Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Most generous thing you've seen people do

  • 08-08-2011 11:51pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 352 ✭✭


    Reading the stingiest thread, it got me thinking about the most generous things that you have witnessed people do... Well?


«1345678

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Kidchameleon


    One night when I was about 11, two scummers tried to rob my bike, just as they were about to get away, I saw a jogger. I called for him to help me. He ran over and the two feckers legged it. I never got to thank him.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,115 ✭✭✭✭Nervous Wreck


    Once, in my old place of work (an internet cafe), some scummer grabbed a girl's handbag from under her chair. A woman saw it and yelled at him. As he ran out the door, two customers jumped up off their chairs and legged it after him. He dropped the bag and kept going. Sound lads for going after him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,660 ✭✭✭Voodoomelon


    Young chap on the radio a few years back, cant remember the exact details, but he had been chatting to a shopkeeper about how he could no longer go to Australia on his trip of a lifetime as his savings had been stolen/been spent on a sick relative/something along those lines.

    A man overheard him talking and followed him outside, wrote him a cheque for thousands on the spot and told him to enjoy it.

    Such a good story when I heard it, so good in fact I cannot remember half of it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 413 ✭✭noxqs


    The Irish state handing over billions of tax payers money to FF cronies.

    I think that's the most generous thing anyone has ever done.


  • Registered Users Posts: 855 ✭✭✭joshrogan


    I gave an old man 2 euro so he could afford credit to phone somone, he didn't even say thanks.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,272 ✭✭✭✭Max Power1


    joshrogan wrote: »
    I gave an old man 2 euro so he could afford credit to phone somone, he didn't even say thanks.

    Isnt €5 the minimum credit you can buy?


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,672 ✭✭✭ScummyMan


    noxqs wrote: »
    The Irish state handing over billions of tax payers money to FF cronies.

    I think that's the most generous thing anyone has ever done.

    Was wondering how long that would take.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 352 ✭✭Goldenegg


    My house was broken into years ago and I walked in on the guy. Anyway, long story short, (I'm a woman) I chased him out of the house and a woman cycling past and a man walking copped on that something was wrong. They rang the guards and followed the skank, stopping him from getting into taxis. Guards caught him an arrested him!

    Prove that there are decent people out there!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 352 ✭✭Goldenegg


    Max Power1 wrote: »
    Isnt €5 the minimum credit you can buy?

    He probably meant he gave him €2 towards his credit


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,464 ✭✭✭Celly Smunt


    was on the train today playing with a really cool parker pen when i saw a kid looking at it with amazement,i gave it to him,he loved it,now i miss my pen.

    bic are crap :(


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 170 ✭✭20260622


    Max Power1 wrote: »
    Isnt €5 the minimum credit you can buy?

    Maybe he only had €3 so needed the other €2?
    :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,034 ✭✭✭Ficheall


    When I was in the Philippines with the better half we got a taxi to the port to get a ferry to one of the other islands, but left a shopping bag (just a couple of shirts) in the taxi. After we'd been queueing for half an hour waiting for tickets (no exaggeration - it took us about two hours to get through the entire process) I receive a tap on the shoulder - it was the taxi driver with the bag. I thanked him profusely and forced a couple of notes into his hand as he left.
    I later realised that they'd been worth about 40 cent.

    And that is the most generous thing I have ever done.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,030 ✭✭✭✭Chuck Stone


    That George Bush fella bringing democracy to millions of people in the middle east.

    And they didn't even ask for it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,602 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    just to head off the usual funsters

    "I generously give woman a piece of my sweet sweet lovin'"


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 106 ✭✭Haruki


    Last year queuing in spar, shop about to close for the night, women and her daughter standing in front of me trying to to exchange items (coke, chocolate) she claimed she bought earlier in the day from the shop for milk and bread, i could tell it was a money issue and she was quite embarrassed but the cashier (probably rightly) was having none of it and by now she was pretty much begging him, it was heartbreaking, especially with the child. I ask her to step aside and offered quietly to pay for the milk and bread and without saying a word she just nodded her head and burst into tears. I know her face from the area and would have never thought she would be in this type of predicament, i suppose that's the way it is.
    It's not much, but i thought that was quite generous........of me:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,851 ✭✭✭Cill Dara Abu


    Niall Quinn dividing the profits of his testimonial between Crumlin Childrens Hospital and some other hospital in Manchester, nobody would have batted an eyelid if he had kept it all for himself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 95 ✭✭Happyzebra


    A foreign national lady (non EU) with whom i used to work with was very generous when the boss and other workers used to treat her like she was a lesser human being because she was was here on a work visa. She was better educated than all of us but they worked her like a dog and she was paid the least. Her response... Work harder and be even more respectful towards them because she believed that eventually they would see the error of their ways.

