Hellish little people

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Dear Diary,

I was almost run over by two ten-year olds on a bike.

Yesterday I was out for a run in my neighborhood Santry, which is just north of the city center in Dublin. The north side of the Liffey which divides the city in two has always been considered a little less posh, maybe a little more working class if you will, compared to the south side of the Liffey. It is still a safe place, but I've been told there are parts that get a little sketchy the further north and west you go in the city. Big heroin problems still in Dublin, think the movie "Trainspotting" only the Irish version.

Now to the important part of my tale: The children in this town are generally terrible. Although I can't say that I've met all Irish children, I'm sure there are some nice kids, the ones that stroll the streets of Santy are little devils! There are gangs of kids (usually boys but there are girl ones too) of about ages 8-16 that walk around with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, little euro hair cuts, and A WHOLE LOTTA ATTITUDE. They do things like throw rocks and whatever they can find at perfectly minding-their-own business people, run you over with their bike, yell at you, steal and generally annoy the hell out of anyone in the vicinity. The derogatory term for them is "knackers" which kind of means "little shits" (pardon my french). If you say this too loud...their older cousins will come after you, so it's better to just not do anything if they harass you.

So I'm crossing the street and looking for cars/buses in all directions because I am still not used to watching for traffic coming from the left and I go to cross. As I am walking really quickly across the street two little ten year old boys on one bike come flying down the street at something like 15 mph (no I can't do kilometers) toward me with the full intention to hit me! I ran out of the way when I realized this is what they were trying to do because at first I just thought they were going in one direction but not trying to hit me. As I dodged the bike just in time the little kids were cackling away and muttering to eachother in an irish accent...WHAT THE HELL!? They get so much pleasure from this it is sick.
P.S. Abortion is illegal in Ireland...and I will leave it at that.

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