Most miserable and grim towns and villages in Ireland

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Obviously keeping you anonymous etc, do you mind sharing what part of Bray you lived in? I know it well and all the parts. There's a diverse property range.

I lived in nice properties there for almost a decade, with good and bad neighbours. The problem with Bray is that it’s a kippy hole of a town, full of scruffs, alcoholics and drug addicts. Your own street and house might be fairly nice but one street over and you may as well be in terraced housing in Darndale, Kilcross or Holylands. And it’s scattered across the entire town. 5 minutes walk from anywhere and you’ll be in a place where a woman shouldn’t walk alone at night.

Bray has some nice people living there, hard working, tax paying and house proud enough to keep the salt air from wrecking their homes but there’s not enough of that to negate the fact it’s a depressing hole of a town.

The drink is a curse isn't it?

Higgins5473

Deleted User wrote: »

Because there's a couple of people like yourself who make up so much nonsense about it and I'm compelled to defend it because it's not true. Like you're in love with Maynooth and I'm delighted for you but nobody in Bray/Greystones wants to live in Maynooth hence why they choose to buy in North Wicklow.

And it's not like I'm making it up, look at the reviews on TripAdvisor for all the restaurants, look how busy it is every single day, look how many people want to walk the Cliff walk, how good the pubs etc, the best golf courses in the country on your doorstep, powerscourt literally five mins away, Killruddery house... There isn't an area in South Dublin that comes close to the amenities on offer. It's way more interesting than Cabinteely. Incomparable but I see the appeal of both. New builds going for over 700,000 that sold at that price because people from South Dublin want to live there even though they could have bought in Cabinteely or Stillorgan etc.

Bray is not what it used to be. That's why the McKillens are putting in a Stella Cinema because they know they catchment area is huge and from the success of the sea front and other good businesses, the potential is there.

We all know there's a couple of scobes in Bray but the same can be said for everywhere and that's mainly the outskirts as you enter the main street or in some parts of the west of the town.

absolutely nothing there aside from you may know some McKillen inner circle ****. It's a sh*thole...I maintain, and I repeat, not the biggest sh*thole in Ireland. Just a sh*thole.

Higgins5473

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

The drink is a curse isn't it?

I'd say you are on it?

JohnnyFlash

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

The drink is a curse isn't it?

Some fellas can’t handle the devil’s buttermilk.

Higgins5473

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some fellas can’t handle the devil’s buttermilk.

How in sweet jesus do you and your concubine Emmet spice yoke show up on any thread I am on? Look at my post count...I spend very little time on this, yet you and this lad are there always with hundreds of weekly posts?

JayZeus

JayZeus wrote: »

I lived in nice properties there for almost a decade, with good and bad neighbours. The problem with Bray is that it’s a kippy hole of a town, full of scruffs, alcoholics and drug addicts. Your own street and house might be fairly nice but one street over and you may as well be in terraced housing in Darndale, Kilcross or Holylands. And it’s scattered across the entire town. 5 minutes walk from anywhere and you’ll be in a place where a woman shouldn’t walk alone at night.

Bray has some nice people living there, hard working, tax paying and house proud enough to keep the salt air from wrecking their homes but there’s not enough of that to negate the fact it’s a depressing hole of a town.

This is factually incorrect.

40,000 people living there and that's your conclusion? I'd suggest you live in nicer places then! Your "full of" statement is wrong. Is Dun Laoghaire full of scruffs too? What about killiney on the Ballybrack side? Same deal? Shankill where the council estate is? Blackrock has a council estate off Newtown park avenue, five minute walk from million euro houses... Unfortunately you can't escape it in Ireland. It's just the way it is. Greystones has Charlesland, Kindlestown.... What about Clontarf that's around the corner from Raheny/Artane? Hardly great spots. Or Rathfarnham and Whitechurch?

Every single new build has social housing in it now, whether you're in Blackrock or Cabinteely or Greystones...

