What it means to be Irish

abouttobebanned

Ok...first off, this thread is not what it looks like. Or, I dunno, maybe it is.

Nobody has ever asked what it means to be Irish so I can't really start this thread by saying.."When someone asks you what it means to be Irish..what do you say?"

For me, a freshly appointed 30 year old I think it's cool to have a bunch of people that have so many shared experiences. For the most part, we've all had pretty much the same upbringing.

like...

Going to school with a fcuking 2 ton school bag when you're about 8. We walked to school too...along a road that we probably walked about 100 thousand times in our lifetime. There was a lunch somewhere in that bag too..tinfoiled sandwhiches, a pack of tayto, a club milk for the 11 o clock break... If it was a friday you might have a pound for a lunch special.

During the week we'd watch...well I was gonna add some fancy pictures now but I see I can't do that on After Hours. How odd. Well we'd watch the DJ KAT show...blockbusters, Krypton Factor...at the weekend we'd watch Blind Date and all kinds of crap saturday telly after our bath. Sundays meant where in the world, Glenroe and trying to do the last bit of homework (or lines) before school the next day.

Summer holidays meant watching "why don't you" and going out to play for 12 hours. Our computer games were on the Commodore 64 and then the master system or the nes and then the mega drive (sensible soccer!) or the SNES (F-Zero & Donkey Kong)

In school everyone knows about Busy at Maths 1-5, the spelling books...those pupils who would have a big pencil case full of stuff and their writing was so neat with their red pens for numbers and the blue pen for writing the sentences...

There was school tours...could you ever forget the excitement the night before a school tour. The phrase "packed lunch" has never been so exciting. Turning up at the school at 7:45 for a bus..when usually you didn't arrive in til 9...standing there in the dark thinking about all the other kids who were still in bed but had to get up soon to go in for school... Of course we were only going to Fota Island or Kilkenny castle or some place but it was thrilling.

No uniform days....bring a toy into school for the last day of school before the christmas break...the horror of parent teacher meetings... Topping your pencil at the top of the class...some people don't even know what a topper is...an ex of mine from the north had no idea what i was talking about and then corrected me that it was a sharpener I was talking about...

Buying tapes....tape singles for £2.49 in the little cardboard sleeve. Then came the CD singles for a fiver...you'd get one summer classic dance anthem and get about 7 remixes of the song to impress your mates with...

I could go on but I'm probably getting close to tl;dr territory so I'd better stop. But that's it for me...being Irish to me has fcuk all to do with ole ole ole and Bobby Sands, it's about us all, or at least 90% of us being working class and having, essentially the same childhoods. I know there are people in other countries who will have similar stories to tell...I mean England is close enough to us but they've always been a little different I think...different shops, some different food stuffs (I mean they had walkers for a hell of a long time while we had tayto)...

Feel free to add your own thoughts about what you like about being Irish.

Snakeblood

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Ok...first off, this thread is not what it looks like. Or, I dunno, maybe it is.

Nobody has ever asked what it means to be Irish so I can't really start this thread by saying.."When someone asks you what it means to be Irish..what do you say?"

For me, a freshly appointed 30 year old I think it's cool to have a bunch of people that have so many shared experiences. For the most part, we've all had pretty much the same upbringing.

like...

Going to school with a fcuking 2 ton school bag when you're about 8. We walked to school too...along a road that we probably walked about 100 thousand times in our lifetime. There was a lunch somewhere in that bag too..tinfoiled sandwhiches, a pack of tayto, a club milk for the 11 o clock break... If it was a friday you might have a pound for a lunch special.

During the week we'd watch...well I was gonna add some fancy pictures now but I see I can't do that on After Hours. How odd. Well we'd watch the DJ KAT show...blockbusters, Krypton Factor...at the weekend we'd watch Blind Date and all kinds of crap saturday telly after our bath. Sundays meant where in the world, Glenroe and trying to do the last bit of homework (or lines) before school the next day.

Summer holidays meant watching "why don't you" and going out to play for 12 hours. Our computer games were on the Commodore 64 and then the master system or the nes and then the mega drive (sensible soccer!) or the SNES (F-Zero & Donkey Kong)

In school everyone knows about Busy at Maths 1-5, the spelling books...those pupils who would have a big pencil case full of stuff and their writing was so neat with their red pens for numbers and the blue pen for writing the sentences...

There was school tours...could you ever forget the excitement the night before a school tour. The phrase "packed lunch" has never been so exciting. Turning up at the school at 7:45 for a bus..when usually you didn't arrive in til 9...standing there in the dark thinking about all the other kids who were still in bed but had to get up soon to go in for school... Of course we were only going to Fota Island or Kilkenny castle or some place but it was thrilling.

No uniform days....bring a toy into school for the last day of school before the christmas break...the horror of parent teacher meetings... Topping your pencil at the top of the class...some people don't even know what a topper is...an ex of mine from the north had no idea what i was talking about and then corrected me that it was a sharpener I was talking about...

