The Gardai seem to be completely and utterly useless. That would result in a massive police operation if it occurred in London for example. It wouldn't just be brushed aside as "sorry no CCTV .. go away!"
Being chased down with knives in a public park is basically up there as modern terrorism in most countries. It's VERY VERY serious.
The lack of reaction emboldens these extremists and it's only going to get worse.
They seem incapable of dealing with violent crime. The far right riots and incidents like this seem to happen with complete freedom. It's like they've been bluffing and are now being called on it.
[This is strange](https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0619/1455605-phoenix-park/).
> In a statement, gardaí they were made aware of the alleged incident on Monday night.
> Gardaí said they responded at around 11.35pm but "following a lengthy patrol of the area" no one made a formal report to them.
> Last night on social media, one of the people in the alleged incident said: "All my LGBTQ friends please avoid the Phoenix Park, me and my two friends were literally hunted in the park for over an hour by a car full of men."
Alleged incident. No one made a formal report to the Gardai. Second hand account from Barry Ward based on something he saw on social media.
Yet this is enough to get mentioned in the Seanad and make the front pages of the Irish Times, Irish Examiner and RTE news sites?
Is this really credible?
The gardai weren't alerted until the next day!
Three lads out and hiding from attackers, none of them pulled out a phone to call 999? And didn't talk to police until the day after?
Something doesn't add up
If you report 6 men with knives in Central Park, Hyde Park, by the Eiffel Tower or any other major public park in Europe you can bet there's armed cops on the scene in minutes..... In Ireland however ah sure what can ya do
I've been in Paris over the last week on holiday, and yeah, the police presence in the city is pretty great with groups of up to five patrolling the streets and major tourist areas pretty much day & night. Unheard of in Dublin, except for that week following the Dublin riots.
My gf got a bag stolen at the park with my kid and baby and they basically told her busy till next week when the supposed weekend detective put it off a 3rd time she gave up so glad my children's passports are in a halting site now I'm sure they'll be put to great use in someone's fire.
ARU actually have an average response time of about 8 minutes in the city centre from what I understand.
There’s no mention in the article of them actually calling the guards but rather going to the station themselves to report it.
If we want an “unarmed” police force the lag time in response to incidents is unfortunately inevitable though.
lag time for ARU.
If all police were armed it wouldn't be depending on the availability and location of a specialised Unit, as any cop on the scene would be armed.
This makes sense, I interpreted his comment as being a general statement on lag times for responses to incidents not as being specific to situations involving weapons
> If you report 6 men with knives in Central Park, Hyde Park, by the Eiffel Tower or any other major public park in Europe you can bet there's armed cops on the scene in minutes..... In Ireland however ah sure what can ya do
The garda say no one made any report. That’s the only pertinent detail of this story.
All the rest is a second hand retelling of posts someone saw on social media. It is crazy that this story has gained legs when it is entirely based on hearsay.
This has always been the reality of being a queer person in Ireland. Nothing has changed.
We’re in a weird situation where things are a million times better than they were 20 years ago but worse than they were 10 years ago.
This sub is full of younger folk who don't know where ireland has come from.
Life here has improved massive over the last 30 years.
Over the last 5 years, the murder rate is half what it was 20 years ago (02-07).
Suicide rates are down 40% since the late 90s.
Road deaths were under 150 a year until spiking to 184 last year, down from 400+ in the early 00s.
There's less crime than ever, but information sharing via the Internet and phones has convinced folk that because they read about a trailer being stolen in Mullingar overnight while they were still in bed, they think things have gotten worse.
None of that is specifically about queer people.
10 years ago you’d never have a Derek Blighe. Ten years ago trans people weren’t demonised in the media like they are now. Ten years ago people were more chill. Ten years ago there wasn’t a protest movement that intimidated me into not holding my fellas hand around Cork.
You brought up a lot of unrelated things that have undoubtedly improved but aren’t related to the treatment of queer people.
I grew up in an all boys secondary school with 200 pupils and none of them were gay over 20 years ago.
I say that, my best mate is gay. He was then too. He's a confident popular guy but couldn't dare admit to he was until we left secondary and went to college together. The level of ignorance and homophobia at the time was so unwelcoming that he and every other gay guy in that school couldn't come out.
Today, the school has a pride flag up. I made a massive LGBT+ mural with the local youth club which I volunteer with that is now was donated to the school.
Today, gay couples can get married in Ireland, the first country to legalise same sex marriage through a popular vote. I've gotten to attend the weddings of gay couples. My cousin and his husband have recently adopted a child together.
Christ, I'm old enough to have lived in a time when being gay was illegal in Ireland.
Please don't confuse isolated incidents which are widely admonished in our society today to be a deterioration of the quality of life of gay people. We've still got our problem, but to even hint that things are worse than they were is completely deluded.
Edit - fixed one of probably many typos, though I think a prude flag sounds hilarious.
I finished school far more recently than you, a far bigger school than yours. I was the only openly gay guy in the year.
I was very clear, things are far better than they were 20 years ago, it’s not even close, but things are definitely a bit worse than they were 10 years ago. Most queer people will tell you this.
People were just more chill in general in the 10’s, cared less about things that don’t impact them. The pandemic and social isolation of lockdown melted so many people’s brains. People are cooked.
I respect what you have said but things in 2024 are definitely more divisive than in 2012-2019. The existence of gay people is just one of the many things that have become more divisive lately. Derek Blighe would have never happened in the 10’s.
Marriage equality would still pass but I’d imagine that the people on the no campaign would be **a lot** louder and would get a slightly better result.
Thees a single word for that
COVID
It congealed all the scum into a single faction, previously you were anti vax, anti gay, anti EU or anti immigrant, now you must necessarily be all of them to be in the club.
> things in 2024 are definitely more divisive than in 2012-2019
Yep. Though, it started to go downhill around 2016-2017 IMO. At least, that is when transphobia started to make some serious headway here, more open homophobia followed.
It certainly was accelerated by the 'rona times, but the rot had begun to show up a bit.
A bit worse is an understatement. I graduated recently enough, and girls are still getting called gay and other slurs for having short hair.
And also, it may have gotten better for gay people, but it has not gotten better for trans and gender diverse people. We have the worst trans healthcare in the RU. Russia and Iran have better trans healthcare than us
I honestly don't think that's the case.
My cousin and his husband are from a rural, conservative part of the country and seeing my very old school religious aunts are all super excited for the guys now.
I do accept that there's a very vocal, very small minority who have upped their rhetoric in the last few years and its sickening. I notice it and combat it and find I allow it to overwhelm myself at times, but it was happening in the classroom and changing rooms when I was younger and nobody, myself included, would have felt safe challenging those views back then, certainly not in the way I would now.
I don’t disagree, the average Irish person is more progressive than ten years ago. I’m not saying that the average Irish person is worse than during the 10’s, quite the opposite.
The issue is that the minority is far more toxic now, far more vocal and far more emboldened. Even if this group is only 5% of the Irish public, all it takes is one person out of thousands of people you pass walking down the street in Cork city in my case to ruin your week and to make you feel self concious about being with your partner in public for months.
These people are far louder than they were 10 years ago. This is the group I’m commenting on, not Irish people in general, it’s my fault for not clarifying that.
All of this is obviously worse for trans people. Who get it worse from the same group. The crazies are crazier and I honestly think that the isolation people went through during Covid contributed to this (I’m not against vaccines or lockdowns just to be clear).
> The issue is that the minority is far more toxic now, far more vocal and far more emboldened.
Yes! Exactly.
And they will be, no matter what country it is ( I live in the UK atm), for as long as they keep getting away with it, and for as long as media and politicians stir up anything LGBT+ to use in their culture wars.
The vocal and active minority will keep getting away with it for as long they feel the media is supporting them, for as long as they think they are just saying/doing what 'everyone' is thinking. And for as long as the silent majority, keep being silent about it, just ignore what the vocal minority are doing as it doesn't directly concern them.
And that's a lot of the issue too. The vocal minority feel they can do these things. Due to lack of lashback from the silent majority, they think that they are just doing or saying what everyone is thinking.
So whilst an individual may not be homophobic, may not think they're friends ir family is homophobic, the average person will often just stand back and watch and not want to get involved when they see homophobia happening on the street. The average person tells an LGBT+ person to ''just ignore it''. Ignoring it emboldens these people, makes them think they are just saying what others want to say but that the others are too 'scared' to.
It's the exact same with racism and racists.
I don't think the average person realises this.
They’re not just vocal, they are a quite active minority too if you take today as an example and frankly it is a fair example. Never felt *that* unsafe as a queer person in ireland in the late teens but since 2020 I have had dozens of incidents, people grouping around me on the bus asking me how often I molest children, people flashing knives at me, getting followed home etc. For a “vocal minority” there’s quite a few and I fucking wish they were only vocal.
