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FEMALE TOURISTS AGED between 17-25 are the most common tourist victims of crime in Ireland, according to a group which offers victim support.
The Irish Tourist Assistance Service (ITAS) said today that it experienced a 24% increase in demand for its services last year.
The ITAS annual report recorded that they helped nearly 900 people who had fallen victim to crime and other traumatic events during their visit to Ireland in 2017.
The most common crime perpetrated against tourists was theft, which made up 39% of referrals to the ITAS.
After that, theft from cars is becoming more common and made up 11% of referrals last year.
The ITAS says that a small number of tourists (15) were referred after violent crime such as aggravated theft, assault, sexual assault and robbery.
Referrals to the service are most commonly made by gardaí and the ITAS annual report details that most of these come from Pearse Street Garda Station due to the number of crimes against tourists being committed in Dublin city centre.
The report states that 40% of the crimes it dealt with occurred on the streets of Dublin. The majority of these took place between the hours of 2-6pm, with victims tending to be female aged between 17-25 years.
In total, the ITAS said it assisted tourists from 48 countries last year and that it was thankful that the vast majority were able to continue with their holiday after they received support.
“The aim of the service is to provide visitors who are victims of crime with immediate support and information in order to make a positive difference to their experience,”chairman Kevin McPartlan said.
“In 2017, 88% of tourists assisted by ITAS continued with their holiday plans. I would like to thank the organisations and agencies who support ITAS. This support enhances Ireland’s international reputation as a caring and hospitable nation.”
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Fáilte Ireland are great at portraying Ireland as a welcoming place which gives tourists the impression that it is a safe country to visit. This is deception on a national scale. Parts of Ireland and particularly Dublin City are no go areas full of criminals, junkies, thieves and general malcontents seeking to prey upon the innocent.
It would be much better if the national tourist board was up front about the shockingly high levels of muggings, assaults and thievery facing visitors as soon as they set foot on our shore.
And then of course there’s the rip off prices even if you survive the streets.
@Gene Dexter: there needs to be a comprehensive security leaflet for foreign tourists. It is better to be honest
Well said.
@Gene Dexter: can you point me to a few of these no go areas?
I genuinely can’t think of a single no go area, especially one that would be on a tourist trail.
@Gene Dexter: so the body responsible for marketing Ireland should be marketing the small negative aspects as opposed to the hugely positive aspects to attract visitors which in turn provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. What a novel idea . I’m sure the body reponsible for New York , London , Barcelona , Paris ( I could keep going ) do the same . There is not one city or place you have or will ever visit that does not have crime . People that visit Ireland love the place and love Dublin it’s the people that live here that seem to hate it but i put most of that down to people just wanting to have a moan and be outraged by something on any given day . And as for no go areas every single city in the world has them, you just research before you go.
@Gene Dexter: you total drama queen. We have problem with repeat offenders. There’s not a criminal campaign targeting tourists. You make it sound like Bagdad. The city is an extremely safe European city. How do u even get out of bed with such overriding fear of dangerous Ireland
@Gene Dexter: Dublin is unsafe? Dont make me laugh.
Have you ever been to Barcelona? Fun fact: pick-pocketing is not a criminal offense there.
@Gene Dexter: your not irish
@Austin hickey:
*you’re
@Gene Dexter: Oh dear, Gene!! You not only went totally over the top in your contrived comments about Dublin: you also saw fit to display your very bad manners in taking a poster to task for a grammar error.
The only question now is to ask myself why on earth I am wasting my time on somebody with such an awful attitude.
@Gene Dexter: Oh dear, Gene, You not only went viciously over the top in your contrived description of Dublin: you also displayed your terribly bad manners when you took a poster to task for a grammatical error.
Oh dear me – why on earth am I wasting my time on somebody with such a bad attitude?
What tourists need to learn is that Dublin’s zombies in grey tracksuits are much like actual zombies. Easy to manouver around, but if they get a hold of you, the effects are devastating. Likewise, they are particularly lethal in enclosed spaces and when their numbers are many.
Maybe if the Garda actually done there job and the courts backed them with proper sentences we would have a city safe to walk around as it is most of the place is a no go area not just for tourists but also for locals
@Colm Sheehan: too busy getting all the drug dealers and counting stuff
@Colm Sheehan: maybe if these areas were actually policed in greater numbers crime would drop. Look how New York was cleaned up, lots more police on the streets and judiciary that actually do their job!
A young Austrian lad , only 19, had his face bashed in a few days ago. The organisers of the trip have instructed the lads to travel in groups of at least 5 and to have Guards in speed dial . They have been given a list of places not to go to. Also, although the assault took place in day light, Guards have advised an 8.00 PM curfew.
