Summerhill

Varkov

So I'm seeing this lovely German girl and she's invited me for grub at her place. Only trouble is she lives in... Dun Dun Duuuun! Summerhill!

Is it as completely dodge and lawless as Ive heard? I'll be keeping my wits about me, but what's the best direction to tackle this from? Up O'Connell st and East from Parnell?

Paulyh

get a taxi

Its not a great area, but not as bad as a few years ago. I wouldnt go walk throught it late at night.

MagicMarker

Just dump her OP. :pac:

enda1

Varkov wrote: »

So I'm seeing this lovely German girl and she's invited me for grub at her place. Only trouble is she lives in... Dun Dun Duuuun! Summerhill!

Is it as completely dodge and lawless as Ive heard? I'll be keeping my wits about me, but what's the best direction to tackle this from? Up O'Connell st and East from Parnell?

Cause its dangerous at night, make sure she realises you'll have to stay the night - ye know for safety's sake :P

pigeonbutler

It's actually grand. Lived just the other side of canal in Ballybough for a year. Scariest thing you'll encounter is probably a gaggle of 12-13 year olds standing outside one of the take-aways but they rarely even say anything to passers-by.

Particularly this time of year when the evenings are bright you'll be as safe as anywhere else in the city centre. And yes up O'Connell Street and right on Parnell is probably handiest route if that's where you're coming from. Easy to access from Connolly station or around there either.

Enda1 has a good point though

Varkov

Cheers lads, just heard absolute horror stories about the place and was worried when she told me she walks home after work at half 2 on Friday nights!

Not sure I can sleep over though, what would my mother say?

Econoline Van

Varkov wrote: »

Cheers lads, just heard absolute horror stories about the place and was worried when she told me she walks home after work at half 2 on Friday nights!

Not sure I can sleep over though, what would my mother say?

Just saw this now. What are the horror stories? I've lived here a couple of years now and never had any trouble, even walking from town regularly late at night. Plenty of drunks around, the poor sods, but you'd never get any hassle from them, unless you were looking for it. It's a depressing area more than anything, because there's just nothing really going for it, no decent cafe or anything. But sure it's only up the road from Dorset Street/Parnell Street, I suppose.

honru

Econoline Van wrote: »

It's a depressing area more than anything, because there's just nothing really going for it, no decent cafe or anything.

That's the thing I found. Although the Summerhill/Ballybough stretch is right beside Croke Park it's not like much else really goes on there. Steady intervals of take-aways and pubs and one or two shops and that's about it. Some of the apartments look vacant and houses derelict while the road in Ballybough could do with a bit of upgrading.

Saying that I walked through this area plenty of times late at night and never had any trouble.

Fuinseog

Varkov wrote: »

So I'm seeing this lovely German girl and she's invited me for grub at her place. Only trouble is she lives in... Dun Dun Duuuun! Summerhill!

Is it as completely dodge and lawless as Ive heard? I'll be keeping my wits about me, but what's the best direction to tackle this from? Up O'Connell st and East from Parnell?

its not too bad, but not too good either. I go through it fairly often and try to behave as normally as possible, maybe that is the best thing to do.

RebelButtMunch

Just walk through as if you've lived there years, or your visiting yer Granny . Exude Belongness

RMD

Varkov wrote: »

Cheers lads, just heard absolute horror stories about the place and was worried when she told me she walks home after work at half 2 on Friday nights!

Don't mind the horror stories. The vast majority of horror stories are told by people who never lived there and generally the victim of the story is a friend of a friend of a friend of a cousin twice removed of a friend of a friend and so on. It's not bad as long as you keep your head up, like a lot of places.

old hippy

RMD wrote: »

Don't mind the horror stories. The vast majority of horror stories are told by people who never lived there and generally the victim of the story is a friend of a friend of a friend of a cousin twice removed of a friend of a friend and so on. It's not bad as long as you keep your head up, like a lot of places.

^ this. Back in the 90s I used to walk through it the odd morning & never saw anything "mad" apart from a bunch of 5 year olds teasing a Garda

vicwatson

Is it as completely dodge and lawless as Ive heard?

Oh yeh, not even the Gardai go there any more, there is gun fights at high noon every day, it's really crazy spaced out wild west place alright. Avoid. Tell the girl to move somewhere Noicer Roight?

Cheers lads, just heard absolute horror stories about the place and was worried when she told me she walks home after work at half 2 on Friday nights!

Whaaaaaaat and she hasn't been raped, mugged, stabbed or offered drugs AND is still alive !? My word.

What's the absolute horror stories you heard about the place?

It's good she is German though - heaven forbid she was a Dubliner FROM Summerhill, imagine ! Couldn't be having that.

Get a grip man !

Econoline Van

Just to add further weight to all this, I've delivered leaflets all over the area, including in every block of flats and never got any trouble. It is a depressing area, mind. The Sunset House, the Bridge and the other one in such a close area makes for a rather grim street scene seeing as there's lads standing outside them smoking or loitering from opening to close. They're no trouble, mind, it's just not too nice.

jimpump

Varkov wrote: »

So I'm seeing this lovely German girl and she's invited me for grub at her place. Only trouble is she lives in... Dun Dun Duuuun! Summerhill!

Is it as completely dodge and lawless as Ive heard? I'll be keeping my wits about me, but what's the best direction to tackle this from? Up O'Connell st and East from Parnell?

very dangerous, you will be anally raped by gangs of blood thirsty males and then decapitated :rolleyes:

seriously OP needs to get out more

Laisurg

It looks bad but tbh it's not really, i would be surprised if you ran into any trouble there.