Bray is not what it was in the 80s and yeah the main street needs a lick of paint but what main street doesn't? Part of Bray's problem is it's so big, it's way bigger than most other towns and if your only experience is driving through the main street, it's not going to be the most ecstatic sensation in the world, I agree. But it's now a fantastic place to live If you're in the right parts and that's of course subjective to ones budget etc.

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

...

Bray is not what it was in the 80s

I'm not on about the 80s. He's not on about the 80s. I was in Bray occasionally in the 90s but my experience is entirely late 00s onwards.

Bray is still Bray.

Your defensiveness is unequalled in this thread.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

I'm not in love with Maynooth - I'm just correcting someones delusional idea that its worse than Crap Brighton.

Bray is an utter, utter dump. Paddy McKillen will not rescue that by filling a rotten hole on the main street that has existed for what, 20 years, when most of Quinsboro Road is ripe for demolition.

Bray is known for run down hotels you wouldn't have an affair in, slot machines, nursing homes on the sea front, dog faeces everywhere and roaring alcoholics on the sea front. And every single one is true.



What, you dislike your pathetic attempt to redefine geography for your own purposes being pointed out?

Its not in South Dublin. Its in Wicklow

And its an utter dump.


Enjoy your McKillen cloned 'experience' that's just copy and pasted from somewhere that's actually in the Dublin you seem determined to pretend to be in. It won't fix all the major problems that make Bray an utter dump.

Such sheer aggression. So odd to see.

Ok ok you think Bray, a place where a good new build now costs over 700K and is in huge demand with loads of high middle class earners is a **** hole... Fair enough! Enjoy Maynooth

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

Such sheer aggression. So odd to see.

Ok ok you think Bray, a place where a good new build now costs over 700K and is in huge demand with loads of high middle class earners is a **** hole... Fair enough! Enjoy Maynooth

I know its a ****hole, no need to think it.

paul71

I think this blew off because someone declared Bray to be better than Dunboyne/Leixlip/Maynooth. I am going to state simply than anyone who puts Maynooth in same category as Leixlip or Dunboyne clearly does not know those 3 towns.

In my own opinion a better comparision is Leixlip and Bray, niether are grim, but neither are particularly nice. Maynooth however is a nice town albeit smaller but with better facilities far fewer eyesores and a university which gives a unique feel not even replicated in towns like Carlow which also has a high student population. The student population in Maynooth mix very well with the town, possibily because a lower proportion rent in the town and commute because of the excellent train and bus links.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

I know its a ****hole, no need to think it.

Luckily your opinion doesn't hold much weight in the real world. I do however respect your opinion on Boards. Have a good evening

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Such sheer aggression. So odd to see.

Ok ok you think Bray, a place where a good new build now costs over 700K and is in huge demand with loads of high middle class earners is a **** hole... Fair enough! Enjoy Maynooth

You’d want to be a special class of eejit to spend €700k to buy a house in Bray, especially if you’re a ‘high middle class earner’ as you imagine and not originally from the cow-pat town with the scruffy mainstreet and even scruffier seafront. Bray, as a town, is a miserable kip. It has been for decades and it really isn’t getting any better with time.

Higgins5473

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Such sheer aggression. So odd to see.

Ok ok you think Bray, a place where a good new build now costs over 700K and is in huge demand with loads of high middle class earners is a **** hole... Fair enough! Enjoy Maynooth

Where have you bought? In the past or now, you seem like you are on the wrong side of your 30s, what are the non **** hole grim places you have bought

paul71

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

The drink is a curse isn't it?

You're just happy the discussion is deflected from the North and South Riding.

paul71

paul71 wrote: »

You're just happy the discussion is deflected from the North and South Riding.

That time I was marooned in Nenagh they'd be riding in a dark corner of Maximus nightclub. Kipalicious.

Ihavetheaids

Has anyone mentioned mountmellick yet ? Athy ? Moate ?

paul71

Ihavetheaids wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned mountmellick yet ? Athy ? Moate ?

Athy is a good call, 7 stone jockeys on pints.

Tiger Roll

Some other ones would include Ballyragget, Macroom, Castleisland and Baltinglass. But the grimmest of all is Borris in Ossory..

paul71

God I forgot Kildalkey.

