Crime in Dublin, Ireland

Been to Dublin a couple of times and haven’t witnessed any crime at all. My last time there was in late 2021. Felt pretty safe when I was walking alone in the Mountjoy Square Park area at 3AM in December. People say some places in the city (especially the northern suburbs) are rough, but I found Drumcondra, Whitehall and Beaumont quite lovely. Walked there alone at night as well and felt completely safe. Was approached by a group of chavvy teens once around midnight — they asked for a lighter. I gave it to them and they thanked me and walked away. Feels much safe than London, at least to me.

I've never been scared of walking around Dublin in the day. There are a lot of drug addicts but as long as you don't speak to them you should be okay. The violent crime rate is low for people minding their own business. I'd totally avoid walking there alone at night but in the daytime it's safe.

Gangs fighting each other over money for drugs that weren’t paid back. Gangs going around robbing random people or assaulting them and then trying to rob them. Gangs attacking deliveroo drivers and robbing the food they have. Poverty is the reason why they act like this.

Poverty creates problems. There are a few council areas in Dublin that are dangerous. These areas formed gangs. These gangs would also be connected to other council parts of Ireland and in the uk that are in gangs. The nickname they have gotten now is chav/Roadman/scumbag. Some of these gangs together and some are fighting each other due to the drugs trade because cocaine is taken by all classes now in Ireland and the uk. Some think it’s not fuelling the problem because they’re just taking a bit of coke and doing nothing else wrong but this is why they there’s a problem. These gangs have very little money but they could be making 100 euro a day each instead of 50 a day. These gangs are also bad for targeting random people. They assault and rob random people for money. Even if they don’t get money if you they’ll assault you and record to show how tough they are to the other gangs they’re fighting.

Cris tell,I literally saw teenagers stealing bikes two days in a row! Broad daylight, 100 meters from gardai station. They were cutting chains and locks. Yesterday evening, I saw group of teenagers attacking a guy in Talbot street. Last week group of teenagers attacked one black guy in spar. I can go on and on and I have been living here for 6 years only!

I have been living in Dublin since 2017 and I wouldn't recommend visiting or living in it. Irish teenage gangs are out of control. They're stealing bikes midday, public spaces. They're attacking people every day, especially delivery drivers. Drug users and alcoholics everywhere. Homeless people wherever you look. Dublin is a shi t hole

Gangs of scumbags that go around robbing people because they have barely any money due to poverty. Sometimes they will go up to you and demand money (possibly with a weapon in hand) or hit you and then rob you

Loads of drugs and knackers if you do something wrong you will be killed

Scumbags that are in gangs. If you mess with one of them you’ll have there gang from there estate on you. There are also gangs that fight each other from different areas. At the moment there is a gang from ballymun and summerhill fighting a gang from darndale and finglas over money

Gangs of people from council estates and inner city. All out of school by 16 and then live of dole or end up homeless or in a caravan and spend their life then in and out of prison. This is only a small percent of the population of Dublin tho. Probably like 6-7% but they still can make Dublin seem like a dangerous place. If you see a group all in tracksuits or tracksuit shorts stay away from them. They lifestyle is so rough that they would have no problem robbing u on a Main Street. And if u don’t hand your stuff over this can lead to an attack. There’s girls in the gangs aswell that will have no problem attacking the women but that’s not to say that the boys wouldn’t attack the women either

The most dangerous city I have ever been. Some people's aegument that "every sizeable city has these problems" is a complete nonsense. I have never seen so many drug addicts and beggars anywhere in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Poland and Germany. It is a completely failed city with hardly any Garda presence, and they don't even carry guns. There are news that someone was attacked or murdered in Dublin pretty much every week. Politicians are useless and do nothing for years and the problem is growing.

About 6-7% of people from Dublin give the place a bad name

I left Ireland a long time ago, but still have family there. From talking with them, crimes against the personal do appear to have increased in the past few years. Muggings are "commonplace". Drug use appears to be a big problem.

Dublin, like any sizeable city, has its problem areas. Traditionally these were council estates where unemployment and poor educational attainment were generational.

Dublin is on an island in the Atlantic, and the weather can be wet and miserable for extended periods. Despite the wealth generated in the economy, the government has no strategy for spending it on indoor facilities for sport and recreation that are both easily accessible and affordable for the working class. As there is nothing for youth to do ( except for chasing a ball around a field in the wet and cold ), they are bored. Drugs and antisocial behaviour follow.

