any drinking night and you see a notable Garda presence. Spanish Arch and Quay street are tiny in comparsion.

Spanish Arch should be a pleasant place to visit. But almost every time. I've been there it's been blighted by the presence of the kind of people I wouldn't want to have anything to do with. Even on a day when there was an actual Garda video van sitting there.

As for what happened in Supermacs, well it was your usual. Drunken yobs make comments to girl, Spanish I think. Their male companion steps in and gets attacked by the mob for his trouble. The bouncers jump in and try to eject the trouble makers. The Guards arrive quite quickly, one gets slammed in the face for his trouble. After a lot of shouting and banging the yobs are dragged away, leaving the Spanish girl sobbing and the Spanish guy with a bloody nose. A very edifying spectacle and if I hadn't had a few drinks on me. I would have been horrified. Never saw anything like in Dublin and I spent plenty of time drunk on O'Connell street and Temple bar in my time.

Yawn,yet more sensationalism.
Ive lived in Dublin for over a decade and I ve seen a lot worse than I ve see in Galway over the years.Galway is a city with a small town dynamic,if an unsavory incident occurs everyone hears about by word of mouth and thus the said incident not only becomes blown way out of proportion but can be seen as an exaggerated example of the times we live in.
Spanish Arch is not a no-go area,you can get attacked anywhere and if this scaremongering continues nobody will go anywhere.
Also your opening analogy is contextually unsound.

Webbs

bigeasyeah wrote: »

Yawn,yet more sensationalism.
Ive lived in Dublin for over a decade and I ve seen a lot worse than I ve see in Galway over the years.Galway is a city with a small town dynamic,if an unsavory incident occurs everyone hears about by word of mouth and thus the said incident not only becomes blown way out of proportion but can be seen as an exaggerated example of the times we live in.
Spanish Arch is not a no-go area,you can get attacked anywhere and if this scaremongering continues nobody will go anywhere.
Also your opening analogy is contextually unsound.

+1 having lived in a lot of places in the UK (cities and towns) then couldnt agree more, the beauty of Galway is that it is a smallcity/large town but that has drawbacks as mentioned that isolated incidents become big news.
The places I have lived in the UK were far worse for trouble and you just made sure that you avoided some areas at certain times of the night/morning, the same would apply to Galway and basically means avoiding a few chippers at 2 in the morning.
Galway in comparison to most UK places is a very safe place to be

Mr Cork Man

I wonder if this was limerick would the national media be having a field day?

http://www.galwaynews.ie/8158-two-young-men-sentenced-stabbing-and-assault-city-centre

sparklingdude

Sh*t happens in Dublin all the time. You can't go from point A to B without some scumbag messing with you. Things got better for awhile, but are quickly reverting to form. Coked up scumbags, piss-drunk at noon, badgering you on the sidewalk. Cork is... Cork: antisocial behaviour seems to be the commonly accepted form of behaviour. I'm sure people from Limerick think its a great place.

The thing I like about Galway is the relative dearth of scum. Puking kids is fine, it's a university town. Random fights at bars are fine too, people drink. But it's the chavster sh*t disturbers that totally piss me off.

These people are easily identifiable and the cops know what parts of town they are from (the crap ones). I like the American approach. If they wander a couple of blocks too far from their neighbourhoods, the cops are on their a*ses. "Let's see some ID... what the hell are you doing here? Up against the car." That kind of stuff. The city centre just isn't for them, and good old fashioned police harassment works just fine.

The other problem is country folk. Not quite knackers, not quite civilized. "Intermediates" if you will. If they need a break from sheep-shagging, can't they just go to Athenry?

lovelyhome

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Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

lovelyhome wrote: »

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Yeah they really turned New York around in the 90's, Giuliani introducted a zero-tolerance policy on any crime petty or otherwise, it still has it's neighbourhoods to be very much avoided but generally you feel very safe walking around.

When you look at Galway in comparison, you'd think we shouldn't have such a hard time making our streets safer, but unfortunately ethnically cleansing all the scumbags prob wouldn't go down too well for us in Brussels

sparklingdude

Brussels be damned, let's build a wall.

Mrs OBumble

Don't we already have a wall, or at least a pretty high fence, in one part of the city?

Has any of the reading you've done about New York mentioned what happened to the proportion of teenagers in the population at the same time? (ie following declining birh-rates 20 years earlier).

sparklingdude

No, but I've heard stuff like this before. Are you suggesting that it wasn't tough policing, but less teenagers about?

bigeasyeah

Well Guiliani was considered a legend for what he did in New York but Galway now is not 1970s-1990s NYC,that place was nasty.

dysfunct

whats the story with that mobile unit sometimes parked at the arch, should it just be parked semi permanently?
mainly thursday, friday, saturday, sunday til the wee hours maybe?

diverdriver

Sh*t happens in Dublin all the time. You can't go from point A to B without some scumbag messing with you.