    That place sure gave me a lesson in human nature.


  • Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,434 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Mickeroo


    Was going for a surf about a month ago and two paragliders landed near the beach. Their car was all the way back at the top of the hill where they took off from. THey were going to try and hitch up to get it, I let them take my van instead while I went for a surf.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 677 ✭✭✭Tordelback


    Several decades ago, when I was still just about a teenager, I found myself in Bradford the weekend before Christmas, having travelled there from points north to catch a 'plane home. The journey had taken way longer than expected and cost way more, it was unbelievably bad weather and I was down to my last 10 pounds.

    I had been counting on a train to the airport, but there wasn't one, so I wandered out into the city looking for a bus. Somebody pointed me to a bus, which ended up taking me to Leeds, not the airport. Another query and I was back in Bradford, it was very late, it was sleeting heavily, I was soaked through and very close to broke. I asked at a taxi rank, and they quoted me 30 quid (or something similarly daft) to the airport. I tried to find a tourist office, even a booth in the train station, but they were all closed.

    In desperation I walked into a posh hotel, thinking they might know about airport connections. I asked at the desk, and either the girl didn't know, or she didn't like the look of the hairy yob dripping on the carpet.

    As I turned to leave, an Irish voice said: "so what part of Dublin are you from?". It was one of those old uniformed doormen guys, who'd overheard my accent. I told him, and he said he was originally from Raheny. I told him my Dad was from Raheny, we talked a bit, and he asked me where I was trying to get to tonight. He confirmed that I was out of luck for buses, but said he'd check with the taxi companies to see if he could get a better price - and ushered me over to an armchair by a fire in the foyer to wait. A few moments later he was back, and told me that a guy the hotel used regularly would take me to the airport for 20 quid. I thanked him, but said I had less than half that. He said he'd try again, and went off. A pot of tea and some biscuits appeared while I waited, my clothes steaming in front of the fire. I said I couldn't afford them, the girl who brought them said not to worry, it was sorted.

    I'd finished a miraculous cup and was finally getting warm and wondering what the hell I was going to do next, with my flight only two hours away by now, when the doorman reappeared to tell me there was a taxi for me. I told him there was no way I could afford it, and he said he'd sorted it. I was gobsmacked. I offered him the cash I had, he refused. I asked for his address so I could send him the money when I got home, he refused. He just said "we have to look after each other when we're away from home", and showed me to the cab door. A few hours later I was on my way home for Christmas, instead of sleeping in some wet Bradford doorway as I'd been imagining.

    I've never forgotten the shock of that kindness, and ever since I've always made it a point to try to help tourists in trouble, which has meant me getting taken for a fool more than once, but I don't really care. Like the man says.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,488 ✭✭✭kingtut


    Tordelback wrote: »
    Several decades ago, when I was still just about a teenager, I found myself in Bradford the weekend before Christmas, having travelled there from points north to catch a 'plane home. The journey had taken way longer than expected and cost way more, it was unbelievably bad weather and I was down to my last 10 pounds.

    I had been counting on a train to the airport, but there wasn't one, so I wandered out into the city looking for a bus. Somebody pointed me to a bus, which ended up taking me to Leeds, not the airport. Another query and I was back in Bradford, it was very late, it was sleeting heavily, I was soaked through and very close to broke. I asked at a taxi rank, and they quoted me 30 quid (or something similarly daft) to the airport. I tried to find a tourist office, even a booth in the train station, but they were all closed.

    In desperation I walked into a posh hotel, thinking they might know about airport connections. I asked at the desk, and either the girl didn't know, or she didn't like the look of the hairy yob dripping on the carpet.

    As I turned to leave, an Irish voice said: "so what part of Dublin are you from?". It was one of those old uniformed doormen guys, who'd overheard my accent. I told him, and he said he was originally from Raheny. I told him my Dad was from Raheny, we talked a bit, and he asked me where I was trying to get to tonight. He confirmed that I was out of luck for buses, but said he'd check with the taxi companies to see if he could get a better price - and ushered me over to an armchair by a fire in the foyer to wait. A few moments later he was back, and told me that a guy the hotel used regularly would take me to the airport for 20 quid. I thanked him, but said I had less than half that. He said he'd try again, and went off. A pot of tea and some biscuits appeared while I waited, my clothes steaming in front of the fire. I said I couldn't afford them, the girl who brought them said not to worry, it was sorted.

