Saturday, September 08, 2007

Is my accent not irish enough?


Now I'm really pissed.

These jerks from above had their party till 3am (? at least this is when I managed to get to sleep) - and the fecking Gardai did literally nothing with it - even after our 2 calls.
I am asking myself why? But I guess the answer is simple, and I conclude it based on experience of myself and my fellow non-Irish colleagues: My accent is still not irish enough, right?
When it comes to clamping in Galway - you are on the safe side if you have irish plates; you can park in any, most stupid, and usually dangerous for the safety of others places. But beware, Polish plates will get you a bill in a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it time, even if you think you can safely park there, and you do not really see any P&D signs or ticketing machine. Having problems on the road, like driving in the night, or in the fog, without your lights turned on; at least not in the dip-lights position, so that it is either hard to see you, or we see-you-hell-too-well? No problem - cause you have your irish plates; try to do that on non-Irish ones - and you are lucky to get away without the fine.
And finally, you see someone damaging cars and bikes on the parking lot; be sure you sound Irish, otherwise no one will take your report seriously.
If you think it is just my imagination - you are wrong - this things did happen, and I can see them happening all the time; and believe me - I have seen both versions of each story already, over the last 3 years.

Conclusions? I am getting sick and tired of this place. I can get used to bad drivers (and bad “parkers” too), but I just cannot stand law enforcement forces (oh, sorry, here I should say - peace keeping forces) doing literally nothing when your neighbors decide that you do not deserve a good night sleep after a VERY hard week.

I just wonder, what would happen if the same situation was in my country? I know that Police will come quite quickly to silent noisy guys. But will they when my accent does sound foreign? Hard to tell; but even if they we be reluctant as here - it means that everyone is better off in their own country...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have just heard that this can happen to you even if you are 100% Irish. OK, even worse I guess. I could at least suspect that Gardai would go protecting their fellow countrymen at least.
Btw. I am not so sure that my neighbors are Irish. I guess, they might not. Maybe I should have mention that to Gardai? Probably would not change anything anyway :(

Dev said...

Gardai don't discriminate based on nationality or accent. What you've encountered is an incompetent police force and confused the two. Besides I wouldn't consider the matter to have any urgency. Lets face it there are often more important things happening.

Most Irish don't bother making such phone calls unless they know the guys on the other end of the phone. There are only two real ways of dealing with this. Polite way and the impolite way. My suggestion is to go up and ask the guys upstairs politely. Look shaky and just say you have a funeral tomorrow at 10 am.

If you aren't satisfied after this lodge a formal complaint with the management company or landlord. What will happen. Nothing but the complaint will be noted. Should they receive two more they will be threatened will an eviction. Things work out harsher for them if you are patient and don't get frustrated.