RabbleRouser2k

Tiger Roll wrote: »

Some other ones would include Ballyragget, Macroom, Castleisland and Baltinglass. But the grimmest of all is Borris in Ossory..

Went to Castleisland twice (outside of driving thru it) when my parents were trying to get appliances (one time it was an electrical oven, the second time it was a refridgerator. I think it was a couple of days between shopping there, told 'new models' were coming in, in regards to the fridge, if I remember correctly). This hardware store was recommended to us. (Since learned it had changed management the year before, and new owner was a complete huckster, like Del Boy, but without the moral compass).

Both appliances, bought from the same store, were f***ed on arrival. The oven didn't work, so had to call a repairman. He fixed it, and got it working... A few weeks later, the glass hob cracked-like an impact break, that kind of thing. (Nothing was dropped on it.). Repairman was called again.
Said he'd never seen anything like it.

Same with the fridge. Fridge was also broken. Repairman was called out, and said 'return it, it's not repairable'.There were parts missing from it that were never put into it from the beginning.

A lot of stores that were there closed down. Mostly because they had a bad reputation for selling faulty/ broken goods. Everything from PC stores, to the aforementioned hardware store, are gone now. At one point it was doing alright.

Nowadays, it's a pit of despair.

ArnoldJRimmer

Jaysus, left the thread for a while, came back in and people are still fighting about Bray. I have no affiliation with the place other than a family member there that I visit a couple of times a year, but I think its a grand town with a lot to offer. Its really not that rough, and has some pretty good bars and restaurants, but there are also more desirable places to live in the Dublin area. Far from one of the grimmest places in Ireland

irishguitarlad

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Went to Castleisland twice (outside of driving thru it) when my parents were trying to get appliances (one time it was an electrical oven, the second time it was a refridgerator. I think it was a couple of days between shopping there, told 'new models' were coming in, in regards to the fridge, if I remember correctly). This hardware store was recommended to us. (Since learned it had changed management the year before, and new owner was a complete huckster, like Del Boy, but without the moral compass).

Both appliances, bought from the same store, were f***ed on arrival. The oven didn't work, so had to call a repairman. He fixed it, and got it working... A few weeks later, the glass hob cracked-like an impact break, that kind of thing. (Nothing was dropped on it.). Repairman was called again.
Said he'd never seen anything like it.

Same with the fridge. Fridge was also broken. Repairman was called out, and said 'return it, it's not repairable'.There were parts missing from it that were never put into it from the beginning.

A lot of stores that were there closed down. Mostly because they had a bad reputation for selling faulty/ broken goods. Everything from PC stores, to the aforementioned hardware store, are gone now. At one point it was doing alright.

Nowadays, it's a pit of despair.

You are right rabblerouser, an absolute hell hole. The religious fanaticism, the constant fights in bars, the grudges that are held there for something petty that happened in secondary school, the shops all closed, the absolutely ****ty weather when compared to tralee or killarney (there is always a black cloud over It). It doesn't help either that the hinterland(scartglen, cordal, Brosna, knocknagoshel, currow) are some of the most backwards and interbred people in Ireland. The whole place should be nuked.

skooterblue2

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Jaysus, left the thread for a while, came back in and people are still fighting about Bray. I have no affiliation with the place other than a family member there that I visit a couple of times a year, but I think its a grand town with a lot to offer. Its really not that rough, and has some pretty good bars and restaurants, but there are also more desirable places to live in the Dublin area. Far from one of the grimmest places in Ireland

Remember what Father Feehily from Ross O'Carroll-Kelly said about Bray.
There are only two jobs in Bray, sucking diesel out of parked cars and slapping the left handedness out of children.

I have been there and thought it was alright. Grand for commuting on the DART to Dubin

skooterblue2

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Jaysus, left the thread for a while, came back in and people are still fighting about Bray. I have no affiliation with the place other than a family member there that I visit a couple of times a year, but I think its a grand town with a lot to offer. Its really not that rough, and has some pretty good bars and restaurants, but there are also more desirable places to live in the Dublin area. Far from one of the grimmest places in Ireland

Remember what Father Feehily from Ross O'Carroll-Kelly said about Bray.
There are only two jobs in Bray, sucking diesel out of parked cars and slapping the left handedness out of children.

