*** THE FINAL PUBLIC VOTE HAS DECLARED KILKEEL, CO. DOWN TO THE THE BIGGEST SH*THOLE IN IRELAND FOR 2018 WITH PORTADOWN, CO. ARMAGH AS RUNNERS UP. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHOM VOTED & CONTRIBUTED TO THIS THREAD ***
P.S AS I SAID BELOW, DON'T TAKE THIS THREAD TOOOOO SERIOUSLY...
FOR THE NICEST TOWN IN IRELAND THREAD, CLICK OR TAP HERE TO TAKE YOU THERE... ------------------------------------------------
It's just over a decade when this question was last asked here and back then the general consensus was Larne, Bundoran, Granard (in fact near enough the whole of counties Longford & Cavan), Castlebar (thanks to a very sensitive contributor) and Craigavon, in particular
Beirut the Legahory estate. With honourable mentions to Athy, Dundalk, Strabane, Lurgan, Clonmel and few others I can't be arsed typing out.
Since then the property bubble has burst, the Celtic Tiger has been shot and stuffed, the Republic of Ireland has gone through a turbulent economic period and so on. So it's worth asking has much changed in this regard - have certain places become even worse sh*tholes? Is there some place that ten years ago was a nice spot that has now got so bad that they could twin with Compton, Damascus or Mogadishu? What places have just got no hope whatsoever that if a meteorite hit it, it would cause hundreds of thousands of Euros in improvements? I think at this time it's worth revisiting.
Simple rules - generally looking for villages, towns or parts of major cities across all 32 counties, please give reasons as that makes the thread more entertaining, remember that pretty much every built-up settlement of at least a few thousand people will have at least one "bad" spot, and don't take this thread or nominations toooooo seriously!
To throw my thoughts in...
Castlederg - Strabane, along with Lurgan, has for quite some time been a big punching bag whenever anyone brings up the issue of sh*tholes. Now I can't speak too much about Lurgan but over the last decade IMO Strabane has come on quite well for itself. It still has issues regarding deprevation but the reputation of the town has definitely improved. On the other hand it's little brother a few miles down the road has been going the opposite direction especially in terms of sectarian tensions but also any time I'm going through there the whole town looks just looks dirty beyond its town centre "diamond". To explain it a bit better, I've a relative who's a PSNI officer based in Derry. He has told me that he enjoys going on patrols in the city, has no real hassle going about Strabane but dreads being sent to Castlederg.
Elphin - now it's been a good few years since I was there to attend a football game and it might have improved a bit since then, but this place stands out to me as the most miserable, depressing spot I've
ever been to anywhere in Ireland. Maybe the weather that day didn't help, maybe most of the buildings I seen were just empty shells or needed a good painting, maybe it was bumping into certain locals whom were a cross of the main characters of The League Of Gentlemen and Father Stone from Father Ted. Whatever it was it's left a lasting mark on me. To Hell or to Elphin.
Moygashel - some posters here would simply list this place because of its demographics. I list it here simply because any village which has on it's main street for years a banner commerating the death of a UVF member who blew himself to pieces planting the prematurely exploding bomb in the Miami Showband massacre quite frankly deserves to be labelled a sh*thole regardless of anything else.
Clones - let's be honest, if it wasn't for St. Tiernach's Park this town would be barely acknowleged for its existence outside of west Monaghan and South Fermanagh. The town literally lives for the Ulster Football Championship. Take that away and you've got a small town that has been struggling for decades as many border areas have been with nothing of it of note other than Barry McGuigan coming from there. It's like an extreme example of certain shops, pubs, restaurants etc. pinning their hopes for a big December customer taking to make up for the other 11 months of the year barely holding things together.
Bundoran - Recent visits to the place some call Fundoran (?) hasn't changed my mind much about it. The beach is uninspiring unless you're into surfing, the town is tacky & expensive, in a few of the pubs you'd be fortunate to come out of them without being struck by a barstool, and once the 1st September hits there is utterly no soul to the place until the May/June bank holidays arrive at the very earliest. I can see some attraction if you're a parent with young children, but not really much else. It's Nordie equivalent, Portrush, would also make this list if it wasn't for it lying just a couple of miles from Portstewart which is a clear-as-day much better place that you can quickly sprint over to. Unfortunately, Bundoran has no such close neighbour which can help redeem it.