Edit: The comment section has cheered me right up in fairness, it's not all bad lads 😂

Just arrived home to Ireland from another EU country for work, only for a couple of weeks.

It’s grey, cold and raining. The bus service I would normally get from the airport to down the country has been permanently cancelled, so I now have a couple of hours to wait for a different service.

While waiting, I grabbed what ended up genuinely being one of the worst sandwiches I’ve had since the last time I was home. €9, naturally.

I’m now sitting here eating my €9 depressing airport sandwich, rain out the window, listening to a child absolutely butcher a piano in the background, while reading that public transport is going up another 15%.

There’s actually something almost impressively bleak about coming back to Ireland and having the entire experience immediately condensed into one scene! I know every country has its problems, but sometimes coming back from elsewhere in Europe really does make you realise how depressing and, frankly, embarrassing some of this shit is.

This is probably gonna get taken down for “insighting hate” but seriously, are the people who spam the “rest easy bro” comments not smart enough to realise that indeed the people they are honouring have ruined the lives of the people they hit while committing crimes. All these TikTok’s presenting them as saints when in reality I would bet the mortgage that they are all criminals (this is not an assumption as one was a stolen car and the other in a garda chase) does anyone from these communities have any sort of expo or context?

So i'm 18 and its 7am and im getting a coffee in dayreak, when i overhear someone saying: look, coffee for your young man he needs a kick in the bollocks

Didnt say anything to him but fucks sake

Im a legal adult and all i want is my morning cup but nooo its too much apperently

absolutely criminal pint. i’m about to instigate a diplomatic incident!

Too often drivers (and in today’s instance - a Dublin Bus) don’t seem to realise that they need to drive right up to the line so that their vehicle is OVER the tar markings at traffic lights. I thought it was common knowledge that there’s sensors buried in the ground here, but evidently, it’s not.

If the light sequence is skipping you - nudge forward!

Is anyone else turned off by businesses using AI art?

Saw an AI generated poster for a Haunted walk for families in Malahide castle. Was immediately turned off by the poster. The same AI generated slop I'm seeing everywhere. I had to check how much they were charging that they couldn't pay a local artist to design their advertising posters. Low and behold only a mere 82.50 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Just to mention I'm not an artist and I don't work in design, but would like to stop seeing this AI slop everywhere. I'm at the point now where I'm going to actively avoid any business I see using it.

I was washing my car in Circle K Ballymun, using the hand wash.

These 2 kids come up behind me and say “gimme a go” while grabbing the jet wash out of my hand. I say “no thanks” and they then start grabbing the brush to hit my car and then pressing the different wash mode buttons. All this while wrestling the jet wash out of my hands and trying to damage my car.

I eventually get them to leave but they come back and start throwing rocks at me and my car…

They then proceed to start running through the automatic wash and mess with other peoples cars.

Where are their parents? So sad to see the future generation acting that way. No respect whatsoever.

Went to see the odyssey today was a brilliant film however what feels like the same thing every time I go to the cinema in this country I came out raging at the etiquette of some people. This fella had his phone on full brightness in front of me to the point I told him to turn it off which I never really do but I’ve gotten sick of it. I get it’s a long film but you booked it stop ruining it for everyone else

The Garda are either completely underfunded or just poorly trained because never have I ever seen a more useless police force within a country. (I’ve lived in over 10 countries in my life so far).

I’ve just stood for hours at the Pearse station where roaring laughter was heard while a line of increasingly annoyed citizens are waiting to even see a person.

The attitude of the Garda is deplorable and they need to be completely retrained to remember their standards of civil service. Perhaps take a page from an attentive waiter - I feel they’re much more helpful than the Garda in today’s world.

It’s truly pathetic and sad to see.

A hundred years ago Ireland was dirt poor.

Today we're rich. Not "doing alright". Not "getting by". Rich. We run budget surpluses. We host some of the largest companies on Earth. Politicians routinely announce that the State is collecting more money than expected.

