Dublin this weekend (1 Viewer)

[killy kill]

I'd love to ignore the cunts, but it's a little hard to pay no mind to someone who is kicking the shit out of me, or when I'm going about my business and I've got two adolescents chasing me and hurling abuse at me. Like, it happens everywhere, but you know, in other places, people actually fucking don't go, 'pay them no mind'. They don't suggest that it's my problem for letting that kind of behaviour get to me, which it fucking does.

.

last time i was in dublin, some pre-pubescent young fella offered a good aul' raping

 

[seanface]

He's starting. I'm just minding my own business bud.

you're finishing wha

 

[jane]

I guess there is an argument there, but its very negative. It'd be something similar to saying 'most of the good things in life are really coping mechanisms for dealing with all the bad things in life'.

Which is something once could certainly argue, but as I say, its a very negative viewpoint.

And just to say, I agree with everything that everyone has already said in this thread. Except for Moods for Moderns. Hes talking through his hole.

The problem here is that it's not safe to be positive. The begrudgery, the hostility, the negativity -- people seem to think a genuine smile is actually a challenge to wipe it off the person's face, or if they have energy about them, then it's the responsibility of the urban population to ensure that energy is sapped by having to cope with mountains of shit. If you are the sort of person who likes engaging with others, then Dublin is a very difficult city to live in.

It's not just in my head that I find it very difficult to return to a place where my right to bodily safety is not something I can take for granted. It's not that it's not compromised in other places, it's that it doesn't even exist here because there's still such a deep-rooted blame-the-victim mentality.

I also find it very difficult coming back to where my language is policed so much I spend most of my time defending myself and never really get to make a point. I'd almost gotten used to being treated like a human being. It was nice. Now it's not.

 

[Reets]

last time i was in dublin, some pre-pubescent young fella offered a good aul' raping

think i met the same guy, tho he phrased it better "you're worth gettin done for rape for", best chat up line ive had in a while.
if you've kids and looking for something to do theres a workshop on in the ifi and you'll get to see son of rambo with the guy that did the animation there, and beside it in the ark they've a mask expo, you can make your own ones and they even have the real robocop, batman (92s batman returns i think) and black spiderman costumes.
if you get someone to cause a distraction you can have a real dublin day and nick one of them, no chance of losing a costume compition ever again.

 

[D0njo]

Ah yeah, Dublins a load of shite alright, plenty of other cities with plenty of scallywags that don't seem to feel the need to attack everybody or generally shite things up for other people.... I still like it though, the atmosphere of imminent violent attact makes me feel cool.

 

[jane]

By the way, the profile of most of the men who have kicked the shite out of me have been middle-aged and middle-class.

Just so you know.

The worst one was a guy driving a brand new Audi, and I really and truly thought I was going to die. There was look in the guy's eyes like not only couldn't he stop himself, he forgot who he was beating up.

That happened at 7:30am in Ranelagh.

It's not just a problem with the poors or in 'rough' neighbourhoods or on the top deck of a bus.

The guy who got out of his car to put me in my place for LOOKING AT HIM, he told me he knew where I lived and that he was going to come to my house and sexually assault me when I least expected it. He was driving a fucking beamer.

This city's got bigger problems than most people will ever admit.

 

[Lili Marlene]

jane, I don't know how you manage it, that doesn't happen to other people. edit: actually maybe it does, I don't know any other joggers



How come you don't just leave?

 

[Space]

Dublin's easily as shit as Jane says it is, unfortunately it's also where most interesting stuff and people live/happens and where most of the jobs are. I'm gonna be partying in Dublin tonight, head down as late as possible and leave early tomorrow, avoid the city centre like the plague.

 

[plug]

The rest of the time people are ok, except for sounding like fuckin seals all the time. "Did you see da hurlin yesterday. We were fuckin robbed boy arrr arrr arrr".

haha. so true.

cork is pretty laid back. full of idiots, noddy-headed teenagers and subnormal morons but it's grand. one of cork's greatest attributes is that it's easy to leave. one to two hours west and you're in west cork or kerry. dublin... I'd probably move back to limerick before I'd live in dublin again. actually, probably not. not ragging on limerick (or galway) but they're both pretty small.

having said al that, I could use a break from cork too at this stage.

I guess franco is right: ireland is a small shit country!

red pandas: aren't they actually related to raccoons? there's one in fota too. so no need for that trip to dublin zoo so

jane: fucking hell. I'm horrified. those are some horrible experiences. did you ever get any kind of closure from the law in any of these incidents?

 

[plug]

the funny thing is, I actually really want to go to dublin tonight but I CAN'T. oh cruel irony.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

Dublin's easily as shit as Jane says it is, unfortunately it's also where most interesting stuff and people live/happens and where most of the jobs are. I'm gonna be partying in Dublin tonight, head down as late as possible and leave early tomorrow, avoid the city centre like the plague.

You would say that, you're from the north.
Americans hate Dublin too. And people from Cork can't stand the Dubs.
Leave us alone you vile propagandists.

 

[killy kill]

did anyone answer maims bonds question?

 

[jane]

The only time I ever had anything except a disinterested response from the pigs was when one of them groped me and told me I had a 'very nice ass'. Besides, when something like that happens, you just want to get somewhere where you feel safe, and I'm generally too shaken to put up with being interrogated again.

The passive aggression, the deep-rooted denial, the kneejerk defensiveness -- it all really fucks me up.

