Some French woman has a problem with The Irish

davyjose

I've been to brittany; it's fùcking shìte.

lost marbles

haw he haw mam mo sel jay sueezs irelandeeze agus great crack so fuuuuk tu
duex pints of creme de monteee sea vu play monsure :D:D

E@gle.

ejmaztec wrote: »

It is a fact that the Irish are totally ignorant regarding the cultures of thousands of beautiful countries and regions all over the world

So she isnt ignorant of other peoples cultures no?

DublinWriter

ejmaztec wrote: »

So Mr Paddy, I've been married to an Irishman for 32 years.

I think he must have run off with the nanny to inspire this Gallic hatefest.

In reality I think it's some bored hack at the indo trying to stir-up publicity. Either that, or Kevin Myers just had a sex-change.

Solair

Actually, if you analyse the grammar and use of English in the letter it doesn't strike me as a French-speaker writing in English. The errors look deliberate.

I think she may be a fake.

milod

davyjose wrote: »

I've been to brittany; it's fùcking shìte.

True, slightly less rainier than Ireland, and full of woolen sweater wearing trad music nerds.

Blush_01 wrote: »

Bloody French! They don't even have a word for entrepreneur!:p

As someone with direct experience of trying to do business in France this is VERY true. I had to finance a project in France with money from an Irish bank. Unless you're aristocracy, or in the golden circle, the banks won't deal with you.

On a general note though, I love France, but this woman seems to be suffering from an extreme knee-jerk reaction to France's increasing irrelevance on the world stage. It's typical of certain types you encounter from former colonial powers that have to stamp their feet into get attention. I've met similarly scornful English people who love to think they're bursting your little 'Oirish' bubble...

forbairt

davyjose wrote: »

I've been to brittany; it's fùcking shìte.

Thanks for that extremely constructive post.

I actually quite like Brittany and I'd actually love to move there. To each their own at least give some reasons why

Solair wrote: »

Actually, if you analyse the grammar and use of English in the letter it doesn't strike me as a French-speaker writing in English. The errors look deliberate.

I think she may be a fake.

I said it earlier on ... my first reaction to reading the letter was "Troll". My wife read it and made various sounds of disbelief like huh / what and so on .. She's from Brittany though so not like the original letter writer :

The letter does hit on various things that are true.

We've got a pretty serious Drink Culture ...

We tend to stick to our own for the most part. The amount of times I've been out with friends and I've been the only irish person is truly crazy. Foreigners can find it quite difficult to make friends / good friends with Irish people why ... a host of reasons part of it can be to do with our drink culture. I had a conversation with another irish friend a few years back ... and we'll always be full of promises to meet up and so on when we're out for a few ... does it happen that often ? no ... you'll probably just meet up in a pub again.

We are .. obsessed by money ... Houses Houses Houses .. have you bought .. when are you buying ... why haven't you bought ... you should be looking at buying ... wouldn't you get a bit of security and buy a house ... (a lot of europeans don't own their flats / homes .. in paris and wien for example .. though this is my personal experience with it things may be changing)
I do however know french people obsessed by the same so .. go figure.

just my early morning rant

Solair

Well, she's exactly the same kind of person who fails to comprehend why the youth on council estates in Paris and elsewhere were rioting on the streets. She's just a snooty, smug, self-satisfied, boring, patronising, annoying, whiney elitist who can't see beyond her own nose never mind begin to comprehend another culture, another country or another social group.

Her comments about accent in particular just drip with elitism and snobbery.

Unfortunately there's a % of these people in every country. You're far better off ignoring them and not taking their tiresome rants too seriously.

hot2def

If her rant had been about the US, she'd be patted on the back and told "good woman"

Mr. CooL ICE

She certainly does need a good ride. She's been doing it wrong...

ejmaztec wrote: »

For sure, to wake up next to someone with such an accent must be some anti-climax!

Cookie_Monster

Typical ignorant french person.

Lets go invade them, the cheese eating surrender monkeys!:D

Fratton Fred

Will wrote: »

So yeah, who's on for invading France with me?

And what, exactly, would you do with 60million prisoners of war?:D

Ivan wrote: »

We Irish do have a very, "Ah, sure the world loves us" cavalier attitude. She's not wrong there.

Thats the crux of her letter and while her back-up and justification for why we're hated may seem a little... crazy, her initial premise is quite spot on.

That's pretty true imho.

To me, the phrase that sums the irish up best is "The whole world loves us, because we're not arrogant"

Daddio wrote: »

Anyone else thinking that her husband has been shagging all of her mates behind her back?

That was my first reaction, this women is married to an irishman who has just given her crabs

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

I think half the reason people hate other people, is because they think they hate them back. Feedback loop!

Welcome to the big world.

Don;t feel upset that the French hate you, they must have just noticed you.

Generally speaking, they hate everyone, the irish have just made it on to the list.

Lainey Ambitious Caboose wrote: »

let me educate you, it happened because England was so close, German bombers may mistake a city, say Dublin, for London and drop bombs there. Being a neutral country we had no reason to enter war, also, we did not have the resources that other countries had. A wise choice if you ask me.

