Mowl
Member
Well, there are a few neighbourhoods that are considered badlands areas associated with drinking and doping. But in terms of mindless vandalism, no. Not at all. Tagging, graffiti, and other public arena artworks have designated areas for writers/taggers to create large scale pieces of graffiti art and not only is it legal and licensed for by the council, there are also incentives like reduced prices on spray cans for registered artists who get to choose a wall and have their work displayed for a period of time.
Boozing in public isn't allowed, but it's generally overlooked so long as you're not disturbing anyone or causing any public affray. Also, because of the return/deposit system we've had since forever, there's always someone who's going to collect your cans and bottles for the refund.
Vandalism, in the Irish sense, is extremely rare. Smashing up your own hood and its various public facilities (or someone else's) will result in someone ratting you out. Finns will not sit by and watch their neighbours destroy or damage the community. It's all of our taxes after all that pay for public services. If kids smash things up, the parents get the bill. Last week one fraught Mother was on social media warning the neighbours about a gang of four or five kids who frightened her son on his way back from school. The entire community was alerted and finally one person phoned in the names and addresses. They didn't hit him or rob him, just intimidated him enough to reduce him/her to tears; the parents were both angry and concerned for other kids to whom the same might happen. So now it's in the hands of social services and the local police.
Burglary? Extremely rare in the apartment blocks. Out in the sticks? Even less so, everyone knows everyone, and unlike say in Monaghan, Ireland - where thieves like Saul and his 42yr old son who rob the pensioners in their beds reside - the whole community will come together for the sake of the victim, and to make sure the fucker who robbed them goes down, publicly and with lots of local fanfare. Nobody stands by while any individual or group to decide to go on a mindless rampage.
Stolen cars? Again, extremely rare. You can buy a second hand beat-up junkster and use any of the driving/rallying/stunt parks for free. There are dozens of rally parks exclusive to drivers, not pedestrians. It's also very popular with the adults, not just the kids.
Shops and stores all use both camera and security staff. Every shopping centre has security present and known thieves and other shyters will be tailed from the moment they enter. All stores are alerted by security and the thief usually gets caught and busted, the cops will take them away.
Drunkenness on the streets is tolerated at night, but not all night either, mind you. There's always a strong cop presence around the city on the weekends, in marked/unmarked cars, marked vans, meat wagons, motor and pushbikes, and even horses during the tourist seasons. Drugs will be taken off the streets along with their users. If you want to have a smoke, then do so without making a meal of it, they'll likely give you a stern nod and walk on. Discretion is the better part of valor: show them some respect and assurance and they'll leave you be.
But there are of course exceptions. Rednecks coming to town usually end up in the tank if they can't comport themselves, as physical violence will be attended to immediately and with prejudice. Messing around on the buses gets you booted off. Same with trams, metros, trains, and taxis. Racist attacks will be attended to equally as it would between any two Finns. Pick-pocketing? Nah, never hear much about it. Intimidation and threats will likely be phoned in immediately by any bystander. Sexual crimes like rape, etc? Again, extremely rare: but there are place/clubs/late nite scenes that are notorious for rohypnol-type assaults. I've called that one in myself and had one little scumbag reefed for mixing drugs sourced off the Dark Web for making rohypnol-type liquids for junkies coming down on heroin, he was cooking it up in his bathtub. But it also works on witless ladies who don't cover their drinks. Very dangerous, not even the bouncers can estimate whether a young lady being carried out the door is genuinely drunk or doped by a stranger, but they will stop you and ask for your ID. Refuse to show it and the cops will arrive.
Mindless destruction of the sort I used to see in Ballyer, Clondalkin, Tallaght, and various other housing estates simply doesn't happen up here. Every bus stop has a digital display telling you everything you need to know including your connections to other public transport options. Smashing it up for the sake of vandalism just doesn't happen, but in Ireland, and Dublin especially? They smash it up because they can, no other logic to it.