The lack of effective policing means there is no consequence for youthful bad behaviour. The government pleads it has no resourced. And yet wasted 82,000,000 euros on a new Water Charging Board that they then disbanded without it ever doing anything.

Contrast that to where I live now : there are too many facilities for indoor youth activities **in each post code** to count. All are accessible by public transport, and a lot are co-located, so easy for parents to drop off the kids in one place.

The Irish government instead sacrifice everything on the altar of high property prices. This eliminates the possibility of building facilities for indoor sport, when they favour more and more hotels or office developments.

If working class people can't see a way to move from Tallaght to Dalkey during their lives through honest work, because of poor education and discrimination against certain working class areas, people will give up, and their kids pick up on that.

Dublin is over priced, a very poor tourism product ( more so if you don't drink ), lacks effective public transport and policiing, is high tax, low government spend. And people wonder why even the upper middle earners are turning towards Sinn Fein (a political party traditionally associated with terrorism in the past 50 years ) and more socialist politics. There has been no "trickle down" wealth effect for the majority of people.

When there is such a level of anti-social behaviour, it's a government/ societal problem. Irish people are world class complainers. But the problem with complainers is that they rarely do anything proactively to improve things. In the place where I live, people protest regularly, and the government takes notice of their complaints. When was the last time there was a mass gathering of people in Dublin city centre to demand more police, more facilities for the youth, and better education.

There never was, and there never will be

Oh I was wrong about people on the dole. Most people on it can get it without working at all there’s only a small percent of people that go to there local warehouse

Some of these comments are straight BS. I just left the place and haven’t experienced any pickpocketing or other petty crimes. Even during nighttime it is safe. I even walked at night to Merrion Beach and back without being attacked. Felt safer than London or even some German cities.

Scumbags who wear tracksuits with jacket going around robbing people and if someone refuses to hand over what they have they get attacked. The adults can get locked up for about 4 months if you report it but juveniles will completely get away with it. There all over the place and make Dublin a bad place.

Lads in who have nothing to do. Gangs of then that all wear jackets tracksuits and expensive trainers with hands down pants and have terrible attitude. Spend there days burning things or harassing people or smoking weed and if they don’t have money for money they go out robbing people. These are the fuckers in the Dublin that give the city a bad name. It’s even worse when there underage because then there’s no consequences for them. At least the older ones spend time in prison

All the bad areas in Ireland were put in Dublin. That’s why other places seem so much nicer compared to Dublin. Dublin is filled with scumbags who harass and attack people from no reason. The scumbags always were puffer/rain jacket with tracksuits and expensive runners

Ireland is quite safe but Dublin is clearly not, one of the biggest shitholes of Europe

Got attacked in Tolka Valley Park with stones, branches, palets by over 15 underage brats. They were trying to steal my bike. Called Garda which only showed up after more than 40 minutes time in which I had to defend myself.
First three kids came talking and looking at it then came back with the huligans.
Garda won't do anything so stay safe and avoid that area as much as possible.

I was in Dublin yesterday and the city centre around O’Connell street is awful and had a very antisocial vibe to it.
One problem is that it is difficult to get around Dublin City with the absent of good public transport (ie there is no metro in Dublin and the backbone is made up of slow clunky buses) and then there is the ever increasing discrimination against private cars, which has resulted in normal people avoiding the city and leaving it with drug addicts and knacker teen gangs who harass the few normal people who are left visiting the city.
To tourists I would not recommend visiting Dublin, instead I would recommend Cork and Galway instead. Sadly Dublin has turned into a horrible city.

Sadly

I'm an international student in Ireland. Just got my 400 Euros worth of smartphone and my bank card stolen by a young teenager on a bike, as I was walking down Dominick Street yesterday. I could not find a single Garda on sight even near O'Connell Bridge. NONE!!! Such crowded areas. Everyone at the Luas station just watched carelessly the teen cycling away with my phone in his hand even though I blew my whistle loudly. This must be quite normal for Dubliners. Then I went to the Ilac Shopping Centre and asked the security personnel to call the Garda for me, but they refused and said they wouldn't help because the incident did not take place within the shopping centre.

