No go Britain? Northern Ireland

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Belfast
Where have all the parents gone ? I remember my Mum going mad and coming out to look for me if I wasnt in at a certain hour .( 9PM ) no matter what age I was. Iv'e seen kids as young as 9..hangin around street cornors at 11PM with the older yobs who think its cool to stand on a street cornor and drink.These yobs are old enough to go to a bar.. So why dont they.. its not like there isnt enough of them in Belfast. If it is excepted as the Norm. then it will become the norm. I dont go for walks any more..I park my car at 7.30 and I dont leave the house. Bolted and locked up tight.With security lighting...So what does that say?

Belfast
I live in the university area of south central Belfast. During the day, it is a normal place, but every night between 12am and 3am there is shouting, yelling and drinking on the streets. Friday and Saturday are just as bad as any other day. Sleeping with the window open is not an option. When these kids get drunk, they lose all respect for the residents of these areas. I wish the police would patrol the area at night-time and arrest some disturbers, so that people get the message that its "not on" to prevent others getting a good nights rest.

Derry
Derry, is a beautiful and picturesque city, situated on the banks of the foyle. Derry boasts a unique and rich history and is one of the longest continually habited places in Ireland stretching back to the 6th Century AD. However, like many other towns in Northern Ireland and Britain, it has it's problems. Alcoholism is a blight in the city and alcohol is reponsible for many of the city's problems. At the weekend, gangs of youths congregate on the city's historic walls. Many of them would be taking part in underage drinking and generally making a nusiance of themselves. Name calling and taunting passers by is normal and this behaviour goes unchallenged for the most part. The police in the city seem to turn a blind eye. It's only when events like the Halloween carnival take place, which draws large crowds into the city centre do the police take any notice. Any other weekend night feel like running the gauntlet. Waterloo Place is the main entry point to the city centre for a lot of people and this area is blighted by street drinkers. Alcoholics would congregate in the area and harass shoppers for loose change or cigarettes. It's not unusal to see them lying on the ground drunk and sitt! ing about in gangs of 10 or more. Quite often they'd relive themselves in full view of shoppers. The area leading to the lower deck of the Craigavon Bridge is also problem area and many of the street drinkers would congregate here too. This area leads to a beautiful walk along the banks of the Folye but is detoured by many because of the problems associated with the area. Ranging from beatings to stabbings in the nearby John Street. Sectarianism is also a problem in the city and many interface areas (Housing estates of either Catholic or Protestant populations bordering onto each other)have problems, more specifically The Fountain Estate and Bishop street areas as Well as Gobnascale and Irish Street. In other housing estates, anti-social behaviour has reached a new high, mainly caused by gangs of youths meeting on street corners and running riot at all hours of the night. This has been a recent problem in Creggan recently and also in the Galligh and shantallow areas. Although, several initaives are now in place to combat this problem and to turn the young people's thoughts and energy onto more constructive pastimes, such as late night football tournaments. Generally the problems in Derry are no more than those elsewhere, although the exception is the Street Drinking, neither the council nor the Police seem to be doing much to combat this and instead turn a blind eye and refer to it as a social probl! em, meanwhile those that need help aren't getting it and continue to make a nusiance of themselves.

Belfast
Gone are the days of having respect for your elders or the police. Local youths (in North Belfast) even harass elderly people in sheltered dwellings and when asked to move on become even more abusive, throwing stones at windows and settings fire to fences. Even when the police are called do the so called 'hoods' rarely move on, even then its only for a few hours. Most urban areas now seem to be no-go zones after dark for respectible people.

Belfast
Ilive in north belfast and i can tell you it is not a nice place to live. We are constantly harassed at night by yobs who have nothing better to do but hang around street corners vandalising anything from cars to private property. And openly smoke drugs and drink alcohol and dont seem to care if the PSNI catch them or not. I myself have had to call the police on a daily basis to get them to move these yobs on but the police dont seem to care and sometimes it takes them up to an hour to respond. Something needs to be done about this scurge on our society before it gets out of hand.

Portadown
Portadown is a relatively safe place to live despite its image. It is quite clean and the people are generally friendly. There are areas which need to be avoided and youths often congregate in car parks obviously because they have nothing better to do. They spend their time racing cars and drinking.

Belfast
I live in Belfast City Centre in generic student housing, just off the Lisburn Road. Contrary to popular belief most of the disturbance is not rowdy student nights out but local kids between the ages of 13 and 19 standing at the end of my street, drinking and taking drugs every friday and saturday night. The noise and social disturbance at night is bad enough but the aftermath on sunday and monday is terrible; empty bottles and cans from alcoholic drinks, rubbish and minor vandalism and graffiti abound where these youths spend their weekend nights. I have noticed police patrol cars drive past blissfully ignorant on more than one occasion; it seems it would be too much trouble for them to stop and split up the loitering gangs when they'll just move somewhere else, buy more alcohol and cause disturbance elsewhere. While Belfast is indeed a nice place to live, sometimes at night (especially at weekends when the schoolkids go out) the place is dangerous for ordinary people. Unscrupulous establishments known locally for letting underage people buy alcohol do nothing to stem their high-demand source of income, and of course in gangs the eldest need only be 18 to supply the whole bunch with all the cheap cider and alcopops the group wants.

Balinderry
Ballinderry (upper and lower) and its neighbouring villages of Maghabery and Genavy ahve seen a steady decline in the quality of life of their residents over the last few years. There is a marked increase in anti-social behaviour, grafitti, theft, drunken teenagers terrorizing local pensioners and all the usual sort of nuisances that seem to have become commonplace on what some folk refer to as the UK "Mainland". By co-incidence (?), as part of the (obviously welcome) normalization of society after the troubles, the Police have been remoulded to fit more in line with policing practices common to England and Wales, so there are no more foot patrols, all Policing is done from the car, the nearest Police Station is 6 miles away and only opens part time, and there are 2 officers to cover four villages housing thousands of people. I would be curious to know if there is any link. When the cats away...

Belfast
Generally Belfast is a good city to live in, with a relatively low crime rate and friendly residents. However, like the rest of the UK and Ireland, we are blighted by a 'yob' culture in certain parts of the city. Late at night, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, the centre of the city can seem like a dangerous place; drunken youths (and sometimes not just youths) shout obscenities for no apparent reason, and often target innocent people walking past to "slabber" at (in other words, insult them, make lewd remarks and generally harass). This is most prominent in the busy areas of Bradbury Place, Dublin Road and Botanic Avenue. Also of note are some of the residential areas in North Belfast, and South-West Belfast, where sectarianism is sadly stiff rife on both 'sides' of the 'divide'. Your average people living in such an area are decent people, but the gang-esque culture gives these areas a bad name. It is common for youths of both sexes to simply stand around in large groups, often drinking and sometimes appearing to be taking drugs. Again, it is regular for obscenities and insults to be hurled at innocent passers-by. Aside from this, people living locally are disturbed by the noise of these people regardless of whether they are specific targets. I cannot imagine that this behaviour is unique to Belfast, but it is certainly a blight on what is otherwise a lovely city in which to live.

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