I have been there and thought it was alright. Grand for commuting on the DART to Dublin

whisky_galore

irishguitarlad wrote: »

You are right rabblerouser, an absolute hell hole. The religious fanaticism, the constant fights in bars, the grudges that are held there for something petty that happened in secondary school, the shops all closed, the absolutely ****ty weather when compared to tralee or killarney (there is always a black cloud over It). It doesn't help either that the hinterland(scartglen, cordal, Brosna, knocknagoshel, currow) are some of the most backwards and interbred people in Ireland. The whole place should be nuked.

Scart. Birthplace of that priest who runs out in front of F1 cars and runners. Says a lot.

MaccaTacca

L1011 wrote: »

You've named probably the most expensive and growingly snooty commuter town as one of the dull ones there. Maynooth is basically Greystones compared to Bray.

It's by no means perfect - but jaysus, trying to claim that Bray is better? You need help.

I need help for suggesting that one part of Ireland is nicer than the other on a discussion thread? Get a grip.

Have a quick look on Daft.ie and you'll see that Bray has a much more expensive range of property than Maynooth.

It has fantastic restaurants and cafes that people travel to visit regularly, you'll see images of these plastered all over instagram and other social media platforms.

On a hot summers day you will see Bray packed with people from all over Leinster, do you know anyone who travels to Maynooth for a day out?

Thousands of foreign tourists climb Bray head every year - the Bray / Greystones trail is one of the most scenic walks in Ireland.

It's also the best connected commuter town in terms of transport - we've the dart, 145 and 155 bus to the city centre and can get separate buses to Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire.

I reckon you just can't afford to live here.

MaccaTacca

MaccaTacca wrote: »

I need help for suggesting that one part of Ireland is nicer than the other on a discussion thread? Get a grip.

Have a quick look on Daft.ie and you'll see that Bray has a much more expensive range of property than Maynooth.

It has fantastic restaurants and cafes that people travel to visit regularly, you'll see images of these plastered all over instagram and other social media platforms.

On a hot summers day you will see Bray packed with people from all over Leinster, do you know anyone who travels to Maynooth for a day out?

Thousands of foreign tourists climb Bray head every year - the Bray / Greystones trail is one of the most scenic walks in Ireland.

I reckon you just can't afford to live here.

The price range for housing within commuting distance of Dublin infers nothing about how much of a dunghole a town is, just how desperate people are to live within commuting distance of their workplace or an actual city. You don't move to Bray because it's a great place to live or spend time, you move to Bray because it's close to another place where you actually need or want to spend time.

As for reasons to visit, the coastal walk was closed for many years, 'climbing' Bray head pales in comparison to most of the hilltops in Wicklow, even the sugarloaf gives a more impressive view of the county and you don't have to walk down the jaded seafront and past arcades and shuttered hotels, dog crap on the concrete footpaths and scraps of grass to get there. If you think that hillock and a coastal footpath are some sort of attraction, head inland to WMNP or out to the west of Ireland and then try to make the same argument again.

There's absolutely nothing that stands out about Bray at all in a good way. It's a commuter town now with notions that it's some sort of a tourist spot, a hangover from a century and more ago. Run down, grey, depressing. A sunny day would distract you from the surroundings but when the sea front is deserted and the chipper and arcades are closed and the grey winter or wet summer sets in, nobody would want to stick around for long. You can see it then for what it really is. It's a kip.

mfceiling

paul71 wrote: »

It is very obvious you did not read my post. Try a little basic reading before quoting a post.

I will help you, I made a list of towns that would NEVER make onto a list of grim towns.

It's obvious you never read the thread title before you posted.
Try a little basic reading before replying to a thread.