Young tourists are seen as fair game.
@Michael Lang: And that happened in Howth, one of Dublin’s more friendly area.
@Michael Lang: I live in Ballybough, well the edges and walk into town daily. I can count the number of times i’ve seen Gardai on foot on one hand. Its a joke. Lads driving motorbikes in fairview park on paths full of kids the other day. Only took Clontarf station 45 minutes to send somebody down.The lads were at it the next day and the day after that. I don’t blame police its the hug a hoodie bleeding heart liberals and judges who don’t live in these areas or have never been shouted at or assaulted in their lives.
People say the inner city kids have nothing to do, They have Community centres, pitches, rivers, sea, parks, sports clubs, pitch and putt they can afford sleds in the snow and wetsuits in the sun. There is definitely an issue now of gentrification as more people and tourists/foreign born nationals move into areas that were disadvantaged. Summerhill has two new student centres. Until citizens of Dublin demand more zero tolerance and foot patrols nothing will happen. Dublin is relatively safe if you are always aware. But im 6,2 and male so easy for me to say that.
I saw a few lads abuse a foreign national deliveroo driver the other day. That deliveroo driver is paying taxes that benefit those lads. Its shit like this that makes my blood boil.
and just to say its hard to blame the people in disadvantaged areas some of them have no chance. Its a generational thing. I dont know what the solution is for that. But definitely more garda on foot and better community policing. Even private security perhaps in public parks and certain areas like they have in London.
No surprises here I’m afraid. Even as an Irish person who lives down the country but has been visiting Dublin for 25 years, I can see how the place has deteriorated. There are far more undesirables walking the streets and barely a guard in sight. It pains me to say it but I’d not want any overseas friends of mine to visit Dublin these days.
Was having a cup of coffee not so long ago in a corner shop real early in Dublin at the bridge near amien st? & Saw a gang of dirtbags having a chat on a corner, waiting for tourists going past. You could see them giving each other the nod to say we go for this lot here. Saw it happen again then at bridgefoot street.
@James Wond: hope you called the Gardai.
@Ted Logan: I did but I don’t think they cared as it is an ongoing thing they simply can’t police all the time. I didn’t actually realise how bad and frequent it was.
The guiness storehouse is another area they get hit bad.
@Ted Logan: Id say he’d have to order 3 more coffees while waiting on the guards
These criminals laugh in our faces as they take our welfare payments and stroll back to their taxpayer funded home in the centre of Dublin. When we allow a large welfare class to develop, it inevitably increases criminality.
@Fred Jonsen: The elitist class of the rich and elitist politicians have done more damage to society than all the welfare class put together.
If this crime epidemic effected them you would see the Gardai engage in proper policing. You just have to look at the amount of Gardai outside the Dail to guard politicians from the public.
Proper policing along with real deterrents would see a significant drop in street crime.
You’ve a nasty, fascist frame of mind Fred. Doesn’t matter if you call yourself Jonsen or Jensen.
@Dave Doyle: Fascist another word that has no meaning these days as it’s used against anyone who doesn’t agree with your point of view.
@Robert Treston: When you know Fred’s history of comments and his solution to the housing problem in Dublin as concentration camps being built in places like Leitrim, his continuous attack on the less well off, there’s a very strong sense of 1930s fascism to his comments.
@Dave Doyle: You do realise that some of that money generated by elites goes to taxes that then goes to the social welfare budget. I don’t fully agree with Fred but he speaks some truth as much as it hurts.
Ireland has one of the highest social welfare budgets in the World. If we want to have a very good socialism model fine, but then we need proper punishments for those that break the society’s rules. If you don’t think a lad losing his eye 5 hours after coming to Dublin after being attacked by a lad such as Fred described isn’t damaging to society well we don’t have much hope https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/busker-left-blind-in-one-eye-after-dublin-street-attack-this-has-destroyed-my-life-35211508.html. The rich banker elite thing is a bit tired no? Were you not talking the other day about middle class people being rich? Many robberies, assaults happen in wealthy areas as well. http://www.thejournal.ie/killiney-road-woman-attacked-3180822-Jan2017/
The truth is Ireland unlike America and England doesn’t have that true blueblood rich elite that you describe. And the ironic thing is the reason some of it happening is because you have people like Boyd Barrett, St MIchaels educated, Dalkey bred and MAry Lou, Notre Dame, Rathgar exploiting disadvantaged communities for political gain. They are the ones who will stop good progress for these places and are people who are soft on crime. So i suppose these are part of your political elite. People before Profit objected to a student housing on Summerhill one that could employ local people and open up new businesses.
