are we in Ireland like the UK citizens?

Permabear

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Grayson

We're a lot smaller than the UK and we're a lot more cynical in some ways. Studies showed that Irish people are a lot better at dealing with ambiguity. Even hiberno english reflects that. There's loads of ambiguous phrases that make complete sense to us but sound ridiculous to others.

It's something I try to express in threads about the Irish language. We are Irish. We have our own ways of talking and thinking that are unique. I don't think we need to worry about becoming too English because we're not really suited to it. Take our kind of patriotism. It's entirely different to the UK & American type. We take pride in ourselves but it's tinged with a healthy dose of self depreciation. If anyone here gets too into it the response of the rest of the country is to get over yourself.

ScumLord

Permabear wrote: »

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I can't think in stone at all anymore. I find it much easier to think in Kilos because just about everything is weighed in Kilos these days.

Still do refer to my height in ft and inches, but I just reference my height in ft and inches, I haven't measured myself in ages and because everything I deal with on a daily basis in measured in metres I starting to use myself as a reference for a metre.

It's all about familiarity, if you're using metric on a daily basis your brain switches over, if you're not measuring things out regularly in metric it becomes second nature.

Andy From Sligo

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

are we in Ireland like the UK citizens?

I only opened this thread because I wanted to know what this heading actually meant. I'm none the wiser now.

riffmongous

Do any young people use pounds and ounces while cooking anymore? My mother would but I never had a clue. Beyond beer, who uses a pint or quart for cooking?

Grayson

riffmongous wrote: »

Do any young people use pounds and ounces while cooking anymore? My mother would but I never had a clue. Beyond beer, who uses a pint or quart for cooking?

I do. But I don't own a cooking book that was written in the last 20 years.

Andy From Sligo

Deleted User wrote: »

I only opened this thread because I wanted to know what this heading actually meant. I'm none the wiser now.

im no good at thinking up titles

Permabear

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JupiterKid

I use a combo of metric and imperial and know the conversion rates pretty well. I was educated with the metric system and the imperial really makes no sense at all. Measure my height in feet and inches but for all distance measurements I use centimetres, metres and kilometres. Hell, Ireland has been using kilometres on its road signs for over 40 years now.

We are proud of our counrry but also have a healthy degree of self-deprecation which is all good. There are very few "little Irelanders" here. We know that going with global trends - not resisting them - is the only game in town.

Andy From Sligo

JupiterKid wrote: »

.... Hell, Ireland has been using kilometres on its road signs for over 40 years now.

...

has it? - when I moved here in 1991 and for some time it was mph road signs and even the black and white distance signs to places (when they were about ) used miles

Andy From Sligo

still think its odd, the road signs in kmh when just across border is MPH still, I mean I can understand if the distance signs were in km and the road signs were in Kmh it might get confusing , but still. and its not like we are like other Europeans that have adopted driving on the right of the road and using the kmh road signs. - hopefully if we get this 'cross-border' initiative with NI they are talking about maybe as well as not putting border control back, maybe we could have Ireland wide MPH roads signs back again

Skylinehead

Permabear wrote: »

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The worst thing about America and measuring systems is Fahrenheit.

http://imgur.com/gallery/3ZidINK

I think there comes a point where they should admit defeat...

maudgonner

Deleted User wrote: »

I only opened this thread because I wanted to know what this heading actually meant. I'm none the wiser now.

All of the UK citizens are in Ireland. (To collect their passports maybe?). Andy is wondering whether we too are in Ireland.

LordSutch

JupiterKid wrote: »

Ireland has been using kilometres on its road signs for over 40 years now.

Fifteen years at the most

I remember well all the hullabaloo regarding peoples speedos and being told by the AA to read the smaller inner circle for the new Km/h speed limits! The UK of course have stayed with Miles per hour, which is is one good way to tell when you have crossed the border from the ROI into the UK.

beardybrewer

Skylinehead wrote: »

The worst thing about America and measuring systems is Fahrenheit.

http://imgur.com/gallery/3ZidINK

I think there comes a point where they should admit defeat...

Not bloody likely. In fact, I'm surprised the imperial ounce and pint are bigger. I'd expect 'merica to have super-sized em.

maudgonner

LordSutch wrote: »

Fifteen years at the most

I remember well all the hullabaloo regarding peoples speedos and being told by the AA to read the smaller inner circle for the new Km/h speed limits! The UK of course have stayed with Miles per hour, which is is one good way to tell when you have crossed the border from the ROI into the UK.

For speed limits, yes. The changeover came in 2004-2005.

But distance signs had displayed kilometres (or both miles & kms) since the 1970s.

Alun

beardybrewer wrote: »

Not bloody likely. In fact, I'm surprised the imperial ounce and pint are bigger. I'd expect 'merica to have super-sized em.

Ounces and by extension fluid ounces are virtually the same, with minor differences due to how they're defined, on both sides of the Atlantic. The big difference is that a US pint is 16 fl.oz., and therefore weighs 1lb, whereas an Imperial pint is 20 fl.oz., leading the old phrase "A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter".

