why do english commentators say

bubthatub

why do english commentators say that sports people from other countries are english when they win something or are doin well in an event. e.g eddie irvine when he would win a grand prix they would say that he has done england proud. i know he is from northern ireland and that is part on the the british isle but eddie irvine thinks of himself as irish. or when the british number one in tennis andy murray when asked how it was to be englands next best thing he replied im scottish not english

Terry

because they are idiots.

GreenHell

I always figured that they were always grasping to be proud of something british and sometimes that filtered down to stuff wrongly being called English.

Ruu_Old

Eddie Irvine is the crazy Irishman when he crashes out or gets in a fight. :rolleyes: Its a pity more sportsmen and women don't stand up for themselves like that chap you mentioned, OP.

Trinity

No they do it with bands/musicians/actors etc when they are doing well in the charts or hollywood.

often heard it on the radio - westlife english? I think not.

they just wanna take all the credit

Wertz

lol I just brought up the exact same point in the "British isles" thread.
They just love to hang on to any chance of victory in anything.

Flukey

It is more a case that they use British when they are doing well and from their own countries when they are not. So if they are being described as Scottish, that means they are not doing well. There is the famous description of "Barry McGuigan, the British boxer that won the world title" and "Barry McGuigan the Irish boxer that lost the world title." While he did win the British title, he was not even from one of the 6 counties. In Snooker they say that Cliff Thorburn of Canda was the last "overseas" player to win the world title. He won it in 1980. Now last time I checked, Ireland is overseas from Britain and in that time Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Ken Doherty have all won it.

OctavarIan

English people are gluttons for that. Sports commentators especially. I couldn't watch the world cup on english channels because of the constant and unrelenting referances to 1966.

"Best team since 1966"... They say that every ****ing time, it's been 40 years, let it go. ****.

GreenHell

I think this raises an interesting point, if we didn't watch so much English TV, would we even care? Its like the whole soccer, world cup thing. We all regularily watch their media and then get annoyed about things we don't like in it.. But its not put on air to keep us Irish happy.

Rb

julep wrote:

because they are idiots.

QFT.

OctavarIan

GreenHell wrote:

I think this raises an interesting point, if we didn't watch so much English TV, would we even care? Its like the whole soccer, world cup thing. We all regularily watch their media and then get annoyed about things we don't like in it.. But its not put on air to keep us Irish happy.

Irish television isn't great though, to put it nicely. The only television I ever watch is the football (premiership) which RTE cover from time to time. The english coverage would be a last resort for me.

I think if Ireland had better sports coverage there wouldn't be as much complaining. RTE2 is trying to satisfy everyone, but it can't. There needs to be another channel or two.

stipey

Anybody see Kate Thornton's interview with Samuel L. Jackon when himself and colin farrell were promoting SWAT - it typifies the OPs point..... Fair play to SLJ though - handled it very well.

---

* Thornton: What was it like working with Colin (Farrell), cos he
o is just so hot in the U.K. right now?
* Jackson: He’s pretty hot in the U.S. too.
* Thornton: Yeah, but he is one of our own.
* Jackson: Isn’t he from Ireland?
* Thornton: Yeah, but we can claim him cos Ireland is beside us.
* Jackson: You see that’s your problem right there. You British keep claiming people that don’t belong to you. We had that problem here in America too, it was called slavery.

muckwarrior

Reminds me of that Samuel L Jackson story re Colin Farrel.

bubthatub

Yeah That Was Classic

mike65

Why do the Irish claim so many, not born here, as Irish esp so called "Irish-Americans"? All countries do this and why is AH full of anti british/english threads today?

Mike.

GreenHell

Its the 1st of sept, thats international - We used to be a colony and still have a chip on our shoulder day.

Terry

mike65 wrote:

Why do the Irish claim so many, not born here, as Irish esp so called "Irish-Americans"? All countries do this and why is AH full of anti british/english threads today?

Mike.

i never do that.
i hate that irish-american crap.
they're american and that is that.

also, regarding the threads here, i don't think they are anti-british.
disagreeing with aspects of a certain culture does not mean you are against that culture.

mike65

Don't worry by midnight and the Friday post pub brigade it'll be a bearpit.

Mike.

bubthatub

mike65 wrote:

Why do the Irish claim so many, not born here, as Irish esp so called "Irish-Americans"? All countries do this and why is AH full of anti british/english threads today?

Mike.

i have never heard anyone say that family friends tv radio no one not one person

Terry

mike65 wrote:

Don't worry by midnight and the Friday post pub brigade it'll be a bearpit.

