Ashamed to be Irish!!

Scruff101

Today is St. Patricks Day...a day which is supposedly meant to be used as a means of celebrating our nationality! After my experiences today I think 'St. Patricks Day' is an outdated concept that should be done away with! All it is is an excuse for people (mostly underage) to get well and truly off their faces and ruin the day for everyone else!

Walking up Grafton St. today I felt like i was in some different city or a parallel universe, almost everyone was drunk, people were drinking out of cans or bottles, people were either falling around the place or being held up by their friends and others were trying to pick fights with passers-by! Meanwhile the Guards stood by just waiting for something to happen...which it did a number of times! In the space of 3 hours I saw an ambulance on Grafton St. 4 times and I saw people being handcuffed by the Guards 5 or 6 times!
Myself and my friend decided to see if Temple Bar was as bad as Grafton St! We were Just crossing Dame St. over to the Bank of Ireland when we saw a group of 5 girls (no more than 17 years of age) getting into a fight with 2 other girls.....several men stood by cheering and another man was recording the whole thiing on his camera!! One of the girls was being kicked and when her friend tried to help her she was turned on by the group of 5 girls, punched in the face and thrown against the gates of the bank!

Eventually the 2 girls got away! At this stage we had gotten across the street(the lights had been red) and we were walking behind the 2 girls towards the Temple Bar area! Myself and my friend realised that neither of them were Irish! We stopped them to ask if they were ok,one of them was crying her eyes out and the other was in complete shock! They had been set upon by the 5 for NO reason! One of the thugs stuck a sticker on one of the girls backs and she took it off & threw it on the ground, when the group saw her throwing the sticker away they started to hit her!! This was the ONLY reason...the girls had just been walking along looking for somewhere to go for food!! We brought them into the toilets in the Bank bar to get them some ice for their badly beaten faces and to calm them down a bit! The 2 girls were Canadians in Ireland for the week specially for St. Patricks week! These girls will not be back! Im sure our attempts at telling them that this is not the norm fell on deaf ears! They are here until Monday and will not be back into town...they are going to stay around Clontarf (where their B&B is) for the next few days! We stayed with the girls for around an hour and got a taxi for them!

Today I have to say I am ashamed to be Irish...if this is what celebrating our Irishness is all about I give up! A Thousand Welcomes....yeah right!! The Fighting Irish now has a whole new meaning for me!


Rant over!

Lydesia

This country is a joke. by the looks of things this was your first time seeing 'mad dublin' at its peak. trust me, ive seen worse. One night at 2.00 am i saw 14 fights/scuffles in the space of 1 hour 30 mins on westmorland street! While waiting for the nightlink.

I hate the city centre, i hate dublin really.
Cant wait to move to somewhere peaceful, like canada!

Oh and your right, P-day is a joke

Scruff101

No...I've seen it bad.....but always at night, defo not at 4 in the afternoon!! It just seems abnormal to see this going on in the middle of the day and on such a huge scale!! It was just mental...we were actually scared walking along Grafton St. for fear of looking at someone the wrong way..which seemed to some people a good reason to attack some one!! I felt particularly sorry for the older people who were trying to get along Grafton St......this is after all is meant to be a 'Holy' day..you could see the confused and worried looks on their faces! Today should have been a day where parents could walk up Grafton St. with their children...but it was no place for a child to be today..this was just bizzare!!

Amz

I went in to town with a friend this afternoon, not to see the parade, but just to generally doss around and go to the pub after the Senior Cup final. We actually decided to go home at 5pm, becuast it was just so disgusting, people urinating around the entrance to Trinity college, the smell of vomit and horse foeces everywhere, the rubbish and the general loutish behaviour displayed by so many people!

I'm 21 years old and I honestly felt like I was too old to bother staying in town. If I'd stayed it would have been just for the sake of it as opposed to staying because I thought it would be fun.

I shudder to think what any of the visitors to the city were thinking. I was apalled by what I saw!

Would advise anyone to avoid the city on St. Patrick's Day.