Really? Having lived most of my life in Dublin and knowing it rather well. I can tell you that's BS. Sure there are rough areas of Dublin and sure there are times in those rough areas where you would be better not staying around. But in the main it's as safe as anywhere else of comparable size and population. I might add I grew up not too far from Tallaght so it wasn't a cosy little middle class estate in Foxrock or Dundrum.

And bigeasyeah, I've no idea what you're on about. I was there six foot from the incident and saw it all and no I never saw one as bad in Dublin. Guess that makes me lucky. As for my analogy, well sorry. I should have come up with a better one.:rolleyes:

People here seem in denial, The 'That kind of thing never happens in Galway' mentality has to go. It has happened, it is happening. Murder, rape on the line, stabbing in Shop street. Yeah, it never happens in Galway. The reflex defence is to point to Dublin or Limerick and say how terrible those places are. Well we're not talking about those places, we're taking about Galway. It has changed and it is changing. The OP saw a bad incident near Spanish Arch not in Temple Bar. I, with all due modesty consider myself a streetwise Dub. If I felt uncomfortable on a couple of occasions in the area then maybe there was a reason.

At the moment things are not that bad, but they're worse than they were and there is a danger things could deteriorate. Facing up to them now might prevent it getting worse. Galway is generally safe but there is no God given law that says it will stay that way.

Quite frankly, most of it could be prevented by simple pro-active policing. That seems to lacking right now.

cL0h

diverdriver wrote: »

I knew someone would say that. That's like saying a person crossing the road with a green light doesn't have to look left or right because they have the right of way. Sure, they can put it on their tombstone when a car breaking the lights ploughs into them.

This is an absolutely farcical analogy. It's not acceptable for someone to be mowed down crossing at a green light. It means someone was driving too fast or not watching and should be arrested and charged with manslaughter or murder. It doesn't mean the victim acted inappropriately.

diverdriver wrote: »

In any case I'm not actually sure you actually have the right to hang out around the area with a few cans of cider 'having a laugh' with your mates.

I believe your right not to get kicked in the head is enshrined in the constitution whether you are "having a laugh" or drinking cans or neither or both.
The natural conclusion to conservative advice along the lines of : "It's your own fault for going down there." is that we all build big walls around our houses and never step outside again.

diverdriver

Oh grow up kiddies, the point I made was simple, sure you have a right to expect to be left alone to do as you please. But we are talking real world stuff here not fantasy internet crap. Sure you can walk around saying it's my right to do this and that. But the guy with with a knife or a bottle doesn't give a flying feck about your rights. You have a responsibility to yourself to avoid getting your throat cut by some junkie. Telling some psycho that he has no right to oppress you isn't going to stop him kneeing you in the bollix.

But you go ahead an assert your rights. I promise I'll visit you in UCHG or the graveyard.

Honest to God there are some idiots out there asking for it.:rolleyes:

sparklingdude

Couldn't agree more. Kind of like old feckers who like to walk the country roads without acknowedging that they're now more or less highways. They can assert their right to go for a stroll by being splattered across a mile of pavement.

The point of this thread is that Galway isn't a ****hole and we'd like to keep it that way.

cL0h

diverdriver wrote: »

Oh grow up kiddies,
...
we are talking real world stuff here not fantasy internet crap....
...
Honest to God there are some idiots out there asking for it.:rolleyes:

At this point I should stop as you have displayed your true colours but I will just clarify one thing. I am not advocating telling scumbags they are oppressing my rights, I am directly disputing your claim that the victim is in the wrong because they were minding their own business.

But "Honest to God" thanks for your advice. :pac:

Commiserations to the OP. Unwarranted violence is always a nasty thing to witness.

bigeasyeah

Yet more sensationalism and extreme propositions on how to deal with a problem thats blown out of all proportion.
Tougher policing will effect everyone not only undesirables.
Mandatory Army Service for said undesirables is an effective means to physically make them stronger,equip them with skills which are intended to cause harm and give them knowledge of how to effectively bear arms.
Vigilantism is a naive notion at best,at worst its unlawfull,capricious and unaccountable for its actions.
Perhaps we should help the Gardai and band together in a sense of communionity rather than become advocates of extreme justice and vigilantism the dangers of which are well documeneted.
If we are to live in the real world I would suggest solutions that adhere to the situations reality.

whineflu

Ye'd swear listenin to some of ye that knackers have some sort of right of the jungle to do what they want. They don't and that's why they hassle tourists and not locals. If ya know them and they know that you know them they are not as quick to hassle ya. The same goes for the weekend boggers hopped up on vodka red bull and fat frogs makin fools of themselves. I bet they'd be horrified if their neighbours or family knew what they were up to.
I agree vigilantiism doesn't work but community spirit does. It doesn't matter how big a town ya get to know people eventually. Who needs cameras if 20 people report the same name to the guards.