I did actually get some validation yesterday, which was weirdly timely. I was running on the Rock Road and there was a guy around my same pace. I let him pass because he was a little faster than me, and then these cyclists came toward us at lightspeed, three abreast on the footpath, and he gave out to them. I ran up beside him and said, "Thanks! I always think I'm the only one who does stuff like that." And we got to talking.

Not only did he say he finds Dublin hostile (he was Irish but I think he said he was from Cavan), he said even when he's been in road races, there's danger that isn't there when you're in other cities. And the problem isn't just with the jerks, it's that people accept it as okay behaviour, which means it will never stop.

His former boss was a really serious runner from North Carolina who absolutely refused to run when he came to Dublin because it was so hostile that it made it scary to run. He also validated my thing about how in other cities, cyclists and runners are allies. We're the ones drivers hate the most, and yet cyclists in Dublin are sometimes the most aggressive. AND that Dublin runners don't adhere to the otherwise global 'runners code'. About 10% of them do, but it also contributes to the sense of unease. Everywhere else, the done thing is to wave and make eye contact with other runners, and there's a sense of independent interdependence.

It didn't make me feel a sense of justice and it's not nice to know that it is so widespread because it means a lot of people are as freaked out as I am, but it definitely made some aspect of my experience as a runner feel validated. I'm a toxic cocktail of runner, foreigner, and chick. Maybe some people have never learned self-awareness and don't notice the hostility and the lust for violence, but it's there.

The problem is really that there's no way to take a positive approach to personal safety in this city. Making eye contact with other people, especially drivers and cyclists is not done. Or just generally being willing to share space with other people, acknowledging that not only do they exist, they have the same right to the public space you do. Instead there is such a lack of self-awareness that people take eye contact as a threat, and have no sense of consequences. Like, "If I throw my elbow out, that lady will fall on her ass in the road, but as long as I don't make eye contact with her first, it doesn't count." (I was picking gravel out of my fucking fat ass thighs for days.)

The people increasingly at the top of my shitlist are cyclists on footpaths. Anyone who fucking cycles down the footpath on the East Link bridge should be fucking locked up for life. That thing is so narrow, and the trucks fly over the bridge so close to the edge of it -- one false move and the pedestrian either ends up in the Liffey or under a Kilsaran truck driven by one of their demented 'drivers'.

Cyclists on footpaths and Kilsaran concrete truck drivers. Worst people on the planet.

 

[plug]

thought so. the gardai... what exactly do they do with their time because they don't seem too eager about their mandate of "community commitment" and "personal protection".

fuck de gardz.

you should learn a martial art or something. not that you should have to, mind you.

and no, I don't think anyone did answer maims bond's question!

 

[jane]

jane, I don't know how you manage it, that doesn't happen to other people. edit: actually maybe it does, I don't know any other joggers



How come you don't just leave?

See above. It does, just maybe not always turning to violence for other people. I don't know any other women who run in the city. You almost never see them, except the occasional D-4 lady jogging in full makeup on the Strand. No offence to them, but they don't really count. Any women I've met who do run for fun on a regular basis are not from Ireland. Running on a treadmill is not a solution because treadmills are boring.

There's just no collective will to make this city a better place because people who criticise it just get told to leave. Or they leave without bothering to give anyone the opportunity to pull that 'love it or leave it' thing. So eventually, we take our will and our ideas elsewhere.

What Dublin needs is some civic pride.

 

[Wilbert]

The problem here is that it's not safe to be positive. The begrudgery, the hostility, the negativity -- people seem to think a genuine smile is actually a challenge to wipe it off the person's face, or if they have energy about them, then it's the responsibility of the urban population to ensure that energy is sapped by having to cope with mountains of shit. If you are the sort of person who likes engaging with others, then Dublin is a very difficult city to live in.

It's not just in my head that I find it very difficult to return to a place where my right to bodily safety is not something I can take for granted. It's not that it's not compromised in other places, it's that it doesn't even exist here because there's still such a deep-rooted blame-the-victim mentality.

I also find it very difficult coming back to where my language is policed so much I spend most of my time defending myself and never really get to make a point. I'd almost gotten used to being treated like a human being. It was nice. Now it's not.

I have to say, Jane, I really don't recognise the Dublin you're talking about.

I don't think that it's there and I just can't see it either. I don't know anyone else who has had anything close to the experiences you describe. If it was so widespread you'd think we'd all know someone who has had similar things happen to them but I just don't.

Not saying it's your own fault either and not saying that these things don't happen but it is far from the norm.

 

[jane]

Not saying it's your own fault either and not saying that these things don't happen but it is far from the norm.

Actually, you can't really say that you think it's just me, and then suggest that you don't think it's my fault. Clearly you do.

So thanks. It's attitudes like yours, the total denial that there's any problem at all, except with me, that are one of the main problems with the urban climate in Dublin.

If you don't see it, it's not there. I wish I could be like that. It would make my life here so much easier.

 

[Wilbert]

Actually, you can't really say that you think it's just me, and then suggest that you don't think it's my fault. Clearly you do.

Actually, I don't. Whether you believe that or not is up to you.

Maybe my post was worded a little clumsily but I don't think it's just you. I think you might have had a lot more bad experiences than most but I don't think that means there is some terrible undercurrent in Dublin that we are all in denial about. Most people are good, decent people and your experiences are not typical of most people here.

Not saying there are no problems in Dublin at all but my experience is the total opposite of yours.

 

[Froog]

you realise joggers were chased out of the city in the great health purge of '76 ya?

 

[Lili Marlene]

There's just no collective will to make this city a better place because people who criticise it just get told to leave.

I didn't tell you to leave if that's what you're implying.

If not, ok then.