People just have no respect for the city, other people or even themselves.

Ashamed to be Irish is right!

monkey lover

OK, its terrib;e this stuff happens, but do you really believe that this doesn't happen in every other country?
Do you really believe that in other countries, there isn't any fights on the streets when they're drunk???
I'm proud to be Irish, and if you saw the parade you would of seen why. Looking at RTE and seeing all the happy kids looking at the parade makes you proud to be from the Emerald Isle.
Sure, we have terrible people in this country who will start a fight for no reason, but every country has its problems,no-one/nothing is perfect.
I'm sure you have had many memorable moments in Ireland, and there are so many nice people out there that will help you out when you're in trouble, like you did yourself to those Canadian girls (and fair play for helping)
We may not live in a perfect country but still, be proud.

Eireann go Brach !

roxy

Ah but sure aren't we great craic altogether? :rolleyes:

It's just been allowed to worsen over the past few years. (I wonder does it correlate at all to the actual Paddy's Day Festival, as in the proper organised events? I think this is the 10th year of it. Maybe, maybe not)

It seems that standards on alcohol, low as they are at the best of times, are allowed to sink to nothing for this one day. And tolerance soars, probably because no one wants to a wet blanket, and "sure if it's only for one day, what harm?". Of course, it's not for one day - it's pretty much every night of every week. No one has really stood up, spoken out and made any sort of fuss over it. But even if they did, would it make a difference? When PrimeTime put together an exposé on Dublin nightlife as part of the PrimeTime Investigates series it was talked about for a few days but I seriously doubt any impact was felt as a result.

Heard a goofily-over-excited American teenager on the news saying that "to be in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day is just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, ya know?". Nearly wet myself.
Visiting the flippin Amazon rainforest is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Travelling to a rich, relatively easily-accessible country to see about half a million louts with no common sense and no ability to think for themselves completely sh1t-faced and dropping onto the pavement at 3pm covered in their own puke having been booted in the side of the head by their best friend doesn't exactly classify in my books. But, like, whatever - it's just for one day, yknow?...

I blame the parents...

Smurfpiss

So I guess The aul pubs be closed till 6pm thingy didnt come into affect huh?
true there woulda been riots...but sober riots which is probably better than the shlte we put with today. Honestly I didn't even leave the feckin house today. It's either go into dublin and get started on by a group of 14 year old scumbags or stay at home (in bogger land for me) and watch a bunch of tractors and rubbish trucks go by. Its the most half arsed national celebration in the world. So I saw no reason to take part, stayed home and watched home alone. Go me!
Roxy was the first to really bring up the drink culture problem and I totally agree. We had RAG week (Raise And Give = for charity) in college last week, and all everybody ended up doing was going to the pub and getting senseless. They completely missed the point on that one too.
Call me an old fart but I prefer a quiet night out in the pub. Even getting drunk yeah thats great craic, but to the point of incoherency and agression is just pathetic. I say bring back the prohibition. We could all dress like gangsters, drink cocktails and listen to crazy jazz!

MoeJay

Moved out of the city over a year ago. Best decision I ever made.

When was the last time you saw anyone looking remotely happy in Dublin?

Amz

On the bus home this evening, people seemed overjoyed to be getting out of the place.

Scruff101

monkey lover wrote:

OK, its terrib;e this stuff happens, but do you really believe that this doesn't happen in every other country?
Do you really believe that in other countries, there isn't any fights on the streets when they're drunk???
!

No...I don't think this happens in every other country! I was in Spain for the last year and went to several festivals where people got drunk but nothing happened like what I saw yesterday......there was always a fantastic atmosphere where people just wanted to have some fun not act like thugs! The two Canadian girls we helped also said that this would never, ever happen where they are from!

