Why are a lot of Irish people such home birds

JakeArmitage

It really irks me, the world is there to be explored but I have friends that wont even move an hour away from Mammy and Daddy despite the obvious increase in career options it would serve

Dirty Dingus McGee

Maybe some people are happy living near home.

Moving away from home maybe isn't all it's made out to be for some people.

Wigglepuppy

I'm not having a go but as a home bird myself, is it worth getting annoyed by if it does not affect you directly? (I did live three hours from my family home for a few years but then came back to the same area). I can totally understand not getting it, in the same way that I don't get why people want to go backpacking. But I wouldn't let it annoy me.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

GLaDOS

Family is important to a lot of people, for better or worse.

JakeArmitage

GLaDOS wrote: »

Family is important to a lot of people, for better or worse.

Thats true but unwilling to move 1 hour away from your parents so you can leave your job you hate doesnt make sense to me

groucho marx

Why search for greener grass when your happy to have people that actually care about you around you

keeponhurling

It's not just Irish people who can be home birds

Wigglepuppy

JakeArmitage wrote: »

Thats true but unwilling to move 1 hour away from your parents so you can leave your job you hate doesnt make sense to me

Oh well yeah if a person never stops whingeing and their problem would be solved by them moving a small distance away, that's annoying all right. Sometimes people can be set a little *too* in their ways.

Dirty Dingus McGee

JakeArmitage wrote: »

Thats true but unwilling to move 1 hour away from your parents so you can leave your job you hate doesnt make sense to me

Do many people do that?

You seem to be picking one example from your life and saying loads of people are like that.

1 hour is not much of a commute either so most people probably wouldn't need to move form home if the great job is supposedly only an hour away.

groucho marx

Dunno why it would "irk" you unless your selling condos in never never land where the grass is greener groceries are cheaper and people are less judgemental and more attractive

cbyrd

Some of us like our mammys and daddys.. don't feel the need to run away or be far away. It's not for everyone, don't dis the family lovers ....

The Raptor

Why does it bother you how somebody else lives their life?

Your Face

JakeArmitage wrote: »

It really irks me, the world is there to be explored but I have friends that wont even move an hour away from Mammy and Daddy despite the obvious increase in career options it would serve

Good story bro.

Arsemageddon

JakeArmitage wrote: »

Thats true but unwilling to move 1 hour away from your parents so you can leave your job you hate doesnt make sense to me

So your idea of ' whole world to explore' is moving an hours drive from your hometown?!

Christopher Columbus eat your heart out.

JakeArmitage

JakeArmitage wrote: »

It really irks me, the world is there to be explored but I have friends that wont even move an hour away from Mammy and Daddy despite the obvious increase in career options it would serve

I like living abroad but it does get tiring... and there are plenty of advantages to staying near home. Anyway, I didn't really move away from ireland until my late 20's/early 30's. How old are your mates? Probably have plenty of time should they wish to do it later. Fact is, Ireland's economy is bouncing back pretty well... it's a good time to stay.

SEPT 23 1989

What are you running away from?

SEPT 23 1989

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

What are you running away from?

huh?

Samaris

Well, first of all, are they? You give one example, and I'll point out in response that many people the world over stay close to home, especially if mobility is not particularly easy. Look at the East End of London. Until the councils actively started knocking down ancient and condemned tenements, many people were born there, grew up, married, had children and died without ever going beyond the East End.

Villages can build entire communities based on everyone knowing everyone else and having a tight web of social and familial links that means everyone can rely on everyone else.

Also, Ireland is a nation of emigration. Our main export is people. We travel so much that 70 million people around the world are (may be) descended from Irish people that hike off into the wild blue yonder with little more than what's in their pockets.

Er..in conclusion, I respond to your anecdotal evidence with unsubstantiated evidence, because I don't really have the time to go link-hunting. :pac:

cml387

I saw a documentary once where this guy warned his daughter not to go out foreign because she'd be kidnapped but she went anyway and then she went with this friend and they arrived in this foreign airport (it might be Paris I dunno) and then they met this guy and it looked like he was friendly but he was really an evil kidnapper and she was kidnapped and the father he had to come and get her but he phoned the bad guys first to tell them he was coming.

So stay at home in the corner with your arms folded thats what I say.

JakeArmitage

Arsemageddon wrote: »

So your idea of ' whole world to explore' is moving an hours drive from your hometown?!

Christopher Columbus eat your heart out.

