but never actually told us what to look out for

Only 1.4% of Ireland’s population is black. He specifically mentioned Portmarnock, which would have even less of a black population.

Except in specific neighborhoods in cities, seeing a group of 10 black lads around the same age is almost like seeing a unicorn, in the sense that it doesn’t happen (except maybe in school and colleges). As you said, these gangs are the ones everyone has heard of.

As bad as it is, the unlikeliness of seeing such a group basically means “black” is all he has to use as a descriptor, especially in suburbs like Portmarnock

Of course, that doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to spread hate of a theoretical boogeyman (though the gangs do exist, I personally know 2 people who were robbed in a local park)

As for why we specifically know of black gangs, sure, there is probably a racist aspect from people pushing an agenda, but also, the Irish police are legitimately afraid of being labeled as racist and so tend not to tackle these issues. And also, white Irish gangs of youths tend to stay where they are. These gangs that are taking the trains into suburbs like Portmarnock or Malahide or Howth (middle-upper class areas) are something no one is used to, and so they are of course getting more attention. The only other people who have done that to any significant degree before were travellers (who are white), and they get FAR more hate than blacks people doz