As the theft happened, the gang of teens congregating on Dominick Street told me to be quiet, which tells me that he was known to them. Then I went to the Mountjoy Garda station, I had to wait in line for almost 20 minutes. A female Garda taking notes on an empty piece of ripped paper told me that I would need to go to another garda station because they were only responsible for the Mountjoy area. As she was taking notes, she said "these things happen anywhere in the world". Such a relief. She said it would take WEEKS before I could get any response. When she asked me about the phone brand, the expression on her face was like "it's not worth wasting my time here, just go home".

I called my phone from another number and a drunk, homeless person answered and asked for 100 Euros on behalf of the teens. I met that person on O'Connell, and luckily there I saw a garda car driving and I whistled and shouted. The Garda man climbed out of his car and confiscated his drugs. He cursed at him and told him to bring the phone and "you'll get your drugs back"... He even scolded me for blowing a whistle to catch his attention, and that I was holding the homeless person's arm — who was clearly part of this organized crime. The Garda man said I could get into trouble for holding his arm... WOW!

When I got home I called my bank to cancel my card, and they told me that there have been contactless transactions, which should be refunded they said. Isn't that amazing, my phone is stolen and my bank account is almost depleted and I am left with no money or food until my payday. And I am still expected to be motivated to work and study...

I will not live in Dublin in the future. Dublin has a major drug, alcohol and gang problem and the Garda is useless.

People say the northside is bad but really it's on both sides.. Do your research and look up the bad neighborhoods instead of blindly thinking you'll be safe on the Southside... Crumlin, Tallaght, Ballyfermot and Rialto are among the worst neighborhoods in Dublin and they are all on the Southside.

Personally I would recommend going to Dun Laoghaire, Howth, Ballsbridge, Phibsborough, Stoneybatter, Rathmines, Clontarf and Drumcondra if you want to visit Dublin without the anoyying scumbags..

I was punched from behind once in dublin city centre 2012 or 2013 in broad daylight with hundreds of people around to see. It was a weak punch but still quite shocking since I’ve never been assaulted before and I’ve been in many big cities.
I’m not irish and maybe I looked foreign to them so it could be that they target more foreign looking people and not irish looking?

I would say you would be more likely to be assaulted or harassed in Dublin and some other parts of Ireland then many major cities around the world from my experience but it also depends on what you look like, what clothes you wear, if you are alone etc.
The scumbags seem to always wear grey adidas tracksuits and have a buzzcut for some reason I guess in their minds they think they look tough lol.

I’ve been to the city centre maybe 5 times and with those aggressive teenagers and junkies everywhere I wouln’t recommend going alone.
If you see a group of teenagers with grey adidas tracksuits, stay away

In Dublin (and Ireland overall), OK areas and very bad areas are sometimes separated by nothing more than a few metres. It's therefore really tricky for tourists or foreigners to gauge where is safe and where isn't. Adding to the problem, as many others have commented, is abysmal problem of young gangs. Many are under 18, meaning little happens even if they are caught committing crimes. If under-18's don't sound threatening, you might think again when surrounded by 10 or 20 of them. Many are on drugs.

Sometimes the motivation is robbery to pay for their habit. Other times it is boredom. Unlike in other major cities, crime in Dublin often has no motivation other than to pass the time or look 'hard' in front of friends. This can involve random physical attacks, harassment, verbal abuse and of course regular anti-social behaviour.

I am sure there are criminological reasons - whether it is the breakdown of the family structure or the failure of criminal justice. But the result is that few places in Dublin are safe.

My advice is -
Isolated areas: Be mindful of groups of young people congregating and approaching and keep a wide berth. Always be on the lookout for large groups and get offside quickly. If they are far enough away and you spot them early, it is unlikely they will chase you down. But if you have to pass them on the street or in a park, it is likely you will at the very least encounter some verbal abuse. Or of course worse.

Crowded areas: Here you need to aware of pickpockets. Crowded areas are safer from the gangs because there are simply so many people and it is easy to blend in and not be targeted. But the flip side is that this is where pickpockets will operate - and they are prevalent in Dublin, so be very careful.