@Dave Doyle: hi Dave…or if he call himself Fred Croydon.
@Dave Doyle: There are one million gardai patrolling the city, and it seems to have little effect.
Aldi & Lidl car parks are becoming dangerous places!
A lot of the new Gardai in Dublin city appear to be about five feet tall. Criminals probably laugh at them.
They should get about 40 or so big hardy lads straight out of templemore, give them batons, and just make it their job to police the city centre
@Benny: they actually significantly cut the gardai so that’s unlikely
Can’t walk a street in Cork city without being accosted by beggars and they’re not local either
@ianglen: they’re tourists then are they?
@Dietrich Död: The type of tourists where begging is a lifestyle choice it seems
@ianglen: Eastern Europeans a fine bunch of lads,
Tourists unfortunately don’t know where the many no go areas of Dublin are and must be easy pickings for the locals.
Dublin is getting nearly as bad as limerick these days.
@My13AmpFuse: statistically incorrect comment. Look at the ITAS yearly reports. Greater than 300 incidents per annum in Dublin. Limerick had less than any other major urban area.
Remember the young Italian lad injured in Fairview Park. He was badly brain damaged and paralysed.
Then there was the young Swiss girl murdered in Galway.
@Michael Lang: Guidos life was ruined forever, James Osbourne got 8 years and probably didn’t serve all of that. The rest of the bunch of scrotes that robbed him got away with it. Where are they now? Productive members of society, I think not.
@Michael Lang: And that leaflet should say that the government and the judges of this country will do nothing to protect you or your family while you are helping the economy. And don’t even enquire for a member of the policeFORCE.
Does that rise actually still exist when you compare it to the corresponding enormous rise in the amount tourists visiting the city? I bet it doesn’t
Truth is that, thanks to the likes of AirBNB, Dublin is now above its capacity for tourists and it’s affecting the quality of the city, including criminal behavior. Well on our way to becoming another Barcelona
Yet the government, Gardai and even the public continue to ignore the rising crime levels. Ireland has a serious problem with crime and continuously pushing it under the mat will inevitable cause the tourism industry to collapse in years to come.
Tourists should be given a leaflet on how to identify Junkies as soon as they land in Dublin.
@Tom Sawyer: hard to tell the difference between the typical dub and a junky they are both full of sh!t
@Tom Sawyer: And the leaflet should say that, the fella with the syringe held at your neck is a junkie, but it’s a bit late to be reading it now.
@Tom Sawyer: stay away from anyone wearing matching top and bottom tracksuits. Baseball cap optional.
The problem is with the judiciary and the Free Legal Aid parasites who operath the lucrative legal merry-go- round with the payment point at the judges bench!
“The report states that 40% of the crimes it dealt with occurred on the streets of Dublin. The majority of these took place between the hours of 2-6pm.”
Then I guess the lesson here is that when in Dublin, stay in a safe secure place between 2-6 pm.
Lovin’ Dublin.
@Patty Cullinane: like work ?
Heroin…
Love all the comments on here from the Dubs ……wouldn’t p@@s on you if you were on fire
I recently was on a trip to Dublin where a Junkie accosted a young girl at the Dart Station…..I’m not a big lad by any means but all these so called men just stood there looking into their phones & acting unaware …..I stepped up to the plate & had go at said Junkie who put up a bit of a fight but a quick kick in the nether region brought him down.
Suppose I’m saying Dubs…..be more Irish & stand up & fight for others ‘ tourists & get our Cead Mila Failte back ….doesn’t take much
You never ever see cops on duty. Bloody disgrace. We are over run with skanger rats
Serious junkie problem left ignored for 20 years. Many of them are in their 40s and 50s now – no fear of prison and they’re being waited on hand and foot because they’re homeless. A horrible regressive racist pack of criminals left to roam the streets of this city. One day we as a city aren’t going to take anymore of it and drive them out.
@Darren Bates:
Good Man Darren
Sadly soft sentencing means many believe robbing a tourist is worth the risk.
Some local scangers, some visitors from countries where fear of consequences if caught deters such behaviour & can’t believe how easy it is here to commit crime. Police almost powerless
Two of my French friends are going over to Dublin next month, so where should I tell them to avoid?
@Rachel Doux: Dublin.
@Rachel Doux: Just remember the lads in tracksuits aren’t upstanding athletes.
O Connell street is a kip we need to sort it out
Petty crime is out of control, more Gardai on the street would resolve the problem of pick pockets.
We can’t deal with this due to the social justice brigade.
So go suck it up. ..
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