Mike.

don't worry. i'll be here to clean things up.

mike65

i have never heard anyone say that family friends tv radio no one not one person

Really, sure any RTE programme with an American guest featuring an Irish surname or indeeed first name will be greeted as she/he sits down with some blather about "So with a name like O Reilly you're one of use then!" Guests then smiles and explains how her great-great-great grandmother fled these shores having been hunted down by English infantrymen for daring to teach as Gaeilge while wearing an Up teh RA! lapel brooch in 1821 (cue round of applause). Okay I exaggerate a bit.

Mike.

Dirk Gently

mike65 wrote:

Okay I exaggerate a bit.

You do exaggerate sometimes actually, just a little though



clownbag

Caco

Trinity1 wrote:

No they do it with bands/musicians/actors etc when they are doing well in the charts or hollywood.

often heard it on the radio - westlife english? I think not.

they just wanna take all the credit

They do this with Pierce Brosnan aswell, just because he lived there since he was 11. But he still calls himself Irish and was born here. (Though Wikipedia say he's Irish-American )

mike65

(Though Wikipedia say he's Irish-American )

Have'nt you heard? His great-great-great Grandmother...etc!

Mike.

Mossy Monk

Caco wrote:

(Though Wikipedia say he's Irish-American )

don't believe everything Wikipedia tells you. lots of inaccuracies there

Raekwon

This reminds me of the golfer Darren Clarke. He is from County Tyrone but always insists that he is British. But when Europe won the last Ryder Cup, Clarke was walking around with the Irish tri-colours and celebrating with Padrig Harrington and Paul McGinley.

Bit of a hypocrite :rolleyes:

Terry

i don't really see much harm in that.
half the people in the north class themselves as british. however, they are also entitled to Irish citizenship, should they want it.

JaysusMacfeck

julep wrote:

they are also entitled to Irish citizenship, should they want it.

Only if they were born before 2005 or something. It changed a while ago.

robinph

GreenHell wrote:

I think this raises an interesting point, if we didn't watch so much English TV, would we even care?

Deliberate mistake there by any chance?

Wishbone Ash

I'm going back to the 'mainland' tomorrow.

Collie D

Wishbone Ash wrote:

I'm going back to the 'mainland' tomorrow.

LOL, you're just asking for it

Collie D

BBC aren't the only ones at it. When Ben Johnson won gold in Seoul he was Canadian and when he was stripped of the medal for being a drug-taking cheating bastard he was Jamaican again

Capt'n Midnight

Collie D wrote:

BBC aren't the only ones at it. When Ben Johnson won gold in Seoul he was Canadian and when he was stripped of the medal for being a drug-taking cheating bastard he was Jamaican again

We'd never do that here.

Michelle Smith was that lovely Irish girl that got three million gold medals.

Michelle de Bruin who had a banned substance in a sample is obviously Dutch.

monument

mike65 wrote:

Why do the Irish claim so many, not born here, as Irish esp so called "Irish-Americans"? All countries do this and why is AH full of anti british/english threads today?

The simple answer, for this thread at least, is that the thread is idiotic.

Unless the complaints are willing to give real examples, the general answer is that “english commentators” are – no matter what some here think – human. They make mistakes.

If you want to push the idea that there’s a massive conspiracy among “english commentators” back it up, otherwise you are the ones who like your pushing an agenda.

sceptre

stipey wrote:

Anybody see Kate Thornton's interview with Samuel L. Jackon when himself and colin farrell were promoting SWAT - it typifies the OPs point..... Fair play to SLJ though - handled it very well.

Handled it well indeed. Me being interviewed by Kate Thornton, I'd just have nodded and asked her to dinner.

Pocari Sweat

mike65 wrote:

Why do the Irish claim so many, not born here, as Irish esp so called "Irish-Americans"? All countries do this and why is AH full of anti british/english threads today?

Mike.

The difference with the English and the Irish is simple enough, the common folk in England nowadays actually love the Irish, they think they are wonderful, but the Irish absolutely feckin detest the English, roughly speaking of course.

Dirk Gently

Pocari Sweat wrote:

but the Irish absolutely feckin detest the English, roughly speaking of course.

I wouldn't necessarily go along with that. I think us paddy’s have matured a bit in recent years and have managed to differentiate English people from past and present misadventures by the British state. Sure you get some people who hate the English but I wouldn't say that’s typical of the nation’s attitude. More of a bit of rivalry if anything might be typical but I don't think hatred comes into it in any significant percentage of the population.