Public transport: This is awkward because if the previously mentioned gangs get on and sit all around you, there is little you can do. But the obvious thing here is to swallow your pride and get off at the next station, or move to another carriage. Don't engage with them. It only makes a negative encounter more likely. So many people, young and old, get beaten and harassed by these gangs. Don't give them a chance. It doesn't matter if you are in a couple, in a family, or alone. The smaller your group, the more likely you will be targeted. But save being in a group of 10 rugby guys, they don't discriminate. They'll target anyone.

Night: During the day Dublin can be OK if you follow the advice listed above, but at night the atmosphere really changes and becomes very unpleasant. Getting mugged or attacked isn't guaranteed, but it is a possibility and you need to minimise your exposure to the city dark because if there are lots of crazies about during the day, they multiply at night.

Dublin is unlike any other city I have ever lived in because the chances of meeting trouble are not necessarily confined to particular areas. Of course there are very,very dangerous areas in Dublin but it seems you can meet hassle throughout Dublin. No offence but the city is a shithole and is in massive social decline. Lived in London,New York and Amsterdam but I am more anxious walking around Dublin than in any of those cities. Personal safety is a constant lietmotif in Dublin. Zombie-like druggies looking for money, gangs of kids making life a misery for so many people in estates etc...it's a fecking nightmare. How this has been allowed to continue is mind-boggling. Absolutely no will by anyone to put a stop to it so I guess we get what we deserve. Advice: if you can leave this dump do so before it all goes down. I'm sorry to write this.

I forgot about Kiliney, Dalkey and Shankill however they're very expensive so don't go broke for them.

I forgot about Ronanstown, Clondalkin, Drimnagh, Liffey Valley, Corduff and some parts of Blanchardstown in my last comment

Some parts of Dublin are lovely, especially the south side and during the day. Have lived in Dublin west my whole life and once you're locked away in your own space by the time it starts to get dark, generally you're fine. Also, while you should always report crime, the gardai are normally useless, so I wouldn't expect that anything would be done about it.
Advice for tourists: Just don't go anywhere near the hostels/ food drives or the routes between them at night, or near any hospitals, train stations, buses, shopping areas etc... Just stay in your hotel / the pub across the road from your hotel. Most areas are good during the day, just watch your belongings on crowded streets and try to not stand out too much. 99% of people have no trouble. Would also recommend that you don't travel alone in most areas. Even during the day.
@Cesar: Once you don't use excessive force, there is no problem here with self-defense, as far as I've seen (our house was broken into and my partner was not prosecuted for causing the guy injury).

I don't feel safe in Dublin and I'm a tall, well-built guy.
Too many young gangs randomly starting fights, mugging people.

Most perpetrators of crimes in Dublin are junkies and scumbag teenagers who have nothing to do all day. If you keep vigilant and know where all your stuff is you should be safe as with any other big city in the world. peace

Dublin crime is on the rise but it’s not as bad as other places in Europe, it can be quite scary at night with the amount of scumbags around. Ireland in general has a massive scumbag issue who have no respect for anyone and just like to pick fights for no reason just because they are bored and have nothing else to do. It’s different compared to other countries in Europe that way. Except the U.K. which is even worse as it has way more scumbags who will actually do some scary things.

If I suffer any physical violence in Ireland for example, can I defend myself and the ones with me spanking or going even further without going to jail? Or Ireland became a third world country like Brazil or Mexico, where in practice, you are only able to be robbed, assaulted and murdered, without the option to pay with self coin?

There is a specific term for scumbags in Ireland, Knackers. That alone should give you an idea of level of safety in Dublin. Dublin is full of knackers. It is a small city, which gives a high probability for you to be in a bad area. City center is okay during daytime but it is only around 20 minutes away by bus from problematic places. At night it is dangerous.

Crime is a bit different than in other countries. While in Paris, you could be mugged and scammed. In dublin, people can harrass you verbally, physically and racially, just because you stand out and they are bored. They won't kill you but it is very frequent. This harassment happens on every age level from kids to adults and seems to be a part of irish culture.

Coupled with bad public infrastructure and level of public services. The police, Gardai is quite helpless dealing with this frequient but low level crime. They won't arrest scumbags, because it won't be any help.

To help you make further research on the subject. Google with terms: busses + antisocial behaviour or Reddit and youtube: dublin knackers and scumbags.

I am writing this as an international student, having lived in five different countries around Europe: Finland, Sweden, Spain, France and Ireland.