Crime in Ireland: where do you go from here?

The brutal attack on two Polish lads who died in the hospital is the most clear example of the “dead end” of changes in Irish society. I don’t know what was the picture of the Irish society 10 or even 5 years ago, but the newspapers provide me the information about the scale of changes and the growing crime and brutality among the Irish society, especially teenagers. According to the Irish Independent (Tuesday 4 March 2008)?? knife crime in Ireland had?? risen 300pc in four years. The scale and the brutality of the crimes and attacks committed by the Irish teenagers is also horrifying. All the suspects involved in the attack on two Polish lads are in the age of 14, 15, 17 and 19. They youngest o them ?Äï 14 years old girl was arrested couple of days ago. The other four teenagers were held by Gardai being involved in a murder of 21 year old man near Grand Canal in Dublin.?? I remember many such stories that were described in the Irish newspapers in the last 2 years.

The nationality of those two Polish lads had probably nothing to do with the reason of the attack. There was probably no reason at all. The young thugs were just looking for trouble and looking for the target. How many thugs like the ones who killed my two compatriots are still walking down the streets of Irish cities and towns? According to the all crime reports that were published in the newspapers in the last two years I dare say there is many of them.

How many of the decent people ?Äï Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, English or other nations ?Äï have to be killed by young thugs to open the eyes of the Irish society, Gardai and the politics?

Some of the readers of my blog are cross with me?? becasue of my opinions (that are critical sometimes) about Ireland and Irish people that I present on my blog. Many of them always complains on my compatriots. It is true ?Äï we are far from perfect, and there is many Polish troublemakers in Ireland for sure. You can believe or not in the stupid rumors that we hunt swans etc (swans are not in Polish menu), you can accuse us of making troubles, taking your jobs etc. but why many of Irish turn the blind eye on the growing problem of crime and brutality in their own society, or maybe the 300pc rise of the knife crime is also our Polish fault? The crime among the teenagers is really big problem. Can you imagine that those teenage thugs will be adults one day?

By the way, in the same issue of Irish Independent there is more crime stories: one is about 27 years old man who killed his girlfriend and another story is about two mothers who hid cocaine in the childs’ buggy and about the shootings in Limerick.

Have you seen the great film ?ÄúBoondock Saints?ÄÌ? Do you remember the first scene in the church and the homily of the priest?
“Of course we must fear evil men, but there is another evil that we must fear more?Ä? and that is the indifference of good men.”

Polish drivers vs Irish ones

Couple of times, on my blog, I mentioned that some of us - Polish emigrants - have inferiority complex typical for emigrants, and it is usually expressed in complains. Since I came to Ireland I have been listening to Polish drivers complaining on Irish ones. In fact Irish drivers are not the best in the world, and even I have seen so many times how Irish people drive their cars. Hover, it doesn’t mean that Irish drivers are worse than Polish ones. Let me say, we are both bad drivers, but we are not the same bad drivers, actually Polish and Irish drivers are like a two pieces of jigsaw, that could create one excellent driver.

Irish drivers lack of the imagination and awareness. Sometimes they seem to drive the car while sleeping. The most terrible behaviour on the country roads is the driving the car, truck or tractor in the middle of the road, having the whit line just in the middle between the wheels. On the country roads that bend like a snake it is very dangerous, especially when many Irish people drive fast new cars (consumption in Ireland is very high - typical for the society that used to be poor), so there is a lot of accidents. The next bad habit typical for Irish drivers is almost complete lack of knowledge when the indicators should be used. It is so often visible (or rather not visible) on the roundabouts. Yet another typical bad behaviour of Irish drivers is parking cars wherever they want to stop. Once - in Birr - I saw old lady who stopped her car on the junction, just before the traffic lights. She just turned off the engine, and went to the shop leaving the car on the regular strip of the street.
Those examples are quite typical and happens regularly. However Irish drivers have one feature that is not typical for Polish ones. It is a culture of friendly driving. Irish drivers let the other drivers go, do not challenge each other, do not try to prove who is the best. Many times being stock in traffic jam I saw the drivers who let go others who were leaving car parks, or driving across the main street. Being pedestrian I like very much the way how the Irish drivers treat people who are passing the street. Many times I just stopped close to the crossing zebras, thinking about something and then realising that the traffic just stopped. Usually when I come back from Ireland to Poland I have to take care about myself, especially when I am crossing the street. In Poland drivers don’t stop when somebody is closing to the zebras. Pedestrians are to wait, not the drivers. No body reduce speed if there is no body crossing. People on the pavements are not taken under consideration of the Polish drivers.?? I saw many times when cars were taking over each other while driving through the crossing places. Actually Polish drivers treat driving as a challenge. The other drivers are the enemies, and one has to show them who is the best, so Polish drivers speed a lot, take over (sometimes 3 cars at the same time) etc. Polish drivers know nothing about the culture of friendly driving, so don’t expect that somebody will let you go if there is a traffic jam. No body will care about you. Living and driving in such reality?? you have to be at least good driver, so we are, but comparing to the Irish drivers, we are not better at all.