JaysusMacfeck

The majority of Irish people do not hate the English.. harmless biterness perhaps, but not hate.

BlitzKrieg

my only complaint about english commentators was during the world cup.

Before each match they would do a 'ten things about the other country' count down that was very obnoxious and condencending, really annoyed me, and resulted in a few matches were I supported the other team.

Dave!

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

The majority of Irish people do not hate the English.. harmless biterness perhaps, but not hate.

Indeed... Most people would bring up "800 years of oppression......", and would love to see England losing in... just about any sport!!!...but would have no trouble having a pint with an English person. Nowt wrong with it, just a bit of rivalry.

There's always muppets that'll start violence about it, but they're a minority.

fade2black

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

We'd never do that here.

Michelle Smith was that lovely Irish girl that got three million gold medals.

Michelle de Bruin who had a banned substance in a sample is obviously Dutch.

lol

Pocari Sweat

I would accept there is a little rivalry when it comes to sport and the posts below are repostes regarding sporting commentators ;

"because they are idiots."

"Best team since 1966"... They say that every ****ing time, it's been 40 years, let it go. ****."


So although sport, coupled with a few beers, gets the patriotism flowing a bit, I suppose there are no widespread deep grudges, I have not seen too many myself.

Collie D

DaveMcG wrote:

Indeed... Most people would bring up "800 years of oppression......", and would love to see England losing in... just about any sport!!!...but would have no trouble having a pint with an English person. Nowt wrong with it, just a bit of rivalry.

There's always muppets that'll start violence about it, but they're a minority.

I'd agree with that, for the most part it's a bit of harmless rivalry. Example being the World Cup, I couldn't imagine how the English would react if they won it, was bad enough that they are Rugby World Champions and there was probably about ten English people who folowed Rugby before that (slight exaggeration I know). But I don't hate the English, not their fault they had arseholes for rulers in the past. And having mentioned the World Cup, I suppose we'd be worse. I think that Ireland not quailfying for major championships is a governement plot, the economy would collapse overnight if we ever won anything.

Tha Gopher

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

The majority of Irish people do not hate the English..

;Theyre just ****, we`re so sh1te we had to be colonised by ****!' Renton in Trainspotting

bubthatub wrote:

why do english commentators say that sports people from other countries are english when they win something or are doin well in an event. e.g eddie irvine when he would win a grand prix they would say that he has done england proud. i know he is from northern ireland and that is part on the the british isle but eddie irvine thinks of himself as irish. or when the british number one in tennis andy murray when asked how it was to be englands next best thing he replied im scottish not english

Didnt Murray get a rake of abuse for saying in the world cup he would, like anyone else non English, support anyone but England?

Fanny Cradock

i know it's annoying, but we are guilty of it too.

Capt'n Midnight

Pocari Sweat wrote:

The difference with the English and the Irish is simple enough, the common folk in England nowadays actually love the Irish, they think they are wonderful, but the Irish absolutely feckin detest the English, roughly speaking of course.

:rolleyes:
I think most Irish people have no problem with "normal" brits, the sort you see on the Soaps they all watch. The sort that you could describe as "bloke"

Both us and the English have a thing about the stereotypical yobs / larger louts / squadie types / millwall fans ..

There is another type of English person we Irish detest, I was in a queue in a london train station and everyone had the same painful expression , asians, backpakers, local commuters, and the ticket inspector, the only one who didn't was the "I know my rights ... It's a bloody disgrace" Alf Garnet clone holding everything up.

Oriel

Don't forget about U2, they're British too.

Pocari Sweat

Fanny Cradock wrote:

i know it's annoying, but we are guilty of it too.

Yeah, what if Ireland won the world cup too, wouldn't they be a bit guilty of having a wee cheer about it after, and have a couple of pints before they go home to any early bed?

Pocari Sweat

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

:rolleyes:
I think most Irish people have no problem with "normal" brits, the sort you see on the Soaps they all watch. The sort that you could describe as "bloke"

Both us and the English have a thing about the stereotypical yobs / larger louts / squadie types / millwall fans ..

I feckin hate them stereotypical yobs / larger louts / squadie types / millwall fans .. and ones who tell crap Irish jokes, I just want to crush their heads the bástards, they are scum, nothing but scum and all should be rounded up and shot.

Pocari Sweat

Cúnts.

mike65

sinecurea wrote:

Don't forget about U2, they're British too.

Well the two cooler ones are.

Mike.