Mrs OBumble

sparklingdude wrote: »

No, but I've heard stuff like this before. Are you suggesting that it wasn't tough policing, but less teenagers about?

That's what I was told when visiting NY in 1999. No idea how true or otherwise it was.

It was interesting having two or three police at ever intersection: it made me think, "what's going on, it must be really bad if they need that many around".

WallyGUFC

It's an unfortunate incident but it can happen anywhere. There are scumbags everywhere and they don't give a flyin' f**k about anyone but themselves. They feel like they run the place, they can do whatever they want. BURN THEM ALL!

illdoit2morrow

sparklingdude wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. Kind of like old feckers who like to walk the country roads without acknowedging that they're now more or less highways. They can assert their right to go for a stroll by being splattered across a mile of pavement.

The point of this thread is that Galway isn't a ****hole and we'd like to keep it that way.

No, nothing bad never happens in Galway

jenno86

They should be put up agin a wall in the middle of a field!

Verbal_Kint

if there is a cctv camera footage of these ****ers mention to your garda friend to look for them in westside boxing club.

this club is very very good and they do a lot of good work but they get people showing up for 3 or 4 sessions who think they are rocky after hitting the bag and want to show off to their mates.

Verbal_Kint

whineflu wrote: »

Ye'd swear listenin to some of ye that knackers have some sort of right of the jungle to do what they want. They don't and that's why they hassle tourists and not locals. If ya know them and they know that you know them they are not as quick to hassle ya. The same goes for the weekend boggers hopped up on vodka red bull and fat frogs makin fools of themselves. I bet they'd be horrified if their neighbours or family knew what they were up to.
I agree vigilantiism doesn't work but community spirit does. It doesn't matter how big a town ya get to know people eventually. Who needs cameras if 20 people report the same name to the guards.

i have to say this, although we all like to blame this type of thing on knackers the truth is they dont do the majority of this thing. sure they try to imtimidate people more than most but they are almost always just all talk and if you stay calm and either leave it as 'jesus im broke myself' or if they square up to you just calmly stare right back at them while saying nothing and if they cant make you break down and start acting afraid they will just walk off 99% of the time.

the american kid brought it on himself. he was very naive and he learned a good life lesson for the price of a couple of slaps.

the real danger that is faced by the average person on a night out as the person up above said is these people coming in from the country and who drink the vodka and red bull while having the few tequilas also. they are on the street drunk and stumbling into other people and in their drunken haze they think someone is starting a row with them and what makes them very dangerous is if they manage to knock the other lad to the ground they will follow up with a kick to the head.

you can spot them a mile away, big 16 stone dumb looking ****ers who you can hear shouting to their mates or shouting at the local farm girl. they are usually about 21-25 and come from very small areas where the measure of a man is how aggressive they are and how much they can drink.

ArraMusha

easy on the 'farm girl' references.
Plenty townie girls hanging out with drunk eejits..

Keep it country.

galvianlord

finally returning to the thread i began, cant believe the amount of debate it has generated. not going to comment apart from including the below link:

http://www.galwaynews.ie/8361-fifty-arrests-city-over-bank-holiday-weekend

this seems excessive by Galway's standards, particularly when you think that it doesnt seem to account for drunkeness, unless that's covered under public order? lots and lots of minor assaults though, which is either worrying or annoying depending on your point of view.

s_carnage

galvianlord wrote: »

finally returning to the thread i began, cant believe the amount of debate it has generated. not going to comment apart from including the below link:

http://www.galwaynews.ie/8361-fifty-arrests-city-over-bank-holiday-weekend

this seems excessive by Galway's standards, particularly when you think that it doesnt seem to account for drunkeness, unless that's covered under public order? lots and lots of minor assaults though, which is either worrying or annoying depending on your point of view.

Just heard the report on GBFM and they were saying how the police said it wasn't out of the ordinary for this time of year. Wonder how A&E numbers were this year though.

Shinto

Having lived abroad for many years, i can say Galway does have a scumbag problem.

