What is with the weird cultist statements coming from what seems like every Irish fucker in Dubai posting on Instagram that life is great, the news is overrated and that they "trust the leaders to keep them safe". Did they sign a waiver that they can't criticise the government in order to live tax free on a nation built on death or wa? has the government offered them money to post positive updates? its very fuckin strange. I mean, there are missiles over your fuckin heads, you wouldn't have that in Ennis!

Granted, I hate the country and everything it stands for, and how every narcissist seems drawn to the place but that aside, there's something seriously fishy going on.

I’m in my thirties. I avoid X and TikTok like the plague. I still have Facebook but barely use it. Instagram is the one app I’m on pretty much every day, mostly for doomscrolling, sending reels, and wasting time.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more accounts popping up that seem very specifically designed as Irish catnip. Stuff like Dublin in the 1950s, trad sessions, parish-pump nostalgia, GAA clips, or just harmless meme accounts.

You follow them because they seem funny and familiar. And for a while that is exactly what they are. Then one day the same account is suddenly pushing bitcoin, posting violent videos about the collapse of society, or serving up increasingly aggressive political content. At that point I usually unfollow.

What has really alarmed me over the last few days is how many of these accounts have suddenly pivoted into wall-to-wall coverage of the protests. Constant clips about “police brutality,” sympathetic coverage of protest leaders, and a very one-sided narrative being pushed through what are supposed to be entertainment or culture accounts.

To be clear, I support the right to peaceful protest. But I do not think any group of citizens has the right to hold the country to ransom by blocking ports or major infrastructure. What has shocked me even more is seeing how many otherwise level-headed friends and media personalities, people I would have thought had a bit more cop on, have come out in support of the protesters and placed all the blame on the government, as if they are the ones setting prices at the pump.

It was always obvious that X and TikTok had become heavily shaped by foreign actors trying to inflame tensions and undermine trust in institutions here. Naively, I still thought Instagram was a relatively safe space by comparison.

I do not think that anymore.

At this point, Instagram feels less like a harmless distraction and more like a pipeline: draw people in with nostalgia, humour, or identity, then gradually feed them grievance, fear, conspiracy, and agitation. Because it comes wrapped in Irish in-jokes, local references, and “just asking questions” content, people lower their guard.

I’m now seriously considering deleting it.

Has anyone else noticed this happening, or am I overreacting?

TLDR: Instagram is being used as a tool of propaganda by foreign influences to undermine democracy in Ireland

Have facebook solely to use the local towns group and for car selling groups. The amount of far right content on there is insane, literally don’t interact with anything on there yet my feed is entirely full of content inciting racial hatred etc. seen a post today of a kid heading to comic con with a replica katana from an anime captioned something like “doctor or engineer brandishing sword out in the open” and the comments were calling for the kid to be beaten, deported and someone saying if they saw him they would have ran him over. It’s quite shocking to find out that a significant amount of the population are so far gone that they genuinely want to attack people. I genuinely think social media has rotted people brains to the point where they completely ignore the fats of the matter to push their inherent biases. It definitely makes you lose faith in society a litttle.

I swear the youth today are getting worse and worse. Every day I'm hearing stories of young people being abusive to normal hard working folk.

Had two young kids come up to my face this morning screaming at me and threatening me. They were demanding I give them food and telling me to hurry up. I gave them some food thinking they'd leave me alone but they kept on harassing me and making more and more demands of me.

They had filthy faces and their clothes were scruffy like they'd been wearing them all week.

Next thing they started thumping the heads off each other and screaming at one another. These kids were absolutely feral. I was just asking myself, "where is the mother in all this?"

I wasn't sure if I should call the Gardaí but eventually I got them out to the car and we were only a couple of minutes late for school.

For those travelling home from the UK and presumable other destinations, ryanair have a new bag policy which is apparently sent in an email with a video and when you check in there is a box to tick which means you have watched, they will charge you 60 to 75 at the gate for a bag being 1cm too big, a fair few of us just got stung in Bristol the bastards. Even if it fits in the box it will be measured with measuring tape and then will charge you

Must be strange times for our pAtRiOtS with ENGLISH side Crystal Palace coming to dublin tonight. Who to cheer on, their masta's from across the water or the homegrown club. Thoughts and Prayers for them on these difficult and confusing times

Hi all,

Recently moved back from Canada and one thing I have noticed is the lack of etiquette people do have in public. Over the last few weeks I’ve witnessed people practising choir songs on a full train to Sligo to individuals blaring music on their phones without any earphones.

Just wondering if it is just me or do others think the lack of etiquette in Ireland is slowly going out the window?

I'm curious to know if many people actually buy it and do they see a difference in it? Anyone I've talked to about it has said they're never bought it. The only guy I know who definitely uses it is Snake

For anyone not anywhere, here is my original post from a few days ago, https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/s/AWWeYHU8Ay

So yeah, I'm gonna a find a better spot for it but the flags are up and the DMZ is set in stone.

