Home away from home, not always a good thing

fakearms123

I was looking at a picture of a woman in Moneygall Offaly who had painted her house red, white and blue for when Barack Obama comes to Ireland. There was also crappy American fast food places made and T-shirts of Obama. I think if Obama comes to Ireland, he wants to see the real town of Moneygall, he wants to experience small town Irish life for those few hours he is here, not some Diners-style 50's roller disco town redone and repainted. It's like when your over at a distant relatives house and they were informed that you like cricket for example and they answer the door in a white woollen pullover jumper, cricket is playing on the tv and they ask you if you want to play a game of cricket in the backgarden with a newly bought cricket set when in reality they were seriously misinformed and you only have a slight interest in the sport.

Same goes when you are abroad, the last place I will flock to is an Irish bar but there are lads and girls in Ireland when they drop down in a foreign country in their County colours they will seek the nearest Irish pub and ask the bartender for a pack of Taytos. I watched an interview with an Irish lad over in Australia and he said "Era sure it's great over here, weather is great, there's loads of Irish and there's a great GAA scene over here"... great GAA scene Are these people too scared to experience something more than what they are familar with? And is it a good thing that we try to dress up Ireland to look more like the home land of the visitor? Its kind of embarrassing sometimes in my opinion

kfallon

Attention seeking, that's all it is! :rolleyes:

chin_grin

Thread needs more "begorrah bejaysus".

A Dub in Glasgo

Agree with the first part, not so with the 2nd part

Emigration can come as a shock to some people when they realise that a lot of the things they love they have left behind. There is nothing wrong with keeping some of the tangible stuff from home. Of course, everyone should be trying local customs, traditions and integrating otherwise it will turn into a ghetto.

Cianos

I think the locals are using the trip as a money spinner to cash in on the hype to bring punters in to their faux-American establishments.

stargazer 68

I lived in the Middle East for many years and while I did get involved in the local culture etc, a bit of home was always welcome too being so far away.

Buceph

fakearms123 wrote: »

and ask the bartender for a pack of Taytos.

There's nothing like pulling out a pack of Taytos when you're in a truly foreign place to make you feel appreciative of where you are. I suppose that's the thought they were going for in the Barry's tea ad.


But I agree with you, I've met a few foreigners over here for work or study, and it's sad to see them spend all their time with people from their own country and trying to do the same things they did at home. One of my best friends is from Spain, born and spent his entire life in the Basque country, but had an Irish father. When he came over here a few years ago he did everything he could to experience Ireland, and to see what his father came from. Now he has a wider social circle of people around the world, apart from ourselves. He and all these other immigrants and foreign students are experiencing Ireland together, as well as seeing each others culture in a small way.

For all the chinese, indian, italian and american takeaways we have, it'd be great if people saw more of the world.