County or country first?

So, how do you identify yourself? By reference to your county/locality...or country?

For me it's always Kerry first. When abroad, when asked where I'm from, apparently I always say "Kerry...in Ireland"...or so my wife tells me, I can't say it's conscious. But when I think about it, I think I get more defensive about Kerry than Ireland. It's not that I struggle with Irish identity, it's just that I can't pretend to have a close affinity for, say, people from Dublin or Donegal.

RayM

Deleted User wrote: »

It's not that I struggle with Irish identity, it's just that I can't pretend to have a close affinity for, say, people from Dublin or Donegal.

Yes, people who come from different parts of a tiny island are wildly different from each other...

jimgoose

I've toult 'oo before, I'll tell 'oo agin - my mother and father were two Kerry min!

jacksie66

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MilesMorales1

Northsider bud.

jimgoose

jacksie66 wrote: »

Limerick. Munster. Ireland. Europe. Northern Hemisphere. Earth. Solar System. Milky Way. Local Group. Local Supercluster. Universe.

Bally bastards!

toptom

Good man, for me im first and foremost a Tipp man, Us rural folk have a unique culture and lifestyle so i know what you mean about Dublin. I find folk from the east and north to be a totally different breed to us in munster or the midlands

Kristopherus

Deleted User wrote: »

So, how do you identify yourself? By reference to your county/locality...or country?

For me it's always Kerry first. When abroad, when asked where I'm from, apparently I always say "Kerry...in Ireland"...or so my wife tells me, I can't say it's conscious. But when I think about it, I think I get more defensive about Kerry than Ireland. It's not that I struggle with Irish identity, it's just that I can't pretend to have a close affinity for, say, people from Dublin or Donegal.

I think you have healyraeitus:D.

beach_walker

Depends whom I'm talking to tbh. Most people in the UK can piece together I'm Irish without me explicitly saying so So when asked where I'm from by them I say "Galway, tis on the west coast". 80% of the time they'll reply with something alluding to the "Galway Girl" song, I'll smile and nod... and die a little inside.

With those from farther afield I'll simply say I'm Irish and wait for the praise and glory which we've been led to believe we should expect.

Icemancometh

beach_walker wrote: »

Depends whom I'm talking to tbh. Most people in the UK can piece together I'm Irish without me explicitly saying so So when asked where I'm from by them I say "Galway, tis on the west coast". 80% of the time they'll reply with something alluding to the "Galway Girl" song, I'll smile and nod... and die a little inside.

With those from farther afield I'll simply say I'm Irish and wait for the praise and glory which we've been led to believe we should expect.

Until a few years ago I would have said county first (Dublin). Since then I've worked and lived all over Ireland and I feel a bit different now. So it's country first for me

howardmarks

Good Jesus

maryishere

Dublin, Ireland. I once met someone in America who did not know where Ireland was.

Junkyard Tom

Ireland first. Always.

RobertKK

I put planet Earth first, then continent, then country, then county, then parish and finally my townsland that I live in which I love dearly.

beach_walker

RobertKK wrote: »

I put planet Earth first, then continent, then country, then county, then parish and finally my townsland that I live in which I love dearly.

What about your own beloved galaxy?

Niemoj

Irish people are nearly always so proud of where they're find, case in point would be the boundary reviews. People going mad so that the county they're from, their identity isn't changed.

Personally speaking I'd say Carlow, Éire as I'm too proud a Carlovian to just say Éire!

Tigger

Ireland
I was born in Dublin from a Cork father I work in Mayo and live in Sligo
I'm cosmopolitan me

topmanamillion

Ireland
The county thing is a mad notion that I completely fail to grasp.
How can anyone identify with geographic boundaries drawn up by English nobility? The funniest thing about the county system is the GAA is its biggest supporter.

topmanamillion

topmanamillion wrote: »

Ireland
The county thing is a mad notion that I completely fail to grasp.
How can anyone identify with geographic boundaries drawn up by English nobility? The funniest thing about the county system is the GAA is its biggest supporter.

I don't disagree, hence I referred to "county/locality" in the body of the OP. So being from South Kerry, I completely identify with people in West Cork too, as much as any person from North Kerry, county was a more convenient reference than "people within an hours drive". But East Cork...different world.

mansize

Outside Ireland: Ireland
Within Ireland: Offaly

RayM

RayM wrote: »

Yes, people who come from different parts of a tiny island are wildly different from each other...

I think of Bere Island as a small island. But the people from the east and west end are different...maybe not wildly but different.

dd972

There's probably Corkonians who go by street

The Randy Riverbeast

mansize wrote: »

Outside Ireland: Ireland
Within Ireland: Offaly

This, except a different county. I'm not that unlucky.

Arghus

Country.