They'd be pretty fecked if they mistook Dublin to London. Liverpool maybe, or most likely Belfast.

milod wrote: »

As someone with direct experience of trying to do business in France this is VERY true. I had to finance a project in France with money from an Irish bank. Unless you're aristocracy, or in the golden circle, the banks won't deal with you.

A nightmare country to do business with. I worked for a French corporate for a few years and the general rule was

"Go out to tender, get the most competitive bids you can from all over europe, then give the contract to the French company."

The thing is, they weren't even ashamed or embarressed by it and as for nepotism, the French Illuminati that controls all the big companies, Vivendi, france Telecom, PSA, Air france etc, they all went to the same college, they are all sat on the boards of each others companies.

Mad Bunch.

Solair

hot2def wrote: »

If her rant had been about the US, she'd be patted on the back and told "good woman"

Perhaps if it were about US foreign policy. But that was pretty a swipe at Irish people and Irish culture, not any specific thing that we're doing as a nation.

Anyway - not worth commenting on anymore

davyjose

forbairt wrote: »

Thanks for that extremely constructive post.

I actually quite like Brittany and I'd actually love to move there. To each their own at least give some reasons why

Extremely constructive post? Eh ... what exactly does that mean? That each opinion needs to be followed up with qualitative reasoning? I'm sorry I can't compete with your "I actually quite like Brittany and I'd actually love to move there." My bad.

But actually I will say one thing; I actually would be happy never to see Brittany again. Hey, I gotta admit, St. Malo has this great little Boulangerie with Croissants TO DIE FOR. And I believe there are one or two bars that stay open until midnight ... I believe. But ultimately when you go to Brittany, you see all this culture, and you're somehow waiting for it to kick in ... to excite you, and it just doesn't. Brittany sucks for the exact same reasons that lady said Ireland does. It thinks it's this great little toursit attraction, but it isn't.
And what that lady doesn't realise, is that in Ireland, we're not actually trying to impress anyone - they're trying to be impressed by us. We don't give a fùck.
Another reason (as you asked) I'd sooner go to the Pyrenees, to the Riviera, Paris, Provence, The Alps... anywhere but bloody Brittany. It ACTUALLY isn't a patch on any of these regions.

davyjose

hot2def wrote: »

If her rant had been about the US, she'd be patted on the back and told "good woman"

But, she would've had to use completely different reasoning -- a comparison, we like to drink a lot; the yanks like to bomb middle eastern countries. See, not really the same argument at all, when you think about it, is it?

forbairt

davyjose wrote: »

Extremely constructive post? Eh ... what exactly does that mean? ...

Thanks for your response my problem with your post was

davyjose wrote: »

I've been to brittany; it's fùcking shìte.

Without any reason just blurting it out like that seems rather rude.

SimpleSam06

YHBT.

HAND.

TMoreno

Hi,
You are almost all missing the point here. The problem is not what the French think about the Irish. The problem is that the Sunday Independent is behaving like a real tabloid. This letter from one French woman out of 64 million, which is not representative of the French opinion about the Irish, is just a bad answer full of hate, to an article of Brendan O’Connor published a week before.

Just read this and tell me what you think:

'No more Mr (Irish) Nice Guy
Sunday September 14 2008
The obsession with being good Europeans and adhering to the SGP rules beggars belief"; "The Government must look after its own people first and then worry about Europe afterwards"; "We strongly believe the first country to give the two fingers to the European Commission will also be the first country within the bloc to emerge from recession."
So, there you have it. The latest report from Bloxham stockbrokers suggests we are at a terrible crossroads. Terrible for us, at least. For some other nationality, the choice between getting out of a recession and being good Europeans would be a no brainer -- screw you Froggy and Fritz, we're getting out of the recession. But we're Irish, and we need to be loved. It's our thing.
We're the small, plucky little country that everyone likes. We're great crack and they love our accents and we're great for a song or a story.
We're even worse when it comes to being liked by Europeans specifically. We have this idea that Europeans are cool and good-looking and stylish, and generally better than us. Indeed, we think it is extraordinary that they would want to hang around with us at all. So we can't believe our luck and we do anything we can to stay in with them. And, thus, all other economic goals are sacrificed for the Franco/German obsession with keeping inflation down.
When you think about it, rising inflation might not be a bad thing for a country as up to its necks in debt as we all are. As the value of money falls, it's not as if our vast reserves of cash are being eaten into. It just means our vast debts are falling. Of course, the Germans don't have debt like we do, so, for them, inflation is the bad guy. Rising prices are merely a symptom of inflation. What inflation actually means is that there is more money around. And, call me crazy, but is our major problem at the moment not something called a credit crunch? Or a lack of money?
But still we go along with the holy grail of keeping down inflation, while our economy grinds to a halt because of European rules. And all so they will like us. I think this need to be loved harks back to some kind of post-colonial hang-up about our mother (England) not loving us.
Here's a newsflash: The French aren't actually that cool. Most of them have never even been to a wife-swapping party or had a passionate mad love affair. Most of them are culchies who just happen to sound sophisticated because they speak French. The Germanic countries are terminally uncool, and, well, Germanic.
Belgians are just weird and people from Luxembourg, too. The Spanish are bigger peasants than us and the Portuguese are a more third-world version of the Spanish. The Italians are macho, vain and insecure.
Obviously, I'm generalizing here, but you get my point. We've got them all up on a pedestal and anyone who has ever seen how desperate Irish people are to be liked by everyone, from the waiters to the tour guide, when they go abroad, will know that we'd rather go broke than fall out with the Europeans. Perhaps we should look at it in a different way, however. Everybody likes you when you’re rich.
From Brendan O’Connor

And this is a national newspaper!
Of course the Irish Independent is not that bad, but with that kind of article, it is just spreading stereotypes and clichés while provoking racist letters.

