How safe do you feel on O'Connell Street?

Lafortezza

Imagine its 2.30am on either a friday or saturday night.
You've had enough to drink so that you're slightly drunk, beginning to slur, but you know that once you get some food into you and have a pint of water before bed you'll be grand in the morning, apart from some tiredness and the drunken morning horn, so basically not that p1ssed.

Lets say you're walking down O'Connell St with 2 mates, blokes or girls, and the plan is maybe for some grub,, then Q for taxi or grab next nightlink back to the 'burbs.

Exactly how safe would you feel about walking down O'Connell St in the above situation? Or how about the quays? Or Parnell St or Dorset St?

Would you be checking over your shoulder every minute or two? Would you be looking at every gang of people walking past you in case someone of them would take a dislike to you?

Or would u not really give a squit, you find the city centre on the weekend nights to be a safe enough place provided you don't talk sh1t to anytone and aren't too drunk?

Teh reason I'm asking is that a friend of mine was walking down O'Connell st last friday and he saw 3 different fightslast weekend. 1 at Fraziers, 1 at the GPO and 1 at McDonalds.

He is a fairly big bloke, but usually walks the same route home (ie down O'connell st then up the quays a bit) after his pub shift finishes and he has a few pints after cleanup.
But he says this is a constant thing, random (seemingly) fights each weekend he's working, where

Anyway, how safe do you think the city centre is and how safe do you feel walking through it slightly drunk at the weekends?

DiscoStu

your best bet is to be drunk walking there at that time of night. you dont notice all thats going on and if your hit it wont hurt till morning. i used to come out of work some saturday nights around 2am and walked from parnell st down oconnell street to the nightlinks on westmorland street. i was followed 2 times by large groups of nice folks from the flats and have had had many people abuse me just walking down the street. i rarely see gardai the on the street and considering its a major focal point with many fights it kind of defies belief. but the garda problem really goes for the whole city centre. the only place you see them is outside nightclubs where they can easily pick someone up, the earlier the better and then spend the entire night doing paperwork. so slightly drunk just wont work, get totally ossified and your fine.

basically I'd feel safer wearing a turban at a National Front meeting.

seamus

I don't know. Personally, I've never ever had any trouble in town, but one of my mates (a bit of a psycho) has been 'randomly' jumped on, with his a girlfriend a few times......so maybe I just don't look appealing as a fight prospect. I know for about 6 months solid, I walked (with a mate) from Fibbers to College Green every Saturday night at 2/3am, quite drunk, and never once saw any hassle, except for a minor scuffle between 2 scumbags in Burger King. I've seen more hassle, during the day, but on the opposite side of the road, ie the Mcdonalds side.......maybe it's just a weird phenomenon.

thedrowner

thats funny seamus coz i was just about to say that my female friend was coming home from fibbers at 3am on a saturday night and she got beaten up, quite badly by scangers. she reported it to the police that night. she was on o connell st when it happened.

to be honest i never really think about it, i have no problem walking by myself, which is a bit silly, and it usually doesnt happen unless you know, something goes wrong on your night out and your upset and u want to go home. usually i leave with my friends, and i dont mind walking for a taxi/nightlink

i work in a venue/club/pub on thomas st and ive seen a couple of violent attacks, but thankfully nothing has happened to me so far. i would've considered thomas st one of the worst area;s for violence, even though it probbaly not true, and from what i heard, it worse during the day

you would expect o connell st to be one of the safest places, because it'd be qite busy at closing time, but its not the case at all. i mean when guys are hopping on girls things are getting pretty bad.

LFCFan

I've lived in Dublin most my life and I've never seen any trouble yet I know a couple of lads who are constantly getting into fights. 99 times out of a 100 fights are caused by people looking for them. If you keep your head down and get on with it you'll be fine. Unfortunatly there are the odd unfortunates that get picked on for no apparant reason. I did see a chap once walking towards me as I waited for the No. 10 bus outside that Bag shop. He had cuts to his face, was shaking a lot and had a bloodied knife in his hand. He dropped the knife in the corner beside the bag shop and kept walking. He looked straight at me and I thought I was a gonner. He just kept going. That scared the sh1t out of me.

Beruthiel

I do my best never to be in town at night unless I am with someone else, I just wouldn't feel safe, especially with a few drinks on me, under those circumstances I wouldn't have a chance!

Lafortezza

I suppose it depends if you're a bloke or a girl, and how big you are height and build wise too, and how many pints you've had,

I've never really had any trouble either, but I'm always careful on the trek home

it never does to have a drunken loud friend with you either, one dumb comment and you'd be knifed bfore u knew it

Seraphina

i have never had any trouble in town at night and im always walking around and getting nitelinks and stuff by myself. i spose i wont be scared until something happens to me, but alot of the time when people say they get jumped on for no reason its not the case. i know it does happen, but id say alot less than you'd think. most fights are usually between drunk people or started by drunk people and they just happen to pick on someone who wont put up with someones **** for 5 mins before they get bored. i just walk fast and try and avoid eye contact with dodgy looking people.

PiE

Originally posted by lafortezza
I suppose it depends if you're a bloke or a girl, and how big you are height and build wise too, and how many pints you've had

I don't think so. I'm by no means the biggest fecker you'll meet but I've lived in the city center for 19 years without once being attacked.

In my opinion it's safer walking around at 2 or 3am than during the early hours of the night, as the younger scum have all buggered off back to their suburbs. Around 10, 11 or whenever the last bus is (not the Nitelinks) is probably the worst, as they're all gathered around the bus stops, bored.

And why do the the Quays get such a bad name? I much prefer walking home along there than down Henry St.

Space Coyote

If you've ever waited for a Nitelink on Westmorland Street you'll know that its far worse than just walking down O'Connell Street at night.
The amount of scum loitering around there, begging for money etc, and they keep walking up and down the street picking on the same people. I once saw a lad get stabbed in the back for no reason other than he ignored some nack that was asking for money! Thats f.u.b.a.r.
If you look confident and don't act like a scared sheep then you'll be fine, so long as you have your 'scum radar' on at all times. I've come across a few lads asking for change and trying the old sly hand in the pocket thing.
If your completely pished then best advice would be to get a taxi and not even try to hang around waiting for a bus. It might be more expensive but at least you won't get clobbered...