How come the Irish have no reputation in mainland Europe?

mikhail · 12-07-2016 05:45PM

wakka12 wrote: »

Why would people really care where you're from when you hardly care where others are from? If you hear a black person speaking a non european language you say theyre 'african' if you hear a person speaking an eastern european language you don't know well you call them Polish or eastern european and the majority of people couldn't even tell a korean,japanese and chinese apart based on accent appearance customs or language and then irish people get pissed when somebody in europe thinks you're english or scottish a very similar nearby island

You're making a lot of assumptions about an anonymous stranger on the internet there.

Spanish Eyes · 12-07-2016 05:46PM

We think we have more impact on other countries than we actually have. No one cares really.

Hubris almighty. Get over yerselves.

But be proud and accepting of reality just the same!

12-07-2016 05:50PM

Mec27 wrote: »

LMAO waiters/waitresses in france couldn't give a **** to even get into small talk pleasantries to begin with. You know in Ireland you'd get some waiter being chatty, those Frenchies just don't bother. I made a big attempt to come out with a pretty complex sentence, and all I got was a ''Ouai''

In general, Irish people expect English to be spoken to them at home and abroad. It's easy for an Irish waiter to be chatty in his own language. I know you said you attempted to converse en francais, but overall we don't bother our bollocks when abroad. I remember being heckled at Euro 2012 for ordering my lunch and beers in Polish by a load of Irish fans. Then these same fellas in their drunken slurs asking for Bulmers in the thickest Dub and Culchie accents and the servers having no clue what they're on about. Boils my blood.

Mec27 · 12-07-2016 06:03PM

Omackeral wrote: »

In general, Irish people expect English to be spoken to them at home and abroad. It's easy for an Irish waiter to be chatty in his own language. I know you said you attempted to converse en francais, but overall we don't bother our bollocks when abroad. I remember being heckled at Euro 2012 for ordering my lunch and beers in Polish by a load of Irish fans. Then these same fellas in their drunken slurs asking for Bulmers in the thickest Dub and Culchie accents and the servers having no clue what they're on about. Boils my blood.

Sure there is defo that but interactions are different over there. I'd go into a shop in Ireland be like hey hows it going man? That would be absurd to say in France. Addressing someone as 'man' would just be way too informal for them. They want your order with a 'sil vous plait, and Voila, GET OUT.

Lyaiera · 12-07-2016 06:22PM

H3llR4iser wrote: »

They have a point, absolutely - I am the first one to get quite a bit dismayed when I see some friends or even family members having a similar attitude.

But you are getting one side of the debate; If you get past the "mafia movies" stereotypes, you'll find out that Italian society is profoundly matriarchal. The women are the effective leaders of the family, and very often the men are little more than a walking ATM. Most young women simply expect to be put on a pedestal, never have to pay for anything and so on; they basically rate men based on "what can he do for me?". You can easily see it even in young couples - the guy kind of looks like some sort of "personal assistant" for his girlfriend. I don't expect anybody who hasn't seen or experienced it firsthand to fully get the picture.

Also, a word of warning - are you aware about what these "nice girls" think about Ireland, the Irish and Irish women in the specific? A huge part of my disagreement in defining them "nice" actually revolves exactly around this. I've heard...way less than flattering stuff coming out of the mouths of "nice Italian girls" when they talk about their Irish colleagues and friends. As I've said in a different thread, I've actually told other Italians the classic "you don't like it here, go back to Italy". Quite funny, I know...I sincerely hope you had the luck to meet properly nice ones (because there are some).

For laughs, have you ever had a discussion about the "Holy Grail" of Italian society, the bidet, with them?

Yeah, you're right, the women I know aren't "nice Italian girls TM" they're actually nice Italian people who left due to the whole matriarchal thing. They want an equal relationship, they don't want to be someone's mammy, and they don't want their BF to be providing everything for them or putting them on a pedestal.

It's interesting, and a really Catholic Mediterranean thing as well. I've heard similar things from Spanish friends, about how their Mammies are in charge no matter what. And both Italians and Spanish see some evidence of it in Ireland, but with added sexual repression. I imagine Ireland would have turned out a lot like Italy if we didn't speak English (and therefore have access to UK and US media) and if we were more open sexually in the past.

They are absolutely stunned when Irish women complain about street harassment. Not that it doesn't happen here, because it has happened to them here. They're more shocked about the level it happens here, which they say is far, far lower than in their hometowns.

Spanish Eyes · 12-07-2016 06:27PM

Dr Strange wrote: »

Interestingly in Brittany they know very well how to distinguish the Irish, very welcome there.

That is because they are Celts like Cornwall and ourselves. No wonder they love us. Have you ever heard their bagpipes?

They have an amazing Inter Celtic festival in Lorient too every year. Who'd a thunk it?

http://www.festival-interceltique.bzh/

12-07-2016 06:35PM

For the central euorpean countries I couldn't disagree more to be honest, Germans and Austrians are very familiar with Ireland, although I have encountered some confusion due to northern ireland most are very fond of Ireland . The amount of people who have actually visited too often surprises me.

I'd go so far as to say there is no other country I would rather tell people I am from

Lyaiera · 12-07-2016 06:40PM

riffmongous wrote: »

For the central euorpean countries I couldn't disagree more to be honest, Germans and Austrians are very familiar with Ireland, although I have encountered some confusion due to northern ireland most are very fond of Ireland . The amount of people who have actually visited too often surprises me.

I'd go so far as to say there is no other country I would rather tell people I am from

A friend of mine kept a German blog about his experiences of living in Ireland. It had hundreds of thousands of clicks a month from Germans. He's writing a book now on how to successfully immigrate to Ireland, and get set up here.

catbear · 12-07-2016 06:42PM

riffmongous wrote: »

For the central euorpean countries I couldn't disagree more to be honest, Germans and Austrians are very familiar with Ireland, although I have encountered some confusion due to northern ireland most are very fond of Ireland . The amount of people who have actually visited too often surprises me.

