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Why are you proud of Ireland?

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    #182
    Orizio
    Registered Users Posts: 9,460 ✭✭✭Orizio


    HalloweenJack wrote: »
    I love hurling, I don't really have a problem with Gaelic football but the GAA is a horrible association.

    They try to kill off other sports (Tallaght stadium, the crap in Kerry) and they are scrounging off the Gov. They get a lot more money than any other sports organisation but, comparing it as a participant sport to others, the level of Gov funding they receive is disproportionate. Then there's the whole thing about getting their expenses paid, which goes against the idea of amateur sportsmanship.

    How so? They have gotten less then the FAI have this year for example (if I remember correctly), even though the FAI is far less competent and far less fiscally responsible. As best as I can tell, the state gives out its grants depending upon popularity, so attacking the GAA because of its sucess is rather unfair. And every organisation in this country 'scrounges' from the government, nor should its players be out of pocket, compensation is not a wage and is not against the idea of amatuership.


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    #183
    walshb
    Registered Users Posts: 55,049 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    ryanch09 wrote: »
    also proud that we created U2!! Greatest band ever!!!

    My arse they are.
    Hey, good, decent and durable, but far from a naturally great and talented bunch.
    They wore everyone out and eventually they came good with rather limited
    musical ability and their present stuff and recent stuff is far
    from innovative or inspiring. Past success is what U2 are living off!

    Greatest band ever? Hmm, maybe bands like Queen, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin would be in that bracket. U2 are a notch or two below their caliber

    And Bono I am not proud of, he is an actual
    embarrassment to this country with his self righteous ego tripping
    and lecturing!


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    #184
    Caoimhín
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Caoimhín


    No.


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    #185
    TobyZiegler
    Registered Users Posts: 170 ✭✭TobyZiegler


    Was proud of Ireland this year during the Volvo Ocean Race - the sailors/crew etc all agreed it was the best stop so far on this race and one of the best in many years of racing. (Suppose the weather helped a lot though - and cant really take credit for that!)

    Also the first time Riverdance was done at the Eurovision that time was a good moment even if it has been done to death now.


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    #186
    walshb
    Registered Users Posts: 55,049 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    The horse racing and breeding industry makes me very proud.
    Just look at Cheltenham and how the Irish are so so
    influential at it. We are a fantastic horse racing and breeding nation!


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    #187
    mickydoomsux
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,290 ✭✭✭mickydoomsux


    walshb wrote: »
    The horse racing and breeding industry makes me very proud.

    It should do, we paid enough for it.


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    #188
    BraziliaNZ
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,671 ✭✭✭BraziliaNZ


    walshb wrote: »
    The horse racing and breeding industry makes me very proud.
    Just look at Cheltenham and how the Irish are so so
    influential at it. We are a fantastic horse racing and breeding nation!

    hmmm any relation to Ruby?


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    #189
    walshb
    Registered Users Posts: 55,049 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    BraziliaNZ wrote: »
    hmmm any relation to Ruby?

    Brothers!


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    #190
    sofia11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 90 ✭✭sofia11


    This is the most best post on here, a good laugh, some great quips, give Tommy Tiernan a run for his money!


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    #191
    markopantelic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 538 ✭✭✭markopantelic


    No. I do love it here though.

    I mean I wouldn't understand being ashamed of Ireland either so why should I be proud?


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    #192
    Heisenberg.
    Registered Users Posts: 7,541 ✭✭✭Heisenberg.


    This post has been deleted.


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    #193
    markopantelic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 538 ✭✭✭markopantelic


    Tell that to the masses who emmigrate to 'Oz'! They'll probably say the same thing but if its so great why leave?


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    #194
    Gavin "shels"
    Registered Users Posts: 17,963 ✭✭✭✭Gavin "shels"


    nuxxx wrote: »
    1990 World Cup in Italy

    This Vid is brilliant, get shivers everytime i see it and sometimes a tear in my eye :)


    +1


    Add in our greatest football fans in the world aswell!:rolleyes:


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    #195
    markopantelic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 538 ✭✭✭markopantelic


    Ah Gav, thats too kind. We Bohs fans are pretty deadly fans but the best? Actually yeah maby :)


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    #196
    raah!
    Registered Users Posts: 2,629 ✭✭✭raah!


    It has nice trees and fields and lichens and kerry slugs!


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    #197
    TheSpecialOne
    Registered Users Posts: 695 ✭✭✭TheSpecialOne


    1916


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    #198
    munchkin_utd
    Registered Users Posts: 7,856 ✭✭✭munchkin_utd


    I am proud of how ireland can make a balls of anything that it once could have been proud of!

    I'll explain with some examples......

    You could have been proud of the people, but greed is a lot of peoples main motivation nowadays. And the helping neighbour. Does anyone know their neighbour nowadays?