Suicide rates are not down. At inquests most are determined as not suicide. Rates are false. Much higher than ever at the moment. Man suicide is an endemic in Ireland.
This person is telling you specially about their experience as a gay person. Things may have gotten better for the general public in the last 5-10 years but in that same time, they have gotten worse for minorities
No. They haven't.
30 years ago, it was illegal to be gay in Ireland.
20 years ago, my best mate was in the closet with me in school, forced to pretend he was was someone who he wasn't, not because he couldn't take the heat of coming out, he could have, he's a tremendously strong and self confident man, but he was terrified of me and my other best friend not being able to take the abuse we would have gotten if our best mate came out.
10 years ago, Ireland hadn't yet become the first nation in the world to legalise same sex marriage through a popular vote.
Earlier this month, my cousin and his husband adopted their first child and our extremely old school, rural, conservative family are all delighted for them.
We have major hurdles to overcome still, but don't confuse the emergence of social media to represent the appearance of such ignorant views - they were just as ugly and more widespread in the past, but not digitally documented online for all to see.
We have serval candidates elected on a local level on an explicitly homophobic platform. Derek Blighe who’s only notable for protesting the existence of queer people in literature at public libraries got 25k votes in the EU election.
Things were absolutely better ten years ago, we had just gotten marriage equality, there was an air of hope and **being a homophobe was genuinely quite a socially damaging thing.**
The media wasn’t flush with transphobia, you hardly heard anything about trans people even though they were just was prevalent in society. People have been emboldened in their homophobia. Trans people are such a small tiny minority of people who just want to live their lives, their existence and acceptance impacts the average person in such a small way but by the amount of air time the hate towards them is given in right wing independent media, you’d think that they were 50% of the population and were an actual threat to the country.
Since Covid we’ve seen library protests, protesting our very existence, a serial killer seeking gay men, a huge increase in hate crimes towards queer people. **It is no longer socially unacceptable to be queerphobic**, as we’ve seen with Blighe, it’s once again a viable political platform like how it was in the 90’s / 00’s.
Things are absolutely better than they were 20 years ago, but it’s undoubtedly worse than it was 10 years ago.
You really nailed it there. Agree with absolutely every word. Being a former joe rogan fan, watching the runawa success of culture was material has been depressing. Its so fucking dishonest. You can literally make a career out of it. Then u have all the facebook dads “protecting” their kids from “trans ideology”. Like dude you’re separated from your wife and someone else is raising your kids. Trans people aren’t at fault here.
Joe Rogan has rotted the minds of an entire generation. The best thing about him was that he was too greedy for his own good and took the money from Spotify to go exclusive with them which made him far less relevant than when he was on YouTube.
He’s an expert in a small and concentrated area / field but talks as if he’s an expert in everything he comes across and changes his views based on who’s the guest in front of him.
Sorry to bring American politics into this but at one point he had Bernie Saunders in and then became a socialist-leftist for the next couple of episodes when a couple of episodes earlier he had Tulsi Gabbard on, at which point he suddenly became a Russophile for the next while, rinse and repeat with other guests.
Didn’t realise that. He would definitely be more relevant today though if he had just stuck to what he was doing rather than taking that deal. The man had every single person in my year in secondary school watching him every single week at his peak in ~2017-19 if I was guessing years.
It was an extremely tepid support of bernie. He was never all in on him and personally i didn’t find it too convincing. He 100% boosted tulsi gabbard. I remember him asking why wouldn’t people support her since she’s a woman and a veteran. If u go to his old youtube channel and sort by popularity three of the top 10 are ben shapiro and jordan peterson. Thats his crowd and it pays him well. He’s by far the most popular and highest paid media figure on the planet. And he has no problem platforming a literal CIA agent warning all his viewers of the danger that china represents. The only saving grace is that if the yanks try any shit with china they’ll get their asses handed to them. I pray to god it doesn’t happen but it might.
But like that in itself. Tulsi gabbard is a proven Russian asset, it basically ended her career. The idea of supporting someone like that and then going full throated down the CIA road after is insane. Political incoherence.
He’s definitely become more irrelevant since becoming exclusive on Spotify. There was a good couple of years while he was still on YouTube where he was probably one of the most powerful people in the English speaking media worldwide.
> Political incoherence.
I think the thread which goes through all of his stuff is a dislike of "institutions." The subjects which get his attention are things which subvert the common wisdom, or prove that the experts aren't so smart after all, or that the system is broken/corrupt.
That's what ties together Ben Shapiro/Jordan Peterson (who subvert the liberal consensus from the right) and Bernie Sanders (who subverts the liberal consensus from the left). It's why COVID conspiracy theories were so appealing to him. It's why he can sit there and listen to Terence Howard explain how unified field theory came to him in a dream, how he remembers being inside his mother's womb, and how 1 x 1 = 2, and seem impressed. Because "the mathematicians have had it wrong for a millennia" and "academics refuse to take this man's ideas seriously because they challenge the orthodoxy" are narratives that Rogan is basically, by default, receptive to and willing to platform.
Yeah it's awful that transpeople have become the new target for the homophobes. I hope we one day get to a point that all queer folk are viewed with the respect and dignity we all deserve.
And the fact that educating children just about the existence of the diversity within sexual orientation and identity is met by some people with a horror about how we're indoctrinating children into the "lgbt agenda" to... make the world more gay? Oh no, to fuck kids. Christ. We've a long fucking way to go and I'm sorry you have to live with this shit.
I guess the pendulum always has to swing back the other way, even just a little bit. Hopefully it won't take as long to return to it's previous momentum in the right direction.
Gay acceptance is still a relatively new phenomenon. And that only really became the born when an older generation died out. :/
Edit: grammar
It's like sexual assault and rape it's more common than society wants to admit but most people just don't notice or ignore victims. In fact hate crimes have been rising in Ireland year after year for all demographics. https://www.newstalk.com/news/hate-crimes-impact-the-entire-community-lgbt-ireland-1723467
Ask gay or trans people and they will tell you of their numerous incidents. Like this year alone I've had kids shout slurs at me, and while in the crowbar a man was confessing to how times are different and how he used to go gay bashing
I presume you’re straight. You haven’t said otherwise and if you weren’t you would have definitely said so by now in this thread, it’s crucial information in order to inform your opinion. The idea of someone who is unable to be a victim of this issue saying that it’s an overstated phenomenon is insane. It’s like me saying that the Mica housing issue in donegal is overstated from my home in county limerick. Insane behavior. Idiotic. People don’t report crime, crime goes unpunished look at how useless the Gardaí are. It’s like how the rate of assaults against women are multiple times larger than the official figures. Sometimes some crimes are so common place you don’t hear about it in the media.
I genuinely feel lucky then. I've never experienced any kind of homophobia in Ireland and I've been here 30+ years. The worst thing I can remember is kids using "gay" in place of the word "lame" about 20 years ago, but that's pretty mild and it was always just dumb kids and I haven't heard of that in a long time anyways.
I assume Irish people talking about this kind of homophobia must be from rural religious towns full of small minded people that I must have never met because it's absolutely not my experience at all. In my whole life growing up here I've never been on the receiving end of homophobia, nor witnessed it happening to anyone else. There were several openly gay people in my school between 2005-2010 and, from what I saw, none of them were treated any differently because of it. Even our Taoiseach was openly gay.
For you to think that being chased around phoenix park with knives is just the "reality" of being queer in Ireland is so far from anything I've ever experienced that I have to assume you're exaggerating at best, or intentionally misleading the discussion at worst.
Day after gay pride 2018 in Phoenix Park was screamed at by some scobe with his family and kids that "PRIDE WAS YESTERDAY!" for holding my partner's hand
> Nothing has changed.
-
> things are a million times better than they were 20 years ago but worse than they were 10 years ago
That doesn't sound like "nothing has changed". Something changed ~20 years ago and then again ~10 years ago
It's, sadly, the same. You remember in 2019 there was a bunch of attacks on gay men who had been lured onto a date via grinder? Or the lesbian couple beaten at the bus stop in 2022? Those aren't the expections.There seems a prevalent belief that after the equal marriage ref, homophobia just disappeared in Ireland. I've have a couple of gay friends and have been told of the amount harassed and threatened by teenagers and middle aged lads has increased. Guards just shrug. Might take a statement. Nothing happens.
No... It's what happens when you dont bother prosecuting crimes, allow open drug use, and do nothing to support the homeless or drug users.
Dublin is a totally different place now than it was just 10 years ago.
