Stryker Xmas Party

[Pedrito]

All good points and yes the violence was always there. Jesus I remember shitting myself going to teenage discos in Drogheda, you looked wrong at one lad and you could have 15 of them outside later waiting to kick you to pieces. I think the debauchery has gone up a bit though. The drugs and public riding and stuff like that. Yes, it definitely existed back in the day too though. Jesus I've seen people go at it that nobody should ever see going at it, pornstars are paid becuse they're generally in shape and look good, but seeing some brickie smashing Joanne from the local deli out by the bins is just more than the eyes can take.

But it's a great point in general. Everything seems to be going UP. The temperatures, prices, taxes...fair enough. But when it comes to stuff like suicide rates and depression and abuse and all these things, you'd wonder where they're coming up with the figures from. My parents are from down Cork and Kerry and they would say that lads would often be found hanging from a rope in a barn or the gun went off accidently but it was rarely, if ever reported as suicide...ah he slipped on the bridge, type of stuff. So I'm wary of generalising even though I just did it. The drugs and madness is definitely at lunacy levels though..Stryker a case in point. 

Just to add to the Cryptic post...I have that perception too...the violence seems to go further these days, but again I couldn't confirm or deny it. Certainly stuff like that young girl being killed by them young lads in Castleknock, I don't seem to recall stories like it, but is it, again, that they're being reported more now...I have no clue.

[Cryptic Stench]

I don't know dude, stories were always reported, I guess in some cases now there's video to back it up.

Here's a couple of stories though that are indicitive of what I'm talking about;

David Curran murdering two Polish lads at just 17 years old, stabbed both in the head with a screwdriver because he believed (Out of his mind on drugs) that one or either of them had attacked his old man.

The lads in Coolock that danced on Lukasz rzeszutko's head outside his place of employment "for a buzz" as they put it.

This is the level we're at now lads, I think we're so desensitised to it we're saying it's comparable to a lad getting a few slaps outside Mcgonagles which it most definitely is not.

[Trev]

But then similarly there was the young lad stabbed outside the cinema in Coolock and the guy outside the Burlington and both of those were in the early '00s

[Juggz]

Perspective plays a large part in it, of course, since you're mentioning desensitivisation. I don't have TV channels, don't use social media either, aside from a few forums. I'm not desensitised to violence, quite the opposite. I read news from a number of sources and, when I'm not reading the news, I'm observing life as I see it. The stories you mentioned are absolutely shocking to me, of course, but I'm not overexposed to bad news, trust me. I wouldn't class a gang of lads kicking the shit out of someone lying on the ground as "a few slaps" either.

Honestly, I think Dublin, being the example, feels like a substantially safer place than it was when I grew up. There were parts of town you just did not go into. Fuck sake, there were parts of the council estate I grew up in which I couldn't go into. There used to be gang fights between my estate and the estate next to us, running battles, it could be fucking mental at times. When I was studying in Ballyfermot we used to get together to leave in groups to get the bus after dark. Even then, we were attacked more than once and chased onto the bus. It doesn't feel like that lawlessness is as bad. Then there was the Troubles, shit like the unmarried Mother homes, there has always been violence but there was never the constant exposure to incidents which many get through the telly and their phone. Maybe there is more money and less catholic guilt to fuel the depravity side, sure, but it feels like a generally safer place to me.

[Juggz]

Just thinking of something else, I watched The Commitments recently, for the first time in a long, long time. What struck me was not the story but the Dublin it captured. You forget what a dirty, decrepit shithole it used to be. You forget that the bridges over the Dart tracks used to be covered in barbed wire with sides high enough to stop cunts throwing cavity blocks onto the trains. Different times.

[Trev]

Honestly, I think Dublin, being the example, feels like a substantially safer place than it was when I grew up. There were parts of town you just did not go into. Fuck sake, there were parts of the council estate I grew up in which I couldn't go into. There used to be gang fights between my estate and the estate next to us, running battles, it could be fucking mental at times. When I was studying in Ballyfermot we used to get together to leave in groups to get the bus after dark. Even then, we were attacked more than once and chased onto the bus. It doesn't feel like that lawlessness is as bad. Then there was the Troubles, shit like the unmarried Mother homes, there has always been violence but there was never the constant exposure to incidents which many get through the telly and their phone. Maybe there is more money and less catholic guilt to fuel the depravity side, sure, but it feels like a generally safer place to me.