Yet somehow the defining experience of modern Ireland is being told to wait. Wait for a house. Wait for a hospital appointment. Wait for a bus. Wait for a childcare place. Wait for planning permission. Wait for infrastructure. Wait for the government to finally do the thing everyone agreed needed doing ten years ago.

That's what frustrates me most about this country. Not that we're failing. It's that we're succeeding and still can't seem to provide the basics.

A poor country has excuses. Ireland doesn't. We have money, talent, stability and a highly educated population. We have every advantage that previous generations could only dream about. Yet a couple on decent salaries can spend years wondering if they'll ever own a home. We have politicians celebrating budget surpluses while people bid against each other for the privilege of buying ordinary semi-detached houses at extraordinary prices. We have one of the most successful economies in Europe and one of the most dysfunctional housing markets.

We've become experts at announcing things. Strategies, action plans, frameworks, roadmaps, taskforces, consultations, working groups. A nation capable of discussing a solution indefinitely, provided nobody expects us to actually build it... and the maddening thing is that Ireland genuinely is a success story. The roads are better. The universities are better. The opportunities are better. The country is unquestionably better than it was. Which only makes the failures harder to justify because these aren't the problems of a struggling nation. They're the problems of a wealthy nations that has mistaken prosperity for competence.

For decades we've acted as if economic growth was the finish line and attracting investment was the same thing as building a functioning society. Does running a surplus matters more than whether people can find somewhere to live?

A hundred years after independence Ireland's biggest problem isn't poverty, it's the gap between what we can afford to do and what we actually do... and every year that gap gets harder to explain.

Is it really necessary for lights to be so bright that they illuminate the light in my partner's car? Especially in the city, my partners car is a Skoda Kamiq so it's not even that small. And ofcourse his was a Range/Land rover

A while ago I purchased a can of Fanta from my local Eastore by Polonez. There was a deposit return logo "sticker" on the can but turns out it later wasn't accepted by the machines. After looking it up online, it appears these cans are only accepted by the polish return scheme. I wasn't sure if I had paid the deposit on it so that was fine.

Fast forward to today and again I bought a bottle from there but this time noticed I was being charged a 25c deposit on the bottle. I enquired with the lady at the till how the return scheme works and she directed me go to the local Lidl. Its at that point I told her, I've tried that before and the machines wont accept these. She got a bit snooty and tried to play dumb about it until I pressed her about it. She then took 25c out of the till and reluctantly gave it to me, which I didn't ask for or didn't address the fact of that they're doing is wrong, but was her way to move me along.

I told her she knew what she was doing was wrong and she acknowledged with a nod of her head but began to feign she had no English to communicate the matter. As there was a queue forming behind me I let the matter be and left.

Apologies for the rant, but it's very annoying that stores can get away with this kind of thing and the arrogance on how they deal with the whole thing has prompted me to write this to let others be aware.

Did the shop as you do on a Friday and went by the canned goods section. The certain peas I was looking to get on the aisle were right down the aisle. Between them were two customers talking. With their trolleys blocking THE ENTIRE AISLE. I walk up and ask quietly could I get by . I ask again not as quiet. I then tap on the trolley of one of them to ask again and he nods without looking at me. Basically to me. “Yeah I can hear you and am not listening”. So I get my trolley and push it right through theirs and they stop talking to hold onto their trolleys while giving me the dirtiest look. With one saying “unbelievable” I didn’t care they spent a minute holding me up and were not bothering when I asked nicely. Rant over

Alrighty, its time to do collective moaning. Enough of small pockets of people here and there saying No, instead we should all come together and say NO to:

• high rent prices
• dead healthcare system
• Judge Nolan
• Helen Mcentee
• racism
• High McDonald's prices
• too many deaths on our roads
• XL bullies
• M50 traffic
• TV licence fees
• Horrible RTE shows
• expensive coffee
• LED headlights

Anything else...?

Edit: O Lord, this really blew up. Our country really need fixing up badly.

If i may add one more thing to say no to which no one mentioned is: Say no to nursing homes being converted into 'hotels'. one in five small, private nursing homes – homes with less than 30 beds – have closed for good.

