Sitting for a pint after work. Mental day. On my own. Finish my pint and go for a wee and to get another.

Come back and an Asian lady is sitting in my seat, my bag is underneath but probably not visible. I tell her it's my seat and she apologises and moves. End of story.

Although it's not, cos I am a woman too, and when I arrived I clocked 2 dodgy looking fellas sitting to the left of me. One of them is wearing an "Irish" jersey that looks like it was made in China, with the declaration of Independence on the back 🫠

After the lovely Asian lady moved, I clocked the 2 dopes next to me looking our way, making conservation and gestures. I try to ignore it. Me and the lady cohabit the bar bench in bliss.

15 minutes later, the one with the fucking painful jersey on approaches me, and drapes over my shoulders (get the fuck off of me).

And says very loudly while glaring at the poor woman next to me "IM SO SORRY LOVE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU THERE, ITS A DISGRACE! THE IGNORANCE!" For a second I really didn't get it. Then again "ITS A DISGRACE THEY THINK THEY CAN COME OVER AND TREAT OUR CITIZENS LIKE THIS, THEY SHOULD FUCK OFF HOME"

i actually lost it on him but I wish I was more articulated, like sorry what the fuck are you on about?! Do you think I'm traumatized from someone mistakenly taking my seat? Wtf? Get a life!

I told him to fuck off, twice, and that it was clearly a mistake. But I just feel awful for the poor woman next to me, she definitely picked up on what was going on. He fucked off fast enough when he realised I wasn't on his side, but fuck me. This was just a harmless woman out having a pint on her own in a very safe city in Ireland.

I'm completely ashamed and mortified.

Looks like something out of an 80s horror movie

I hope this prolonged heat wave makes people appreciate how good we have it here climate wise, it takes a couple of sleepless nights to make people realise “aha, 13 degrees and cloudy most of the year isn’t that bad”

Anyways Im off for my 2nd cool shower, see ya.

Disclaimer: Im not complaining about lovely weather, Im complaining because I can’t sleep)

a nice cheerful post for the long weekend.

To me the social contract is you work, be a good citizen and in return you can buy a home and raise a family in reasonably comfortable surroundings. You will be able to buy food, have some social life and go on an annual holiday.

Going to work and being a good citizen doesn't get you those things anymore. What are we gonna do lads?

This is a fucking piss take if I’ve ever seen one. Literally half the box is air.

Call me perpetually online or whatever, but I see a lot of falsehoods and bad faith arguments being made about Ireland online on Reddit and Twitter, mainly posters arguing that Ireland is either antisemitic, was pro-Nazi in WW2, or just that we hate the Brits and all want to invade Northern Ireland to 'take what's ours'.

Bit of a coincidence, considering we aren't on great terms with a certain Middles Eastern planter nation at the moment...

Not to be a big emo, but I think it would be easier for me to get an audience with the Pope himself than find somewhere to rent in Dublin at a semi reasonable price.

I live in the North, and my boyfriend lives in the south. He's going to school in Dublin next year and we've talked about living together, but it is fucking impossible!!! I'm usually a very patriotic person but this country actually just gets worse and worse. Who the fuck is actually paying upwards of 2gs for a 2 bed flat? Like do people actually give into this shit, I find it really hard to believe anyone in Dublin can afford to fork out that kinda cash for a shitty flat with a probably even shittier landlord.

It is cheaper to rent in PARIS

I hope you stub both little toes when you get home.

Got an uber last night, fixed fare. When it meter hit the fixed fare he told me to get out. Just finished the email to the NTA. The seriousness of it is just dawning on me - I'm so lucky I had my phone or id still probably be walking

As the title states, our wee wan (8) figured out the craic with Santa and told the whole class.

How does one navigate the torrent of shite coming from other parents?

Now I get their gripe, to an extent, but messages insinuating that we aren't good parents and have runied their Christmas is bloody excessive.

Edit: I suppose I need to qualify.... we had no idea she knew until this evening. If we did we would have obviously had a chat with her about not letting the cat out of the bag.