Buying tapes....tape singles for £2.49 in the little cardboard sleeve. Then came the CD singles for a fiver...you'd get one summer classic dance anthem and get about 7 remixes of the song to impress your mates with...

I could go on but I'm probably getting close to tl;dr territory so I'd better stop. But that's it for me...being Irish to me has fcuk all to do with ole ole ole and Bobby Sands, it's about us all, or at least 90% of us being working class and having, essentially the same childhoods. I know there are people in other countries who will have similar stories to tell...I mean England is close enough to us but they've always been a little different I think...different shops, some different food stuffs (I mean they had walkers for a hell of a long time while we had tayto)...

Feel free to add your own thoughts about what you like about being Irish.

Jumpers for goalposts, hardboiled eggs, and Dublin Zoo for 3 school tours in a row. Chester one year. HURRAH.

Sykk

abouttobebanned wrote: »

I could go on but I'm probably getting close to tl;dr territory so I'd better stop. .

You crossed the line. Though I did keep reading, I don't understand how any of that has anything to do with being Irish. More a short story of your life... Dribble if you ask me!

thebigbiffo

gettin pissed on guinness and eatin half cooked chips from a van out the front of a small village pub. now THATS irish

abouttobebanned

Sykk wrote: »

You crossed the line. Though I did keep reading, I don't understand how any of that has anything to do with being Irish. More a short story of your life... Dribble if you ask me!

What's dribble?

The point is that Irish people will understand a lot of what I wrote up there but there's a good chance that someone from another country won't (even when translated )

ucd.1985

It means we are not English,

Thats what it means.

Catari Jaguar

That's more of an account of a 1980s childhood than what it means to be Irish.

scientific1982

Childhood wise id say most of us in and around your age have a ****load in common. Id say thats why we tend to be so cliquish when abroad. The younger folks wouldnt know as much about walking to school, playing outside for hours and being covered in cuts and scrapes continuously. My nephew hasnt a clue what a tape is.

Jesus Wept

It means absolutely nothing beyond the fact that you hold citizenship through whichever method you acquired it.

abouttobebanned

People spend too much time trying to ridicule threads these days instead of taking part in an interesting conversation. If you think this is just a recap of an 80s childhood, it's because I said I was 30 and that's what I know. If you want to recap a 70s or 90s childhood, go right ahead, it would be a nice addition to the thread. I don't think you'd be like this with people in real life, trying to belittle what they say in as funny a way as possible in the hope of getting a thanks from a passer-by...so why do it online?

bonerm

For me personally it means practically nothing beyond that I have a more comfortable life than had I grown up in a less socialist, less economically developed country.

As to your memories OP I'd imagine it'd have been exactly the same had you been born in the UK (note how your post makes absolutely no mention to the use or learning of the Irish language for example).

Sykk

abouttobebanned wrote: »

What's dribble?

The point is that Irish people will understand a lot of what I wrote up there but there's a good chance that someone from another country won't (even when translated )

Sure they will! We're of a different culture than most, I'm sure the British would!

That_Guy

Coddle and Tayto.

Maybe not mixed together but it might be interesting.

helimachoptor

@ abouttobebanned - > awesome post

mikemac

You forgot to mention Ann and Barry, márla, Patch and Wanderly Wagon, the safe cross code, school tours to the Aquadome in Tralee and those marshmellows we got for Polio
Taytos cost 12p, the blue Mr Freeze was the nicest, Snickers was marathon, we still have Opal Fruits, only rich families had two cars and you'd be killed if you played soccer on the parish GAA pitch.
Nobody bought bottled water and bring back Supercans!

You walked or cycled to school or possibly got some battered Bus Eireann bus in rural areas that would send Health and Saftety experts screaming in horror nowadays. :eek:

If you asked your parents to drive you to school you'd be laughed at and kicked out and told to hurry up.
Ah kids nowadays, going to school gates in an SUV

-Leelo-

Ah love this thread, I was a 90s kid so for me it was Zig & Zag, Saved By The Bell, School trips to Clara Lara and Butlins, those horrible tracksuit bottoms with the poppy button things up the side, and even worse those trouser things with skirts over them (anyone remember them, they were woeful) Gameboys, Apple Jacks & Postman Pats, JR icepops, TAMAGOTCHIS!!!

Ruu_Old

Schoolbooks covered in wallpaper, renting videos (and the video recorder, until we got a top loading one that our richer cousins were throwing it out ), going home in the old yellow CIE school buses. Visit from the parish priest (one who wasn't a dirty, auld ****!) every once in a while, the Micro-T test. School uniforms were navy jumper, slacks with a light blue shirt and red clip on tie. Weetabix for breakfast.

I had a pair of white slip on shoes that I used for Communion that had to do me for school as well for a good part of the year, thought everyone would take the piss out of me but they thought they looked cool! I hated them! ;_;
Being in the country meant that the summer job was picking stones or working on the farm.