JohnnyFlash

I’ve been in Bray a few times. Seems fine to me. I wouldn’t live there myself, but from the way some people are going on you’d think it was downtown Mogadishu. I’d certainly take it over some awful town like Ashbourne, Maynooth, Swords etc.

RabbleRouser2k

whisky_galore wrote: »

Scart. Birthplace of that priest who runs out in front of F1 cars and runners. Says a lot.

I sadly suspect he suffered some trauma in his life to make him so... unbalanced, shall we say. (Off topic, I know, but still).

He definitely needs help.

Del.Monte

The main thing wrong with Bray is that it could be so much better. It was often referred to in Victorian times as 'the Brighton of Ireland' and its sad decline since the 1960s was due in no small part to the local authority. That said, anytime I have visited Bray in recent times there's a serious positive vibe from the place - once you're away from the Main Street - but it has that problem in common with half the country.


Bray Head, the Cliff Walk, Kilruddery all near to hand. There's a very hard working tidy towns committee who really have their act together and if a few lazy arses like the local authority and Irish Rail pulled their fingers out it could be a wonderful place.



Bring back the Chairlift!

frosty123

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Westport is the most plastic place in the country so anything would be an improvement.

No, that's Knock...most tacky place in Ireland with all the plastic religious parafonalia

Mad_maxx

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

I’ve been in Bray a few times. Seems fine to me. I wouldn’t live there myself, but from the way some people are going on you’d think it was downtown Mogadishu. I’d certainly take it over some awful town like Ashbourne, Maynooth, Swords etc.

Maynooth is a fantastic place to live

paul71

mfceiling wrote: »

It's obvious you never read the thread title before you posted.
Try a little basic reading before replying to a thread.

Jesus man stop digging a hole for yourself you did not read the post and then quoted it FFS. I clearly said I was presenting a list of towns that were NOT grim to contrast with the grim towns listed.

You failed to read it correctly and went off on one and have been digging yourself deeper since.

paul71

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

I’ve been in Bray a few times. Seems fine to me. I wouldn’t live there myself, but from the way some people are going on you’d think it was downtown Mogadishu. I’d certainly take it over some awful town like Ashbourne, Maynooth, Swords etc.

Again where is this coming from? Maynooth is probably one the nicest small town of its size in Ireland.

Anyone comparing it to Swords, Ashbourne, Bray, Leixlip, Dunboyne as it has been here has no idea what they are talking about. For a start all of those towns except Dunboyne have at least double perhaps 3 times the population. They are all full of eyesores which Maynooth has pretty much eliminated, they are socially dead boring suburbs reliant on Dublin city center which Maynooth is not.
None of them are what I would describe as Grim but in reality they are exactly what suburbs are known to be, places people sleep in for the convenience of a short commute.

Thinkingaboutit

Dwarf.Shortage wrote: »

There’s not a bother on Naas

Longford looks a bit of a dive, but it is a livelier dive than other places. Also the end with the Protestant church and some fine old houses, looks well.

Bray just seems a place that could do better, but hardly 'most miserable and grim' in Ireland.

Ultima Thule

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/interest-in-rural-property-soars-as-covid-19-effect-kicks-in-1.4307247?mode=amp


It wont be long before rural prices will be up to Dublin levels.

EmmetSpiceland

I’d see Bray and Dun Laoghaire in a similar “light”, both nice on a, midweek, summer’s day but not somewhere you’d want be after dark or on the weekend. Obviously, you’d want to live in Dun Laoghaire, though.

As for Maynooth, you couldn’t pay me to live there. Pubs overrun with students, a grotty little shopping centre and a few “chippers”.

Would feel the same about places like Leixlip or Celbridge. Sure, Leixlip looks nice enough but the smell off the sewage plant would knock you out.

Celbridge is just a dump with zero redeeming “features”. Absolutely nothing. The worst part is the amount of traffic you have to “endure” when trying to leave the place. How anyone could live there is just beyond me. I’m guessing it’s pure “necessity” that keeps people there.

Muahahaha

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Have to say I've always found Bray a lot nicer than its rep with some people. Seems to be more of an 80s or 90s thing that it was grim.

