"Ah shure it's a small world"

Liam O

Reading the creepy or unnerving things happening thread and there was an OT tangent on the subject of co-incidental meetings so said I'd make a thread for people to share some good ones.

I lived in Toronto for a while there recently enough. Went out with my roommates who I knew from over here every week or so. Was in a bar one night where it was just me and one of the roommates. Guy comes in and sits at the bar in front of us. When my mate went to the toilet I started talking to the guy. Obviously over there being Irish can get some different reactions. I have a pretty neutral accent however with a slight Dublin twinge and there are some very irish-like accents that people in some areas of Canada have so he didn't pick up on it straight away.

So we're talking and the guy says he lives in Saskatchewan which is a state in the middle of Canada. He's in Toronto for a couple of days visiting family or something. My mate comes back and he has a very strong Dublin accent so the other guy pretty quickly asks where we're from and we tell him we're from Dublin.

So he does the usual thing "Oh I know an Irish guy" and I do the usual like roll eyes thing thinking he probably thinks that we all know each other. He tells me the guys name and it turned out to be a childhood friend who grew up around the corner from me! Even took out my phone and got the guy's facebook profile up and confirmed it. I was really freaked out.

I presume there's some better ones than mine out there so share away. Unsure if there's been a similar thread before...

Witchie

Was backpacking in Europe shortly after doing my leaving cert in 92 and through a mix up myself and my mate ended up without a bed in the hostel we had been staying in in Dussledorf. We were sitting in the hostel chatting to 2 lads from Dublin who, when they found out where we were from told us there was a guy from Monaghan staying there too. They introduced us later and turns out he was the brother of a school friend and he had 2 spare beds in his room so we got to stay there. Sweet!

Also on that trip went to visit my aunt in the Hague and she was having a Wimbledon final party. Some friends were over who were a mixed bag of English and Irish. Turned out one of the guys was the uncle of a girl I was in college with.

Again on the way home from that trip, we missed our ferry from Holyhead and had to hang around for the night for the next one. We got chatting to 2 lads from Kildare who were in the same boat (pardon the pun!) and one of them used to live in Monaghan town and knew a lot of people we knew.

A few years ago a local county councillor went to Melbourne and was in a bar. Guy in the bar and him got chatting and guy asked where he was from. Upon finding out the guy asked if the councillor knew my dad....which of course he did. My dad had only been in Melbourne once for 2 weeks.

More recently my cousin, her hubby and kids were living in Perth. Her hubby was a photographer and was taking photos on the beach one day when he spotted a group of people dressed in fairly formal clothing together on the water's edge. He realised they were scattering someone's ashes. Later he spotted 2 of the group had stayed on the beach and he went to show them the photo to see if they would like a copy of it and turned out the couple were from Monaghan and again knew my dad and myself.

While it happens, it's pretty infrequent and in general, people who aren't from a place usually go to the same places in a place if that makes sense. I've bumped into old friends and had common connections with people all over south east asia cause everyone goes to the same areas.

Calibos

Aunt, uncle and cousins have lived in Perth for 40 years. Called into their local after a walk and there was a new barmaid on duty. When they heard her Irish accent they got chatting and explained that they were Irish too and had emigrated to OZ in the 70's and asked where in Ireland she was from. When she said Bray, the aunt said that her sister (my ma) and nephews lived in Bray and had a (insert business type here) in the town. The Barmaid said, "I don't suppose you're (insert my name here )'s Aunt?

YES!!!

Knew the girl well!

Liam O

Deleted User wrote: »

While it happens, it's pretty infrequent and in general, people who aren't from a place usually go to the same places in a place if that makes sense. I've bumped into old friends and had common connections with people all over south east asia cause everyone goes to the same areas.

Ah yeah obviously, the one I talked about in the OP was a weird one though as the guy I knew traveled some 6-7000 odd miles to the middle of Canada, his friend whatever amount of miles to Toronto, a city with 10m people, in a bar I'd never been in before and that's without talking about me being 3000 miles away from home too. I wonder if there's any much stranger than that.

donegaLroad

Liam O wrote: »

Reading the creepy or unnerving things happening thread and there was an OT tangent on the subject of co-incidental meetings so said I'd make a thread for people to share some good ones.