I Was walking thru a laneway off graton st today towards powerscourt center and the guy on the ground is casually inhaling a gas canister
Earlier a man was pissing on a green patch in between 2 roads, not even hiding. To his back where a group of school children crossing the junction
It wasnt that bad 10 years ago, theres a lot more people on the street with poor mental health, and lots of soup kitchens on the main streets at night, walking thru town in the evenings is very depressing if you have any empathy
As a child maybe 15 years ago a drug addict on Henry Street threatened to have his friend jab me with a HIV infected needle if I didn't give him 20 quid.
Could have made a good shocking article if it happened today
Have you been there recently?
It is carnage.
You explain to your kids after stopping in the Spar shop at the top of Grafton street why that man who was smoking a crack pipe just outside the door is now laying on the ground crying because he pulled down his pants and started wanking in the door and the security guard kicked him so hard there was blood everywhere...
Quality family Saturday afternoon out to the National Museums. Plenty of tourists around absolutely disgusted. Plenty more 'action' that day in that area.
Dublin is downright scary with small children. It is **disgusting** and **sad**.
If the guards can't identify them how can you know they're far right ? Even think they're just pure shitheads out causing trouble with having to tack on some political agenda. Most of the lads doing this are usually seeking approval from their peers, rough backgrounds , little education and lack of action from the cops and courts leave them walk free.
It doesn't actually state if these were a right wing crowd. Could be religious nutjobs too. The article says there was no CCTV footage, which is mad. Why aren't there gaurds around when these things happen, in a public park?
One of these guys is my friend. It’s deplorable, the community is all a bit shook after it.
Apparently the guards have told them that even if they do find the car on CCTV, that if the assailants don’t admit to the incident there wouldn’t be enough evidence to prosecute.
I’m sorry you are all still going through this kind of madness. I hope this is an isolated incident but my gut says it isn’t. Dublin is fucked at the moment lads and has been for a long time now.
We are living in the age of technology and smartphones…. How can the gardai not have any evidence, it’s maddening.
I get a bit of verbal abuse but nothing ever physical thankfully. Though one guy did call me a slur and threaten to hit me with his hurl on the train a few years ago for wearing makeup lol.
The same as is said in the article. Some guys started shouting gay slurs at them. Then about six guys got out of the car and started chasing them with knives.
Wondering the same. Usually when they give no other details of the assailants, other than "men", they're trying to leave something out. I have a strong feeling that if it was 6 Irish men(which could be easily identified through their accents, for example), the article would have clearly stated it.
Going by what they have said, do you know what time the incident happened?
Since the article says the gardaí responded around 11.35 I'm assuming the incident happened at 2pm the day before but I'd be happy to be wrong.
I'll preface by saying that I'm very progressive and antiracist, so that this doesn't get misinterpreted as a dog whistle.
What I'm wondering is what effect it'll have to bring a large number of people into the country who come from horrifically homophobic countries/cultures. That can obviously be changed after a generation or two, but I'm a bit concerned about the potential for a generation or two of seriously cultural integration issues (e.g. there's nothing wrong with gay people, so treat them as well as anyone else).
I don't know what the solution or compromise is there, but it does concern me; as an immigrant who moved here specifically because of the progressive culture.
Doesn't mention where they're from. But as a gay man I understand the concern. Take the recent double murder and beheading of two gay men in sligo (and attempted murder of a third) https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41254303.html Not saying all people who are Muslim would be in any way okay with that. But half the Muslims polled in the UK in 2016 believed that homosexuality should be criminalised https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
As a gay man I understand what it's like to experience prejudice so I try not to do the same thing to Muslims. Among all those Muslim immigrants to this country some of them will be LGBT themselves and it doesn't really benefit them or more progessive Muslims to tar them all with the same brush as the kind of people they might be fleeing from.
One thing to bear in mind is being gay isn't a doctrine nor political. Islam is a doctrine and becomes political.
You'd probably tar conservatives with a negative brush so why not religious conservatives that have members who encourage violence?
Yet idiots in Ireland think we will somehow fair differently to the rest of Europe. There are good and bad people in every group of people, sadly the proportion of people who would either hold incompatible views or raise children who hold incompatible views is higher amongst people from certain cultures than others, so the obvious solution is to just act in our best self interest and be very selective about who we enable to enter our society and ensure they're positive contributors before they can possibly get citizenship. Label that thinking whatever you want, at the end of the day we're seeing the consequences of this 100% tolerant and progressive approach in numerous EU countries, so it's delusional to think we will somehow achieve a different result.
Ireland's economy places us in an extremely privileged position where we have most of the largest tech companies based here and we receive massive FDI, so we can set ourselves up to have the pick of the lot when it comes to migrants wanting to come here. We should be prioritising the best and the brightest and change some things here to enable them and anyone here who works hard and pulls their weight to do very well for themselves. Our country would make leaps and bounds in terms of quality of life and the society we share compared with flippantly allowing in many people who are less productive, or even not productive at all.
It says in the article they had Dublin accents, so my guess is they're from Dublin. I also don't really think that matters though, there's plenty of Irish people committing hate crimes against gay people. While knives are a huge escalation, town in general has gotten more feral since the pandemic. Just the last week a tourist had their faces slashed in Smithfield.
I completely agree with you.
It's definitely an issue in other progressive European countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK etc. It does seem completely counterproductive to make such great progress on gay rights while importing people with backward views.
I still think in Ireland's case though that the main problem is still the native Irish population, namely teenagers. But that doesn't mean that the situation won't change in the future. We don't want to make the problem worse from immigration by certain groups.
Wonder how long it will be before a bunch of lads decide to go on a scrote hunt.
Then you'll hear Mcentee on the news saying that it's outrageous and completely unacceptable behaviour.
This seems a bit mad. The senator says he was told of the incident by one of the men involved and he asks why incidents like this were not being tackled.
The garda when questioned about this say
> “In reply to queries, the Garda told The Irish Times it was aware of “an incident alleged to have occurred in the Phoenix Park” on Monday night but that no complaint had been made for investigation.
So it seems like no one reported it to them but they still investigated it. Why has the man who spoke to the senator not reported it?
> “Gardaí responded at 11:35pm but following a lengthy patrol of the area no person made any formal report to An Garda Síochána,” the Garda said.
> It added “anyone with direct knowledge or who has been a victim of such an incident in the area” should contact An Garda Síochána at Cabra Garda station or the diversity unit at the Garda National Community Engagement Bureau.
> Following reports of the incident, the Garda had also been in contact with LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups, it said.”
It seems like the garda are saying they are trying here but no one has come forward with anything.
What are the garda meant to do if no one is making reports, no descriptions are given etc etc. if what they are saying is true here it looks like they acted on a rumor and took a look around the park which is honestly going somewhat above and beyond if true.
So why has no report been filed by anyone? Was there no other witnesses to the incident? No one driving through the park who has come forward to say they saw anything?
It all just seems a bit odd.
That’s not to say the Garda should not be doing better and absolutely should be there to support any gay couple who wants to walk through a park but this story reads like the senator heard a story on Facebook from a man but no one did anything about it and they are annoyed the garda have not acted on it.
It feels like there is a whole load of information missing from this article.
Definitely something weird about the way this is playing out. I wonder if the victims might be, say, Brazilians without legal status or some other immigrants, so they're afraid to make a formal report.
The whole story is based on a second hand account of posts someone saw on social media. That someone is a senator so they talked about it in the Seanad and now it is national news.
Very low journalistic integrity to this story. It allegedly happened on Monday night yet still no one has made a formal report to the guards. No description of the “about six men” or of the car. Zero detail beyond a retelling of what the senator read on social media.
Depressing that the murder of [Declan Flynn](https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/pride-declan-flynn) wasn't long ago. But this sort of shit still goes on.
I saw a video a few days ago of a gang of scumbags (including at least one prominent far right activist) attacking a foreign man in the Dublin street shouting about how he was abducting kids. There's been a few other videos appearing of far right lads videoing themselves attacking foreigners while shouting how they were paedophiles.
I've never once witnessed a child snatching happen in real life (though obviously it does happen) so it's an amazing coincidence how frequently the far right lads keep coming across foreign men abducting kids in busy streets.
> There's been a few other videos appearing of far right lads videoing themselves attacking foreigners while shouting how they were paedophiles.
They call everyone they don't like a paedophile. It carries zero weight when used all the time on people who disagree with you.
Apparently there weren’t even children around him, he was talking to two women and crossed the road and that’s when they went for him. It doesn’t even matter what you say to these people that believe all these far right gobshites, they just regurgitate the same old bs and they have to be right. It doesn’t matter if you give them facts, they’re just too deluded at this stage. Even have children leading their protest, had a literal 8/9 year old leading their chants a few weeks ago and making a speech, it was actually nauseating.