    I'd finished a miraculous cup and was finally getting warm and wondering what the hell I was going to do next, with my flight only two hours away by now, when the doorman reappeared to tell me there was a taxi for me. I told him there was no way I could afford it, and he said he'd sorted it. I was gobsmacked. I offered him the cash I had, he refused. I asked for his address so I could send him the money when I got home, he refused. He just said "we have to look after each other when we're away from home", and showed me to the cab door. A few hours later I was on my way home for Christmas, instead of sleeping in some wet Bradford doorway as I'd been imagining.

    I've never forgotten the shock of that kindness, and ever since I've always made it a point to try to help tourists in trouble, which has meant me getting taken for a fool more than once, but I don't really care. Like the man says.

    I'm a bloke and that almost brought a tear to my eye :(:o

    There are decent people in the world after all, it's just a shame that it is the occasional bad story that puts someone off helping a stranger :(


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 855 ✭✭✭joshrogan


    Goldenegg wrote: »
    He probably meant he gave him €2 towards his credit
    This.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,918 ✭✭✭✭orourkeda


    some girl gave me a generous blow job once


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 28,654 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cass


    In KFC with my little fella on his 10th birthday. Had done the cinema and present thing and were heading home after. Two youngs lads walk in and up to the counter. They put down €2 and ask for an ice cream. Get their ice cream then sit down and start to share. They were only 11 or 12.

    Anyway my young lad gets up, takes out €20 of his birthday money and goes up to the till. Hands over money and gets his change then comes back and sits with us. 3 minutes later the girl behind the counter brings out a tray of food (the kids meals with the toys) and brings it to the two young lads. She talks to the young lads and then points to my fella.

    The two young lads get up come over and thank my little fella for the food. When they left i asked him what he done (as if it wasn't already obvious). He told me he didn't like to see anyone not able to afford some food, and he had plenty so he wanted to share. I'm sure it made more sense in his head, but out of the mouth of babes.

    Couldn't be prouder of him.:)
    Forum Charter - Useful Information - Photo thread: Hardware - Ranges by County - Hunting Laws/Important threads - Upcoming Events - RFDs by County

    If you see a problem post use the report post function. Click on the three dots on the post, select "FLAG" & let a Moderator deal with it.

    Moderators - Cass otmmyboy2 , CatMod - Shamboc , Admins - Beasty , mickeroo



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    There was a guy at a bus stop who needed the fare for a bus that was leaving from about half a mile away in 5 minutes and an old lady helped him out.
    I feel really sorry for that guy, at least twice a week he seems to end up running late for his bus and in the same place running late.

    I also saw someone give an English woman on O'Connell St. a tenner for a bus to Mullingar. I know it was to Mullingar because the poor woman has needed the same thing at least 15 times in the last 2 years because she does be coming from having a miscarriage in the Mater. Just like the first guy I mentioned, she always goes to the same place to find a kind soul to help her out.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,722 Mod ✭✭✭✭Twee.


    My parents went to India about five years ago and traveled around a bit. They befriended a rickshaw driver who offered to guide them around Cochin/Kochi for a few days, they even had dinner at his home with his family.

    Since then we've exchanged letters and phone calls with the family, sending the kids pens/pencils/books at birthdays and Christmas. From time to time they send us some spices or fabric. The eldest daughter had always said how she wanted to come to Ireland to be a nurse and visit her "auntie and uncle". She graduated school this year and unfortunately didn't make it into college. She told my dad she had started saving to do a course to become a flight attendant, 13,000 rupees, or €200. The next day my dad went to the bank and transfered her the money.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,920 ✭✭✭Einhard


    I like this thread. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 205 ✭✭simonmln


    We live fairly close to the airport. One day I got home from somewhere, and my father for whatever reason had been up in the airport. He had got talking to two Eastern European tourists who had ran out of money, but still had 2 days until there flight home. They had nowhere to go so they were planning on staying in the airport and winging it.

    He was having none of it though, so he let them stay with us, 5 minutes away, gave them a room for the nights, food and everything they needed. Dropped them back for their flight then.