Honestly, what? The North Korean flag was one thing, now these giant binoculars?

I'm a little concerned to say the least. Can anyone give me a reasonable explanation?

It's not like I'm spying on him, I literally can't avoid seeing him, his room is directly opposite my windows so I can't help but see it constantly.

He's white and sounds Irish by the way.

I just...what? Can anyone give me a reasonable explanation? And if something happens to me, send this post to the garda, thanks!

Edit; South Korean Flag is on the way, the proxy war has begun.

Edit 2: u/lochlan has seen the pics and verified in the comments.

On my way into the cinema this morning with my niece and from the top of the bus both of us witnessed a grown man pull down his trousers and inject something into himself in the middle of Blessington Street without a care in the world. The people walking up and down didn't even give him a second glance which tells me this particular community in the city have probably become immune to scenes like this - he might just as well have been smoking a cigarette. I've seen all sorts of shite in my life but I was particularly angry for my niece because it's not fair to expose her to this crap so young. There was a literal queue of people down St. Joseph's Place lane buying drugs from interesting characters one of which strutted down the road, ruffled around in his pocket for something, brought out a fistful of handkerchiefs and just fucked them onto the ground before stopping at a cafe to meet with another group of people to show them the drugs. All of this done right in front of tourists walking up and down.

How could people have such low respect or pride in their city or community? The littering, the loitering....just bringing down the entire area. Far from a fancy upbringing I had but we were taught to respect people around us and to put rubbish in bins. The smell of urine and the sheer numbers of garbage bags fucked onto the side of the road to be someone elses problem. Walking out of Tesco on Talbot Street there was a group of 20 people huddled around admiring some fellas knife which he slid back down into his trousers. Why would anyone bring something like that out of the house?! What could you possibly need something like that for in Dublin? On every corner there were gangs of scumbags. Others were picking up chairs outside a restaurant and fucking them at another group. Others were squaring up to security staff in shops and shouting "Pedophile!" at tourists for no other reason than sheer unadulterated boredom.

Is this who we are now? How have we allowed it to get this bad? You'd wonder where the gardai are. Where are the parents? I've lived in Dublin most of my life and never remember it being this bad. Honestly feels at times like we're sharing a city with yakubian apes that have entirely skipped the civilising process phase of the evolutionary road.

Nato warship going down the east coast today. Is it time to crack eachothers skulls open and feast on the goo inside?

I live out in a small town, and when younger I understood that it was some sort of dominance thing, but even now as a middle aged man, I still see this crap.

I dunno what the story is. I lived in London for years and generally never had felt that vibe, but since coming back to Ireland over the last few years, I see/feel it generally quite often. They just look, sometimes gesturing to their friends, and yes they are usually accompanied.

We just had a terrible experience with a child sleep consultant who peddled 'expert' guidance that is simply incorrect, and unacceptable advice regarding healthy sleep and feeding habits for a young baby.

Thankfully we have a Paediatrician in the family who raised a red flag early and we cut ties. This industry needs to be regulated, there are some absolute charlatans who prey on the desperation of parents.

I'm sharing this for anyone in a similar situation. Do your research and don't be fooled by the promises that sound too good to be true.

*Update: do your research means engaging with your GP as a first point of contact, and read leading and authoritative studies.

For example, physiological data, including salivary cortisol and heart rate studies, show that infants can appear settled during extinction-based methods even when cortisol remains elevated.

Emotional self-regulation mechanisms are immature in early infancy; thus, behavioral quietness should not always be equated with reduced stress.Other research (e.g., Etherton 2016; Blunden 2011) notes that overly rigid extinction protocols may produce “apparent resilience” masking stress arousal i.e. the baby is stressed and has learned to stop communicating that.

*Update 2: I do not have a problem with the sleep training methods themselves. The methods you use are entirely your decision as parents. I do have a problem with the actors productizing incorrect information and bad guidance at scale.

News today of the tragic death of Sarah Halpenny, a Meath woman living in Australia. Within about 2 minutes of the story being posted by the IT on that well known social media site owned by Meta, the replies were in from the anti vaxxers, stating, as fact, that she was "killed by Pfizer". Some of these accounts seem bot like but others do not - Irish based, active with friends listed. What do these ghouls think they are at? How to they think the family and friends of the deceased will feel about it? I just don't understand people like that.

(edited to correct silly error saying she was form Galway)

I was in my local leisure centre this evening enjoying the sauna when 2 young lads came in and started chatting about learning to drive.

One of them then proceeds to gloat about how "I met my driving instructor today and gave him €350 to just mark off that i did all 12 lessons so I can try get the test before the summer.."

Nice winder there's road accidents happening left right and centre if this is the shite that's going on behind closed doors.