Is Dublin really safe?

I lived in west Finglas for a few years, anyone saying it's safe to walk around at night is delusional.

I've hear east Finglas isn't so bad.

You're just hilarious

So unsafe but I'm here on Capel Street and it's very busy. Are we all in danger?

It's getting better alright, it used to be a permanent traffic jam, already it's hard to imagine cars on the street now.

All the lunatics were unaware of the danger they were in at lunchtime today.

The irony there being town is far safer now than it was in the 80s and 90s.

Keep walking to the bridge at the river and a crew from merchants Quay will sort you out

If they're not safe how come they're so busy with people all the time? It doesn't add up. There streets are full of Americans right now, they're everywhere, and everything seems to be going OK.

In Palmerstown

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/man-arrested-after-being-detained-29795754

I walk them every week, as do my wife and kids! There's some unpleasantness, there's drug dealing, there's red light breaking, there's litter problems but to say it's not safe is stupid. There's schools, colleges, restaurants, businesses, offices, cafes etc… on them, people work in them they walk to work every day. Thousands of late night staff walk home every day, chefs, nurses, servers etc… How can you say they're dangerous when they're safely traversed so often by millions every day?

You're like the gaslights in Smithfield square at this stage, trying to convince people that it’s dangerous where they safely go every week. 

I've just recently moved closer to the inner city and it is impossible not to concede that the place has been over taken by crime and Anti-social behaviour. There is an ever present vibe in the city centre (O Connell St, Talbot St, Henry St and Moore St) now that is utterly grim.

I lived just off O Connell Street just after Covid and I'd often go for a walk at lunchtime. It would be very seldom you wouldn't see a significant incident that would make you say to yourself "This isn't right. Imagine being a tourist seeing this". People openingly injecting drugs, bicycle thefts, vicious assaults and even one day I encountered a stabbing. This was all in broad daylight. Don't even ask me about after dark.

Sad thing is it has been let happen and it won't get any better. It is a cesspit. It is now perfectly OK to loiter, drink, do drugs and litter on Moore Street and O Connell Street. What value do these places now have?

You're misrepresenting me or haven't read the thread or are unfamiliar with Dublin. Most likely all three. I never said Dublin was grand, I've pointed out the problems and am currently lobbying for change (not on an internet forum, in real life), I've discussed the possible solutions on this thread.

However, to say the whole of Dublin is dangerous is just stupid.

I agree with you. The optics aren't good. That's why I am lobbying for change, metro police, transport police. I've said this a good few times over the thread but people are obsessing with the fact that I don't feel in danger in Dublin. I'm in the city weekly, my wife works in the city, my kids visit the city, we all live in Dublin, so do my folks, they're elderly and go to the city centre every week. They don't feel unsafe.

I see things, I see open drug taking and dealing, I see addicts fighting, I see GAA fans littering and carrying out drunken acts, I see public urination, I see Romani people begging, I see Irish people begging, I see theft, I see a lot. But the good things I see and do in Dublin city centre outweighs the negative optics.

And I don't feel unsafe, I know this infuriates people. But I don't.

‘No excuse for this outrageous behaviour’ – Drunk ‘spat all over garda van and in the station cells’ (msn.com)

No excuse for his behavior says the judge but then he makes no meaningful effort to amend the mans behavior or protect the innocent from him. how is this doing your job eh ?

Look dublin is grand. Just stay close to UN convoys when needing to go anywhere, and don't make eye contact.

Joking aside I worked north inner city before the pandemic and I never hung around longer than I needed to. There's no pleasure in doing so.

It used to be that there were junkies and petty criminals in the city community, whereas now they dominate.

Anyone who could moved out in the 90s and 00s.

Ireland has a problem in general with anti social behavior and assaults and scum getting away with it. But Dublin is a whole different level now. Its out all by itself on the scale. It never used to be this bad.

well personally i think we have the same problems nationwide with the problems being magnified in places with bigger populations, obviously. the country has always loved piling on on dublin though, but you see similar issues around the country that dublin has, just on a smaller scale.

Certain parts of Dublin are rough. Plenty of parts are lovely and not rough at all.

Dublin isn't O'Connell St.

There are plenty of nice areas to socialise that are not northside city centre.

It's all coming from Dublin first. This doesn't even make the main news anymore.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/woman-20s-brutally-sex-attacked-29771004

it's about 100 meters, and is still packed with buses and taxis and pedestrians. relax.

Even when it does people are numb to it now. I have friends who are so sesensitized to this kind of thing happening in Dublin now that all they have to say is "Sure that could happen anywhere". Meanwhile the women at work and a lot of the men are not comfortable walking to the train station after work anymore.

Its not removing cars that will make people go into the city centre….its removal of scum & Muggers from the streets will help get more people into city centre

Part of the problem, as I see it anyway, is that people seem to prefer moaning or exaggerating the issues of Dublin instead of actually thinking constructively about them. There is a harm in that — because it feeds a wildly overbaked perception of Dublin as a dystopian nightmare which in turn puts people off from outside the city from coming in to shop or just enjoy a weekend. That also feeds into the decay of the city and so — if you are someone who just sits around moaning about Dublin and constantly shi**ing on it — you are part of the problem. Because while Dublin has issues, they are not starkly out of character with other cities the world over, which all have issues.

Dublin has always had a grimy side to it. The nostalgic photos of College Green and O'Connell Street in the rare aul times you see popping up on Facebook (with the obligatory bleating with how great Dublin was back then) simply belie the fact that the city was once ridden with slums and impoverished areas — not to mention the general backdrop of socioeconomic depression which characterised the city and Ireland generally.

Dublin has challenges. The failure to foster a housing culture aligning to Ireland's ever-growing urbanisation, by building tall and high quality apartment complexes close to the city centre, has damaged the sense of the city centre having a civic pride and community within it. Dublin centre is relatively small by European capital standards and thus you will see a greater concentration of anti-social behaviour, addicts and all sorts in a smaller geographic area — which makes them really stand out. The contrast between areas like Camden Street / Dawson Street and O'Connell Street remains stark. Our growing population means that there will be more issues to contend with, while Covid and remote working have created new phenomena on footfall around the city that has warped the business model.

But Dublin has a lot of great things about it and a great energy. None of its problems are hopelessly intractable, even if you have to accept the inevitability that problems will always exist.

But if you want things to change: pull up your pants, stop shi**ing all over the city and crying, and start being another constructive voice that can balance the negatives with the positives and help bring the wind back into the city's sails. Or I dunno, use this thread as yet another platform to whinge, then complain about the people who at least are in the arena of trying to make things work.