    My dad isnt exactly an openly emotional guy so it was pretty cool to see.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 673 ✭✭✭Tubsandtiles


    Two years ago there was young French bagpackers stopped a little bit away from my house trying to cook soup and food with a little stove on the ground, my dad invited them in to use the cooker and gave them more food etc. Nice people, I think things like this are the reason other countries say we are a friendly nation even do we can be very ignorant at times


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,475 ✭✭✭RedXIV


    Watched my dad come and go, day in, day out into a job he hated for 30 years to support his family. He was stationed in a village on his own for over a year meaning he was on call for everything. He's been stabbed, attacked, seen things I don't even want to know about, all because he wanted to provide for us. He retired this year and told me how much he had hated the job and I never knew till then.

    I know its different times and all but to work at something you hate for 30 years is still mindboggling for someone who has yet to hit 25 :)


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,264 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Not exactly a big one, but it made me smile inside. Last weekend I was sitting in a bistro round the corner from me. A homeless guy (not your typical alco/druggie head, just an oldish guy down on his luck) was walking by and asked the people eating outside if they had any spare change. One of the guys who was in the middle of his meal stood up and brought him inside. Asked him to pick anything from the menu and he paid for it. About 15 mins later an oldish woman was trying to parallel park her car outside, she was all over the place. Same guy gets up, offers to help her and parks the car. Very few people like him around these days.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭Dyr


    I heard bono paid taxes once


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 93 ✭✭eirn


    I moved to Cork to go to college. My mam and I went down to try and find me a place to live. I'd arranged a few viewings, but I'd no idea of the city layout.

    We got a cab from the train station. We had a big chat with the driver, I had a list of a couple of places to see, the agent was late meeting us in the first place, it was lashing rain, the driver told us to wait where we were, turned off the meter, and continued our chat about hurling!

    The place ended up being a bit of a dive, so he picked a place off the list for me that he said he would choose if it was for his own daughter.

    That was the flat I ended up taking. As a nice bonus, it was a few minutes walk from college, and across the road from the bus stop I needed to get to work. And ended up best friends with one of my flatmates!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,327 ✭✭✭Sykk


    Even though this happened years ago when I was about 8 I still remember it as vivid as what I had for dinner yesterday.

    We went on a family holiday to Spain and they brought me along. For a reason unknown to me, they brought all the money for the holiday in cash and got a safe for my mums room so they could keep the cash there.

    Long story short, about three/four days before we had to go home all of the money was robbed from the safe. It was probably a maid that worked for the apartments as the only way to open it was a key.

    Management had none of it, basically told us tough luck. Anyway we had about 20 quid between 6 of us for three/four days and made it til the 2nd last day by eating sandwiches!

    We ended up in the airport with nothing left. I remember being famished (I know people are a lot worse off, two days without food isn't that long, but still)

    I walked into a shop in the airport after finding some Spanish currency on the ground (didn't know what it was worth) and asked the guy could I buy a sandwich with it. He looked at it, smiled and said no.

    When I went to walk off he called me back, handed me a sandwich, bar of chocolate, looked around for a second and grabbed a can of coke then handed all of them to me. He could speak much English so he rubbed his belly and said "You hungry, no problem!"

    I went back and shared the sandwich then we got home and ate the house out of it..

    There is good in people. I'd love to know where that guy is, I'd buy him a pint :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭factnee


    Niall Quinn dividing the profits of his testimonial between Crumlin Childrens Hospital and some other hospital in Manchester, nobody would have batted an eyelid if he had kept it all for himself.

    Hardly..

    Mother Teresa Quinn wasn't entitled to a testimonial from any club as he had not spent 10 years anywhere. This was simply a PR exercise to make himself look good.


  • Registered Users Posts: 208 ✭✭Steamer


    Was out at Halloween last year and on the way to get a taxi home with the girls I suddenly (in my drunken state) realised that we were going home without any food i.e. Supermacs. So I told the girls, ye head off, I'll go back and get some grub and see ye back at the house.

    So I went in (in fancy dress) ordered the grub. Just when I was going to pay for it I realised that I had no real cash on me at all and no bank card or anything. Was standing there trying to count my change knowing I wouldn't make the 15euro worth of food I had ordered when a lovely man just comes over and pays for it all. I was so grateful (because I was drinking and Supermacs means everything to me at that stage of the night). I asked him to give me his number or something so I could give it back to him or something and he just said to do someone else a favour some night. So nice.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 504 ✭✭✭LostGirly


    A few years ago we were in Montauk in America for a holiday! We went to a Waterpark with a girl we knew but she had to go on up to New York afterwards but dropped us to a bus stop on the side of the motorway. There was to be a bus in the next hour. The bus never turned up.