Kids wandering home from school with a smartphone in hand. These are young kids, the parents are trying to teach them about independence by letting them walk alone or take public transport (free for the wee ones) back home after the school day is done. Try interfering with a kid in that situation and you WILL pay a hefty price as well as likely serving time. The family unit is sacred to the Finnish culture and lifestyle. Messing around with someone's child will also see you getting some what-for of your own when you get sent down and your record/credit rating marked permanently: this way landlords, banks, credit unions, and potential employers can all see your record by request, just like your banking details. Keep fucking up, your credit rating continues to drop. Even the welfare system will penalize habitual criminals, so you might also end up on the streets. Which is fine in summer, but homelessness in winter has only one result. Mostly, they end up in either the tank or else a state hostel (in at 2200 and booted out again at 0600). Try that lifestyle for a few days and watch your whole world fall completely and irrevocably into sand and slip through your fingers. It's very hard to get back up if you fall, even your own family/community will likely shun you.
But apart from all that, it's very safe, very clean, extremely efficient, everything works, everything's on time, not even a meter deep of snow in a few hours stops or delays routines. Young ladies can wander about freely, even in the parks in the city centre. Kids too, though not too late, lest a cop ask why there's a seven-year old in the city at eleven at night with school the next day. So people always try to do the right thing, and those who can't for whatever reasons, will likely be asked if they need help by an alert copper or security guard.
It's nothing like Dublin, not even remotely.
And even less like Ireland, thank fuck.
I've never had any problems with the rural or traveling community. If I happen to meet a traveler, I can tell them about my own family helping out the families living at the Labre Park halting site just outside Ballyer. They've always been great to me whenever I worked for them. They didn't just pay me the agreed fee, but they often threw in some hash, weed, and maybe a bottle of something to drink on the way home. Never a bother with them. But then again, I'm dealing with all sorts of people when in work mode and I have to speak the language of each one to both get and keep the work.
That's the nature of business diplomacy and knowing how to charm your clients. It's one thing to rent out a skill and nothing else. But I turn a fee-paying work gig into a performance piece that includes everyone present, especially the kids. They get that part for free, and they love it: but that's not why I do it that way. It's simply more efficient for me to get from A to B during the working day/night in any business premises I find myself in.
If it's a pub or restaurant, then I'm going to need access to every window/door/display area/shopfront in the place, so getting people to move out of my way is far easier when I have them in the palm of my hand.
The same applies to every other area of my working life: a positive result requires a positive input.
Doing things half-arsedly isn't going to work out - you have to make the client feel that they need you, that you're part of their team, that you can take a small instruction and act on it to create an even bigger and better end-result that they probably weren't even expecting. Charm, an ability to read the other guy's mind, some people power all helps make the day better for everyone involved, and once I'm finished, I'm gone. No hanging around, no pints thanks, I have more work to do in your other pub/restaurant/club and I DO NOT drink alcohol (or smoke weed) in any hostelry I'm hired into.
I like to travel - it's why I got into music and art: I also like/prefer to work alone. It's far more efficient, though occasionally there's so much to do I'll either hire in an artist to finish what I started (the draughting and outlining takes the most time, once it's done I can let someone else do some colour-by-numbers for a small fee).
So, I may be from Ballyfermot, but I'm also an international brand.
Getting flown in for doing artwork is even cooler/more rock'n'roll than getting flown in for music work. I get to do my own thing, by myself and for myself, I handle the clients, the work-load, and most of all: the people who eat/drink/listen/play at any of my clients workplaces. If I were your typical Ballyer skanger? Forget it already. No fucking way would I have an international client list like the ones I had. Not everyone from Ballyer is a skanger: and we're a lot more surprising and of far more substance than all that. Mostly because we started out on the bottom, not the top. It's easier to fall and lose everything than it is to begin at the bottom and work your way to the top.
So scumbags are what they are, and the rest of us try our best to offer something to the world beyond our mere presence.
Independence, initiative, ability, discipline, respect, awareness, decency and manners, all coupled with originality make the world turn happily.#
Being a dishonourable vandal bastard and violent thieving scumbag is a world away from me - and mine.
So I'm glad I'm as far away from the type you refer to as I am.
I'm a one-man ambassador of Irish culture, and I do a very good job of it.