NO NO Your not getting my point, the world is one ones oyster but this person wont AT LEAST move an hours drive away from home to better their job prospects

Son Of A Vidic

JakeArmitage wrote: »

Why are a lot of Irish people such home birds

Probably due to the ongoing & long term damaging effects of The Troika.

Akrasia

Some people had a happy childhood, like where they were raised and would like to raise their own family in the same place.

Also, many people have parents who they deeply respect, and want them to have a close relationship with their children, and also want to be there for those parents when they get older and need a bit of support themselves....



Work life balance is a personal issue. My preferences are totally out of whack with others who have very different priorities.

Arsemageddon

JakeArmitage wrote: »

NO NO Your not getting my point, the world is one ones oyster but this person wont AT LEAST move an hours drive away from home to better their job prospects

Well allow me to retort.......

There is nothing as tedious as someone who thinks that because they have spent a year in Australia and then stopped off for a few weeks in Thailand on the way back they have the right to bore the tits off everyone who has to listen to them with stories of their totally amazing adventures.

If you want to go somewhere, grand, off with ya and I hope you enjoy yourself, but it doesn't make you superior in any way.

RobertKK

I don't care if people are home birds or not. Once you are doing no one any harm and are happy, then I don't see the problem.

humberklog

JakeArmitage wrote: »

It really irks me, the world is there to be explored but I have friends that wont even move an hour away from Mammy and Daddy despite the obvious increase in career options it would serve

For such a small nation there's loads of Irish all around the world.
We're hardly a nation of homebirds ffs.

zzfh

B-but Mammy's mashed potatoes are soo good..

Sir Osis of Liver.

Nowhere, but nowhere in the world can you buy a 2litre of fresh Avonmore milk.


Keeps the lads coming home.

buried

Why does your bird home so much

LeinsterDub

Because Ireland is great and Leinster and Dublin and don't play anywhere else

Noveight

I'm a home bird because I've travelled to other places, seen how shíte they all are in comparison and decided to come home again.

JupiterKid

I'm in Holland, staying with my sister in a pretty Dutch village just outside Amsterdam and the amount of her local friends and neighbours who have settled in the same place they grew up is amazing.

I think us Irish are actually very good at travelling and settling in different countries/continents. Some are home birds, but no where as near as many Dutch are.

wakka12

Some people love their life here.
Ive been all over europe, there are amazing cities that I enjoyed visiting but Dublin will always be the home I love.

BabyE

Irelands grand, I probably like the sun and beach way more than you and benefit from it because I actually look med, but after a while I miss Ireland, stop trying to enforce the travel bull**** on others, you shouldn't need to run away to find happiness.

Quite simply because so many can't afford to live away from home and have a similar standard of living that they have at home.

buried

The OP wants to go explore the world.
But the OP doesn't really want to go explore the world unless the OP's hometown friends are there to hold the OP's hand while they are doing it.
Thats not really the fault of 'Ireland' OP.
Its your own fault. Your irkin yourself. YOU are the homebird

Esel

It takes a village to raise a child.

lawlolawl

Some people realize that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Pretty much everyone I know that moved away in their twenties has moved back or wants to move back. My own brother is stuck in Australia because of a messy situation with a kid he has with someone he is no longer with. He'd much rather be back in Ireland.

Once the novelty of being somewhere different wears off, you are just doing the same hum drum day to day stuff of life except you are miles from your friends and family and the natives will never fully accept you.

L'prof

One of OP's arguments for leaving home is career prospects. The thing is, not everybody is career driven. This person may or may not be happy in their job, but the prospect of having to look and interview for another may not seem worth the effort. Just like some people are drawn to home while others can't wait to break away, some people work to live while others live to work. Either way, I don't see why somebody else's personal preferences irritate you so much

DEFTLEFTHAND

I've noticed that the Irish are similar to the Italians and Spanish in this regard.

They're very close to their parents because they were raised in strong Catholic families. The basic social unit which society thrives on is the 'nuclear family.'

This was particularly well held together in Catholic countries.

We see the social faults which emerge when the nuclear family system is discouraged. Crime stems from it as we've seen both here and further a field.

A boy especially needs a strong Dad to lead him, it's so sad that many boys never get that.

Lollipops23

I left (by myself) for a year and went to Canada. Threw myself into the experience entirely, had good jobs and made tonnes of friends.
I came home last June and haven't looked back- I have better job than before I left and generally have a better life. Living far away from your home and family is very very tough, and not for the faint hearted.