I lived in Toronto for a while there recently enough. Went out with my roommates who I knew from over here every week or so. Was in a bar one night where it was just me and one of the roommates. Guy comes in and sits at the bar in front of us. When my mate went to the toilet I started talking to the guy. Obviously over there being Irish can get some different reactions. I have a pretty neutral accent however with a slight Dublin twinge and there are some very irish-like accents that people in some areas of Canada have so he didn't pick up on it straight away.

So we're talking and the guy says he lives in Saskatchewan which is a state in the middle of Canada. He's in Toronto for a couple of days visiting family or something. My mate comes back and he has a very strong Dublin accent so the other guy pretty quickly asks where we're from and we tell him we're from Dublin.

So he does the usual thing "Oh I know an Irish guy" and I do the usual like roll eyes thing thinking he probably thinks that we all know each other. He tells me the guys name and it turned out to be a childhood friend who grew up around the corner from me! Even took out my phone and got the guy's facebook profile up and confirmed it. I was really freaked out.

I presume there's some better ones than mine out there so share away. Unsure if there's been a similar thread before...

a very similar thing happened me in Toronto OP. When I moved out there 12 years ago, a friend from home told me (jokingly) if I ran into his brother say hello.

Some weeks later, I was meeting with the OH's cousins who are all Toronto born and bred.. one of them said 'oh I work with a guy from Ireland'

and sure enough, it was my friend's brother.

arayess

a friend (whom I was in school with) was drunk in new york and passed out on the street.
woke up in an apartment of another guy we'd been in school with whom he had not seen in 10 years.
Your man was living in new york and was passing by a small crowd of people looking at the passed out guy when he recognised him and carried him home.

AppleBottle

Hmm... Mines a little different...I went on holidays to Portugal in 2006 and my friends and I made friends with these lads. They were from and lived in Kilkenny. We had a great time with them but didn't exchange contact details to keep in contact after we left. About 6 months later, my friends and I were walking down Grafton Street in Dublin and two of them walk by us! We stopped and had the chats for a while. It felt pretty random to see them.

Agricola

Went to Roscommon to look at a car once. 3 months or so later, I ran into the same car seller in the street in Waterford City. Well, it admittedly is a small country!

HalloweenJack

When I met my current GF, I was living in a flat with three others. The first few times my GF came over, two of my flatmates were out because they would usually go home at the weekends. She eventually met one of them but still never met the other guy. Once she eventually met him, it turned out she knew him, he was best friends with her ex.

A better story is a bit more complicated but don't want to give too much info away, just in case people are reading. Have lived abroad for years now and one time my best friend from college came over to visit. He's from a rural part of the country. One day while he was over, we went to a house party at one of my co-workers, who's from a neighbouring county to that of my friend. My friend's father isn't Irish so he has a very distinctive surname.

Anyway a few hours into the party, my coworker says to my friend "Do you know a woman called blah-blah + distinctive surname?". My friends says "yeah, that's my ma". So, turns out my coworker, who's about ten years older than us, was involved in an organisation of which my friend's ma was the regional leader and they knew each other very well. This whole story was topped off with the killer line dropped by my coworker: "Sure, i've even been in your kitchen!".

Stinicker

I dated a girl in the Philippines (country of 102 million), I know about 10 people there. I later broke up with that girl and began dating a different girl also another Filipina. Anyway I was back visiting the new GF a year later and afterwards when I was at the airport coming home I bumped into the uncle of the ex-gf from the year before. Turns out he was on my flight back to Abu Dhabi and was also sitting two rows in front of me. The odds of meeting that guy must have been in the hundreds of millions.

sadie06

I broke a guy's heart when I got together with my now husband. It really looked and felt like myself and this guy were going to get together and then my husband arrived on the scene and that was that. It caused the guy a lot of pain, and we no longer saw each other, which was sad.

About 4 years later, myself and my husband travelled to a European destination to book our wedding for later on that year, and we bumped into him in this city. It was mega awkward and I have to admit I spent a few days questioning why I had met him there and then. Caused me some jitters!

Aongus Von Bismarck

I was skiing last winter when I attempted a notorious black run against my better judgement - and the pleadings of the Baroness at the time. The snow conditions were poor and I'll admit to struggling through some of the sections as a result. I reached the bottom and when I came to a stop I knew that I had pulled something. I removed my skis and sat on a bench, obviously in considerable pain. I heard someone say 'well, hello Aongus!". I turned around and there was my local family doctor from when I was growing up in the barren wastelands of East Galway.

