Little fuckers with fucking fireworks redux

The BBQ Pit
1

In this thread I mentioned the pre-Hallowe’en Dublin build-up of fireworks in the hands of little brats. I predicted potential dire consequences.

Well, last week a few of them went to the convenience store round the corner from my house, shot a huge rocket through the door, which exploded and gutted the place.

An entire immigrant family relies on the store for their income. They’ve been running it for about a year. All the people I’ve been in contact with in the store have been polite, friendly, and hard working, and it’s been an absolute asset to the community - well-stocked, and open all hours when other stores nearby are shut. I don’t know if they’re insured or not, but even if they are, they’ve still got to build everything up, and I presume will either be living in fear, or just quit he business altogether.

Because they’re from Pakistan, the police are looking into a racial motive for the burning, since another store and a liquor store that were open at the same time on the same row of shops were untouched.

I am disgusted. Little fucking bastards. Words fail me.

2

That’s terrible! I hope they catch the little toe-rags that did this and scare some serious manners into them.

3

No one was hurt in the attack, I hope.

4

Little bastards.

Probably was racially motivated :mad:

5

Also it was most likely not intended to set the whole place on fire.

Just a stupid act meant to act the bollocks with the local foreigners.

6

I hope not - the paper would have said I guess.

Strangely I went to the store get the Evening Herald a couple of days ago, and it had its shutters down. I shurgged and thought maybe they were shutting early because it’s Ramadan. So I went to another store for the paper, opened it, and read about why the first store was shut… :mad:

7

They’ve had their glass door and windows smashed a few times too, and have had to hire a security guard. Other shops haven’t had that problem (though the staff in the liquor store are entirely behind perspex).

8

It really does sound like a racially motivated attack, then. If this poor family have been repeatedly targetted before, then it looks like a continuation of the pattern.

Is there a lot of trouble with racism in your area, then?

9

I’m disgusted about this too, and fireworks problems are increasing all the time. I ran a search on “fireworks” on the BBC’s site and was spoilt for choice for a link to post, but this one will do.

We’ve had about two week’s worth of Bonfire Night already round my way, and the big night itself isn’t until Wednesday.

10

Bibliovore I can really only talk for Dublin but there is a large amount of racism knocking around. We never really had a great number of non whites in Ireland until very recently. We now have lots of Romanians and Nigerians mostly but a fair smattering of the rest of the world as well.

This has led to a very embarrassing rise in racism. I’ve witnessed disgraceful verbal attacks on non whites. It’s very overt in a lot of areas.

All the more embarrassing when you consider that if there is one country in the world that should understand what it feels like to be forced into leaving your country for safety or financial reasons it should be my little Island who have populated the world with immigrants for the last few hundred year.

It really makes me angry when I think of this issue. Along with all the normal feelings I would have against racism I also really want to believe that Irish people should know better. Unfortunately we don’t :frowning: :mad:

11

There’s a general problem in Ireland - I don’t think my area’s better or worse than most others. Having said that, there aren’t that many non-Irish living in the area. There’s an African family over the road from me who don’t seem to get abuse, Filipinos living two doors who seem to get on fine, and a Romanian Gypsy family down the road who seem grand. But none of them own retail outlets, I guess.

12

Seen this yet? Gypsy effigies burnt on bonfire. :eek:

13

Hopefully it was just kids, and not anything more organised. (if I can be excused for hoping so.

I hope they get caught.

14

As do I. I don’t think I can put together words that express my contempt at these idiots. Grr… it makes me mad. :mad:

15

I hadn’t seen that, jjimm, but it doesn’t surprise me. Lewes is just up the road from there and it’s notorious for Klan-style BN ‘celebrations’.

The explanation from the organisers takes the biscuit, but at least some people in the crowd were complaining, so there’s a shred of hope there.

16

We had a great night on Halloween, with my little daughter in absolute paroxysms of excitement with all the noise and flashes and people calling to the door. It makes me sick that it couldn’t have been the same for everyone.

On racism in Ireland, yojimbo and jjimm have said almost all that needs to be said. Unlike yojimbo, however, I never had any faith in my fellow countrymen. In my admittedly limited experience much of our wonderful diaspora, so often cited as a reason for the Irish to be tolerant towards immigrants, are some of the most racist company you could keep. Our only significant minority group of long standing, the travellers, have been the subject of serious prejudice through the years and it’s perfectly socially acceptable to fulminate against ‘the knackers’ in the most extreme terms. All we were waiting for was someone to hate.

17

I had no idea it was so bad. I’ve always thought of the Irish as a welcoming, salt-of-the-earth lot, so it’s dissapointing to hear this isn’t always the case.

Is there any chance the kids will be caught, by the way? How do we even know it was kids and not a group of older yobbos?

18

Hmm, not sure about that.

You try being English and standing in a bar in Ireland with a telly when an England sporting team is playing any other nation on earth at any sport you care to mention.

England vs Klargaronia at extreme ironing?
Everyone in the pub is a Klargaronian.
England vs Sponovia at underwater tiddlywinks?
All the erstwhile Klargarovians have become Sponovians.

Pretty creepy it is, I can tell you.
And it is racist, however you cut it.

Of course, as a woman I got away lightly with this, but my brother got a ferocious battering as a youth, for daring to shout for England in a pub, during a European football qualifier down the country and the general consensus was that “Ah well, he should have kept his mouth shut”

I have been spat at and called a Brit bitch by a girl whose boyfriend I pinched. OK, so it wasn’t exemplary behaviour from me, but in my defence, we were teenagers and I didn’t exactly lure him away by singing God Save The Queen at him, so why the need for the adjective?
The the man who gave my mother a mouthful of abuse for being a stuck up English cunt who should fuck off back home was shown the grave and serious error of his ways by my father.
In no uncertain terms.

I must have told you this, but when I worked in Limerick, at an American pharmaceutical company, they would always fly the flags of the foreign visitors, along with the Irish and American flags, when there were foreign visitors due on site.
The Union Jack/Flag was never flown, despite the numerous visits from English, Scottish and Welsh visitors.
This was not, as you might think because no shops in county Limerick stocked Union Jacks, but because they had tried it once or twice and and it had been shot off the flagpole.

I don’t want any of my DubDope pals to think I am a pioneer of paranoia (Coupling last night - Excellent) but anti-British, though more specifically anti-English feeling has existed here for as long as I’ve lived here.

Anyone who wants to post back that the “Brits oppressed the Irish for years”, please carry on; I know that and can do nothing about it. I am just pointing out that I agree with manwithaplan.
There is a large amount of racism in this country and not all of it aimed at people who needed a passport to get here.

19

Well it ain’t always a picnic being American here either Curly. Just a few minutes ago on Questions and Answers some guy in the audience said “I don’t trust the Americans … and I don’t like them either” and people laughed. Can you imagine him saying “I don’t trust the Africans and I don’t like them either?” “I don’t trust the Chinese and I don’t like them either?”

(Well OK, I can imagine it. But at least people would recognise it as racist.)

20

I hear you. Try being an “Ameriki” in an Arabic country. S
To be fair, the locals do tend to differentiate between Americans and the American government but it is still a bit iffy at times.

Regards and have a Guinness for me!

Testy