I remember right throughout the 80s and 90s if it was a sunny day every scote from all over Dublin would hop on the Dart and head out to Bray. That way they could meet up easily for some drinking and fighting. Then circa 2002 that all changed because the Dart line from Pearse to Bray was closed on weekends for the whole summer due to upgrade works. So the scrotes headed north and 'discovered' Portmarnock for the first time and now thats the spot for the drinking and fighting on sunny days. The well heeled locals were horrified, the Gardai under resourced and the beach has seen plenty of mass brawls between gangs of pissed up teenagers. Portmarnock is stuck with them now forever and all because of that Dart closure for the summer

Ihavetheaids wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned mountmellick yet ? Athy ? Moate ?

Athy definitely a bit of a kip. Have only passed through Monasterevin but that looks like a kip too and I remember that story a few years back where a civil servant from Dublin showed up there one evening to view an apartment for rent. Some Karen saw him and thought he was a convicted paedophile and posted it up on the Facebook page of Kildare Now who shared it to thousands of followers. Next thing the poor lad had a mob of angry locals literally chasing him into a pub where he sought refuge and called the Gardai. The Gardai confirmed it was a case of mistaken identity and it was only then the vigilante mob backed off. He was later asked did he still want to live in Monasterevin and the answer was a resounding no.

skooterblue2

Ultima Thule wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/interest-in-rural-property-soars-as-covid-19-effect-kicks-in-1.4307247?mode=amp


It wont be long before rural prices will be up to Dublin levels.

Nope market crash in November, Watch it tumble across the board.

skooterblue2

Muahahaha wrote: »

Athy definitely a bit of a kip.

Athy is definitely a place that has potential to develop. On a railway to Dublin and close enough to Maynooth for university.

whisky_galore

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Westport is the most plastic place in the country so anything would be an improvement.

Westport is a fine town. Very little dereliction, an effort made keeping traditional shopfronts.
For plastic, have a look at Killarney. Plastic Lepreachaun central.

The Mulk

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Athy is definitely a place that has potential to develop. On a railway to Dublin and close enough to Maynooth for university.

It's 65km from Maynooth by road there's no even direct route using public transport.
It's easier to get from Longford I'd say for students.

coconnell44

I don't think a town 'stuck' in the 40s or 50s would get me down half as much as a town stuck in the Celtic tiger of which there are many. Ugly, early 21st century buildings- vacant shops with cheap plastic signage, ghost estates and kids on BMX bikes all over the place. Grey and gloomy...the only nice feature in these places is the road outta there

skooterblue2

The Mulk wrote: »

It's 65km from Maynooth by road there's no even direct route using public transport..

I think JJKavanaghs coaches goes through there. That can be fixed with future demand. What cant be fixed is congestion like Youghal or Charleville.

Muahahaha

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Athy is definitely a place that has potential to develop. On a railway to Dublin and close enough to Maynooth for university.

It has potential but needs investment. I get the impression with Kildare that the political power lies in the north of the county so the money gets spent on good towns like Maynooth, Celbridge, Naas, etc but then the further south you travel theres a big drop off in towns like Athy and Monsterevin

EmmetSpiceland

Muahahaha wrote: »

It has potential but needs investment. I get the impression with Kildare that the political power lies in the north of the county so the money gets spent on good towns like Maynooth, Celbridge, Naas, etc but then the further south you travel theres a big drop off in towns like Athy and Monsterevin

Celbridge is not a “good town”.

Muahahaha

not sure about that Emmet, I mean its not perfect but its not a kip either. Id prefer live there than up the road in Lucan where you're definitely going to have a couple of gangland killings most years

EmmetSpiceland

Muahahaha wrote: »

not sure about that Emmet, I mean its not perfect but its not a kip either. Id prefer live there than up the road in Lucan where you're definitely going to have a couple of gangland killings most years

Wouldn’t be a “fan” of being anywhere outside the M50, myself, M.

I’d take Leixlip over Celbridge any day, even with that “sewage” stink that tends to hang over the place.