But maybe it just doesn't happen in Spain and Canada but I doubt it! Celebrating a festival is great...making it a complete joke is another thing!

scarfacemj

I'm lucky enough to go to college in the town and I wouldn't change it for the world. Dublin has it's bad points but as a whole I'd say its one of the most beautiful cities in europe.
paddy's day is a disgrace but here's to the most celebrated national holiday in the world. it's good for the kids as well.....

scarfacemj

I'd take the city over the sticks anyday, you can feel the life blood of Ireland in her streets sometimes.

roxy

They were just debating yesterday's drunken violence on the News at One. Well debate isn't quite accurate. More a case of the CEO of the main St. Patrick's Day festival being put through the wringer and being asked to account for the individual irresponsibility of so many hundreds of thousands of people. What kinda of muppetry is that? He was very gracious and explained that there is no alcohol laid on at any of the events they organise, and that really if there are people wandering around drunk at 2pm then it's up to a wide range of poeple to take responsibililty. And damn right he is too.

I know I said earlier that I wonder if the increase in anti-social behavious correlates to the festival itself but I wasn't suggesting that it's (potentially) the fault of the organisers. I just wonder has people idea of celebration changed due to the way the city comes to a near stand-still in aid of this huge party.

landser

scarfacemj wrote:

I'd take the city over the sticks anyday, you can feel the life blood of Ireland in her streets sometimes.

yeah, and sometimes you can see it pouring out of someones head, following a well placed kick!

Trick Pie

I went to the city centre yesterday, my first time out on St. Patricks day. I can honestly say, I am never leaving my house on the 17th of March in Ireland ever again. If you aren't Irish, you aren't welcome, and I wasn't welcome.

Really, I don't even want a welcome, it was such a horrible day. The entertainment was crap and everyone got hammered, even my 17 year old friends. You know what the funniest thing is? The only people in my group of friends who didn't drink were foreign! 4 of us: one English (me), one South African, another Libyan and the last Moldovan. Bloody hell.

And of course, when I tried to complain, I was called a rascist. Sure, Irish people can complain about themselves but when anyone foreign does, throw glass bottles at them. Yay. I don't mean to offend, but yesterday just wasn't fun.

roxy

Trick Pie - apologies on behalf of all the gob****es. It's upsetting to think that people from other countreis are forming opinions based on the actions of a crowd of idiots who drink til they can't stand up. It seems you encountered some fairly xenophobic attitudes yesterday. I think that Paddy's Day makes sane people go a bit mental and may make people become completely bonkers with nationalism.

Hope you won't allow it to taint your impressions of us Irish.

scarfacemj

landser wrote:

yeah, and sometimes you can see it pouring out of someones head, following a well placed kick!

In Dublin's fair city....

Trick Pie

roxy wrote:

Trick Pie - apologies on behalf of all the gob****es. It's upsetting to think that people from other countreis are forming opinions based on the actions of a crowd of idiots who drink til they can't stand up. It seems you encountered some fairly xenophobic attitudes yesterday. I think that Paddy's Day makes sane people go a bit mental and may make people become completely bonkers with nationalism.

Hope you won't allow it to taint your impressions of us Irish.

Don't worry, I'm not going to generalise. The Irish can be very decent at times, they can also be utter gob****es, it's the same way in every country. I think they can get a bit carried away with the drink though...

Shanannigan

well i dunno what dublin was like after paddy's day, but there was a real carnival atmosphere around cork only after paddy's day... like there was loads of street theatre and stuff, a real family friendly thing... mind you i didn't see much of the nightlife due to being flast broke...

sodiumlightbaby

I would rather stick pins in my dick than go anywhere near Dublin city centre on paddys day.

My mates car was thrashed, thousands of euro damage and his mate got the crap beaten out of him in town...

The whole St.patricks Festival thing should be cancelled until they can control and Police it properly.

I've been at city festivals in many different countries and You never see this kind of debauchery...even at the feckin beer festival in Munich !!

scarfacemj

You're right, it should be cancelled until the polis' can control town.
Our national holiday is wrecked by a bunch of piss head knackers, I for one would love to celebrate paddy's day in my favourite city so my thanx goes out to Pauly, Micko, Bippo, Jacinta, Johnner.....basically all the 'chavs and single teenage mothers out there.