I've never once even seen a Korean knacker in Seoul....they don't have a scumbag equivalent. ALL the kids are nerds who study until 2am in the morning.

If i spend a few nights out in Galway, some knacker will come up trying to intimidate me. Even during the day, i've witnessed knackers intimiating other people. I shouldn't even have to see these pieces of filth acting like they own the world. I haven't seen any **** like that in this city of 10 million (at any time of the day or night).

Maybe it's Korea's mandatory 2 yrs millitary service, or their STRICT no drugs policy that makes this place so safe (except for Kim Il Jung who is pointing his missiles at my house as we speak).

Don't blame alcohol, people here get pissed just as much as they do in Ireland yet there's no scumbags/thugs.

I for one do recommend getting aggressive with the knackers very early in the interaction. But i am a person who is quite willing to throw a punch so that's not an approach for everyone i suppose. If i slap the knacker in the face, i'm actually doing you all a great service as he's less likely to attack again.

I liked the Pat Shortt reference earlier ("up agin a wall in the middle of a field").

Mrs OBumble

Shinto wrote: »

I've never once even seen a Korean knacker in Seoul....they don't have a scumbag equivalent. ALL the kids are nerds who study until 2am in the morning.
......

Don't blame alcohol, people here get pissed just as much as they do in Ireland yet there's no scumbags/thugs.

It's a pretty big city, I don't suppose that you simply don't go to the "thug" parts of town? Even Korea must have some kids who drop out of education etc.

williamlynch

Saying Galway is a violent town as opposed to Korea doesn't mean much. Its like going to Utah and then proclaiming the rest of the world alcoholic.

Anyway, I'm an ignorant American living here and I was just wondering: when you guys use the term "knackers" are you referring to the inbred caravan types, or the shell suit tucked into socks crowd?

Sure there are a few scumbags around, but in my experience, Galway seems to have it best.

Greaney

malice_ wrote: »

What would you have done in that situation rarnes1?

I saw came across a fight about to kick of on Quay Street two weeks ago, so I walked up to them with my phone out, told them (the truth) that my son had been beaten up in town the night before and I'd just spent 9 hours in casualty with my son covered in blood and a swollen eye, and that I was damned if I was going to let a fight kick off in front of my eyes!! I was calling the guards.

Maybe it's because I'm a woman in my late thirties, but they stopped.

I really wish someone had stepped in when my son was getting his head kicked in

inisboffin

williamlynch wrote: »

Saying Galway is a violent town as opposed to Korea doesn't mean much. Its like going to Utah and then proclaiming the rest of the world alcoholic.

Very true

williamlynch wrote: »

Anyway, I'm an ignorant American living here and I was just wondering: when you guys use the term "knackers" are you referring to the inbred caravan types, or the shell suit tucked into socks crowd?

Congratulations, you just fulfilled your ambition to sound like an ignorant American:mad:
"inbred caravan types"? WTF? It's our equivalent of a racial slur you did there mate!

But to answer what you were originally asking (I think) - yes sometimes this is referring in a derogatory way, to members of the travelling comunity, but more often I'd say, just to general low life - and yeah, often seen as being shell suited etc. But there are plenty of scum in suits as witnessed over race week to be sure, as most of us witnessed.

williamlynch

Well... they do live in caravans, and they are inbred. And if it were a racial slur, that would imply that they are of a different race than me. I've put up with non stop theft and other assorted BS from the infamous small minority of travelling folk so... I couldn't care less.

inisboffin

williamlynch wrote: »

Well... they do live in caravans, and they are inbred. And if it were a racial slur, that would imply that they are of a different race than me. I've put up with non stop theft and other assorted BS from the infamous small minority of travelling folk so... I couldn't care less.

Who's 'they' William?

And let's see..first name William, last name Lynch - you don't exactly have the best track record there my friend in terms of friendly ancestral faces of Galway. Look we could baby fight like trolls all night!~

I said it was the equivalent of a racial slur. I freely admit to taking issue with the word 'knacker'. While I don't like it, I accept that people use it ways other than to describe Travellers in a derogatory fashion - it is used to mean general scumbags, base behaviour, sexually exhausted etc! You however, singled out and generalised in your OWN post.
I make the analogy of race having lived in the States in areas where the word 'N*gger' is still bandied about freely along with neat-and-tidy-sum-up-a-group-of-people phrases like "I've put up with non stop theft and other assorted BS from the infamous small minority of *insert minority*
Is it the same? Of course not.
Are there similarities in the rhetoric? Hell yes! I certainly see it, whether or not you 'couldn't care less' as an non-Irish national.