    You could have been proud of the lovely countryside but its plain ruined with houses. Drive from Donegal to Sligo town and you will see what I mean. Or the countryside in Cavan/ Leitrim/ Monaghan. Ruined.

    You could have been proud of the church, helping all the hungry africans and that, but they made a hames of the country too.

    You could have been proud of the Patriots that got us independence, but then the one that escaped exceution (dev) proceeded to launch an economic war against the british empire and establish the afore mentioned church as a second not to be questioned pillar of the state. We are only recovering from how he shaped Ireland in the past few years.

    You could have been proud of the education system but now that nobody wants to be a teacher any more compared to the way it used to be, the whole system seems to be going to the dogs.

    You could have been proud once of irelands miraculus economic boom.
    But heck, as it turns out that was only us buying and selling houses to each other.

    You could have been proud of ireland's technology sector 10 years ago, a time when engineering and science were desirable to do in college, but now nobody wants to do engineering in college any more (if you look at the points) and we turned into a nation of house builders/ traders than doing anything purposeful. Another thing down the swanny.

    You could have been proud of the way Ireland lured multinationals to its shores. Now we are neither affordable nor are producing the masses of scientists and engineers that we used to. So we dont have that to be proud of either.

    So in short, Ireland had a lot of things to be proud of over the years, but we have a fierce knack of then making a balls of it when we put our minds to it.


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    #199
    markopantelic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 538 ✭✭✭markopantelic


    haha ye i was driving through the mountains with a few friends last week, absolutely sensational views but the litter everywhere was a disgrace and apparently Ireland is the most 'patriotic' country, more like conditioned to feel 'patriotic'


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    #200
    Eve_Dublin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,884 ✭✭✭Eve_Dublin


    I get the point that it's a matter of luck/misfortune/chance where you're born and to say "I'm proud to be Irish" makes as much sense as saying "I'm soooo proud to have knees!" but surely we CAN be proud/ashamed of our culture that most of contribute to in one way or another, be it in a negative or positive way.

    I have to say, I'm ferociously proud to be Irish while also being fully aware that we're far from perfect and we've a shed load to be ashamed of as well, like all nations.

    I'm proud of:

    GAA...Gaelic football is the only sport I genuinely enjoy watching.

    The fact that wherever I went on my travels, 99.9% of people I met heard of my country and generally in a positive light. The day I met 2 young fellas in an obscure little town in Chile and when I told them I was from Ireland, they proceeded to name every player on the Irish football team when I could only name about 4. It was just brilliant. This happened a few times. "Robbie Keane...Robbie Keane"

    That the Irish managed to get themselves involved in the history of the most obscurest countries in the world...Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile, Che Guavara-Lynch in Argentina and Cuba, Barack Obama's great-great grandmother...eh...can't think of anymore...will get back to this one....

    Irish trad music...you just can't beat the likes of Planxty and the Chieftans. Puts me in a good mood everytime I put it on.

    Our absolutely WICKED, dark, ridiculous, stupid, silly, intelligent, self-depracating sense of humour (personal favourite...)

    Our landscape...it's really, really beautiful...if you doubt that then you need to cancel your holliers to Spain and have a goo for yourself. Those who say it's getting destroyed by the property developers...a lot of it has been and that's a real shame but you'd be surprised how much of it is still untouched in contrast to other countries...and all the developing has come to a grinding halt now anyway and hopefully it'll stay that way.

    Old man pubs and Smithwicks.

    People with a bit of bite in us...fire in our bellies...we ALWAYS have something to say for ourselves, even if it's not always positive (and lets face it, it's not a lot of the time)...not all countries can say the same in my experience.

    I don't care how cheesy it is but when Riverdance played on the Eurovision song contest...jaysus I don't think I've cried so much since. Stupid I know. I used to watch when I felt homesick living abroad...that an Tourism Ireland ads on Youtube..haha!

    That The Cranberries still seem to be HUUUUUGE in South America...the fact that they'd only one US hit means f-all..the USA is not the world.

    St Paddys Day...we act like gobsh*tes but I still feel nothing but pride on this day wherever I am.

    Irish Stand-up comedy


    Joyce, Wilde, Yeats, Kavanagh, Stoke, Boland, Heaney, Swift,

    Everyone that contributed to our independence in 1922, including my grandad. We must be the only country in Europe NOT to acknowledge this occasion instead of feeling shame. Sad.

    The fact that most people I meet in this country are lovely...moany and begrudging but lovely. Lived abroad for a few years and came home recently and was taken aback by how many people had no qualms about starting a conversation up with me. It took a while for me to adapt back into that mentality...I hope I never loose it again.

    I could go on and on...you get the idea...this is not a "fiddle dee diddle dee doo" outlook on my country...I've come home in a time when it's particularly hard to love my country but I still do and it's genuine. I don't care how stupid it might seem to others. Goosebumpsarama. Sob sob...