I told him of my predicament and he quickly diagnosed the injury as a severely strained groin muscle. He then recommended I visit the local clinic to get it assessed. I thanked him for his advice, and enquired about his daughter - a lady I briefly dated before I moved to Dublin to attend Trinity.

Very strange. It's one of the more exclusive Alpine resorts, and you rarely hear the unmistakeable pitch and tone of an Irish accent.

Aongus Von Bismarck

I was skiing last winter when I attempted a notorious black run against my better judgement - and the pleadings of the Baroness at the time. The snow conditions were poor and I'll admit to struggling through some of the sections as a result. I reached the bottom and when I came to a stop I knew that I had pulled something. I removed my skis and sat on a bench, obviously in considerable pain. I heard someone say 'well, hello Aongus!". I turned around and there was my local family doctor from when I was growing up in the barren wastelands of East Galway.

I told him of my predicament and he quickly diagnosed the injury as a severely strained groin muscle. He then recommended I visit the local clinic to get it assessed. I thanked him for his advice, and enquired about his daughter - a lady I briefly dated before I moved to Dublin to attend Trinity.

Very strange. It's one of the more exclusive Alpine resorts, and you rarely hear the unmistakeable pitch and tone of an Irish accent.

Northern Monkey

Bumped into someone from my town when queuing to get on to the boat at Niagara Falls.

osarusan

Liam O wrote: »

So we're talking and the guy says he lives in Saskatchewan which is a state in the middle of Canada.

Was his name Stuart?

the_pen_turner

I went to collage in a small rural collage. doing a niche subject about 200 students a year

I had connections to loads of people.
there were 3 guys that went to different schools with 3 of my cousins. the cousins are brothers

a distant relation of myself went there as well but not in my year
a friend of mine went there too

the cousin of a good friend of mine from school was in the same house as me

the sister of a fellow a year ahead of me is married to a neighbour of mine

I worked last year with a guy and his son was 2 years ahead of me but I didn't know

the_pen_turner

I went to collage in a small rural collage. doing a niche subject about 200 students a year

I had connections to loads of people.
there were 3 guys that went to different schools with 3 of my cousins. the cousins are brothers

a distant relation of myself went there as well but not in my year
a friend of mine went there too

the cousin of a good friend of mine from school was in the same house as me

the sister of a fellow a year ahead of me is married to a neighbour of mine

I worked last year with a guy and his son was 2 years ahead of me but I didn't know

Mint Aero

Was in Yemen in 98 whislt backpacking with fish and met upon an Irish man. A week later whilst fishing with a backpack in southern Niger I met said Paddy again.

ablelocks

I don't use (if that's even the right term?) social media but need to use linkedin now and then for work, but don't check it that often. On Friday morning, the profile of a girl I worked with about 20 years ago popped up on the "people you might know" feed at the top of my home page. Oh, I thought, that's interesting, haven't seen or heard from her since then - looks like she's doing well for herself, and thought no more about it.

Met her in a pub Friday night. Have linkedin started real life trials on random people you might know?

JohnCleary

Sitting on a beach in Thailand, I get a "How's things XXXXX"

Thought nothing of it as the GF had just completed a diving course and we were all out for a party / being introduced.

Thought the accent was very familiar (Galway) so looked over my shoulder. Lo and behold, a fella who I dived with when I was in college in Sligo. (We're both from Galway)

It's a pretty big world we live in, but it's hard to hide.

The Backwards Man

I walked into a shop in Journal Square, Jersey City, New Jersey(not a place you meet many Irish people) one Sunday evening and was served by this fella from Tyrone that I'd sacked years ago for shíting in the kitchen he was supposed to be a chef in.

That was awkward.

Dick phelan

I was in Prague for a few months, on the flight back to Ireland i met a lad from Donegal (Gary) got chatting he told me he'd been over visiting somebody and was planning on moving over himself after Xmas, anyways about 6 months later i went back over to Prague myself to visit some people, who do you think is on the same flight over to Prague, Gary the lad i'd met on the flight home months ago, He said he was going back over after coming home for a visit, his first visit back since Xmas. What are the odds of that idk.

Dick phelan

Also in Prague met a girl from Dublin asked her if she knew anyone from my area, she said she only knew one lad who she was in college with, turned out the fella in question lives 3 doors down from myself.

maudgonner

I was traveling in the US. Got a bus from Vegas to LA and had a brief chat with the guy in the row in front of me.

Two days later in a metro station on the other side of LA I bumped into the same guy on the platform.