Will the Poles be proud of the Europe they built?

Mr.Lizard

The old cliche Irish people (particularily ex-Pats) like to throw around with pride is that "the Irish build this" (eg in reference to London or New York or the ship Titanic (<-bad example) etc). The thing that I find a bit irksome about this statement is 'the way' they say it. I find they say it in such as way as tho it was *our* idea to build these things along with our financial investment, as tho the comissioners of these places/things were all living in mudhuts and using stone-age technology before the Irish came along with the skill, vision and money to make these things happen. The reality is that we just just a cheap form of skilled labour from a poor country waged to do a job and imho it isn't something we should be particularily proud of.

As an aside I notice we still do this today with anything that has an Irish slant to it eg if a movie or tv show is made featuring an Irish cast but made with a foriegn crew, foriegn director and foriegn money we automatically claim it as our own even tho we didn't have the guts, organisation or imagination to make it happen by ourselves.

So anyway, back on subject, are you proud of the Irish labour tradition (or do you just think of it simply as a job we had to do) and do you think the Poles will likewise be regailing their grand-children with boastful stories about the substandard-accomodation, roads and offices they had to build on behalf of our big business?

gurramok

They did build Europe, look at all those poles carrying communication cables everywhere

bullpost

Think they're more likely to be telling tales about the incredulous prices we paid for those sub-standard houses

Aidric

The endless poorly planned housing estates, the soulless suburban retail units & the unimaginative industrial units...Ya, I'd say they'll definately be boasting.

SWL

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

The old cliche Irish people (particularily ex-Pats) like to throw around with pride is that "the Irish build this" (eg in reference to London or New York or the ship Titanic (<-bad example) etc). The thing that I find a bit irksome about this statement is 'the way' they say it. I find they say it in such as way as tho it was *our* idea to build these things along with our financial investment, as tho the polulace of these places/things were all living in mudhuts and using stone-age technology before the Irish came along with the skill, vision and money to make these things happen. The reality is that we just just a cheap form of skilled labour from a poor country waged to do a job and imho it isn't something we should be particularily proud of.

As an aside I notice we still do this today with anything that has an Irish slant to it eg if a movie or tv show is made featuring an Irish cast but made with a foriegn crew, foriegn director and foriegn money we automatically claim it as our own even tho we didn't have the guts, organisation or imagination to make it happen by ourselves.

So anyway, back on subject, are you proud of the Irish labour tradition (or do you just think of it simply as a job we had to do) and do you think the Poles will likewise be regailing their grand-children with boastful stories about the substandard-accomodation, roads and offices they had to build on behalf of our big business?

Most of the Poles didn't build anything - the majority of poles on building sites were unskilled labour, sweeping up etc, most skilled labour was carried out by Irish people as was most Professional Staff with the exception of Architects.

Robbo

Only in the same way that a German feels pride walking through Coventry.

ahara

Was working on a site years ago with a girl from Manchester. One day at lunch she was talking about the IRA bombing the centre of town in 1996 when one lad pipes up with "Yea, nice facelift our boys gave your city".

The best part of it was the fact that he wasn't trying to take the pi$$.

ejmaztec

Our sub-standard Kerry bungalow was built by a bunch of useless twats in 1979. Draw your own conclusions.:P

Fratton Fred

Robbo wrote: »

Only in the same way that a German feels pride walking through Coventry.

I fail to see how anyone can feel any sort of pride walking through Coventry. People get sent there for a reason you know!!

SWL wrote: »

Most of the Poles didn't build anything - the majority of poles on building sites were unskilled labour, sweeping up etc, most skilled labour was carried out by Irish people as was most Professional Staff with the exception of Architects.

the house I am in was built by highly skilled Poles and Romanians. Why on earth highly skilled mechanics and welders were employed to lay flooring and do plastering is beyond me though

ScumLord

ahara wrote: »

Was working on a site years ago with a girl from Manchester. One day at lunch she was talking about the IRA bombing the centre of town in 1996 when one lad pipes up with "Yea, nice facelift our boys gave your city".

The best part of it was the fact that he wasn't trying to take the pi$$.

I was pretty surprised by the mancs attitude towards the IRA TBH. It was all a joke to them. Last time I was there with a friend they kept bringing up the 800 years thing (jokingly) and taking or side. They where all at it even doormen, they'd have an ol laugh about it then let us in for afterhours it was great.