Jesus I forgot about those estate battles, absolutely crazy stuff. The field in between the two of them where I lived could be like a warzone, especially around Halloween time

[Pedrito]

Deffo agree with all of the above. Ireland in the 80's and 90's....jesus! The 80's was close to third world at times. You never see groups of skinny, dying little street urchins walking around with their heads shaved like back then. My primary school was a strange mix of posh, working/middle class and poverty stricken kids. Some of the families were enormous, both parents alcoholics and you could smell the poor cunts coming a mile down the road. They'd eat hardly anything all day and spend the whole evening roaming until they eventually went home at night. All sorts of abuse and violence was going on behind closed doors. Roddy Doyle captured it very well in The Family mini series if anyone remembers that. Charloooo!!

So, at the very least it's great that that's gone, lads walking around with their heads down, miserable, no confidence, poor. There's a certain arrogant wankeriness that has replaced it in some quarters but you'll always have arseholes. I got rid of the telly years ago, really wish I could fuck away the phone because it's definitely replaced it, but at least I'm aware of what's coming at me in terms of depressing stories etc and can take steps to avoid it. 

[lifeeternal]

My hometown is nowhere near as violent as it was when I was a young lad, 15 years ago. The world seems stupider, more violent and bigoted because of social media.

[blessed1]

What struck me was not the story but the Dublin it captured. You forget what a dirty, decrepit shithole it used to be.

It still is.

[Cryptic Stench]

Anyone who thinks dublin was worse back in the day is wrong. Worse kip than ever and far more violent now

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c1vvRdPb8

[mickO)))]

I wasn't around in the 1980s but for me things are definitely a lot worse than they were growing up in the 90's and 00's. I do agree that things did happen back then and video does have a part to play in the way we are seeing more of what's going on but so many people these days that would stab you before even throwing a punch.

I have no problem with people taking what they want on nights sure when it comes to drinking I am worse than I have ever been since I started drinking higher percentage beers a few years ago and most nights I drink and end up blacking out because I go from being tipsy to hammered in a short space of time. But when people are going for a pint mind week to watch say the football and they have work in the morning but are in the toilets snorting lines in between each drink to me that's too much.

Coke is basically as common now as weed was 10 - 15 years, big difference in both the health effects, addictiveness and cost of both. I am living somewhere now that weed is legal so to me I don't think of it any differently then I do beers or cigarettes. For the first time I was home as well it felt weird not being able to go out to the beer garden and light up a joint freely.

Then when I was home as well on the way to the pub on the Friday before new years I ran into that Nigerian gang that have been terrorizing Dublin for the last few years and now have decided to come to Drogheda. I was walking up to a corner and could hear a load of Nigerian accents so I decided to cross the road next thing a gang of 20 lads come around the corner with two Irish girls following them, then two cops cars came around after them following them at walking speed the whole way up the road. I have no doubt if the cops had not of been there I most likely would have ended up getting a hiding from them.

They caused riots up in Dublin on new years even at the Red Cow Inn and were back in Drogheda last Saturday night causing chaos as well and nothing is being done to stop them out of fear of how it will look. The same lads tried to come down to Drogheda multiple times during the fleadh once the cops were waiting for them at the train station and refused to let anyone off the train and sent it back to Dublin then another night they did the same thing with a bus coming from Balbriggan. One night they managed to get down and ended up a big fight with the cops and had a ban garda on the ground kicking her in the head I even saw a video of this.

I know people will use the argument "Irish lads cause trouble as well" but we have never had a case of gangs of Irish lads going from town to town robbing and attacking every person they come across. If you look on google you will find multiple stories of these lads harassing young kids, old women, pregnant women and just causing havoc everywhere they go.

Also I heard on the news when I was home about the lad stabbed multiple times up in Dublin then the next morning I woke and someone had sent me a video of part of the attack on whatsapp.

[Trev]

Anyone who thinks dublin was worse back in the day is wrong. Worse kip than ever and far more violent now

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c1vvRdPb8

How does that show that Dublin is worse now though? That shit has always happened just people didn't have the means to document it

[Cryptic Stench]

Luas, Broad daylight. Public Transport. No problem trying to murder someone by dancing on their head.

I could put a lot more and lot worse up.


Dublin is worse than ever, you can now get killed for very little. Glad I moved out of the kip and am reminded of that every time I go back in.

[mickO)))]

From the video description it looks like the fella on the ground tried to stab the fella attacking him.

[DeletedUsermNqGIiIuGy]

The violence has always been there.. I think though it has increased a lot over the last few years.

Most time people don't get involved with teenagers fighting male or female as they seem way more likely to do something extreme.. ie a weapon or literally dancing on peoples heads.
Or get into it with one and another 12 appear and you end up in a coma/dead.
It's equally disgusting and sad to see how bad it was/has/can be.