There's been plenty of finger pointing as to whether the 'scumbags' in this this thread are 'culchies/jackeens/knackers/foreigners/norms...blah blah'

It seems pretty obvious to me that it takes all sorts.

BTW it says many things that you can type the K word and not the N word on the forum.

williamlynch

I suppose that's because Ireland only has white people in it. The N word seems to offend "anti-racists" more than it does blacks. You can follow my favourite/favorite black jewish blogger here if you're looking for a more sophisticated and nuanced worldview.

Also: the name's not Lynch (it's a disguise), and technically I am an Irish national. Probably inbred too.

inisboffin

williamlynch wrote: »

Also: the name's not Lynch (it's a disguise), and technically I am an Irish national. Probably inbred too.

Ah, so it's internalised *insert xenophobia/racism/anyism*

Ok, grand so, you're one of us - test over. Carry on.:rolleyes:

inisboffin

williamlynch wrote: »

I suppose that's because Ireland only has white people in it.

...


By the way. It doesn't.


**tried to peep at blogn*gger site but link broken..

sells

i think hes just placing them in a catagory that we can all understand....but no knackers ever started on me in galway, thankfully, just try and say leave me alone and go, no point dying or whatever because some idiot wants a fight. that fight that was started by the knacker is just ridiculous, too many good people having to fight off these types of people, its a shame, hopefully it declines.

inisboffin

*sigh*
This is the problem with using the K word..
It's not clear whether you mean 'scumbags' in general, or are targeting a specific group of people for all violence.

[-0-]

Greaney wrote: »

I saw came across a fight about to kick of on Quay Street two weeks ago, so I walked up to them with my phone out, told them (the truth) that my son had been beaten up in town the night before and I'd just spent 9 hours in casualty with my son covered in blood and a swollen eye, and that I was damned if I was going to let a fight kick off in front of my eyes!! I was calling the guards.

Maybe it's because I'm a woman in my late thirties, but they stopped.

I really wish someone had stepped in when my son was getting his head kicked in

I'm very sorry to hear about your son. That's awful news.

I have been living in Galway for the last couple of years. I have lived in every other city this country has to offer and I can honestly say it is the safest of all the cities, although that means little to you given what you and your son have went through.

As has been said ad infinitum, you will also have a minority of trouble makers in every city. I am starting to notice an increase in Galway lately. Perhaps it's due to the recession, perhaps not. I had someone try to steal my digital camera out of my car a few months back, and I battered him.

Three lads tried to jump me a few weeks back on quay street and I was able to defend myself then too.

Please enroll your son in a self defense / martial arts course. The hiding he got should be more than enough encouragement, and he will be able to handle himself should this happen again. The townies haven't a clue how to fight and they roam around in packs. If you go for the biggest one and knock him down, the rest usually run off if they see you're psycho enough.

That has been my experience with them anyway.

Greaney

Thanks for your sympathy, actually, my son is unbeaten in the ring and does mixed marshal arts, he was sucker punched by someone he hardly knew, that is, the guy knew a "friend of a friend" kinda situation, started seriously slagging and physically poking my son for no good reason, my boy told him to back off and then yer man started on the "do you want a fight " bull. He seemed to calm down, he went to make up with my son and to shake his hand, that's when he punched him. One hit on the brow bone makes the flesh swell so fast that it splits so that's why all the blood and stitches.

No permenant damage done thank God.

My lad didn't want to follow it up at first, but after the 7th hour in casualty he said ok. We've got the guys name, and if only a couple of cops turn up at his door to warn him not to do it again (and speaking as a Mum, his'll be shamed), that'll at least show him that there's consequenses.

My lad knows half the tough guys in town and is well able to take care of himself, as he said himself he could have taken the guy but that's not the way it panned out.

inisboffin

Glad he's ok Greaney..

diverdriver

I am directly disputing your claim that the victim is in the wrong because they were minding their own business.

That's BS atypical internet response. I neither suggested it or implied it. You have of course the right to go anywhere you want without fear of attack. But in the real world and in parts of Galway and elsewhere in Ireland there are places to avoid at certain times. It's one thing to go there unaware but no one in their right mind deliberately places themselves in danger because they want to assert the rights or to show your macho side . If you are attacked asserting your rights, it is of course not your fault. You are a victim, nonetheless. But quite frankly the Garda, your friends, the nurses in hospital will all say 'What were you thinking?'

These are same reasons, I don't walk around town with a bundle of fifties hanging out of my pocket (if only). Why I lock my car and my house. Why I avoid walking down dark alleyways at night. It's called common sense. Something occasionally lacking in internet debates.