HavingCrack

Back in the 70's and 80's it was pretty fcuking awful (family used to live nearby) by all accounts. It seems to have gentrified somewhat since though. I've walked through a handful of times at night and only had a spot of bother once (they were from Finglas rather than Summerhill as well) and to be honest, we were asking for it a bit. It's not the nicest part of Dublin by a long stretch though, so do keep your wits about you and you should be alright.

ro_chez

Apart from the dismembered torso's in the canal, its grand!

P_1

A clear case of how an area's so-called bad reputation can spread. I'd imagine its safe enough, given the week that's in it I'd say there may be an increased Garda presence around the area anyway.

old hippy

ro_chez wrote: »

Apart from the dismembered torso's in the canal, its grand!

That's nothing. When I was a kid they dug up a load of bodies by the Liffey. That Wood Quay area was well dodgy.

Het-Field

"We are the boys from Summerhill, we never work, and we never will" !

In the early 1990s it was a horrible looking area. Exceptionally grotty looking corpo flats, the bulk of which were boarded up, or burnt out. IIRC Paul Reynolds spoke of Tony Felloni operating part of his 1980s heroin enterprise out of one of the flats there. It also had a reputation of violence. In fact, I could imagine it having the reputation as Dublin's "hardest areas"

Today, it is more aesthetically pleasing. The bulk of the old flat-blocks were cleared at the turn of the decade. The houses are modern, and the punters have a greater incentive to look after their homes. I dont know if it is any safer than it was in the early 1990s, but I have no compunction walking through Summerhill at any time of the day or night.

BraziliaNZ

It's a sh*thole full of knackers in pajamas and tracksuits. I've the displeasure of cycling through it every day. Covered in litter, right outside their own houses because they've no respect for anything. I can see no benefits in living there.

old hippy

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

It's a sh*thole full of knackers in pajamas and tracksuits. I've the displeasure of cycling through it every day. Covered in litter, right outside their own houses because they've no respect for anything. I can see no benefits in living there.

Poverty breeds despair and hoplessness. You have the benefit of a life that is not emeshed in a spiral of poverty, I assume?

BraziliaNZ

old hippy wrote: »

Poverty breeds despair and hoplessness. You have the benefit of a life that is not emeshed in a spiral of poverty, I assume?

Yes I do! Whatever their reasons are, I would never recommend it to someone as a place to live. Plus, if poverty these days means getting the highest dole in Europe, having flat screen TVs and xboxes and eating out of the chipper nearly every night, it doesn't sound too bad to me.
Getting everything for nothing breeds laziness more like.

old hippy

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Yes I do! Whatever their reasons are, I would never recommend it to someone as a place to live. Plus, if poverty these days means getting the highest dole in Europe, having flat screen TVs and xboxes and eating out of the chipper nearly every night, it doesn't sound too bad to me.
Getting everything for nothing breeds laziness more like.

That's a massive and lazy generalisation and an insult to the people of Summerhill.

I claimed the dole briefly back in the day, I can assure you it's nothing like the picture you paint.

_blank_

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

It's a sh*thole full of knackers in pajamas and tracksuits. I've the displeasure of cycling through it every day. Covered in litter, right outside their own houses because they've no respect for anything. I can see no benefits in living there.

Banned, 1 Month

Fuinseog

old hippy wrote: »

Poverty breeds despair and hoplessness. You have the benefit of a life that is not emeshed in a spiral of poverty, I assume?

yes, but they also get used to handouts to the extent that they can do nothing for themselves and never learn any responsibility.

Fuinseog

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Yes I do! Whatever their reasons are, I would never recommend it to someone as a place to live. Plus, if poverty these days means getting the highest dole in Europe, having flat screen TVs and xboxes and eating out of the chipper nearly every night, it doesn't sound too bad to me.
Getting everything for nothing breeds laziness more like.

I have worked with people from Summerhill and unfortunately a lot of what you say is true.

AnalogueKid

It's not fair to tar everybody with the same brush, I used to pass through Summerhill twice a day on my bike and I wouldn't have any qualms about going there or visiting someone there.

Having said that, it can be a bit sketchy. I was stopped at traffic lights on my bike there once when out of nowhere a 15 year old rushed me with a hatchet. For whatever reason, I didn't react so he stopped about 5 meters from me and just started shouting "Fa%&ot" at me and ran back to his skanky little mates. This happened in broad daylight, and a week later my flatmate (also stuck at the same lights on his bike in broad daylight) was given a few boxes by one of the little skangers.

A similar thing happened to me near Cork Street, and years ago in Rathfarham and Moreen. So it's not just Summerhill.

Maybe it's just me, but I never feel the menace of Summerhill or Sheriff St on Amiens St., Killarney St. or North Strand Road despite their geographical proximity.

Fuinseog

The first think I noticed about inner city Dublin is the rage young people feel and how aggressive they can easily become. do they fell constantly threatened?

They flip at the slightest thing and I was told that was their way of expressing themselves. I could never and still cannot understand that.

old hippy

Fuinseog wrote: »

The first think I noticed about inner city Dublin is the rage young people feel and how aggressive they can easily become. do they fell constantly threatened?

They flip at the slightest thing and I was told that was their way of expressing themselves. I could never and still cannot understand that.

Maybe when you're marginalised, despised and ghettoised you'll finally understand...