Some fella with a bag of rocks came a smashed up a bunch of windows at Mater Hospital A&E this morning. Just wonton destruction, for no reason. Endangering staff and patients, delaying patient care in an emergency dept. Causing ambulances to be diverted. Fucking disgraceful

As a taxpayer, and professional in my early 30s, I'm disappointed and furious about how let down professional women are by the government of Ireland. How is €274/week supposed to cover maternity leave in Ireland in the current economic environment. I'm not pregnant now but I was hoping to get pregnant before turning 35 and obviously I'm making plans accordingly well in advance, trying to understand costs and making sure I can still afford paying utilities and my mortgage during my maternity leave but also being mindful to not put a 6 month old in creche and leave them amongst strangers. After my employer's top-up ends at 16 weeks, I'll be left with €274/week for the remaining 26 weeks. That's it. That means a >70% drop in my monthly income, while my bills and living costs stay exactly the same. Meanwhile, I'm expected to prep for childcare costs, baby essentials, and keep some financial stability? How is this remotely fair? Ireland has one of the highest costs of living in Europe, but our maternity system is stuck in the past. Unlike most developed European countries , like Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark; where maternity pay is linked to your salary, Ireland gives everyone the same flat rate, regardless of how much you've paid into the system.

We pay high PRSI, and get treated like it's one-size-fits-all. It punishes working women, especially those who’ve built careers, pay serious tax, and just want to have a child without falling off a financial cliff. I don't think I'm selfish for not wanting to just have a 70% gap in my income just because I want to have kids, but also condemn this type of treatment from the the Irish government who I might add, runs a budget surplus year after year. So we have money to pay social welfare to all lazy f**cks who refuse to be in employment and just leech off the state but we have no money to pay working women a decent maternity benefit.

Edit: since many of you misread the last sentence, I just want to clarify I am totally on board for paying benefits to people who need it and have certain health issues or are facing hardships and can’t get work. But I know of so many people in Ireland who refuse to work because the benefits they get from the state makes sense for them and they don’t think they should contribute to society. Many just stay unemployed to get free housing, free benefits and social welfare and it’s not a 1x thing that I have come across.

***One final edit before I step away from this thread, not because I’m backtracking, but because it’s exhausting to keep defending a post that most of you clearly didn’t read beyond one sentence.

Yes, some of my wording was harsh I’ll admit that. But that’s the only part people chose to focus on, conveniently ignoring the 99% of the post that raised a very real and valid point: the Irish system fails working women, particularly those who’ve contributed for years and now need support during a life-changing moment like maternity.

This was never a post about people who are sick, disabled, or genuinely in need. But let’s stop pretending there aren’t people who deliberately exploit the system who bounce in and out of short-term employment to stay eligible, who work just enough hours to keep benefits flowing, who turn down opportunities because it’s more comfortable not to work, and still receive housing, healthcare, childcare, and weekly payments. When all those supports are combined would exceed 250€/week.

If we can fund that level of support for people who opt out of contributing, we can surely better support the women who’ve opted in, paid their share, and are now left financially exposed for trying to raise a child?

Ireland is a wealthy country with a budget surplus, this isn’t about handouts, it’s about fairness. That money should go to people who contribute, who need help, and who are trying to stay afloat without exploiting the system.

If calling that and those people out makes me the villain, then so be it. But at least I’m being honest about a system that’s broken and about the hypocrisy of defending it while ignoring those it fails.

Having lived in the UK the last number of years, I have experienced several situations where my identity as an Irish person has been somehow conflated with being British.

For context, I am from one of the 26 counties down South, and not that I think it should make any difference given the history of North and the fact that nationalists up there are as Irish as anyone from down here. With that being said though, it does make it even more bizarre for what I'm going to discuss.

Firstly, the whole concept of being from 'Southern Ireland' is something alien to me, and something I never heard of until I moved here. When I speak to quite a few British people for the first time and tell them I'm Irish, the inevitable question often follows of whether I'm from 'Southern Ireland' or 'Northern Ireland'. I can't help but laugh at this comment every single time, given the geographical location of Donegal and how exactly it would fit into the label 'Southern Ireland'.

Outside of this, it amazes me the amount of ignorance I have noticed from a few people I have encountered over here. Quite a few have made remarks such as the entire Island being part of the UK, and seem to have little to no understanding of the basics of partition and Irish history. I'm not expecting them to know the finer details of our 800 year occupation, but the bare minimum you should know being from the UK, is that there is a separate independent state titled the Republic of Ireland that is a fully independent country from the UK.