Andy From Sligo

maudgonner wrote: »

For speed limits, yes. The changeover came in 2004-2005.

But distance signs had displayed kilometres (or both miles & kms) since the 1970s.

naw, im sure they were all black and white distance signs in miles as I say when I moved over in the 90's - there were no km distance signs pretty sure/almost sure - well not in rural ireland

http://www.emerald-isle-gifts.com/images/articulos/big/rssl02.jpg

Andy From Sligo

Skylinehead wrote: »

The worst thing about America and measuring systems is Fahrenheit.

http://imgur.com/gallery/3ZidINK

I think there comes a point where they should admit defeat...

so logical in centigrade/Celsius knowing that freezing is 0c rather than 32f

Lt Dan

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I wasn't passionate or distressed when we changed over to euros on New Year's Day 2002. I was as hungover as fcuk and just thought 'oh new money' when the girl in the shop handed me over euro for change when I handed in punts while buying a breakfast roll.

The euro changeover here was pretty smooth, and I remember lots of people queuing at banks in the first week or two of January to get their money changed to euro as quickly as possible. Didn't see much distress there.

I was working that day and hung over. The workplace was like a bank, loads of people came in who probably would not normally come in to shop. Pure nightmare. Even the customers were loosing the rag when staff were apparently skipping ques, even if it was to fix the tills.

There was a bit of novelty in it. People were underwhelmed by the look of the notes. Of course, they shysters that they are, all the shops and pubs tried to hike up the prices on everything really quick. One Euro was about 73 Irish pence. A Snickers bar was about 30 p. Come the Euro, it goes up to a Euro. Thief!!

I suppose Joe Higgins did go to jail on behalf of the people of Finglas over paying bin charges. That allowed many Fingal people not paying for years, while many other parts of the country were all ready paying for their bins, bit like the water (many in the West for paying for decades)

The turf scenerio was a good 15 years too late. Parts of Galway had their bogs taken off them since the late 1990's to early 2000's

Pensioners and the IFA tend to scare the government when they go to protest. They often get their way too.

Permabear

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maudgonner

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

naw, im sure they were all black and white distance signs in miles as I say when I moved over in the 90's - there were no km distance signs pretty sure/almost sure - well not in rural ireland

http://www.emerald-isle-gifts.com/images/articulos/big/rssl02.jpg

They were gradually changed over - not all at once. But yes, distance signs started to include kms from the 70s onwards.

I had to check it earlier to be sure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Ireland

Distance signs had displayed kilometres since the 1970s but road speed limits were in miles per hour until January 2005, when they were finally changed to kilometres per hour.

KenjiOdo

I read a post on a thread about the GAA on here awhile back, the line in the "...Irish are a broken people.." really struck a chord with me. We have zero history since the bronze age to be proud of. Being conquered by the English & a famine with a mass exodus. Our history is quite sad. We never had a Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Picassso, van Gogh or Di Vinci of this world to revere or an 'jingo' attitude to war. Couple of scientists & poets & the black stuff, leprechauns, rainbows & shamrocks is what we are famous for (Harp too), nothing wrong with that, but we would far better in a global world i.e. being part of the EU or something similar we are a tiny nation. We just don't have the same history the UK has.

Badly Drunk Boy

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

naw, im sure they were all black and white distance signs in miles as I say when I moved over in the 90's - there were no km distance signs pretty sure/almost sure - well not in rural ireland

There was definitely a mixture of miles and kilometres going back decades. In more rural areas, signposts were slower to change, partly because some would have been forgotten about. Main roads were definitely changed.

maudgonner

KenjiOdo wrote: »

I read a post on a thread about the GAA on here awhile back, the line in the "...Irish are a broken people.." really struck a chord with me. We have zero history since the bronze age to be proud of. Being conquered by the English & a famine with a mass exodus. Our history is quite sad. We never had a Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Picassso, van Gogh or Di Vinci of this world to revere or an 'jingo' attitude to war. Couple of scientists & poets & the black stuff, leprechauns, rainbows & shamrocks is what we are famous for (Harp too), nothing wrong with that, but we would far better in a global world i.e. being part of the EU or something similar we are a tiny nation. We just don't have the same history the UK has.

Eh, we had monks that preserved Latin literature pretty much single-handedly during the dark ages, and educated people all over Europe. That's something to be immensely proud of in Irish history. They literally shaped modern civilisation.

IvyTheTerrible

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

naw, im sure they were all black and white distance signs in miles as I say when I moved over in the 90's - there were no km distance signs pretty sure/almost sure - well not in rural ireland

http://www.emerald-isle-gifts.com/images/articulos/big/rssl02.jpg

I definitely saw kms on road signs back in the 90s, I remember going to my granny's house and my father teaching me how to convert to miles in my head.

Andy From Sligo

ah right I am mistaken then about the road signs - the ol' memory cant be what it was I suppose

Permabear

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Arsemageddon

KenjiOdo wrote: »

We have zero history since the bronze age to be proud of...

As a nation we have achieved nothing in the last 2500 years? Really?

What an utterly ridiculous post.

Permabear

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