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What is it like to be a private investigator in Ireland?

Is it all gumshoes and dames? No, not really.

YOU MAY NOT know this, but Ireland has private investigators. Lots of private investigators.

But what do they do? Do you climb the stairs in a wood-panelled to find a hard-boiled gumshoe downing scotch and lamenting some hood that used a lip to ankle outta court?

Not really.

Mostly, PIs in Ireland deal with corporate investigations, frauds and matrimonial cases. Their day to day is a mix of investigation, research and field work and it is always varied.

“It’s a great job,” says one seasoned PI “It’s really varied and interesting.”

Private

PIs are, unsurprisingly cagey about revealing the specifics of their jobs and their own identities. None that spoke to TheJournal.ie wished to be identified.

However, those that did speak said that the job and public perception are worlds apart.

I don’t often tell people what I do for a living, but when I do, people think it’s all going through bins and saving dames. It is not.

“Have I gone through bins? Only once!”

Working

In Ireland, there are a number of styles of PIs.

“There are different levels of investigators and would specialise in different ranges,” says a corporate investigator of decades experience.

“It can range from trademarks, companies looking for information on others, debt information, insurance fraud or matrimonial work.”

Like any industry, there are people who gravitate to certain types of work, with some people not doing matrimonial work and others don’t do insurance work.

However, you can’t just be a PI.

It’s a very difficult business to get into. You can’t just become a PI, you have to find a company to take you on, but even that is very difficult because companies have operatives that they’re comfortable with.

Not TV stars

The idea that the job is as portrayed on TV is something that irks most PIs.

“Ordinary people think we’re like off the TV, but we have to work within the Data Protection Act,” says one.

“It’s annoying, because sometimes the client carries that view in with them,” says another. “That can hamper how they view your work.”

Fraud squad

Much of a PIs work is referred to them by legal or insurance firms, an arena that leads to some interesting cases.

“I had to check on a man who was claiming he had whiplash after a car crash. The insurance company wasn’t convinced, so they had me follow him.

“I tracked him for days and he seemed genuinely hurt. He hammed it up at work, in public and everything. I was getting ready to tell the insurance company that he was on the level, but then I spotted him by chance at a gym, where he was lifting weights.”

Another PI tells a story of two young men who tried to scam a hotel.

“It looked like one of the lads had slipped and broken his knees on the bathroom floor. The hotel was going to be caught for a lot of money, so they asked me to look at it, more out of hope than anything.

As I investigated it and asked a couple of people, it came out that while drunk, they had settled on this plan where one would sit on the edge of the bath with his legs stretched and the other jumped off the toilet and stamped on his knees.

Infidelity

Marital issues make up a lot of business for PIs, with many reluctant to talk about methods or cases because of the sensitive nature of the cases.

PI Audrey Christie says that she is reluctant to talk about marital cases out of the loyalty to her clients and this is seen across the industry.

Licence to thrill

What comes from speaking to PIs is that they want their industry regulated. Many are members of worldwide organisations, but the industry is not currently licensed by the Private Security Authority.

A license will be brought in next year, and will cut out “fly by night” organisations, one PI says.

So many people are doing it and they work in the shadows and I don’t want to work in the shadows.

Read: Private investigator tracks down homeless man… and gives him a fortune

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:13 PM

    Merry Christmas to all the staff at the Journal and all the let’s just say opiniated commenters haha. Wouldnt be the same without the daily arguments. Have a good one guys. Be merry!

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    Who are you to tell me to be merry?

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:43 PM

    Tosser

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:16 PM

    Normally I take these things with a pinch of salt, but I would gladly watch Muppets Christmas Carol on repeat in July.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:20 PM

    Merry Christmas to all the readers and to the trolls and shinnerbods who keep the rest of us normal people on our toes in the comments section ! We know who you are !

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:34 PM

    Merry Christmas to all the teenyboppers with multiple fake accounts who have nothing better to be doing than constantly talking about sinn féin and saying the same stuff over and over. Yous know who ye are. Merry Christmas all!

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:39 PM

    SFIRA?

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    Ger-m8!

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    Merry Christmas to all the west brits who write on the journal

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:06 PM

    Roses are muck, time for Cadburys to cull them!!!

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:19 PM

    They were probably always muck but we never knew better however it’s traditional to eat a few…. boxes..

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    Dec 25th 2015, 5:47 PM

    Its cadburys thats muck…changing the recipe to a successful product to save money sucks

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    Whoever eats the bounty style sweets should be shot!

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    Am gutted that Raiders of the lost ark isn’t on. It’s not Christmas without it.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:15 PM

    Happily watch National Lampoons!! Actually think I will. Bad Santa last night!

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:46 PM

    ”Song of the Sea, because it’s lovely and the rest of the family haven”t seen it.. Merry Christmas everyone. Drive safe.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:27 PM

    Gareth that’s a great little movie to watch , a real family one.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:14 PM

    Schindler’s List, ?

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:25 PM

    Great movie!

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:36 PM

    Muppets Christmas Carol I got. Yep I like the story of Scrooge

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:25 PM

    With very young kids, snow white does the job

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:21 PM

    Now 3pm – who could miss HM the Queen. Even the shinners would find it hard to disagree with her views and sentiments.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:35 PM

    I was watching our own queen “panty blisses” summing up of 2015 on tv3. Made for great telly.. Not

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    Dec 25th 2015, 3:53 PM

    He’s had his 15 minutes of fame now. Please no more.

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    Dec 25th 2015, 4:27 PM

    Totally agree !

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    Dec 25th 2015, 6:28 PM

    2nd poll I’ve done telling me National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is “my” film. I hate it

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    Dec 26th 2015, 12:06 AM

    Batteries not included!!

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    Dec 26th 2015, 2:30 AM

    You should watch… Muppets Christmas Carol

    Light the lamp, not the rat!

    Never say it, don’t fancy it either…

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Dec 26th 2015, 2:31 AM

    Know too many muppets anyway lol.

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