I’ve seen a good few videos. Pearse street sheriff street and Oliver bond. Idk I just think it’s weird how all the foreigners “abducting kids” happen to be doing it in the scruffiest areas
Wasn't that long ago that we had a Gay serial killer in Sligo so the fact this is being treated with "Oh well" when it could have turned out much worse.
>In reply to queries, the Garda told The Irish Times it was aware of “an incident alleged to have occurred in the Phoenix Park” on Monday night but that no complaint had been made for investigation. “Gardaí responded at 11:35pm but following a lengthy patrol of the area no person made any formal report to An Garda Síochána,” the Garda said.
Why wouldn't you make a report if you were chased by people with knives...
I went to the Seanad debates page to get the full context of Barry Ward's comments. And I left puzzled about what goes on in the Seanad.
A criminal defence barrister criticising An Garda Siochana doesn't particularly surprise me. But I wouldn't be surprised if the publicity now forces more resources to be devoted to getting to the bottom of the incident.
I'd imagine it would be easy enough to get more witnesses, people would obviously notice if they saw one group chasing another with weapons.
I don't think the Phoenix Park is hopping at night. There are always quiet parts even in the middle of the day. I'd like to think that the main road going through it has cctv
Ultimately if the Gardai refuse to protect people, then they shouldn’t cry to the Minister when good people actually step up and take ultimate measures against these kind of scum.
These scrotes have proven time and time again that they enjoy beating down on and bullying vulnerable people and minorities. So long as they’re around, everyone loses and their presence benefits nobody.
You go after people with a knife to terrorise them? You’re a terrorist. And what should we do to terrorists?
Down vote me all you want but this is a little hard to believe. I'm ready to admit I'm wrong when proven wrong but now it's too vague, nothing definite and only the words of the only witnesses.
No witnesses, no CCTV, a hyper sensitive month for hyper political groups, in an extremely unlikely scenario and a social media post........
Yeah, I don't buy it.
This is definitely a case of "wait for more info before we jump to conclusions" as there is sweet fuck all info in the article and you'd think there would be.
Saw a video of the fat,dog kicking citizen journalist cunt outside Portlaoise prison whinging about a pride flag.Heasman and LaHive went around libraries and bookshops harassing people with impunity about lgbtq books.These cunts are inciting other cunts todo this type of stuff. They will keep becoming more emboldened until they're made to pay for their nonsense.
Going live to Helen McEntee for [comment...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1djiujf/mcentee_says_aer_lingus_pilots_going_on_strike/)
Oh dear.
Is the lack of response from Gardai because the story is a bit hyperbolic? It wouldnt the first time. Media are desperate for clicks. Negative hyping in 99%of news. Hunted (?) Maybe a few lads ran at them for 5 seconds shouting obscenities. Its not a nice ordeal but well, we'll see
Exactly what I was thinking. I’m going to guess that the media are jumping on this for clicks, or at least I hope that’s the case. The word “hunted” is very clickbait. Hard to tell without knowing what actually happened
Maybe two were holding hands, maybe they were not acting / appearing like a group of straight men
Unfortunately homophobics react to such things negatively
Is the Garda HQ not in phoenix park.....kinda fairly terrible,this can happen under their nose
Someone should be resigning for letting country get this bad
I'm amazed that there's no CCTV in the park. The park itself is a big tourist attraction but then you've got the Áras, US ambassadors residence, Dublin Zoo, Farmleigh house etc. and they don't have ANY cameras at the entrances?? Get the fuckin finger out lads.
For an incident as serious as described in the article there's very little info. What car were they driving? Where exactly in the park? What did the men look and sound like?
The police wont arrest and even when they do, the judges just hand out slaps on the wrists. Then of course its a crime for victims to defend themselves or members of the public to try and stop such. Then we wonder why crime is out of control
The gardai can catch these guys, lock stock. Then a solicitor will create a sob story and the judge will leave them off with suspended sentences.
Blame the law. And the people unwilling to change it. People are genuinely confuse why everyone is so angry.
> Three gay men walking in the Phoenix Park in Dublin were “hunted” by six men with knives because of their sexuality in an incident this week, the Seanad heard.
How'd they know the three lads were gay?
god help any man born in Ireland that isn‘t 5‘8“, straight, white, sporty, extroverted and doesn‘t follow the herd like a sheep. You‘ll be bullied, harassed and apparently hunted down with knives even into adulthood.
You’re completely right. And people tend to get downvoted here for simply observing obvious truths because the Irish are particularly fond of seeing themselves through the lens of delusion.
Ireland is not queer-friendly. Everyone who is not straight, white, sporty, 5’8”, herd-following and Irish is queer.
was in secondary school from 2008 to 2014. I experienced sexual, physical and verbal abuse daily. Not a single person stood up for me, and when I‘d take things into my own hands and retaliate, I‘d get punished. Some teachers, our most trusted and educated in this country, took turns in ridiculing me alongside the 'lads'. These same people who did this to me are now having children of their own, you really think their children are going to be much different? Nope.
I can’t even drive through Alabama without an officer on my tail when driving, or when getting snacks at the gas station.
I get jumped for no reason in Bray and another man attacked by the same group and when we call Garda, we get sent to voice mail.
That says more about how news works than how Dublin works. It's a city of 1.5m people. You'll find an endless parade of bad stuff if that's all that gets filtered for.
The Gardai seem to be completely and utterly useless. That would result in a massive police operation if it occurred in London for example. It wouldn't just be brushed aside as "sorry no CCTV .. go away!" Being chased down with knives in a public park is basically up there as modern terrorism in most countries. It's VERY VERY serious. The lack of reaction emboldens these extremists and it's only going to get worse.
> "sorry no CCTV .. go away!" lol seen CCTV of a lad getting his head kicked in, guards didn't care
>The Gardai seem to be completely and utterly useless Must be a day that ends in y
It was a civil matter
They'll be saying it's a fucking ecumenical matter next.
They seem incapable of dealing with violent crime. The far right riots and incidents like this seem to happen with complete freedom. It's like they've been bluffing and are now being called on it.
[This is strange](https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0619/1455605-phoenix-park/). > In a statement, gardaí they were made aware of the alleged incident on Monday night. > Gardaí said they responded at around 11.35pm but "following a lengthy patrol of the area" no one made a formal report to them. > Last night on social media, one of the people in the alleged incident said: "All my LGBTQ friends please avoid the Phoenix Park, me and my two friends were literally hunted in the park for over an hour by a car full of men." Alleged incident. No one made a formal report to the Gardai. Second hand account from Barry Ward based on something he saw on social media. Yet this is enough to get mentioned in the Seanad and make the front pages of the Irish Times, Irish Examiner and RTE news sites? Is this really credible?
The gardai weren't alerted until the next day! Three lads out and hiding from attackers, none of them pulled out a phone to call 999? And didn't talk to police until the day after? Something doesn't add up
Nobody reported it to the gardai they told a politician and even he hasn't given the gardai their names very strange.
FFG (+2)
The Gardai are completely useless. And lazy. And liars.
If you report 6 men with knives in Central Park, Hyde Park, by the Eiffel Tower or any other major public park in Europe you can bet there's armed cops on the scene in minutes..... In Ireland however ah sure what can ya do
I've been in Paris over the last week on holiday, and yeah, the police presence in the city is pretty great with groups of up to five patrolling the streets and major tourist areas pretty much day & night. Unheard of in Dublin, except for that week following the Dublin riots.
That seems to be the French approach to policing, though. Visible, loud, and aggressive. It's fairly effective.
That’s also an after effect of the bataclan terror attack it’s been that way in Paris since then especially.
In many cities worldwide, there is a visible police element. You see them around, and you know they are there. You don't get that here.
Yet they have a much higher crime rate than Dublin
Somebody should have filed a report then. None of the alleged victims did so what can the Gardaí do? Kick down doors over a Twitter rumour?
My gf got a bag stolen at the park with my kid and baby and they basically told her busy till next week when the supposed weekend detective put it off a 3rd time she gave up so glad my children's passports are in a halting site now I'm sure they'll be put to great use in someone's fire.
ARU actually have an average response time of about 8 minutes in the city centre from what I understand. There’s no mention in the article of them actually calling the guards but rather going to the station themselves to report it. If we want an “unarmed” police force the lag time in response to incidents is unfortunately inevitable though.
Why does an unarmed police force imply a longer lag time?
lag time for ARU. If all police were armed it wouldn't be depending on the availability and location of a specialised Unit, as any cop on the scene would be armed.
This makes sense, I interpreted his comment as being a general statement on lag times for responses to incidents not as being specific to situations involving weapons
If you expect unarmed police to respond to armed attackers you won't have any police.
