Holly Carpenter has revealed that she feel’s safer in London than Dublin, and always finds herself looking over her shoulder here.
The Raheny native has admitted she gets nervous when it comes to walking around the city as she’s seen first hand how people can be robbed and attacked in broad daylight.
The model’s best friend Thalia Heffernan was violently mugged on the streets of Dublin earlier this year, and Holly was one of the few people who helped get her through the tough ordeal.
Writing in her column for The Sun, Holly said, “I find myself too nervous to take my phone out in town during the day as I’ve seen people getting their phones snatched from them in broad daylight.”
She admitted that when she spent some time in London recently, she very quickly found that despite the city being so much larger than Dublin, she felt a lot safer there than at home.
“I felt safe because there were always so many police around. I would often get lost trying to find my way around and I could always find a cop within five minutes to ask for directions.
“We need a bigger Garda presence in Dublin, especially at night. I would like to think that as a young woman I can walk through town at night without fear of getting robbed or worse, but I find myself looking over my shoulder,” she said.
The model is also fed up with women being ‘cat called’ on the streets of Dublin – a feeling which is also well known to Kathryn Thomas, who very recently opened up about her own personal experiences.
Holly wrote, “I think some women feel uncomfortable talking about this as they’re afraif of coming across as attention seeking or ‘up themselves’, but this is a serious issue and guys need to know it’s not OK.”
She continued, “I’ve been in the situation where I’m walking down Harcourt Street with my friends and as we pass a group of young guys, we have to put up with lewd sexual remarks being shouted at us, followed by roars of laughter.
“It can be easy to brush off when you’re in a group, but if you’re on your own, it can be intimidating and embarrassing.”
