Why are Irish not meaner?

jetsonx

Visit some of the poorest regions of Europe and you'll always discover the jokes the neighbouring countries or regions have about how mean and stingy their neighbours are.

But, here is the interesting thing about the Irish. We've had a Great Famine. We've been colonised and certain parts of our country has very poor agricultural land.

Now I'm sure sociology professors will say a collective history of famine and colonisation will make for some very frugal citizens

But, as a whole, and aside from some areas of Cavan, the Irish could never be desribed as stingy.

Explain this one?

Atlantic Dawn

We didn't have a great famine, there was plenty of food in the country at the time which was shipped out of the country to Britain, it was genocide.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015178#Comment_120015178

As was the case with the dozen plus famines in the previous century.

As for the stoic outlook, a small highly homogeneous country, very local and intimate. Most people in the same boat and knowing it rough or hard.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058276361/why-are-irish-not-meaner

You're a fret so you are with your ould slur on Cavan people.

Everyone knows they are an odious dacent breed of person.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015273#Comment_120015273

Rotten through and through with pure decency.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015282#Comment_120015282

Aye theres divil the lie in the truth.

hynesie08

A Cavan man would give you the shirt off his back.........

(And only charge you double what he paid for it)

Strumms

When something bad happens, and you get shafted, most decent folks determine that they will ensure they don’t behave in that same manner towards another person. They operate on a mindset and platform of generosity.

the Irish in general, when they have an opportunity to help, do. It’s in our DNA…

yet, despite billions being spent on new arrivals you still have people clamouring for an end to direct provision.

looks like that is going to happen… the cost to the Irish taxpayers is according to governments own figures.. an extra 672 million euros.

Being mean is one thing… being prudent and knowing when to say enough isn’t mean, it’s responsible…

pgj2015

There are plenty of stingy people in Ireland in fairness. awful trait but what can you do. nothing worse than a stingy miserable person but nothing better than someone who is decent with his/her money.

Hyperbollix

Catholic country. We're big on charity. Those other stingy parts of Europe are probably protestant. Like Scotland.

Edit - In case anyone wants to talk about the huge number of atheists in the latest census, I mean we are culturally catholic. Ingrained in the DNA. We mighnt believe in God, but we go to Mass at Xmas, get married in churches and believe in helping those who are worse off than ourselves.

jetsonx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015723#Comment_120015723

So why are Catholics more flaithiuil with the money?

hamburgham

Why is meanness so annoying? I know someone who always pays her way but is mind bogglingly stingy in her own life. I don’t know why it annoys me so much when it doesn’t impact me at all.

Mimon

I would say it is something to do with the fact that we are not as removed from tribal society as most European societies. Our neighbours would have been part of out Tuath and would be treated like family. Can still see it with a lot of people in the countyside today. My father grew up in the middle of nowhere and neighbours are all like family.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058276361/why-are-irish-not-meaner

frugality is a Protestant trait traditionally

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015679#Comment_120015679

Yes and No , Irish people tend to be forgiving of the rogue who is casual about paying his bills as long as he’s generous in the pub at the weekend, the straight laced quiet fella who would never owe anyone a red cent can wrongly earn a reputation for “ being tight “ if he’s not much of a social drinker etc

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016024#Comment_120016024

I don’t know but it’s you that’s the problem, not the frugal person of honest integrity

Dr Turk Turkelton

http://fb.watch/hwCRyz1lG0/

Here ya go op.

Strumms

People won’t get ‘mean’ they’ll just have to start putting a greater emphasis on looking after their wellbeing and that of family and loved ones.

jetsonx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016254#Comment_120016254

Brilliant.

I'm sure people who've done Sociology P.hDs can't describe it as well as that video!

Cheers.

Still stihl waters 3

I was reading recently that people whom are mistreated in their early years are more prone to kindness and generosity in later life as they know what it's like to be treated like dirt, not sure how true it is but if it is maybe its in the national psyche to spread kindness and generosity to make up for our shìtty past

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016440#Comment_120016440

in my experience people who have little are far more generous and less tight with money. working class people are better tippers than middle class and upper class.

Still stihl waters 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016459#Comment_120016459

My father always said its the ones that could barely afford it would pay you first for a job, i suppose they didn't want a bill hanging over their heads

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015864#Comment_120015864

Going to heaven, protestants and others are not.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016491#Comment_120016491

People get obsessed with Money as well, more they have the more so.

I do work for a man who will probably have an income of 350k this year, Money is all to him.

jm08

Under Brehon Law, all households were bound to provide hospitality to even strangers. Even during the famine, when people had practically nothing, they would share what they had. This hospitality thing is built into our DNA. People outside what was the Pale would have lived by the Brehon Law up to 18th century rather than English law. Ireland's repuation as the island of a ''1000 welcomes'' comes from this.

harmless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016664#Comment_120016664

By built in to our DNA do you mean that generous people had an elevoritony advanrtage and this altered our genetics in just a few hundred years?

Kaybaykwah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016666#Comment_120016666

The Irish DNA is not purely helicoidal, it rather is shaped like an ice cream cone. This characteristic instills kindness and generosity in yhe population at large.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120016219#Comment_120016219

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.. is the phrase. There's two sides to that but if more people used that as a guide in life, we would have avoided the greed, over borrowing and defaulting that went with the Celtic Tiger. Those in favour of being flathulach with money are often the same as those who expect others to pick up the tab for them.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120017066#Comment_120017066

You can sing that last line

RoboRat

I remember as a kid, my father's van got robbed. He was about 1 year in business and his van and tools were essential for his business. The van was recovered, but it cost a lot to fix. Unfortunately, the tools were not insured as there was no policy at that time which would cover tools (this was back in the 80s).

He was devastated, his tools cost about £3,000 (probably around 15-20k in todays money) and he was resigned to his business going under. Around a week later, a neighbour called to the door and handed him an envelope with around £3,500 in it. He said they did a whip around in the estate, and word went to other estates - everyone donated to help him out. No big ceremony - he just handed the envelope and wished him luck in getting back on his feet.

I never saw my father crying until this point, and he was absolutely gobsmacked by the generosity of our neighbours. We were not from a rich area, it was a place with a lot of young families and money was tight for most. He was always generous with his time, and tools when required, and it came back in spades at that difficult time.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120015864#Comment_120015864

Catholics have a propensity to be reckless in many areas of life, money is no different. Remember during the '08 financial crisis, so many of the countries in desperate trouble were largely catholic nations, while the ones who were more fiscally prudent were protestant.

Tbh, I think the real reason Irish people are very welcoming, generous and charitable is because there is a deep seated, generational hurt associated with the famine and everything leading up to independence and the civil war. We innately understand the brutality of the world and have an ingrained sense of the need for good works and helping others less fortunate.

Contrast this to the US, where it's citizens have been living on a 7 decade long binge of sugar, animal fat, gas guzzlng cars and "The Murican dream"

There is nothing to knit that society together in the way ours has been. Catholicism and poverty, a powerful combo.