I'm not telling you any lies, Octy. I'm merely telling you what I was told by someone else in the real world, I don't subscribe to Facebook. As noted, it is hearsay but it's from the same source that told me there was no stabbing. I relayed that (similarly as hearsay) i.e. that the chap in the shop was punched not stabbed or knifed in direct response to the clearly fabricated evidence of a stabbing introduced to that discussion by MMW. One version was right... to give you a clue, it wasn't the nonsense MMW was pedalling.
The stabbing of his younger acquaintance was widely covered in the media at the time, back in 2010 if memory serves. There was no suggestion of any link to illegal drugs. What was reported both in the media and at a subsequent court hearing was that a group of black young lads were walking from the sports complex in Blanchardstown with some white young ladies. One of the young ladies asked a white male who was smoking in his garden for a light and he launched into a barrage of abuse, heavily criticising the ladies' choice in male companionship and ended up winding himself up into a frenzy which resulted in him stabbing the younger black lad. The perpetrator died before the court case but his brother who was with him at the time was charged as an accomplice and acquitted.
I don't claim to be a Psychiatrist but I'm guessing facing such a gruesome attack in a foreign country might be enough to convince a man that he ought to be equipped to deal with any recurrence regardless of how rational or otherwise that may seem to us, as outsiders. To use an ermism the lad may well have concluded that it was time to get a gun knife.