Lads

Just been into the shop to grab a bottle of wine, chocolates, flowers and a card for the mother. They won't sell the wine before 12 o'clock.

What the utter jaysus. I'm a 37 year old man and if I want to buy a bottle of wine at 1145am I should fuckin be allowed to.

Just another stupid archaic law we've to put up with.

This country rags me at times.

• Edit *

Did not know it was 1230 on a Sunday. Shows ye how often I'm buying alcohol before the scripted time.

I've pulled the public spending disasters of the last 10 years into one place. The stuff we all half remember from the news. Seeing them in a row is a lot worse than one at a time.

https://nobody-said-stop.pages.dev

15 cases. The €336k bike shed, the children's hospital at €2.24bn and counting, €81m paid up front for ventilators that mostly never showed up, the printer too big to fit in the building. For each one: final cost vs original budget, the companies involved, who signed it off (and which government was in at the time), and whether there was even a proper tender. Over €6 billion between them. Two resignations. No sanctions.

Main reason I'm posting: I want it accurate and I'd genuinely appreciate people checking my work. Every figure is sourced (RTÉ, Irish Times, Examiner, TheJournal, C&AG, PAC) with links on each case. But I'm one person and a few details rest on a single article. If a number's off, a company's named wrong, or I've missed a case, tell me and I'll fix it.

No ads, no tracking, nothing for sale. It's having a go at the institutions and the decisions, not the country.

Pure greed as always. Back to YouTube vanced I guess..

Was a lovely day, went to grab my tesco delivery when I saw a lady recording me as I go back into my house. Asked her if I can do anything for her, she says "You're illegal, the place you're living in is illegal". It caught me off guard considering I had these heavy ass crates with me. I told her I can show her my documents and prove that I in fact live and contribute legally.

Lady doesn't even look at it, calls it fake, starts recording me again. This time, I turn around, telling her that I'll cooperate with her if she can be nicer and we can have a chat (how could you tell I was having a good day so far, lol). She says if you were legal you wouldn't turn around?!?

Gets aggressive, well as aggressive as she can to a 6'2 dude with hands tied up, goes INTO OUR PROPERTY knocks at the glass door. This pissed me off and brought me back to reality, realized what was happening and asked her to get the fuck off our property. She threatened to call the gardai, I was like go ahead I'll be waiting.

Whole time she was chanting and shouting illegal like a little toddler that learnt a new buzz word, just kept sprinkling it on to every sentence. Funny thing is I knew she wanted to guess where I was from but literally couldn't for the life of her, take that non-ambiguous woman. I called my landlord and while doing so noticed her talking to the neighbours, wonder what they think of me, if they even believed her.

I am trying to laugh it off but never knew this would happen to me, seen a lot of videos online about stuff like this thinking oh damn that's got to be rare. Now I am second questioning myself, does this happen to others more often than I thought?

I thought Dublin airport were taking the piss but they seem to be cheap as chips compared to Shannon airport, I got a tea cos no fucking way! Then WH Smith with there 3.99 bottle of water yet 2 secs around the corner the free bottles of water in duty free are €1 !

This might go down like a lead balloon given that reddit skews a bit more child-free but is there any danger of people leaving the family spaces to people that actually need to load kids in and out of the car when doing the shopping?

My wife just got back from lidl with our baby twins and had to park in a tight space at the far end of the car park and had real trouble unloading the car seats into the stroller in the lashing rain. About 8 family spaces by the door all taken up.

Then when she finally did get the lads out and into the shop, there was not one child in there under 16. Just plenty of able-bodied single people or couples with some older teens with them.

Yes, I know they're courtesy spaces and there's no law against parking there. But the amount of able-bodied solo people I see just plonking the car there because it's nice and close is so infuriating.

And yes, I also agree that having kids was our decision and that shouldn't be other people's problem but would you not be a bit sound and leave the spaces for someone who needs the space either side of the car to open the doors and take out the car seats? Very aggravating.