If you want to know the French, or if you’re worry about what they think about you, talk to them.

PurpleBerry

Saying that she didn't like "the Irish accent" struck me as very short-sighted. There are a multitude of Irish accents. I'm sure it's not impossible to dislike them all but the fact that she seemed to think there's only one says to me that he hasn't done a lot of research into her rant.

Generalizations are bad mmmkay?

SimpleSam06

TMoreno wrote: »

This letter from one French woman out of 64 million, which is not representative of the French opinion about the Irish, is just a bad answer full of hate, to an article of Brendan O’Connor published a week before.

Thats how I know BOC doesn't post on boards, he would have had his arse handed to him years ago, and been sent burbling back to mammy.

ejmaztec

Is Brendan O'Connor married to a French woman, by any chance? :eek:

OK-Cancel-Apply

O'Connor's article was pretty stupid, and could ONLY be offensive to non-Irish readers. Now that the French woman's letter is in context, though, it's understandable (though still, over the line). But had she read through it again, and been a more secure person, she probably could have let it slide.

Solair

Maybe BOC should move to England and join his fellow Eurosceptic, xenophobic, right wing Tory brethren ?

The fact that a 'journalist' in what is supposed to be a respectable national newspaper would write such utter drivel and expect it to be published is just laughable and worrying.

This bit in particular is just blatantly nasty, racist, ignorant and uncalled for :
Here's a newsflash: The French aren't actually that cool. Most of them have never even been to a wife-swapping party or had a passionate mad love affair. Most of them are culchies who just happen to sound sophisticated because they speak French. The Germanic countries are terminally uncool, and, well, Germanic.
Belgians are just weird and people from Luxembourg, too. The Spanish are bigger peasants than us and the Portuguese are a more third-world version of the Spanish. The Italians are macho, vain and insecure.

There is no difference between the tone of that article and the tone of a 1970s British right wing comedian or writer ranting about how thick the 'paddies' are. It's crude, offensive and deeply ignorant.

Perhaps there might be a job for him in one of the toilet roll tabloids in England or a nice cushy job as chief assistant propagandist for the BNP

AnonoBoy

Brendan O'Connor???

Is he that fat typist that used to be on some **** TV show?

Useless waste of space. It wouldn't surprise me if he wrote the letter in himself posing as a French woman - just an excuse for him to wear French knickers.

Nehaxak

Wooo the Irish Independant desperate for readership again.
They'll do anything to try sell papers in this day and age of the interwebs, with very few people at all who would actually spend their money on such a rag.

As for the "French" woman, yeah me arse she was French, Prob just another smelly Roma gyp got sent home again. Roma/French - hard to tell them all apart these days, they all smell the same, garlic and sick.

WindSock

Jaysus, looks like Brendan O'Connor is going through the male menopause and could do with a good ridin'

ejmaztec

Nehaxak wrote: »

Wooo the Irish Independant desperate for readership again.
They'll do anything to try sell papers in this day and age of the interwebs, with very few people at all who would actually spend their money on such a rag.

As for the "French" woman, yeah me arse she was French, Prob just another smelly Roma gyp got sent home again. Roma/French - hard to tell them all apart these days, they all smell the same, garlic and sick.

The Indo would be proud

zuroph

tbh i think she misread BOCs article. looks like he was arguing her point, that the Irish are desperate to be liked. except for the short rant on other countries. of which france got the lightest attack.

Gummy Panda

I'm not desperate to be liked. Been to other countries were the whole everyone loves the Irish thing going on and that we're the "big drinkers". Not my doing.

She's just an idiot. Only a fool goes to so much trouble to think that a nation would care about her comments. My shocked that a newspaper published that rant. If it had been an Irish woman addressing non-nationals i doubt it would have been published (and rightly so), so why was this toss published?

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Fratton Fred wrote: »

They'd be pretty fecked if they mistook Dublin to London. Liverpool maybe, or most likely Belfast.
.

Well it happened. Read up on it mate. Have you never been to the German graveyard up in the wicklow mountains? Anyway, it's not like they had a whole load of experience. It would have been difficult for the Germans to get a good picture of what London and Dublin were like at night. Understand this, most lights would be off, if not all, some fools would have thier lights on, but it is impossible to distinguish between the two cities. There is not a huge amount of flight time between London and Dublin.... Anyway going a bit off topic here...

BURN THE FRENCH WITCH!!! Can we???