Fratton Fred

ScumLord wrote: »

I was pretty surprised by the mancs attitude towards the IRA TBH. It was all a joke to them. Last time I was there with a friend they kept bringing up the 800 years thing (jokingly) and taking or side. They where all at it even doormen, they'd have an ol laugh about it then let us in for afterhours it was great.

nooooooo not this thread as well :eek:

darkman2

ScumLord wrote: »

I was pretty surprised by the mancs attitude towards the IRA TBH. It was all a joke to them. Last time I was there with a friend they kept bringing up the 800 years thing (jokingly) and taking or side. They where all at it even doormen, they'd have an ol laugh about it then let us in for afterhours it was great.

Im pretty sure no one was killed in that explosion - had there been, the attitude would be very different I think.

The Irish doing their bit for urban renewal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDI1DaYYzAs

Mr.Lizard

darkman2 wrote: »

had there been, the attitude would be very different I think.

You'd wonder tho. The British are an odd bunch. They took great pride in a post-box that survived the bomb intact. I think they gave it man of the year or something?

Blackpitts

bullpost wrote: »

Think they're more likely to be telling tales about the incredulous prices we paid for those sub-standard houses

...and the huge profits that the irish developers made ripping off their own citizens while supported by irish bankers! :cool:
damn the Poles, they have ruined everything!

Caoimhín

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

You'd wonder tho. The British are an odd bunch. They took great pride in a post-box that survived the bomb intact. I think they gave it man of the year or something?

I just posted letters in a letterbox in town, it had the letters ER on it but was painted green.

How fecking long is it now since independence and we still have only managed to paint them green?

Mr.Lizard

Caoimhín wrote: »

I just posted letters in a letterbox in town, it had the letters ER on it but was painted green.

How fecking long is it now since independence and we still have only managed to paint them green?

They're very hard to remove. Even bombs won't shift them.

Fratton Fred

Caoimhín wrote: »

I just posted letters in a letterbox in town, it had the letters ER on it but was painted green.

How fecking long is it now since independence and we still have only managed to paint them green?

GvR I would have thought.

Caoimhín

Fratton Fred wrote: »

GvR I would have thought.

Maybe it was, i thought it might have been Edward.


I tend not to keep up to date on German names.

Jim236

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

The old cliche Irish people (particularily ex-Pats) like to throw around with pride is that "the Irish build this" (eg in reference to London or New York or the ship Titanic (<-bad example) etc). The thing that I find a bit irksome about this statement is 'the way' they say it. I find they say it in such as way as tho it was *our* idea to build these things along with our financial investment, as tho the comissioners of these places/things were all living in mudhuts and using stone-age technology before the Irish came along with the skill, vision and money to make these things happen. The reality is that we just just a cheap form of skilled labour from a poor country waged to do a job and imho it isn't something we should be particularily proud of.

Do ya not think yer over-analysing it a bit? I've never met someone who said "we built this, we built that ye know etc" and didn't mean it in a jokin way. And so what if someone says and means it in a serious way, they're just proud of what their ancestors contributed towards building the likes of New York, London, Berlin etc. Why is there a need to go any deeper than that?

As an aside I notice we still do this today with anything that has an Irish slant to it eg if a movie or tv show is made featuring an Irish cast but made with a foriegn crew, foriegn director and foriegn money we automatically claim it as our own even tho we didn't have the guts, organisation or imagination to make it happen by ourselves.

Such as? We claim Father Ted but in fairness that was nearly an all-Irish crew and was Irish produced, even though it was financially backed by Channel 4. I don't think we claim a programme to be Irish if one of the cast is Irish, what we do though is when a programme like The Tudors is a huge success we become obsessed with the Irish cast of the programme.

If you want to know what nation claims a programme or a film to be theirs just because 1 or 2 of the cast are of their country, look no further than Britain! How many times have they claimed a film to be British, even when its so blatently obvious its Irish, countless. Even our own actors and actresses they claim to be British by awarding them awards such as 'Best British Female' or 'Best British Male', when they're not even British.

They do it for bands too, the English don't seem to make any secret of the fact they think U2 are British just because 1 of the members is English. Look on any music station like MTV2, Q or VH1 and you'll see these '100 Best British Bands of all Time' and I guarantee you both Snow Patrol and U2 will always end up in it, even though both are Irish bands!

Daroxtar

I'm sure they'll be nearly as proud as the germans who paid for most of it