ThatBloke

I think a few people are starting to realise a few home-truths about us as a nation. Like it or not there is a large section of the Irish population that is inately racist. They may not usually express it openly in our politically correct society, but come St. Patrick's day when an Irish man can do no wrong and there are no recriminations (Sure it was Paddies day...I was LOOOOOCKED[insert more O's for bravado if necessary] I didn't mean it) it's no holds barred.

What's worse is over the last decade or so it's become cool to be Irish, in the past we'd keep ourselves to ourselves but now we're only too happy to express our "Irishness". We've become arrogant after years of other nationalities praising us for all manner of social veils we've passed off as reality. We have become their stereotype.

asp

ThatBloke wrote:

I think a few people are starting to realise a few home-truths about us as a nation.

I was just thinking the same thing today. I remember Des Bishop in that TV show giving out saying we had a problem in this country. I was like '**** off you thick'. But now I realise he was right

sodiumlightbaby

ThatBloke wrote:

We have become their stereotype.

Very True....

Its like that Simpsons episode where its paddys day in Springfield and there's a parade which ends up in a big drunken fight. The newscaster Kent Brockman is reporting on it and he says (in mock disbelief) "Is this what we have come to expect to see from the Irish, drunken brawling"?

Well unfortunately the answer is yes..

scarfacemj

Sorry lads don't agree there. if anything we are moving further away from our stereotypical image. Irish people are becoming more and more 'european'. We are one of the most cultured societies in Europe and look how far we have come in less than 100 years after eight hundred of repression.
Yes a large part of the population is racist but only because the huge influx of refugees is a very recent event, these people are stuck in their ways, attitudes will change but these attitudes will reflect the behaviour of the migrant communities.

Nowadays there seems to be a trend among those in the 'know' to critise thier fellow country men/women. The Ireland I see, and I am in the centre of it everday, is a bitter sweet one but the sweet outweighs the bitter. Every nation has its problems but look how far we have come in the last ten years.
I love Ireland and all of you for being the fruit of her womb. It could be worse.....we could be Americans

asp

"Sorry lads don't agree there. if anything we are moving further away from our stereotypical image"

But we do have a problem

scarfacemj

But so does every nation on this planet! The way things are ain't perfect but it's the best we've ever had.

asp

Yeh but our underage drink problem is getting worse. Its mainly little scumbags who are casuing all of this. People with a certain low level of intelligence should not be alowed reporoduce. They should give them the snip at birth

scarfacemj

You may be on to something my friend...

ThatBloke

scarfacemj wrote:

But so does every nation on this planet! The way things are ain't perfect but it's the best we've ever had.

No offence mate, buy I don't buy into this "we've never had it better" idea. Yes our economy has never been better, but that is not what life is about. Ask yourself a few questions.

Compared to even ten years ago (compare to previous generations if young):

1. Are you happier?
2. How much spare time do you have to enjoy the things you love?
3. Do you feel safe on the streets?
4. Would you have confidence in our health system?
5. How long does it take you to traval to/from work?
6. Do you have faith in our politicians to do what is right for you?

scarfacemj

ThatBloke wrote:

1. Are you happier?
2. How much spare time do you have to enjoy the things you love?
3. Do you feel safe on the streets?
4. Would you have confidence in our health system?
5. How long does it take you to traval to/from work?
6. Do you have faith in our politicians to do what is right for you?

1. I'm a pessimist by nature, society has no baring on happiness if ya ask me.
2. I'm in college now so I don't have much spare time.
3. I live in Inchicore and the change it's undergone in the last 5 years is scary, it's quite a safe place now, amazingly.
4. Our health system has never worked.
5. 5 mins into town, much quicker than it used to be, now that we have the LUAS that is.( i dont use it though)
6. The answer to that is obvious.

Look at Ireland in the 70's and 80's, both culturally and economically. We are light years ahead of those 'dark ages'. The best is yet to come for our beautiful nation. I accept your opinion that the economy isn't the most important factor, let the fat cats worry about that but as a society I think we're far better off, for now at least....