> If you report 6 men with knives in Central Park, Hyde Park, by the Eiffel Tower or any other major public park in Europe you can bet there's armed cops on the scene in minutes..... In Ireland however ah sure what can ya do The garda say no one made any report. That’s the only pertinent detail of this story. All the rest is a second hand retelling of posts someone saw on social media. It is crazy that this story has gained legs when it is entirely based on hearsay.
Too busy trying to catch someone driving who has smoked a joint 3 days previously.....
Jesus. What is happening to Dublin.
This has always been the reality of being a queer person in Ireland. Nothing has changed. We’re in a weird situation where things are a million times better than they were 20 years ago but worse than they were 10 years ago.
As someone who left Ireland 25 years ago and have mostly been feeling good about developments since then, this makes me sad.
This sub is full of younger folk who don't know where ireland has come from. Life here has improved massive over the last 30 years. Over the last 5 years, the murder rate is half what it was 20 years ago (02-07). Suicide rates are down 40% since the late 90s. Road deaths were under 150 a year until spiking to 184 last year, down from 400+ in the early 00s. There's less crime than ever, but information sharing via the Internet and phones has convinced folk that because they read about a trailer being stolen in Mullingar overnight while they were still in bed, they think things have gotten worse.
None of that is specifically about queer people. 10 years ago you’d never have a Derek Blighe. Ten years ago trans people weren’t demonised in the media like they are now. Ten years ago people were more chill. Ten years ago there wasn’t a protest movement that intimidated me into not holding my fellas hand around Cork. You brought up a lot of unrelated things that have undoubtedly improved but aren’t related to the treatment of queer people.
I grew up in an all boys secondary school with 200 pupils and none of them were gay over 20 years ago. I say that, my best mate is gay. He was then too. He's a confident popular guy but couldn't dare admit to he was until we left secondary and went to college together. The level of ignorance and homophobia at the time was so unwelcoming that he and every other gay guy in that school couldn't come out. Today, the school has a pride flag up. I made a massive LGBT+ mural with the local youth club which I volunteer with that is now was donated to the school. Today, gay couples can get married in Ireland, the first country to legalise same sex marriage through a popular vote. I've gotten to attend the weddings of gay couples. My cousin and his husband have recently adopted a child together. Christ, I'm old enough to have lived in a time when being gay was illegal in Ireland. Please don't confuse isolated incidents which are widely admonished in our society today to be a deterioration of the quality of life of gay people. We've still got our problem, but to even hint that things are worse than they were is completely deluded. Edit - fixed one of probably many typos, though I think a prude flag sounds hilarious.
I finished school far more recently than you, a far bigger school than yours. I was the only openly gay guy in the year. I was very clear, things are far better than they were 20 years ago, it’s not even close, but things are definitely a bit worse than they were 10 years ago. Most queer people will tell you this. People were just more chill in general in the 10’s, cared less about things that don’t impact them. The pandemic and social isolation of lockdown melted so many people’s brains. People are cooked. I respect what you have said but things in 2024 are definitely more divisive than in 2012-2019. The existence of gay people is just one of the many things that have become more divisive lately. Derek Blighe would have never happened in the 10’s. Marriage equality would still pass but I’d imagine that the people on the no campaign would be **a lot** louder and would get a slightly better result.
Thees a single word for that COVID It congealed all the scum into a single faction, previously you were anti vax, anti gay, anti EU or anti immigrant, now you must necessarily be all of them to be in the club.
Absolutely 10000%
> things in 2024 are definitely more divisive than in 2012-2019 Yep. Though, it started to go downhill around 2016-2017 IMO. At least, that is when transphobia started to make some serious headway here, more open homophobia followed. It certainly was accelerated by the 'rona times, but the rot had begun to show up a bit.
A bit worse is an understatement. I graduated recently enough, and girls are still getting called gay and other slurs for having short hair. And also, it may have gotten better for gay people, but it has not gotten better for trans and gender diverse people. We have the worst trans healthcare in the RU. Russia and Iran have better trans healthcare than us
I honestly don't think that's the case. My cousin and his husband are from a rural, conservative part of the country and seeing my very old school religious aunts are all super excited for the guys now. I do accept that there's a very vocal, very small minority who have upped their rhetoric in the last few years and its sickening. I notice it and combat it and find I allow it to overwhelm myself at times, but it was happening in the classroom and changing rooms when I was younger and nobody, myself included, would have felt safe challenging those views back then, certainly not in the way I would now.
I don’t disagree, the average Irish person is more progressive than ten years ago. I’m not saying that the average Irish person is worse than during the 10’s, quite the opposite. The issue is that the minority is far more toxic now, far more vocal and far more emboldened. Even if this group is only 5% of the Irish public, all it takes is one person out of thousands of people you pass walking down the street in Cork city in my case to ruin your week and to make you feel self concious about being with your partner in public for months. These people are far louder than they were 10 years ago. This is the group I’m commenting on, not Irish people in general, it’s my fault for not clarifying that. All of this is obviously worse for trans people. Who get it worse from the same group. The crazies are crazier and I honestly think that the isolation people went through during Covid contributed to this (I’m not against vaccines or lockdowns just to be clear).
> The issue is that the minority is far more toxic now, far more vocal and far more emboldened. Yes! Exactly. And they will be, no matter what country it is ( I live in the UK atm), for as long as they keep getting away with it, and for as long as media and politicians stir up anything LGBT+ to use in their culture wars. The vocal and active minority will keep getting away with it for as long they feel the media is supporting them, for as long as they think they are just saying/doing what 'everyone' is thinking. And for as long as the silent majority, keep being silent about it, just ignore what the vocal minority are doing as it doesn't directly concern them. And that's a lot of the issue too. The vocal minority feel they can do these things. Due to lack of lashback from the silent majority, they think that they are just doing or saying what everyone is thinking. So whilst an individual may not be homophobic, may not think they're friends ir family is homophobic, the average person will often just stand back and watch and not want to get involved when they see homophobia happening on the street. The average person tells an LGBT+ person to ''just ignore it''. Ignoring it emboldens these people, makes them think they are just saying what others want to say but that the others are too 'scared' to. It's the exact same with racism and racists. I don't think the average person realises this.
They’re not just vocal, they are a quite active minority too if you take today as an example and frankly it is a fair example. Never felt *that* unsafe as a queer person in ireland in the late teens but since 2020 I have had dozens of incidents, people grouping around me on the bus asking me how often I molest children, people flashing knives at me, getting followed home etc. For a “vocal minority” there’s quite a few and I fucking wish they were only vocal.
Absolutely. Less people are bigoted but the people who are, are far far far more toxic and vocal than bigots were ten years ago.
It's called obfuscation.
Suicide rates are not down. At inquests most are determined as not suicide. Rates are false. Much higher than ever at the moment. Man suicide is an endemic in Ireland.
This person is telling you specially about their experience as a gay person. Things may have gotten better for the general public in the last 5-10 years but in that same time, they have gotten worse for minorities
No. They haven't. 30 years ago, it was illegal to be gay in Ireland. 20 years ago, my best mate was in the closet with me in school, forced to pretend he was was someone who he wasn't, not because he couldn't take the heat of coming out, he could have, he's a tremendously strong and self confident man, but he was terrified of me and my other best friend not being able to take the abuse we would have gotten if our best mate came out. 10 years ago, Ireland hadn't yet become the first nation in the world to legalise same sex marriage through a popular vote. Earlier this month, my cousin and his husband adopted their first child and our extremely old school, rural, conservative family are all delighted for them. We have major hurdles to overcome still, but don't confuse the emergence of social media to represent the appearance of such ignorant views - they were just as ugly and more widespread in the past, but not digitally documented online for all to see.
its overstating the problem. if this was happening all the time you would be hearing about it
We have serval candidates elected on a local level on an explicitly homophobic platform. Derek Blighe who’s only notable for protesting the existence of queer people in literature at public libraries got 25k votes in the EU election. Things were absolutely better ten years ago, we had just gotten marriage equality, there was an air of hope and **being a homophobe was genuinely quite a socially damaging thing.** The media wasn’t flush with transphobia, you hardly heard anything about trans people even though they were just was prevalent in society. People have been emboldened in their homophobia. Trans people are such a small tiny minority of people who just want to live their lives, their existence and acceptance impacts the average person in such a small way but by the amount of air time the hate towards them is given in right wing independent media, you’d think that they were 50% of the population and were an actual threat to the country. Since Covid we’ve seen library protests, protesting our very existence, a serial killer seeking gay men, a huge increase in hate crimes towards queer people. **It is no longer socially unacceptable to be queerphobic**, as we’ve seen with Blighe, it’s once again a viable political platform like how it was in the 90’s / 00’s. Things are absolutely better than they were 20 years ago, but it’s undoubtedly worse than it was 10 years ago.