Football until dark, holidays to England via the ferry to Hollyhead.

kfallon

abouttobebanned wrote: »

If it was a friday you might have a pound for a lunch special.

Ah God Bless the Beefy King, £1 burger special, chips, burger (somehow I always ended up with the one with no 'red sauce' despite ordering it with) and a little bottle of pop (otherwise known as pisswater) Getting left out for lunch 5 mins early so you could leg it down before the queue!

moonage

Being Irish (or any nationality) is an accident of birth and is nothing to be proud of.

-Leelo-

abouttobebanned wrote: »

People spend too much time trying to ridicule threads these days instead of taking part in an interesting conversation. If you think this is just a recap of an 80s childhood, it's because I said I was 30 and that's what I know. If you want to recap a 70s or 90s childhood, go right ahead, it would be a nice addition to the thread. I don't think you'd be like this with people in real life, trying to belittle what they say in as funny a way as possible in the hope of getting a thanks from a passer-by...so why do it online?

After Hours is where smart asses who wouldn't say boo to a goose come to vent their frustration on others, pay no heed. Its an absolute clique-fest here too!

-Leelo-

Ruu wrote: »

Schoolbooks covered in wallpaper

Brilliant, forgot that one!!

ch750536

Sorry OP but thats the same as my life. I'm from Stoke so thats not what it is to be Irish.

scientific1982

abouttobebanned wrote: »

People spend too much time trying to ridicule threads these days instead of taking part in an interesting conversation. If you think this is just a recap of an 80s childhood, it's because I said I was 30 and that's what I know. If you want to recap a 70s or 90s childhood, go right ahead, it would be a nice addition to the thread. I don't think you'd be like this with people in real life, trying to belittle what they say in as funny a way as possible in the hope of getting a thanks from a passer-by...so why do it online?

Couldnt agree with you more.

minotour

Ruu wrote: »

Schoolbooks covered in wallpaper

When my italian wife heard that we did this she couldnt stop laughing, t'was at that point decided not to tell her about banana sandwiches:D

gurramok

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Going to school with a fcuking 2 ton school bag when you're about 8. We walked to school too...along a road that we probably walked about 100 thousand times in our lifetime. There was a lunch somewhere in that bag too..tinfoiled sandwhiches, a pack of tayto, a club milk for the 11 o clock break... If it was a friday you might have a pound for a lunch special.

That first part just shows how mollycollied todays kids are.

When we grew up, we were not sitting on our arses playing computer games. We were kicking a ball on the street and roaming around causing mischief!

Computer gaming along with Mcburger bingeing has made todays kids FAT.

bonerm

Ruu wrote: »

Schoolbooks covered in wallpaper,

There's a flashback. We had that too in our house. I remember the better off kids in school would have a kind of clear-plastic material stuck on their books that both protected AND displayed their schoolbooks.

Oooh how I envied those damn richers! :mad:

mikemac

Ruu wrote: »

renting videos (and the video recorder, until we got a top loading one that our richer cousins were throwing it out )

In the 1980's a VCR could cost over 400 punts, crazy amount of money at the time! Sure a DVD player nowadays costs €60, nothing in comparison.

If you rented videos from the local shop there would have just a few so you put down your name a few days in advance.

And Xtravision threatened to fine you if you didn't rewind the tapes before returning them :eek:

Ruu wrote: »

going home in the old yellow CIE school buses.

They truely were pieces of junk, often leaking on wet days, falling apart and unsafe.
It was either that or cycle, lol only few got driven to school.

Ruu wrote: »

holidays to England via the ferry to Hollyhead

Foreign holidays? Spot the rich family
We went to Leisureland in Salthill once a year for one day out. Can Galway folk tell me if Leisureland is still around?

minotour

feelingstressed wrote: »

Foreign holidays? Spot the rich family
We went to Leisureland in Salthill once a year for one day out. Can Galway folk tell me if Leisureland is still around?

Check out all the richers, we went to Ballybunion once , was the best holiday we ever had...........and the only holiday we ever had.

-Leelo-

feelingstressed wrote: »

Foreign holidays? Spot the rich family
We went to Leisureland in Salthill once a year for one day out. Can Galway folk tell me if Leisureland is still around?

My dad lived in Germany while I was a kid so when I was 8 I went over to visit him for the summer, I was the envy of all the kids on my street, and I had the best material for the "My Summer" essay they made you write when you returned to school in September My one and only holiday till I was 15

Scuid Mhór

moonage wrote: »

Being Irish (or any nationality) is an accident of birth and is nothing to be proud of.

you're so hardcore - i wish i was as uncaring and as cynical as you.

Sir Gallagher

Cola, Desperate Dan, Wham and Roy of the Rovers Bars even the thought of them now has my mouth watering in that sickly way. Those bars we're like Ecstacy for kids.

The buzz of the school play, remember being in the school at night time was so strange and thrilling.