    There were four of us, Irish, white skinned, and soaked through after a shower of rain! We decided we had to thumb. A lot of mexicans, rednecks and scummers stopped and offered us lifts - but none of them were actually going our way and we wouldn't have gotten into the back of their vans anyway! We were getting pretty scared at this point and didn't even have a mobile between us.

    After a few hours and a few very scary looking people pulling up to offer us lifts this old guy in a Merc pulled up. He gave out stink to us for hitching on the motorway (completely illegal). He said he had granddaughters our age and said he'd die if he thought they were doing something like that. He wasn't going to where we were going but said he would bring us to the next town where there was a proper bus station. We tried to refuse, we didn't want him going out of his way but he was having none of it.

    We all pilled in (we just knew he was ok), the same day he was driving his wife's car, if he had been driving his own car he wouldn't have been able to fit us all as it was a sports car, it was the first time in 5 years he had taken his wife's car! He dropped us to the bus station and as I was getting out of the car he handed me $200 so that we could get something to eat and get the more expensive but faster bus back to Montauk! He refused to give me his address so that I could send him the money when we got home.

    I regret to this day not finding out his name and address just so we could send him some token of thanks. I will never forget that man who we've all called our Guardian Angel since!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,159 ✭✭✭stinkle


    Mam heard a lovely story on the radio a while back about how a syndicate from a local bus depot had won a big amount on the Lotto. One of the syndicate members had died suddenly about a year before that but they insisted on donating his "share" of the winnings to his family. Mam didn't know who they were referring to at the time, but it turns out the man in question was her best friend's brother, who had left a young family behind. Very touching stuff and nice to hear of a good news story being reported.


  • Registered Users Posts: 205 ✭✭simonmln


    I was having a pretty crap day until I came across this thread.


  • Registered Users Posts: 453 ✭✭dashboard_hula


    Last Christmas, my Mum was knackered from working (she runs her own business, the nature of it being that she's incredibly busy at Christmas and other holidays) and she absolutely hates housework, so as a treat to herself, she was going to get a cleaner in to do the house. She got an attack of the morals the day she was going to book the cleaner, and gave the money to her friend who was a sacristan at the local church and told her to do something decent with it. Fair few quid as well - I'm not sure if the cleaner was that good or the house was that messy!
    An hour later, the sacristan drove out to the house with a receipt for 8 bags of coal which she'd bought with Mums money and had sent to 4 families in the town who had had really **** times that year.
    It's a small thing, but I don't know a lot of people who would have thought of doing that instead of just not spending the money.


  • Registered Users Posts: 895 ✭✭✭Mocha Joe


    jester77 wrote: »
    Not exactly a big one, but it made me smile inside. Last weekend I was sitting in a bistro round the corner from me. A homeless guy (not your typical alco/druggie head, just an oldish guy down on his luck) was walking by and asked the people eating outside if they had any spare change. One of the guys who was in the middle of his meal stood up and brought him inside. Asked him to pick anything from the menu and he paid for it. About 15 mins later an oldish woman was trying to parallel park her car outside, she was all over the place. Same guy gets up, offers to help her and parks the car. Very few people like him around these days.

    Sounds like a show-off. That would make me cringe.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,324 ✭✭✭Alter-Ego


    I was out one night and got jumped by two scumbags for no reason. One of them picked up a beer bottle, smashed it and started swinging at my face with the broken bottle. A taxi driver stopped for me and extracted me from the situation and even took some damage to his car.
    If it wasn't for him, god knows what would have happened to me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,110 ✭✭✭123balltv


    I was on a bus last week a woman at the back of bus was coughing like mad she looked really embarrassed we've all had tiggle in our throats its
    annoying so she was coughing for 10 mins straight her face red as a tomatoe a lovely old man got on with his shopping bags saw her got off his seat offered her a bottle of 7up and a mint sweet within a few seconds she stopped coughing she was so grateful :)


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 11,139 Mod ✭✭✭✭Mr. Manager


    Well, this is one of the best threads in AH :)

    Just sat into the office and it's cheered me right up!

