PSA for US women about pepper spray in Ireland

I’m a single woman from Los Angeles who currently lives alone, and it’s not uncommon here for some women to have a small pepper spray on their keychains for safety. In fact, the spray has been on my keys for such a long time it didn’t even register in my mind that I was carrying it at all… it’s always just been part my everyday set of keys. I also don’t travel overseas very often anymore.

Well yesterday I had big scene at Dublin airport while catching my flight back to LA as I didn’t realize I even had it with me, plus it’s illegal in Ireland. Airport police and the Gardai was called to question me and they said it’s considered the same as bringing a firearm onto an aircraft!!

They could tell it was an accident and let me go (after confiscating it obviously). Everyone was very nice about my mistake, but it took nearly an hour of extra time on top of having to go thru USA preclearance and so I barely made my flight. Very lucky as I think I could’ve ended up in a much bigger ordeal in some other countries.

So yeah, make sure your pepper spray stays at home before going to Ireland (or overseas in general). Lesson learned. Big woops!