Athbhlian faoi mhaise!

Happy New Year to all readers of Ireland from a Polish perspective. I am still in Poland and I am leaving behind very hard time of my life being almost homeless (due to the almost never lasting renovation of our apartment) and ill (long lasting bronchial tubes infection). One of the most important promises for the forthcoming 2008 year is coming back to writing about Ireland and spending in Ireland at least the same time like in Poland. After I came back to Poland where I spent last 2,5 months I must admit I miss Ireland very much. Of course when I am in Ireland I miss Poland, so I will be always somewhere in between. Anyway… there is many things to describe so stay tuned!

What should I wish Ireland? I wish better economy and everlasting economical growth without loosing cultural heritage, and without turning Ireland into the land of glass, concrete and steel. I wish Ireland to stay green with fields of barley. I wish Ireland to have more prosperous Gaeltacht regions. I wish Irish people to get rid of crime, shotguns, cocaine. I also wish you and us… to open for each other. To learn more about us, and Polish emigrants learn at least something about Ireland. I wish us to be part of one community and the ghetto walls once collapse.

kick it on kick.ie

Is Gaeilge the Irish language? part 2.

More than 1 year ago, on my blog I asked the question “is Gaeilge the Irish Language?”. I have found only a few people who could speak Gaeilge and among them only 4 or 5 were speaking Irish in the daily life. The only city in the whole Ireland where I could hear Irish on the streets was Falls road, West Belfast. For us - Polish - language and history are most important elements of our national identity. So even after my 1,5 year of staying in Ireland I can not understand why Irish people don’t take care about their (or at least grand sons of the Gaelic population) own language. Of course I know all of the stroy about famine, extinction of the Gaelic population of Ireland and the massive emigration to America. Further, I know that it was much more needed to learn English than Irish, since people could emigrate to other English countries (I mean the language spoken). I know that Irish language was forbidden for centuries. It is all clear. However I found that in general Irish society doesn’t care about their language. At present “Celtic Tiger” is the leading European economy and power, and this is the time when you - Irish, could think about bringing back to life Gaeilge, but unfortunately , almost nobody is interested in that.

Thanks to one of the users of newly opened Irish-Polish discussion board I found a great film story by TG4 about one Chinese lad who learnt Irish and came to Ireland, and he was rather disappointed since he didn’t speak English at all.

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

kick it on kick.ie

Poles are the majority of the records of the London Metropolitan Police

Here again, my compatriots became famous of their behaviour. Polish troublemakers are the majority of the records of the London Metropolitan Police. Many times I have devoted my attention to the Polish troublemakers that are coming to Ireland and UK together with decent Poles, who are coming to those countries to work. This is a real serious problem, the amount of Polish troublemakers in UK and Ireland, and actually it is very difficult to prevent them of coming abroad, since they are coming for work as well. It is their culture, or maybe lack of the culture and manners. It concerns almost every Polish community in Irish or British town or city. I have met Irish people who were willing to help and to co-operate with Polish community, but after some really nasty experiences they changed their attitude completely.

What do we need it is a Polish Garda officer in every Irish town, and Polish Police officer in every UK town, and much harder policy on deportation of the foreigners to their own countries.

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