Talking of technology, given the level of aggression and subliminal violence that now passes for social discourse in contemporary Ireland perhaps I could do with one of these cameras? The country of a “Hundred Thousand Welcomes” is well and truly dead. Instead we have a country where verbal abuse is so casual on the streets as to be the norm and violent confrontations can be witnessed on the thoroughfares of our major cities on a regular basis.
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AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Visceral! As a cyclist – when my bike hasn’t a puncture – I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not with the top video! If you drive, Sionnach, you could get one of those dash-cams! – Peadar
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Definitely thinking of it! 😉
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Top video has been marked private, so not sure what it contained.
Anyway, the other two clips are kind of old. Do you have any other evidence of the regularity of violent confrontations and casual nature of verbal abuse? Is it just “Dublin jackeens” as suggested in some of the comments in the clips, or do you think it is a broader problem. Maybe related to a drinking culture and maybe an interpretation of masculinity that revolves around fighting? I don’t know, I’m just throwing ideas out there,
I lived in Melbourne for many years and like many Australian cities it is considered to be a generally safe, friendly and welcoming place. However, I’m pretty sure though you could find clips of abuse and violence from there as well. So I”d be careful about drawing too many conclusions from a few clips on YouTube
Wasn’t there a post on Slugger a while back about a woman who recorded all the unwelcome sexual comments she got while walking down a street in Brussels? The brazen and casual nature of that was pretty shocking and gave a good insight into the sexist culture of that city.
So Séamas, i’m looking forward to your next post on your experiences while walking through Temple Bar dressed in drag! 😛
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HAHA! I’d probably be safer in drag in Temple Bar 😉
All I can go by is my own experiences and the general impression of Irish society as it has developed in the 2000s. My bother and sister, who are both considerably younger than I am, share those opinions so it is not just the onset of conservative middle-age. Ireland is simply a more violent country. Any weekend night in Dublin, Cork or Limerick (or Belfast or Derry) gives plenty of proof of that. Even during the day, simply walking around the streets of Dublin, one can frequently see verbal or physical confrontations and casual acts of violence. Dublin and its environs are a far less pleasant place to live. There is, if I may say it, a brutishness about Irish society that was never there before. A ready willingness to do harm to others.
Perhaps one would be safer walking through Temple Bar in a stab-proof vest?
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That’s interesting Séamas. It would be good to understand better the root causes of this rise in violence.
In the mid noughties I lived and worked for 3 years in East Timor. That was also a violent society, not casual violence, but violent none-the-less. However it was in the context of a deeply traumatised population that had survived a genocide, civil war and 24-year occupation by Indonesia.
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I believe the era of the Celtic Tiger and the radical changes in society and culture contributed towards the coarsening of Irish society. Violent crime and murder is now at “Troubles’ levels. And that in a supposedly peaceful society.
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Abandon ship! :p – “NAMAwinelake cup runs dry” – http://www.independent.ie/business/namawinelake-cup-runs-dry-29281776.html
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VERY sad news. A win for the establishment and the Continuity State. A loss for the citizenry.
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