    Will throw in my own story so. When driving from Dublin-Monaco last year we were due to stop in Nice for a 50th birthday of my friends mother. Had the sat-nav going and when it said "reached destination" - we hadn't.

    In a really dark quiet place in Nice that didn't look all that great we decided to park the car and walk around to see if we could find it. The roads around were very tight and not leaving much space for U-turns. Anyways, we stumble upon a pizza place with a bunch of youths outside and we decide to head in and ask for directions. None of us speak French.

    The owner, who has best English comes out to draw us a map (which is extremely complicated looking). We take the map and begin our 10 minute walk to the hostel. After about 30 seconds of leaving the pizza place a tiny little Renault Clio comes barreling down after us.

    The owner reckons that the directions are a bit difficult to understand so offers to take us to our destination. After a few seconds hesitation, 3 of us bundle into the car and he takes us in the total opposite directions of what his map said - starting to get a little freaked at this point I ask what's going on and he says "short cut".

    Lo and behold we arrive at our destination, a fabulous hostel. The best I've stayed at! The pizza shop owner was a top notch guy! Couldn't thank him enough as we NEVER would have found the place. It was totally hidden off the road.


    When back in Dublin, a young couple approached me outside the Fitzwilliam casino as I was getting into my car and asked me would I drop them and their friend to Sandymount as they had not got enough for a taxi, now before meeting the French man I might have said no but after that, I said of course!

    Brought them to a house party of which they insisted I came in for a drink. Thanked them for the offer as they thanked me for the lift and we parted ways.


    Never has the phrase "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you" rang clearer :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,012 ✭✭✭Plazaman


    Back in my student days I got work experience in Cork with 3 others in the class as part of the course. Took the train to Connolly that day and walked over to Heuston. Queueing for my train ticket I realised that like a dill I'd left my wallet on the other train. A fellow classmate behind me seen my panic and bought my ticket.

    In a double whammy, we were to book B&B's on spec until we got a house together so with no mon I envisioned a bit of street sleeping (had reported loss to Station master in Heuston who after making fun of the culchie for a while said he'd look into it). I knew distant family friends in Cork but hadn't seen them for years. I chanced my arm and made a cold call to the house after which they put me up, subbed me money and liased with the Irish Rail who incidentally had found my wallet and put it on a train 2 days later.

    Triple whammy, not one penny was missing from the wallet which was found by a passerby who handed it in.

    The feeling of having no money or being stuck in a situation out of your control is horrible so if I can help someone out of a bind, I do. Karma and all that shít (it works I swear).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭UglyBolloxFace


    Ezridax wrote: »
    In KFC with my little fella on his 10th birthday. Had done the cinema and present thing and were heading home after. Two youngs lads walk in and up to the counter. They put down €2 and ask for an ice cream. Get their ice cream then sit down and start to share. They were only 11 or 12.

    Anyway my young lad gets up, takes out €20 of his birthday money and goes up to the till. Hands over money and gets his change then comes back and sits with us. 3 minutes later the girl behind the counter brings out a tray of food (the kids meals with the toys) and brings it to the two young lads. She talks to the young lads and then points to my fella.

    The two young lads get up come over and thank my little fella for the food. When they left i asked him what he done (as if it wasn't already obvious). He told me he didn't like to see anyone not able to afford some food, and he had plenty so he wanted to share. I'm sure it made more sense in his head, but out of the mouth of babes.

    Couldn't be prouder of him.:)

    I'm not gonna lie - that brought a tear.

    Your little fella has a good head on his shoulders. You should be proud of yourself.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 329 ✭✭Magic Beans


    A few years ago things weren't going too well for me and I was out of work. A friend of mine got me a job in his place on contract for about two months. Doesn't seem like much here in black and white but it was a total livesaver.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,808 ✭✭✭Caveman1


    Tordelback wrote: »
    Several decades ago, when I was still just about a teenager, I found myself in Bradford the weekend before Christmas, having travelled there from points north to catch a 'plane home. The journey had taken way longer than expected and cost way more, it was unbelievably bad weather and I was down to my last 10 pounds.

    I had been counting on a train to the airport, but there wasn't one, so I wandered out into the city looking for a bus. Somebody pointed me to a bus, which ended up taking me to Leeds, not the airport. Another query and I was back in Bradford, it was very late, it was sleeting heavily, I was soaked through and very close to broke. I asked at a taxi rank, and they quoted me 30 quid (or something similarly daft) to the airport. I tried to find a tourist office, even a booth in the train station, but they were all closed.