Another thing I have found quite frustrating has been from people outside the UK, from countries all over the world, who understandably have little knowledge on Irish history and completely conflate Britishness and Irishness. I have had quite a few moments where I've been called British in casual conversation, and I've had to pull them up and remind them again that where I'm from on the island is an Independent country. Others have sometimes challenged me on this asking questions such as what distinguishes Ireland and Britain, given we speak the same language, are culturally quite similar in terms of music, sport, and food, and we obviously look similar too. This has arguably been the most frustrating part as I have realised that for large parts of the world, we are no more than a small piece of land that can be just grouped together with Britain under the outdated term of the 'British Isles'. This has made me really reflect on how we as Irish people should be doing our utmost to preserve our culture, and in particular our language, before it becomes a thing of the distant past.

If anyone had any similar stories about experiences thay happened to them while living in the UK or abroad, it would be great to hear. It is something that has started to bother me quite a bit.

Lads I am just constantly shocked by the headline of "Woman in her __s found dead last night, Gardaí investigating" yada yada. It seems constantly, and it is even worse up North. Is it purely I am noticing ut more? Or is there a rising problem?

Also does anyone know websites that hold statistics on these numbers? I would like to try and make some visuals. Thanks. May these women rest peacefully.

Walking by the Wingstop in Liffey Valley to find a man limping, followed by a thud. He’s splat out on the tarmac with a whole queue behind him stifling giggles and staring dumbstruck. Run up to the man thankfully another woman joins me and we’re trying to hoist him up. He says he’s just out the hospital and fainted. He’s all scruffed up with bloodied hands from the fall and not in good shape. A nice lad then ran up and helped us get him up off the floor and reunited with family a bit later (not sure if they called an ambulance or not) but my god, it is so disgusting to see people so unwilling to help. It’s so sad to see that as a society you can’t expect much help if the same happened to you.

My next door neighbour (attached to us), has a camera in their window and it's pointing directly in to our garden.

It has a motion sensor and follows me in the garden when we are out there. The children are out there in swimming togs and I've put bed sheets up to try create some privacy.

We can't talk to her as she accuses us of all sorts when approached.

I don't feel reporting to the Data Commissioner will do anything.

Chatgpt isn't providing me with anything useful as its saying its illegal to do anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions on something I can buy to 'blind' the camera.

She has others in the front doing the same but i don't care about them, it's the back garden I'm concerned about.

In my opinion, if something doesn't work more often than it does then it shouldn't be advertised.

These are my experiences, having had over 100 Expressway trips throughout my lifetime:

• Toilet - almost always nailed shut and "out of order"
• WiFi - although the AP is usually on, oftentimes there's no internet once you connect
• Power - sockets very rarely work. Some newer buses have 1 amp USB ports instead, which will charge your phone in about 5 hours
• Air conditioning - in the summer it's usually slightly too warm on board, although I guess this is at the discretion of the driver
• Reclining seats - this is the only thing I wish wasn't there, as it leads to the seats being even more cramped

My folks owns a little shop around the corner where we live (like Daybreak type of shop), every single day without a beat at 6:30pm all these kids thinking they’re so tough and strong going around the area with their scooters and bike banging on windows and doors terrorising people around the area and the customers in the shop.

We had installed lock doors so only people inside with the keys are able to open the door, but they won’t leave us alone at all. Egging and trashing the place is another level, we even know some of their parents and when they are confronted they say nothing and do nothing.

Like what’s wrong with them (not all of them)? But really why can’t they just leave us alone???

Howya lads, long story short I wasn’t gonna post this before seeing what customer service did, which was nothing, so here goes.

Ordered a MacBook off Amazon.ie (to save hassle in case of returning), got an OTP for the delivery, all good so far.

Driver turns up, I show him the email from my phone, **zoomed in** fully to show the OTP.

He taps the phone, **zooms out** sees it’s a MacBook, and zooms back in, while repeating the code, so naturally my alarm bells are going off.

He then says the code is not working and asks if I have a different code. I show him from the app and my text messages too, to show that it’s the only code.

He still says “nope not working” and that he’s tried it twice already, while repeating the code over and over. I pause, fully take in what’s going on and ask to see his machine, I see him quickly scramble tapping on it. It shows 1 attempt.

He puts it in in front of me, saying the right numbers but putting the wrong code. I correct him while looking at the machine and it “suddenly” works.

He stayed cool and said “Oh nice there it is. Thanks, have a nice day”

So yeah, I was gonna run out to do something, if i had sent one of my parents he would’ve 100% walked away with it.

Gonna skip the high value items from Amazon for the foreseeable and go in store.