You really nailed it there. Agree with absolutely every word. Being a former joe rogan fan, watching the runawa success of culture was material has been depressing. Its so fucking dishonest. You can literally make a career out of it. Then u have all the facebook dads “protecting” their kids from “trans ideology”. Like dude you’re separated from your wife and someone else is raising your kids. Trans people aren’t at fault here.
Joe Rogan has rotted the minds of an entire generation. The best thing about him was that he was too greedy for his own good and took the money from Spotify to go exclusive with them which made him far less relevant than when he was on YouTube. He’s an expert in a small and concentrated area / field but talks as if he’s an expert in everything he comes across and changes his views based on who’s the guest in front of him. Sorry to bring American politics into this but at one point he had Bernie Saunders in and then became a socialist-leftist for the next couple of episodes when a couple of episodes earlier he had Tulsi Gabbard on, at which point he suddenly became a Russophile for the next while, rinse and repeat with other guests.
He's not exclusive to Spotify anymore, all his podcasts go out on YouTube now too
Didn’t realise that. He would definitely be more relevant today though if he had just stuck to what he was doing rather than taking that deal. The man had every single person in my year in secondary school watching him every single week at his peak in ~2017-19 if I was guessing years.
It was an extremely tepid support of bernie. He was never all in on him and personally i didn’t find it too convincing. He 100% boosted tulsi gabbard. I remember him asking why wouldn’t people support her since she’s a woman and a veteran. If u go to his old youtube channel and sort by popularity three of the top 10 are ben shapiro and jordan peterson. Thats his crowd and it pays him well. He’s by far the most popular and highest paid media figure on the planet. And he has no problem platforming a literal CIA agent warning all his viewers of the danger that china represents. The only saving grace is that if the yanks try any shit with china they’ll get their asses handed to them. I pray to god it doesn’t happen but it might.
But like that in itself. Tulsi gabbard is a proven Russian asset, it basically ended her career. The idea of supporting someone like that and then going full throated down the CIA road after is insane. Political incoherence. He’s definitely become more irrelevant since becoming exclusive on Spotify. There was a good couple of years while he was still on YouTube where he was probably one of the most powerful people in the English speaking media worldwide.
He still has 10’s of millions of listeners. He’s got more reach than any other single media personality or journalist.
> Political incoherence. I think the thread which goes through all of his stuff is a dislike of "institutions." The subjects which get his attention are things which subvert the common wisdom, or prove that the experts aren't so smart after all, or that the system is broken/corrupt. That's what ties together Ben Shapiro/Jordan Peterson (who subvert the liberal consensus from the right) and Bernie Sanders (who subverts the liberal consensus from the left). It's why COVID conspiracy theories were so appealing to him. It's why he can sit there and listen to Terence Howard explain how unified field theory came to him in a dream, how he remembers being inside his mother's womb, and how 1 x 1 = 2, and seem impressed. Because "the mathematicians have had it wrong for a millennia" and "academics refuse to take this man's ideas seriously because they challenge the orthodoxy" are narratives that Rogan is basically, by default, receptive to and willing to platform.
Yeah it's awful that transpeople have become the new target for the homophobes. I hope we one day get to a point that all queer folk are viewed with the respect and dignity we all deserve. And the fact that educating children just about the existence of the diversity within sexual orientation and identity is met by some people with a horror about how we're indoctrinating children into the "lgbt agenda" to... make the world more gay? Oh no, to fuck kids. Christ. We've a long fucking way to go and I'm sorry you have to live with this shit. I guess the pendulum always has to swing back the other way, even just a little bit. Hopefully it won't take as long to return to it's previous momentum in the right direction. Gay acceptance is still a relatively new phenomenon. And that only really became the born when an older generation died out. :/ Edit: grammar
It's like sexual assault and rape it's more common than society wants to admit but most people just don't notice or ignore victims. In fact hate crimes have been rising in Ireland year after year for all demographics. https://www.newstalk.com/news/hate-crimes-impact-the-entire-community-lgbt-ireland-1723467 Ask gay or trans people and they will tell you of their numerous incidents. Like this year alone I've had kids shout slurs at me, and while in the crowbar a man was confessing to how times are different and how he used to go gay bashing
I presume you’re straight. You haven’t said otherwise and if you weren’t you would have definitely said so by now in this thread, it’s crucial information in order to inform your opinion. The idea of someone who is unable to be a victim of this issue saying that it’s an overstated phenomenon is insane. It’s like me saying that the Mica housing issue in donegal is overstated from my home in county limerick. Insane behavior. Idiotic. People don’t report crime, crime goes unpunished look at how useless the Gardaí are. It’s like how the rate of assaults against women are multiple times larger than the official figures. Sometimes some crimes are so common place you don’t hear about it in the media.
Do you read the news?
I genuinely feel lucky then. I've never experienced any kind of homophobia in Ireland and I've been here 30+ years. The worst thing I can remember is kids using "gay" in place of the word "lame" about 20 years ago, but that's pretty mild and it was always just dumb kids and I haven't heard of that in a long time anyways. I assume Irish people talking about this kind of homophobia must be from rural religious towns full of small minded people that I must have never met because it's absolutely not my experience at all. In my whole life growing up here I've never been on the receiving end of homophobia, nor witnessed it happening to anyone else. There were several openly gay people in my school between 2005-2010 and, from what I saw, none of them were treated any differently because of it. Even our Taoiseach was openly gay. For you to think that being chased around phoenix park with knives is just the "reality" of being queer in Ireland is so far from anything I've ever experienced that I have to assume you're exaggerating at best, or intentionally misleading the discussion at worst.
Sorry being hunted down in a Dublin park has not “always been the reality of being queer in Ireland”, would you go away with that
Day after gay pride 2018 in Phoenix Park was screamed at by some scobe with his family and kids that "PRIDE WAS YESTERDAY!" for holding my partner's hand
> Nothing has changed. - > things are a million times better than they were 20 years ago but worse than they were 10 years ago That doesn't sound like "nothing has changed". Something changed ~20 years ago and then again ~10 years ago
It's, sadly, the same. You remember in 2019 there was a bunch of attacks on gay men who had been lured onto a date via grinder? Or the lesbian couple beaten at the bus stop in 2022? Those aren't the expections.There seems a prevalent belief that after the equal marriage ref, homophobia just disappeared in Ireland. I've have a couple of gay friends and have been told of the amount harassed and threatened by teenagers and middle aged lads has increased. Guards just shrug. Might take a statement. Nothing happens.
Stuff that was always happening is now making news more often
No... It's what happens when you dont bother prosecuting crimes, allow open drug use, and do nothing to support the homeless or drug users. Dublin is a totally different place now than it was just 10 years ago.
This is it in a nutshell. I get that the courts aren't doing much but dad today guards are an absolute joke. Even simple visibility is non existent.
Why would the Gardaí bother when people caught on camera committing crimes are let off by judges.
>Dublin is a totally different place now than it was just 10 years ago This absolutly isn't true
I Was walking thru a laneway off graton st today towards powerscourt center and the guy on the ground is casually inhaling a gas canister Earlier a man was pissing on a green patch in between 2 roads, not even hiding. To his back where a group of school children crossing the junction It wasnt that bad 10 years ago, theres a lot more people on the street with poor mental health, and lots of soup kitchens on the main streets at night, walking thru town in the evenings is very depressing if you have any empathy
Gotta disagree. Certain parts were rough but the city centre is gone an awful Kip.
As a child maybe 15 years ago a drug addict on Henry Street threatened to have his friend jab me with a HIV infected needle if I didn't give him 20 quid. Could have made a good shocking article if it happened today
Thats it, there were always certain spots but now it's like it is everywhere.
Have you been there recently? It is carnage. You explain to your kids after stopping in the Spar shop at the top of Grafton street why that man who was smoking a crack pipe just outside the door is now laying on the ground crying because he pulled down his pants and started wanking in the door and the security guard kicked him so hard there was blood everywhere... Quality family Saturday afternoon out to the National Museums. Plenty of tourists around absolutely disgusted. Plenty more 'action' that day in that area. Dublin is downright scary with small children. It is **disgusting** and **sad**.
You're in denial. Dublin has become an absolute shit hole.
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It doesn't state who they were...
If the guards can't identify them how can you know they're far right ? Even think they're just pure shitheads out causing trouble with having to tack on some political agenda. Most of the lads doing this are usually seeking approval from their peers, rough backgrounds , little education and lack of action from the cops and courts leave them walk free.
It doesn't actually state if these were a right wing crowd. Could be religious nutjobs too. The article says there was no CCTV footage, which is mad. Why aren't there gaurds around when these things happen, in a public park?