    In desperation I walked into a posh hotel, thinking they might know about airport connections. I asked at the desk, and either the girl didn't know, or she didn't like the look of the hairy yob dripping on the carpet.

    As I turned to leave, an Irish voice said: "so what part of Dublin are you from?". It was one of those old uniformed doormen guys, who'd overheard my accent. I told him, and he said he was originally from Raheny. I told him my Dad was from Raheny, we talked a bit, and he asked me where I was trying to get to tonight. He confirmed that I was out of luck for buses, but said he'd check with the taxi companies to see if he could get a better price - and ushered me over to an armchair by a fire in the foyer to wait. A few moments later he was back, and told me that a guy the hotel used regularly would take me to the airport for 20 quid. I thanked him, but said I had less than half that. He said he'd try again, and went off. A pot of tea and some biscuits appeared while I waited, my clothes steaming in front of the fire. I said I couldn't afford them, the girl who brought them said not to worry, it was sorted.

    I'd finished a miraculous cup and was finally getting warm and wondering what the hell I was going to do next, with my flight only two hours away by now, when the doorman reappeared to tell me there was a taxi for me. I told him there was no way I could afford it, and he said he'd sorted it. I was gobsmacked. I offered him the cash I had, he refused. I asked for his address so I could send him the money when I got home, he refused. He just said "we have to look after each other when we're away from home", and showed me to the cab door. A few hours later I was on my way home for Christmas, instead of sleeping in some wet Bradford doorway as I'd been imagining.

    I've never forgotten the shock of that kindness, and ever since I've always made it a point to try to help tourists in trouble, which has meant me getting taken for a fool more than once, but I don't really care. Like the man says.

    That sounds like a perfect ad for lyons teabags :D Great story


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭kev9100


    Brillaint thread.:D

    A couple of years ago I as in Beauvais Airport in France trying to get home. Stupidly, I didn't print out my ticket as I thought I would just pay five quid at the Ryanair desk and it would be fine. Unfortunately, the girl at the desk said that I had to pay by card and I didn't have one. My phone wasn't working either, my flight was leaving soon and I really did think I as going to be stranded. Thankfully, the guy behind me in the line offered me his phone to call home and get my dads card info.

    If he hadn't been so generous I was going to be stuck in france, with no phone and barely any money! Thank God for the kindness of strangers:),


  • Posts: 17,378 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Broke down in the mountains over here.. No phone or anything and I run out of petrol. This lad stops, speaks no English but understands my predicament and gives me his 2 litres of petrol and refuses any money for it.

    I needed someone like him so badly and I got very very lucky.. Not a nice feeling being in the middle of nowhere with all your life possessions on the back of a bike. Can't leave it there and walk and can't push it either.

    The legend.
    http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1640/p1020033nd.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 407 ✭✭toxicity234


    In 2004.I had taking 5 months out from work; I was travelling in Peru it was my first stop. So I arrive in Lima on a Saturday evening and jumped on a bus heading north. Woke up as the bus stop in a town at about 10 the next morning.
    I can never remember the name of the town, but got off the bus, there was a market on in the town square, so I had a look around and thought I have something to eat, So I went looking for an ATM. I had dollars but not much, So I found an ATM in what look like a oldest building in the world.
    Put in card and tried to get cash and the machine swallows my card. So there I was in the middle of Peru on a Sunday morning pressing every button on the ATM to try to get my only source of cash of the next 5 month our of some old machine. After a few mins one of the local spotted me and asks me something in Spanish. In My Pigeon Spanish I try to explain what had happened. After a few mins half of the town was around trying to help me and a few local who could speak English. I was getting more and more worried as the bus would be leaving soon,
    After about half an hour the local kid came running up shouting something and behind him was a middle age well dressed Gent. The English speaking local then explain to me that is was ok this was the local bank manager and that he was going to open the bank to return my card.
    5 mins later I was back on the bus. Card in pocket, There two things I will never forget,
    1) the feeling of being scared when I realised the card was coming out of that machine.
    2) And the feeling of Relieve then the bank manager handed me my card.
    It on my list of place I want to go back to, Those People were so nice. I’ll never forget them. I was a bit nervous about travelling by myself before that and whenever some ask me about travelling by myself I always tell that story.


  • Advertisement
Advertisement