Is Loughrea getting rougher?

Oliver_Ahern

At the weekend we had a wing mirror kicked off our car parked in the street by teenagers. This follows on from a fight we witnessed outside our window a few weekends ago. We've only just moved out to what we thought would be a quiet town. Starting to get a little concerned now.

Does anyone else think loughrea has gone to the dogs recently or have anything that might ease my concerns? Cheers

pmason

Was it kicked off or did somebody hit against it by accident?? I am living there a few years now and don’t consider it rough. There are brawls in every town now and again.

paulusdu

I really wouldn't class Loughrea as rough in anyway to be honest. I've seen a few fights on a Saturday night, but nothing that would give any concern. I always find the kids and teenagers to be nice and polite. In fact for a town of its size it is pretty safe and relaxed to walk around compared to some other towns of similar size.
I'd be shocked if your car mirror was kicked off deliberately, are you sure it wasn't done accidentally and when they saw the damage they ran ?

HellboundIRL

I think a lot of the teenagers act very tough but most of them are really harmless, they usually get very flustered and back down quickly when confronted. I've been living here for 10 years now and I can't say I've ever felt unsafe.

Oliver_Ahern

Thank you for your replies everyone. I totally agree that I feel safe in the town itself and have experienced no bother in pubs or on the main street whatsoever. However, this was on my own street on my own estate (on the outskirts of town).

The wingmirror was deliberately kicked off on Saturday night. A neighbour witnessed the incident and called the guards. We got a knock on our door at around midnight and the guard had our broken wingmirror in his hand. It had been closed in but was parked on the road and had been deliberately kicked off by a group of youths who then bolted up the street. The guards said the same group of kids are suspected of shoplifting on the evening in question. It's going to cost hundreds to repair the wingmirror.

The fight I witnessed a few weeks earlier was further down my street and involved 2 guys rolling around on the ground knocking the lard out of one another at around 8am on a sunday morning. They'd obviously been up all night drinking. Then one lad kicked the other guy's car window through and the other retaliated by bringing the other guy's laptop from the house and smashing it on the road into a million pieces!

Like I said, it has never felt like a rough place before these recent events, hence why I'm a little concerned I've moved into an area where we will have to keep on our guard from now on...

hoody

Having grown up just outside Loughrea, I moved into the town about 3 years ago and find if anything, it's getting less rough. I think I would be more concerned if I was living in the countryside where there are less eyes to report on something amiss - as your neighbour did when they spotted what happened your car.

It's a crappy thing to happen your car but it sounds like the guards will be keen to find out who did it - I would keep all receipts for the wingmirror and contact the guards in a couple of weeks again to see if they have identified who caused the damage.

As for the fight, again a pretty awful thing to witness, but this kind of drunken dispute is more to do with the idiocy of the individuals involved than their locality.

In my estate here, the green has been packed all evening with kids and parents out playing and kicking ball, the exact opposite of rough, so in my opinion it's not getting rougher.

I would say if you have a resident's association in your area, get in touch with them as it always helps to know your neighbours. Otherwise, I hope these two incidents are the only bit of crime you experience in Loughrea and that you soon start to enjoy life out here!

paulusdu

I'd have to agree with what hoody said, the guards catch up with this kind of behaviour pretty quickly. We had part of a fence in our estate pulled down by a few teenagers, guards get called, and next day the fence is fixed. the vast majority of the time kids are out playing on the green, football, hurling, rugby, etc.

You will always have teenagers acting like teenagers, and what happened to your car was quite bad, it could have been some clown showing off to his mates or it could have been malicious, i don;t know. But it would be fair to say it is in isolation. As for the drunks, well, that could be anywhere to be honest.

I'd go along with the residents association, or even start a local facebook page for your own estate. Its a good way to get to know your neighbours a bit and a good way for people to keep an eye on things and warn others of problems. I appreciate not everyone is a facebook user, but a good percentage are. We have one for our estate and it seems to work well.

ScumLord

Oliver_Ahern wrote: »

The wingmirror was deliberately kicked off on Saturday night. A neighbour witnessed the incident and called the guards. We got a knock on our door at around midnight and the guard had our broken wingmirror in his hand. It had been closed in but was parked on the road and had been deliberately kicked off by a group of youths who then bolted up the street. The guards said the same group of kids are suspected of shoplifting on the evening in question. It's going to cost hundreds to repair the wingmirror.

Sometimes you're just the unlucky sod that get's his wing mirror kicked off for no good reason. It happened to me and I live in different small town.

I didn't pay hundreds to get the mirror fixed though. It probably would have cost that knowing the garages, the mirror cost €90 or something and I just switched it out myself. It's not that hard, the only problem is the new mirrors cover wasn't sprayed so that would have meant getting it sprayed the right colour but the old one was just about ok to use.

Oliver_Ahern

I really appreciate everyone's comments and feedback on this. We are not overly worried we have moved to a rough area, just a little concerned in light of recent events. I agree with most that in the town/pubs/restaurants/shops etc it does not seem rough at all and these 2 (hopefully) isolated incidents aside, we've never seen anything to suggest there's anything serious to worry about.

I suppose we were just a little shocked by what has happened and I wanted to get some feedback on here, which has actually made us less worried. Thanks to all who replied, it has helped put our minds at ease somewhat!