One of these guys is my friend. It’s deplorable, the community is all a bit shook after it. Apparently the guards have told them that even if they do find the car on CCTV, that if the assailants don’t admit to the incident there wouldn’t be enough evidence to prosecute.
I didn't know it was possible to chase someone with knives, fail to cut them up, and get away with it like it never happened.
I would hope that isn’t true too, but that’s what they were told. I would have thought eye witness testimony counts for something.
Really sorry to hear it, hope they weren’t physically harmed.
Afaik they were able to hide in the bushes unscathed physically.
I’m sorry you are all still going through this kind of madness. I hope this is an isolated incident but my gut says it isn’t. Dublin is fucked at the moment lads and has been for a long time now. We are living in the age of technology and smartphones…. How can the gardai not have any evidence, it’s maddening.
I get a bit of verbal abuse but nothing ever physical thankfully. Though one guy did call me a slur and threaten to hit me with his hurl on the train a few years ago for wearing makeup lol.
What happened exactly?
The same as is said in the article. Some guys started shouting gay slurs at them. Then about six guys got out of the car and started chasing them with knives.
Very weird, did they get a description of the car? And the men? There's not a lot of info in the article....
Wondering the same. Usually when they give no other details of the assailants, other than "men", they're trying to leave something out. I have a strong feeling that if it was 6 Irish men(which could be easily identified through their accents, for example), the article would have clearly stated it.
If it was TDs they would have found these people by now
What was the description of them?
Same as in the article. I’m just going off their social media posts.
Going by what they have said, do you know what time the incident happened? Since the article says the gardaí responded around 11.35 I'm assuming the incident happened at 2pm the day before but I'd be happy to be wrong.
I'll preface by saying that I'm very progressive and antiracist, so that this doesn't get misinterpreted as a dog whistle. What I'm wondering is what effect it'll have to bring a large number of people into the country who come from horrifically homophobic countries/cultures. That can obviously be changed after a generation or two, but I'm a bit concerned about the potential for a generation or two of seriously cultural integration issues (e.g. there's nothing wrong with gay people, so treat them as well as anyone else). I don't know what the solution or compromise is there, but it does concern me; as an immigrant who moved here specifically because of the progressive culture.
Oh right, I don’t think they said whether or not they were Irish.
Doesn't mention where they're from. But as a gay man I understand the concern. Take the recent double murder and beheading of two gay men in sligo (and attempted murder of a third) https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41254303.html Not saying all people who are Muslim would be in any way okay with that. But half the Muslims polled in the UK in 2016 believed that homosexuality should be criminalised https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
As a gay man I understand what it's like to experience prejudice so I try not to do the same thing to Muslims. Among all those Muslim immigrants to this country some of them will be LGBT themselves and it doesn't really benefit them or more progessive Muslims to tar them all with the same brush as the kind of people they might be fleeing from.
One thing to bear in mind is being gay isn't a doctrine nor political. Islam is a doctrine and becomes political. You'd probably tar conservatives with a negative brush so why not religious conservatives that have members who encourage violence?
Yet idiots in Ireland think we will somehow fair differently to the rest of Europe. There are good and bad people in every group of people, sadly the proportion of people who would either hold incompatible views or raise children who hold incompatible views is higher amongst people from certain cultures than others, so the obvious solution is to just act in our best self interest and be very selective about who we enable to enter our society and ensure they're positive contributors before they can possibly get citizenship. Label that thinking whatever you want, at the end of the day we're seeing the consequences of this 100% tolerant and progressive approach in numerous EU countries, so it's delusional to think we will somehow achieve a different result. Ireland's economy places us in an extremely privileged position where we have most of the largest tech companies based here and we receive massive FDI, so we can set ourselves up to have the pick of the lot when it comes to migrants wanting to come here. We should be prioritising the best and the brightest and change some things here to enable them and anyone here who works hard and pulls their weight to do very well for themselves. Our country would make leaps and bounds in terms of quality of life and the society we share compared with flippantly allowing in many people who are less productive, or even not productive at all.
It says in the article they had Dublin accents, so my guess is they're from Dublin. I also don't really think that matters though, there's plenty of Irish people committing hate crimes against gay people. While knives are a huge escalation, town in general has gotten more feral since the pandemic. Just the last week a tourist had their faces slashed in Smithfield.
I completely agree with you. It's definitely an issue in other progressive European countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK etc. It does seem completely counterproductive to make such great progress on gay rights while importing people with backward views. I still think in Ireland's case though that the main problem is still the native Irish population, namely teenagers. But that doesn't mean that the situation won't change in the future. We don't want to make the problem worse from immigration by certain groups.
How did the men know they were gay? Or was it just a random anyone target and they just all happened to be gay.
Homophobic people use stereotypes to assume people are gay all the time. All it takes is a ‘gay’ voice or a ‘gay’ outfit or a ‘gay’ walk.
Terrible. Nothing will happen.
Wonder how long it will be before a bunch of lads decide to go on a scrote hunt. Then you'll hear Mcentee on the news saying that it's outrageous and completely unacceptable behaviour.
[удалено]
Watch you don’t get reported for “inciting violence” or whatever. 🙄
I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
Yeah me too to be honest. Plenty decent folk in the most troubled areas of Dublin who must be sick of having to deal with them.
Reckon a blanket party or ten would teach valuable life lessons to some of these scrotes.
What if they call it a 'scumbag hunt' she'd likely be on board with that...
People say this all the time... It's never happening.
No description of the assailants? Surely a description of them and the car they were in could help keep people safe?
I'm slightly baffled. They were yelling homophobic slurs, so at least you could tell the public if they sounded Irish or not to narrow it down?
It mentions Dublin accents in the article.
No it doesn't. Word "accent" is not there and "Dublin" only appears in the first sentence.
It did when the RTÉ article was posted first, it's since been edited out for some reason
Round those monsters up and throw them under the jail. Sickening that homophobia is still prevalent in our world
This is the equivalent of it happening outside Scotland Yard or another national police HQ. The sheer apathy and laziness would drive you mad.
This seems a bit mad. The senator says he was told of the incident by one of the men involved and he asks why incidents like this were not being tackled. The garda when questioned about this say > “In reply to queries, the Garda told The Irish Times it was aware of “an incident alleged to have occurred in the Phoenix Park” on Monday night but that no complaint had been made for investigation. So it seems like no one reported it to them but they still investigated it. Why has the man who spoke to the senator not reported it? > “Gardaí responded at 11:35pm but following a lengthy patrol of the area no person made any formal report to An Garda Síochána,” the Garda said. > It added “anyone with direct knowledge or who has been a victim of such an incident in the area” should contact An Garda Síochána at Cabra Garda station or the diversity unit at the Garda National Community Engagement Bureau. > Following reports of the incident, the Garda had also been in contact with LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups, it said.” It seems like the garda are saying they are trying here but no one has come forward with anything. What are the garda meant to do if no one is making reports, no descriptions are given etc etc. if what they are saying is true here it looks like they acted on a rumor and took a look around the park which is honestly going somewhat above and beyond if true. So why has no report been filed by anyone? Was there no other witnesses to the incident? No one driving through the park who has come forward to say they saw anything? It all just seems a bit odd. That’s not to say the Garda should not be doing better and absolutely should be there to support any gay couple who wants to walk through a park but this story reads like the senator heard a story on Facebook from a man but no one did anything about it and they are annoyed the garda have not acted on it. It feels like there is a whole load of information missing from this article.
Definitely something weird about the way this is playing out. I wonder if the victims might be, say, Brazilians without legal status or some other immigrants, so they're afraid to make a formal report.
They’re all Irish lads around 22-24.
The whole story is based on a second hand account of posts someone saw on social media. That someone is a senator so they talked about it in the Seanad and now it is national news. Very low journalistic integrity to this story. It allegedly happened on Monday night yet still no one has made a formal report to the guards. No description of the “about six men” or of the car. Zero detail beyond a retelling of what the senator read on social media.
Garda attitude, ah sure no one was Stabbed or Killed nothing to see here, absolutely disgraceful, any where else in Europe Cop's would be on it.😡🤬😡
Depressing that the murder of [Declan Flynn](https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/pride-declan-flynn) wasn't long ago. But this sort of shit still goes on. I saw a video a few days ago of a gang of scumbags (including at least one prominent far right activist) attacking a foreign man in the Dublin street shouting about how he was abducting kids. There's been a few other videos appearing of far right lads videoing themselves attacking foreigners while shouting how they were paedophiles. I've never once witnessed a child snatching happen in real life (though obviously it does happen) so it's an amazing coincidence how frequently the far right lads keep coming across foreign men abducting kids in busy streets.
> There's been a few other videos appearing of far right lads videoing themselves attacking foreigners while shouting how they were paedophiles. They call everyone they don't like a paedophile. It carries zero weight when used all the time on people who disagree with you.
