Please note: I am not referring to the many respectable areas of the northside of Dublin, I am refferring to the north city centre and the surrounding inner city areas that plague it.
If you are a tourist visiting Dublin, there are a number of areas in the northside of the city centre you should avoid during the day. The shopping area of Talbot st. is a haven for drug addicts, skangers and general lowlifes. The addicts congregate here to purchase heroin and to get methatdone and other opiate based substances from the clinic. many of the shops in this area are constantly being robbed at gunpoint, or a ‘jumpover’ where a junkie will hop over the counter and brandish a syringe filled with blood at the unfortunate student/foreign immigrant who works there. this happens regularly in this area during the day. DO NOT come here at nighttime, as althought the addicts are generally gone because the clinic is closed, due to the smoking ban large groups of scumbags congregate outside pubs to smoke here, and will set upon you for ‘d’buzz’ or as normal people wouuld say, the surge of adrenaline they get for ganging up on an innocent person during their frequent smokes.
If you walk past the vaults nightclub at anytime past 10 o’clock and do not dress in accordance with skanger rules, at best you will be jeered and laughed at. at worst you will end up in an ambulance. DO NOT confront anybody who laughs at you from this nightclub, it is a haven for Dublins brat-pack of young gangsters based around the slums of this area.
If you are going to the point theatre and decide to head northbound, think again. you will end up in the sherriff st. area. during the heroin epidemic of the 80s this was possibly the worst place in dublin. it has now quietened down, but joyriders and addicts remain while most ‘decent’ people who lived here have moved on to wherever ‘dublin cihy council’ have moved them. there is currently a gang war taking place here, avoid at all costs. if you do find yourself here the only option is to run away as no taxi driver will pick you up.
If you are foreign, it is likely the pyjama clad skangerettes will want to have sex with you anonymously so that they can claim ‘choil’ benefih’ or childrens allowance and get a nice local authority hovel. don’t be tempted as their brothers/fathers/boyfriends or whatever will be only too happy to bottle you in the face, particularly if you are english. the typical dress of these people is white trainers, trackie bottoms tucked into your socks, a cap peaked and worn at 90 degree angle, gold chains, and every one of them must own a celtic or republic of ireland jersey. anyone not doing so is regarded as ‘a fookin proddy’. they will often see themselves as republicans and profess a love of ‘d’ra’ or the IRA. however they will generally not actually give a shit about republican ideals such as a united ireland and will only say such things to give themselves street cred, apart from the odd riot whenever LOVEULSTER come to town, which i doubt they will again. (see love ulster riots). most of them will spend their days skinning up splifs and sniffing coke, drinking cheap lager such as dutch gold and bavaria, and drinking flagons of cheap cider to kill time until dole day. to feed there addictions, most will break into cars and rob houses. however many of Dublins ‘old school junkies’ will now have serious criminal records dating back to the early eighties and are involved in large drug deals and often very serious crime. you will be able to tell the difference between them and the new junkies and crackheads, by their age and dress.
Of course, there are some shithole areas in the southside of the city aswell, its just that grafton st, harcourt st. etc is generally safer and has a better normal person to skanger ratio. in general, it is better to avoid the northside altogether unless you really have to go there.
other areas to avoid are o’connell st.(at nighttime), henry st. (all the time) sean mcdermott st, north wall, north starnd, docklands, eastwall, abbey st., and clanbrassil st.
How could one possibly go on a rant about the Northside without even mentioning Ballymun? Or even the area in general surrounding the airport?
I am actually from Dublins’ Northside ( coolock) and I think this description should be taken with a pinch of salt – every large town/city is going to have problems with for want of a better word scumbags, There a lot more decent people than “chavs” in these areas it just that you only hear of the arseholes causing trouble and we hate them just as much – it’s not where you live it’s how you live .
I am sorry to say it is true.. it’s a dirty expencive city with little or few redeeming features.
I’m from Dublin (northside) and a lot of that is true,however it must be noted that the worst areas of the city are in south west Dublin,in particular Tallaght a massive sprawling housing estate which has a chronic crime and drugs problem, other nearby areas which are equally as bad are Clondalkin, Ballyfermot and Crumlin and Drimnagh which houses many of the citys gangsters.
North Dublin too has it’s fair share of dodgy areas like Finglas and Kilbarrack while in west/north West Dublin certain areas of Blanchardstown are very dodgy too, on the whole south east Dublin is affluent asides from a handful of areas like Sallynoggin and Ballybrack.
What utter crap. I grew up in Dublin 1 and never had any problems. The area is grand.
Am afraid to admit that everything said above is true! I lived in Dublin for seven years, and had to move from there as it was getting far to dangerous. All the areas outlined above are exactly as the author described. The final straw for me was a fifteen year old boy shooting his neighbor, after the neighbor had reprimanded him for throwing refuse at his house!
Take the author’s advice and stay out of the place if at all possible. You are not missing anything by not being there. Believe me!
Oh and thanks by the way to my great friend who sent this link on to me…. very funny! However you forgot that I am not a Dublin native, but nice try! Lol
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I live in Denmark most of the time and travel a lot but I always return to my city of Dublin roughly once every three years. The last time I returned was June 2010. As I walked the streets aghast at the sheer numbers of chavs I felt a fear that I have never felt in Dublin before. O’ Connell st. was a colourful display of tracksuits and white trainers. It was like a kind of olympics for the unhealthy. A sinking feeling came over me as I crossed to the Southside and there standing on the corner of Westmoreland st. and Aston Quay, larger than life and twice as ugly, stood a solitary chav in classic chav attire. As I passed by, all the while keeping a cautious eye on him, I overheard him offer an illegal substance to another pedestrian who also ignored his attempt at carrying out an illegal transaction. I became acutely and nervously aware of the presence of many others as I wandered along Wellington Quay which only ten years ago wasn’t such a bad area. It seems that they have taken to migrating from the North to the Southside now. I guess they are spilling over to the Southside because they have finally achieved their goal of overpopulating their own neighbourhoods
I am not embarrassed to tell you that fear filled my very being at Tara St. station where I (and many others) witnessed a chav hit what I presume to be his girlfriend because she was late for an arranged meeting. I know that is the reason he hit her because he made it clear to all in the ticket booth area with his very loud and angry shouting. One normal person told him not to do that and he replied with a barage of verbal threats. Outside the same station I watched from a safe distance as one chav thumped another repeatedly while about six others looked on surrounding the violent scene like a scab. The aggressor turned and stared at me right in the eyes for what seemed like a long second and then continued to thump the receiving chav. If I hadn’t been protected by two roadside barriers and the busy traffic which was whizzing by between the chavs and I, I am absolutley positive that the aggressive chav would have come for me joined by the guy he was thumping as well. That very thing happened to a friend of mine, he needed two stitches just for glancing at two chavs who were fighting on the street as he passed by, both of them attacked him. I think that he got off lightly considering.
I pity the cops that have to deal with these chavs, I really do.
Im realy geting fed up of there low life enoying loser homophobic conformist chavs, i hate them with all my guts and f**king every part of dublin are full a these assholes from ages of 8 to 18. its so f**king enoying. in my opinion they should all be put down tbh , i dont see why they have 2 live ?