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    #201
    PaulieD
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 932 ✭✭✭PaulieD


    markopantelic wrote: »
    haha ye i was driving through the mountains with a few friends last week, absolutely sensational views but the litter everywhere was a disgrace and apparently Ireland is the most 'patriotic' country, more like conditioned to feel 'patriotic'

    Id say the opposite. The media pour scorn on patriotism in this country.


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    #202
    markopantelic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 538 ✭✭✭markopantelic


    Well in fairness it is fairly odd the way we don't even have a independance day, not that we had a wonderful country afterwards but still you'd expect it to be celebrated.


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    #203
    Eve_Dublin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,884 ✭✭✭Eve_Dublin


    markopantelic wrote: »
    Tell that to the masses who emmigrate to 'Oz'! They'll probably say the same thing but if its so great why leave?

    Curiosity? Jobs? Sun? The desire to leave a small, relatively monocultural island for a few years and try a new experience? Meet new people? Cheaper housing? Cheaper lifetstyle? Cheaper everything?

    This doesn't mean they won't return to live here someday. I'm by no means saying that Ireland is paradise on Earth and I want to stay here till my dying day from this day forth (although I want to spend a good chunk of it here and hopefully I will be living here on my dying day) and that I wouldn't have a better quality of life elsewhere but that doesn't detract from the fact that, for all our moaning, it's still a nice place to be. That's my opinion though. You're entitled to yours Marko, of course!


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    #204
    Eve_Dublin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,884 ✭✭✭Eve_Dublin


    Oh and another thing...we're the best looking country in the world...no other country compares...we're a pack of rides the lot of us!


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    #205
    Bonavox
    Registered Users Posts: 1,713 ✭✭✭Bonavox


    One letter and one number can easily sum up the greatest thing to ever come out of Ireland:

    U2


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    #206
    humanji
    Registered Users Posts: 19,976 ✭✭✭✭humanji


    Which two?


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    #207
    Att-tichoo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 63 ✭✭Att-tichoo


    my car broke down goin to work yest mornin, rang my dad to come rescue me but had to face an hour wait in the car..the woman who's house i broke down outside came out and invited me in for tea and toast..spent the hour chattin to her and she sent me off to work with a lunchbox of rice crispy buns!!..

    im proud that irish people on the whole are daycent aul divils!


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    #208
    Jewelleryonline
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭Jewelleryonline


    I was proud of the Celtic Tiger, how Ireland went from one of the poorest nations to the richest - but now I am not so sure!!!

    Proudest has to be - how poverty stricken rural folk escaped the famine through emigration and became the prominent nationality of many developing countries last century.


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    #209
    Nolanger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,556 ✭✭✭Nolanger


    Proud is something you earn.


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    #210
    Balmed Out
    Registered Users Posts: 4,714 ✭✭✭Balmed Out


    i agree with eve dublins post earlier. Although the cranberries were very succesful in the usa, not so much in the uk as far as i remember. Id like if we put more importance in out actual war of independence rather then 1916 too.

    There are very few small countries / populations that have influenced world history and culture as much as we have. Off the top of my head you can look perhaps at jamaica as being in the same league but thats about it.


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    #211
    Purple Gorilla
    Closed Accounts Posts: 865 ✭✭✭Purple Gorilla


    munchkin_utd wrote: »
    I am proud of how ireland can make a balls of anything that it once could have been proud of!

    I'll explain with some examples......

    You could have been proud of the people, but greed is a lot of peoples main motivation nowadays. And the helping neighbour. Does anyone know their neighbour nowadays?

    You could have been proud of the lovely countryside but its plain ruined with houses. Drive from Donegal to Sligo town and you will see what I mean. Or the countryside in Cavan/ Leitrim/ Monaghan. Ruined.

    You could have been proud of the church, helping all the hungry africans and that, but they made a hames of the country too.

    You could have been proud of the Patriots that got us independence, but then the one that escaped exceution (dev) proceeded to launch an economic war against the british empire and establish the afore mentioned church as a second not to be questioned pillar of the state. We are only recovering from how he shaped Ireland in the past few years.

    You could have been proud of the education system but now that nobody wants to be a teacher any more compared to the way it used to be, the whole system seems to be going to the dogs.

    You could have been proud once of irelands miraculus economic boom.
    But heck, as it turns out that was only us buying and selling houses to each other.

    You could have been proud of ireland's technology sector 10 years ago, a time when engineering and science were desirable to do in college, but now nobody wants to do engineering in college any more (if you look at the points) and we turned into a nation of house builders/ traders than doing anything purposeful. Another thing down the swanny.

    You could have been proud of the way Ireland lured multinationals to its shores. Now we are neither affordable nor are producing the masses of scientists and engineers that we used to. So we dont have that to be proud of either.

    So in short, Ireland had a lot of things to be proud of over the years, but we have a fierce knack of then making a balls of it when we put our minds to it.
    You could have been proud of the way Irish people could always be happy, even in a bad situation. Judging by the above post, we've lost that too.


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