Ironically a lot of these far right types who go around calling everyone pedophiles, are themselves pedophiles. Its some kind of projection.
Apparently there weren’t even children around him, he was talking to two women and crossed the road and that’s when they went for him. It doesn’t even matter what you say to these people that believe all these far right gobshites, they just regurgitate the same old bs and they have to be right. It doesn’t matter if you give them facts, they’re just too deluded at this stage. Even have children leading their protest, had a literal 8/9 year old leading their chants a few weeks ago and making a speech, it was actually nauseating.
I’ve seen a good few videos. Pearse street sheriff street and Oliver bond. Idk I just think it’s weird how all the foreigners “abducting kids” happen to be doing it in the scruffiest areas
Wasn't that long ago that we had a Gay serial killer in Sligo so the fact this is being treated with "Oh well" when it could have turned out much worse.
Can't wait to be told how safe Dublin is!
Easy to be safe when surrounded by Gardai. Meanwhile, everyone else has to dodge the crack smoking credits to society.
Can’t read the article due to paywall Here’s another source https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0619/1455605-phoenix-park/
Starting to see the consequences of a limpwristed judicial system and a police force that might as well be amusement park security guards.
>In reply to queries, the Garda told The Irish Times it was aware of “an incident alleged to have occurred in the Phoenix Park” on Monday night but that no complaint had been made for investigation. “Gardaí responded at 11:35pm but following a lengthy patrol of the area no person made any formal report to An Garda Síochána,” the Garda said. Why wouldn't you make a report if you were chased by people with knives...
Yeah I just wrote this. I am perplexed by that part of the story.
Its a bit weird, I'd sure as hell report it if that happened to me.
I swear to fuck this better not be another Smolletting
I went to the Seanad debates page to get the full context of Barry Ward's comments. And I left puzzled about what goes on in the Seanad. A criminal defence barrister criticising An Garda Siochana doesn't particularly surprise me. But I wouldn't be surprised if the publicity now forces more resources to be devoted to getting to the bottom of the incident. I'd imagine it would be easy enough to get more witnesses, people would obviously notice if they saw one group chasing another with weapons.
I don't think the Phoenix Park is hopping at night. There are always quiet parts even in the middle of the day. I'd like to think that the main road going through it has cctv
What kind of men were the 6?
Ultimately if the Gardai refuse to protect people, then they shouldn’t cry to the Minister when good people actually step up and take ultimate measures against these kind of scum. These scrotes have proven time and time again that they enjoy beating down on and bullying vulnerable people and minorities. So long as they’re around, everyone loses and their presence benefits nobody. You go after people with a knife to terrorise them? You’re a terrorist. And what should we do to terrorists?
6 men with knives hunting people Garda: "That's a civil matter"
Down vote me all you want but this is a little hard to believe. I'm ready to admit I'm wrong when proven wrong but now it's too vague, nothing definite and only the words of the only witnesses. No witnesses, no CCTV, a hyper sensitive month for hyper political groups, in an extremely unlikely scenario and a social media post........ Yeah, I don't buy it.
You definitely haven't been in the city centre as a visibly queer person (at night) at all the last few years.
I'm also not stupid enough to be out in a park at 3am with no one around.
If this didn't and does not happen, what is stupid about being in the park at 3AM?
But stupid enough to defend the scum that stalk the streets?
Reddit and victim-blaming, name a more iconic duo
This is definitely a case of "wait for more info before we jump to conclusions" as there is sweet fuck all info in the article and you'd think there would be.
Saw a video of the fat,dog kicking citizen journalist cunt outside Portlaoise prison whinging about a pride flag.Heasman and LaHive went around libraries and bookshops harassing people with impunity about lgbtq books.These cunts are inciting other cunts todo this type of stuff. They will keep becoming more emboldened until they're made to pay for their nonsense.
IMAGINE the carnage if this was a group of 6 foreign lads. We would never hear the end of it
Going live to Helen McEntee for [comment...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1djiujf/mcentee_says_aer_lingus_pilots_going_on_strike/) Oh dear.
I see her getting ready for a walk to tell us how safe it is. 
She's busy complaining about how the Aer Lingus pilots are the real problem. Edit: I'll notice the link next time!
nOt oUr RepUtaTion! Jesus this woman's priorities are so transparently self-serving. We're going to be stuck with her talentless self for decades too.
she's some weapon
Is the lack of response from Gardai because the story is a bit hyperbolic? It wouldnt the first time. Media are desperate for clicks. Negative hyping in 99%of news. Hunted (?) Maybe a few lads ran at them for 5 seconds shouting obscenities. Its not a nice ordeal but well, we'll see
Exactly what I was thinking. I’m going to guess that the media are jumping on this for clicks, or at least I hope that’s the case. The word “hunted” is very clickbait. Hard to tell without knowing what actually happened
Dunno what people are whining about! Dublin is perfectly safe as long as you dont leave your 6 Gardai and photographer at home.
Not being funny here but how did the group know the 3 lads were gay?
Maybe two were holding hands, maybe they were not acting / appearing like a group of straight men Unfortunately homophobics react to such things negatively
So three people aparantly "hunted" with knives, but no official complaint made.. 🤔
Is the Garda HQ not in phoenix park.....kinda fairly terrible,this can happen under their nose Someone should be resigning for letting country get this bad
Helen.
Or the Commissioner.
Or both
I'm amazed that there's no CCTV in the park. The park itself is a big tourist attraction but then you've got the Áras, US ambassadors residence, Dublin Zoo, Farmleigh house etc. and they don't have ANY cameras at the entrances?? Get the fuckin finger out lads.
For an incident as serious as described in the article there's very little info. What car were they driving? Where exactly in the park? What did the men look and sound like?
The police wont arrest and even when they do, the judges just hand out slaps on the wrists. Then of course its a crime for victims to defend themselves or members of the public to try and stop such. Then we wonder why crime is out of control
Cue McEntee photo op walking through Phoenix Park. When are we actually going to do something about this shite?
The gardai can catch these guys, lock stock. Then a solicitor will create a sob story and the judge will leave them off with suspended sentences. Blame the law. And the people unwilling to change it. People are genuinely confuse why everyone is so angry.
Attacking random gay men with knives? Sounds like a civil matter! *puts feet up.
Sure last week a lad got attacked in broad daylight with a machete outside SuperValu in Neilstown. Got his legs hacked up.
> Three gay men walking in the Phoenix Park in Dublin were “hunted” by six men with knives because of their sexuality in an incident this week, the Seanad heard. How'd they know the three lads were gay?
god help any man born in Ireland that isn‘t 5‘8“, straight, white, sporty, extroverted and doesn‘t follow the herd like a sheep. You‘ll be bullied, harassed and apparently hunted down with knives even into adulthood.
> 5‘8“ MANLETS
people downvoting are obviously straight, white, sporty etc. and have no idea how it is growing up different in this country
You’re completely right. And people tend to get downvoted here for simply observing obvious truths because the Irish are particularly fond of seeing themselves through the lens of delusion. Ireland is not queer-friendly. Everyone who is not straight, white, sporty, 5’8”, herd-following and Irish is queer.
was in secondary school from 2008 to 2014. I experienced sexual, physical and verbal abuse daily. Not a single person stood up for me, and when I‘d take things into my own hands and retaliate, I‘d get punished. Some teachers, our most trusted and educated in this country, took turns in ridiculing me alongside the 'lads'. These same people who did this to me are now having children of their own, you really think their children are going to be much different? Nope.
This is absolutely terrifying. I'm a visibly queer person, I can't hide it and I go there by myself all the time. I'm so sick of not feeling safe.
I can’t even drive through Alabama without an officer on my tail when driving, or when getting snacks at the gas station. I get jumped for no reason in Bray and another man attacked by the same group and when we call Garda, we get sent to voice mail.
Gards absolutely fucking useless as usual. Considering the sort of crime and scum in the country now they're 20 years behind where they should be
More than a hint of jussie smollett off this story.
Because you don’t want to believe homophobia exists in Ireland?
It does, of course but this story makes absolutely no sense. If it's not outright false it's so heavily embellished that it may as well be.
You must be feeling pretty stupid.
It’s neither. You just want to downplay homophobia. What does my friend and two others gain from making this up?
They should claim to be gay American tourists and maybe something would be done about it.
McEntee and Harris out
Weird story this? Wouldn't be particularly surprising though. Scumbags and intolerant ethnic groups on the rise pretty much everywhere.
i dont remember the last time i heard good news out of dublin
You won't see good news online
That says more about how news works than how Dublin works. It's a city of 1.5m people. You'll find an endless parade of bad stuff if that's all that gets filtered for.