Young Dublin skinheads describe how their look, dress sense and sometimes boisterous behaviour can mean they are misunderstood.

Shortly after being asked to leave the park at Saint Stephen's Green some Dublin skinheads talk about public perceptions of them and why they have been given a bad name.

They don’t like skinheads. Anything with wide gear on the minute they see it.

Saint Stephen’s Green is the skinheads’ daily hangout, as they do not have anything else to do. According to them, they get picked on everywhere they go and are singled out for general mistreatment by the Gardaí. In addition to all this, getting a job is difficult, especially when a prospective employer does not like your address.

They say to you where do you live? You say Sheriff Street. Ah well you can call back again we might have a vacancy for you.

But are skinheads really involved in gang fights? They are, say one, when people mock them because of the clothes they choose to wear,

He goes down, gets a gang, he comes down, says he wants to have the fella out that slagged him, right. Then he starts chickening out. What’s he supposed to do, get slagged all the time when they’re on their own?...This is all a style.

Not everyone is against them, as one passerby comments,

The poor old skinners, they get a raw deal... I don’t like to see guys victimised for the establishment.

This episode of ‘Hindsight ‘n Things’ was broadcast on 3 August 1973. The reporters are Peter McNiff and Larry Masterson.

‘Hindsight ‘n’ Things’ was a series of magazine programmes from RTÉ’s Religious Programmes Department exploring ideas in religious and social matters. ‘Hindsight’ was first broadcast on 6 July 1973 and was presented by Sean Egan.