That is supposedly down to Heinrich Boll. Hugely popular writer in the 50s and 60s. Germans looked on Ireland as untouched by industrialization and signified a european folk innocence that people craved after the wars.

12-07-2016 07:00PM

Lyaiera wrote: »

A friend of mine kept a German blog about his experiences of living in Ireland. It had hundreds of thousands of clicks a month from Germans. He's writing a book now on how to successfully immigrate to Ireland, and get set up here.

There is even a good demand for Irish products, Irish pubs are always full (more so with locals than expats), you get Guinness and Kilkenny and whiskey in every decent supermarket and in the last year a lot of Irish cheese and butter has come has become available, which I am very happy with, now if we could just get some beef and lamb that would be great.

12-07-2016 07:04PM

catbear wrote: »

That is supposedly down to Heinrich Boll. Hugely popular writer in the 50s and 60s. Germans looked on Ireland as untouched by industrialization and signified a european folk innocence that people craved after the wars.

Sure even Otto Skorzeny himself came here to enjoy the countryside. But yeah the Irisches Tagebuch was pretty well known alright

IvyTheTerrible · 12-07-2016 07:19PM

Mec27 wrote: »

Sure there is defo that but interactions are different over there. I'd go into a shop in Ireland be like hey hows it going man? That would be absurd to say in France. Addressing someone as 'man' would just be way too informal for them. They want your order with a 'sil vous plait, and Voila, GET OUT.

Well if you don't "vousvoie" someone you don't know in the service industry, and call them "mec", it makes you sound like a skanger and it's no wonder they're not being chatty.

topmanamillion · 12-07-2016 07:24PM

I think we buy into a lot of our own myths. Particularly everyone thinks we're great craic & everyone's obsessed about Ireland.
While Irelands a nice country, it's a small island of 5 million or so people. We're just not as big of a deal as we'd like to think.

wakka12 · 12-07-2016 07:24PM

mikhail wrote: »

You're making a lot of assumptions about an anonymous stranger on the internet there.

Umm have you seen this thread? generalisation central

Daisy78 · 12-07-2016 07:35PM

whatdoicare wrote: »

In Australia, despite all the Irish living there, everyone thinks Ireland is in the UK. I've had many the conversation with people when I lived there who insist that Ireland is in England and therefore part of the UK.

I'm in Italy at the moment, met an Australian lady at one of the local train stations and got chatting as you do. It went something like this:

Her: So where are you guys from?
Me: Ireland
Her: Ireland? What about Brexit, what are you lot gonna do now eh? I here you get a lotta gypsies over there.
Me: Ah no, well we didn't vote for it so not a problem.
Her: But didn't youse vote to leave?
Me: Nope Britain did.
Cue look of bewilderment and end of conversation. Still don't know what the reference to the gypsies was all about.

catbear · 12-07-2016 07:40PM

My favorite line to australians when they asked if i was there because the potato failed again was 'nah, my sentence is up next year so i get to go home. you?"

Mec27 · 12-07-2016 09:05PM

Daisy78 wrote: »

I'm in Italy at the moment, met an Australian lady at one of the local train stations and got chatting as you do. It went something like this:

Her: So where are you guys from?
Me: Ireland
Her: Ireland? What about Brexit, what are you lot gonna do now eh? I here you get a lotta gypsies over there.
Me: Ah no, well we didn't vote for it so not a problem.
Her: But didn't youse vote to leave?
Me: Nope Britain did.
Cue look of bewilderment and end of conversation. Still don't know what the reference to the gypsies was all about.

Haah why were you so unnecessarily equivocal in your response. She clearly had no idea Ireland was not part of Britain so if you had just said it won't have an impact on us because we are a republic, an EU member regardless of what they do.

Zxclnic · 12-07-2016 10:08PM

Daisy78 wrote: »

I'm in Italy at the moment, met an Australian lady at one of the local train stations and got chatting as you do. It went something like this:

Her: So where are you guys from?
Me: Ireland
Her: Ireland? What about Brexit, what are you lot gonna do now eh? I here you get a lotta gypsies over there.
Me: Ah no, well we didn't vote for it so not a problem.
Her: But didn't youse vote to leave?
Me: Nope Britain did.
Cue look of bewilderment and end of conversation. Still don't know what the reference to the gypsies was all about.

She was almost certainly a Dub taking the pìss. The reference to The Gypsies was probably a nod to Bohemian Football Club, as for the use of 'youse' for a second person plural...well game set and match.
Aussie my arsè!

RDM_83 again · 12-07-2016 10:33PM

Lyaiera wrote: »

It's interesting, and a really Catholic Mediterranean thing as well. I've heard similar things from Spanish friends, about how their Mammies are in charge no matter what. And both Italians and Spanish see some evidence of it in Ireland, but with added sexual repression. I imagine Ireland would have turned out a lot like Italy if we didn't speak English (and therefore have access to UK and US media) and if we were more open sexually in the past.

They are absolutely stunned when Irish women complain about street harassment. Not that it doesn't happen here, because it has happened to them here. They're more shocked about the level it happens here, which they say is far, far lower than in their hometowns.

We're like the Poles then apart from we're shorter and don't do as much weights!

2nd part is definitely true from what I've heard from Italian friends, I do think there is a major cultural difference with the Italians from most other Europeans having worked with a lot, they argue so much and an argument can be needed to change their opinion, its not bad once you get used to it but its definitely something a lot of the other nationalities that I work with too have commented on (English, Germans, Poles, Hungarians)

How come the Irish have no reputation in mainland Europe?

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