I don't think anyone I've met outside of Ireland cared remotely what county I come from. Most of them wouldn't even have heard of it. Fair enough if you want to be proud of your own backyard, but I think it means a lot more to us than it does to anyone else!

maroondog

Country first then county mainly. Only in the UK would ya maybe say your county. Or often if your away to rugby matches like maybe Cardiff like at World Cup they'd wonder what Province your from. In UK you'd find they'd have good knowledge enough of alot of county names.

Rattser

The vast majority of foreigners wouldn't have a breeze if you just told them what county you're from. So, Ireland. And if they still look confused, the island beside the UK/England.

Electric Sheep

Lets be totally irish and say townland first.

mansize

The Randy Riverbeast wrote: »

This, except a different county. I'm not that unlucky.

Clearly our loss... 😒

unjedilike

Abroad, you have to gauge who's asking you where you're from. By saying Ireland you run the risk of them embarrassing you with "no d'uh, where in Ireland?" Either way I lose as nobody, especially in the US, knows where Monaghan is.

jimmycrackcorm

Healy-Rae voter

LeeLooLee

unjedilike wrote: »

Abroad, you have to gauge who's asking you where you're from. By saying Ireland you run the risk of them embarrassing you with "no d'uh, where in Ireland?" Either way I lose as nobody, especially in the US, knows where Monaghan is.

And many people in Ireland think Monaghan is in Northern Ireland.

The flying mouse

Always say Ireland then Dubalin.

biko

Galway first.

People may slag Ireland in front of me but if you go after Galway we will dance

OldMrBrennan83

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suicide_circus

When someone abroad asks you where you're from, they clearly mean the country. It's just petty provincial buffoonery to start with anything but your country.

Arghus

Arghus wrote: »

Country.

I don't think anyone I've met outside of Ireland cared remotely what county I come from.

Oh I agree.

But I do. Much as I guess someone from the Basque region in Spain might say there first. It doesn't matter if the person asking isn't sure where it is, it says something about the loyalties of the person saying it.

suicide_circus

suicide_circus wrote: »

When someone abroad asks you where you're from, they clearly mean the country. It's just petty provincial buffoonery to start with anything but your country.

There seems to be a lot of focus on the "where are you from" question. It wasn't meant to be an analysis of answering question posed by people abroad, merely an example of what I unconsciously answer and where my loyalty lies.

I don't think of it as provincial buffoonery, no more than identifying with people from Donegal or Fatima Mansions might be nationalist buffoonery.

Wibbs

I'd say Irish first if asked by a foreigner, Dublin if asked by a local(or a Brit as they'd generally pick up on the Irish thing, but would be asking for specifics). I'm not of Culshie stock so don't think in counties really.

Edward Hopper

English first, then general area of country and what cities and towns Irish people may know. So I have mileages worked out for London Manchester and Birmingham!

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd say Irish first if asked by a foreigner, Dublin if asked by a local(or a Brit as they'd generally pick up on the Irish thing, but would be asking for specifics). I'm not of Culshie stock so don't think in counties really.

If I ever meet you, my second question will be "... and where in county Dublin?"

Menas

I meet a lot of foreigners in my work. When they ask where I am from I tell them Ireland.
If they probe further I will advise them I am from Sligo and give them the fun fact that Sligo is the actual centre of the universe.

Wibbs

Deleted User wrote: »

If I ever meet you, my second question will be "... and where in county Dublin?"

Theres a county Dublin you say? Well I never…

Samaris

I'll say Ireland first (well, particularly with foreigners, depends how it's phrased by Irish people - half of them seem to think I'm either American or English). Although I do tend to phrase county as "I grew up in Waterford, on the south coast/in the south-east". Didn't really realise I was doing that until I thought of it, but my family are fairly mixed in terms of where they were born and raised, so I've never really felt "from" anywhere in particular Grew up in Waterford, wasn't born there, both were pure chance, so I feel no particular pride or real interest in the fact.

failinis

Since I moved to the UK, most people would know its Ireland so I would say the nearest city and they often have no idea where Derry (or Londonderry) is so I just shrug and say the north west.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Definitely country first as an identity. I usually go Town next if someone wants more detail.

the evasion_kid

Dublin...not the greatest fan of country folk, learnt that the hard way abroad.

OldMrBrennan83

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SEPT 23 1989

dublin will suffice for the UK and most continentals

failinis

Patww79 wrote: »

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No, I am from Donegal but right by the border.
I assume most people would know about the city nearest (Derry) than a small townland.

Your Face

I don't really care about counties or allegiances but don't like it when some inbred is making aggrandizements about the status of whatever county or province they are from.

WesternZulu

I lived in the UK for many years and although they'd know straight away where in Ireland you were from they struggled with anything outside Dublin.

So when they asked where I was from and I answered Mayo they had no idea, then when you said it's near Galway they looked no more enlightened.

Moral of the story is that outside of Ireland no-one knows anything about our counties and where they are!