Olishi4

JakeArmitage wrote: »

It really irks me, the world is there to be explored but I have friends that wont even move an hour away from Mammy and Daddy despite the obvious increase in career options it would serve

I moved about an hour away from my parents and strangely I actually see them more now than when I lived around the corner from them.

I personally couldn't live away in another country from my family. My oh does but he's here that long, he says he feels a bit homesick to get back to Ireland when we go to his hometown.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

JakeArmitage wrote: »

Thats true but unwilling to move 1 hour away from your parents so you can leave your job you hate doesnt make sense to me

You obviously have someone in mind. Don't paint the whole country with the one brush. The Irish are renowned for their wandering all over the world.

sryanbruen

Nowhere just compares to how beautiful my home is thus the phrase, "Home sweet home". I speak **** about it (Ireland) all the time but in reality, you know I love you Ireland.

hairyslug

For those of us that have travelled, how often have we been in the back end of beyond and bumped into another Irish person, we are everywhere, and that's saying a lot for such a small country.

Your Face

hairyslug wrote: »

For those of us that have travelled, how often have we in the back end of beyond and bumped into an other Irish person, we are everywhere, and that's saying a lot for such a small country.

It means you can never truly leave.

faceman

I get you OP. I travel a lot. (at the moment I'm typing this while on a train from Oxford to London) I remember my father once telling me he learns more about my travels from Facebook and Twitter than from me direct.

But I have many friends who are happy to be home birds. That's ok too.

We're a funny bunch though us Paddies. Many who travel still want that sense of home away from home. That's why we create Irish communities abroad. (Seriously almost every country I've been to has a local formal Irish community group). We socialise in Irish pubs abroad, bring teabags on holiday and have our mammies send us tayto crisps in the post! Travelling to Australia quickly became a satirical cliche as certain areas became more popular with paddies.

But there is something incredibly enriching about travelling. It broadens your horizons but gives you a narrower focus on what's important for you in life. An Irish friend who married an American diplomatic official is stationed in different countries regularly. They have kids. She once told me that the family home is the dinner table they're sitting at and that's what's important, not th 4 walks and the roof, not the local boozer and not living in a house 1 mile up the road from your parents.

Travelling has really taught me a different view and respect of other cultures, people and religions that we can't appreciate being at home. Not to mention the views and experiences.

But that's just me and everyone is different.

What I do hate though is how hung up we get with 'pothole politics' that dominates society in Ireland though.

Pac1Man

faceman wrote: »

I get you OP. I travel a lot.............

Does the OP not mean more about where you lay your roots as opposed to where you go on holidays?

MilesMorales1

I'm not Irish, I moved here from the UK, but not everyone has the travelling bug and not everyone needs to roam the world all the time.

wakka12

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I've noticed that the Irish are similar to the Italians and Spanish in this regard.

They're very close to their parents because they were raised in strong Catholic families. The basic social unit which society thrives on is the 'nuclear family.'

This was particularly well held together in Catholic countries.

We see the social faults which emerge when the nuclear family system is discouraged. Crime stems from it as we've seen both here and further a field.

A boy especially needs a strong Dad to lead him, it's so sad that many boys never get that.

Strong catholic families? Italy Spain and Ireland all have relatively high levels of atheism. Whatever about family being important in these cultures, maybe you have a point there, but religion is not a large influencing factor here.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/mass-attendance-in-dublin-to-drop-by-one-third-by-2030-1.2504351
Just 20% of Dublin people attend mass once a week, and as you can see at weekly masses, that group is at the very least 50% over 60 years old. And in poorer areas of Dublin just 2% of the population go to mass once a week. And this number across Dublin and Ireland is set to drop hugely (30%) by 2030.

Dirty Dingus McGee

wakka12 wrote: »

Strong catholic families? Italy Spain and Ireland all have relatively high levels of atheism. Whatever about family being important in these cultures, maybe you have a point there, but religion is not a large influencing factor here.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/mass-attendance-in-dublin-to-drop-by-one-third-by-2030-1.2504351
Just 20% of Dublin people attend mass once a week, and as you can see at weekly masses, that group is at the very least 50% over 60 years old. And in poorer areas of Dublin just 2% of the population go to mass once a week. And this number across Dublin and Ireland is set to drop hugely (30%) by 2030.

In our traditions Ireland is effectively a catholic country.