What's the strangest or most remote place you've met an Irish person?

JackieChang · 25-01-2017 10:37PM #1

We have a knack for getting around. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Irish lad living in some village in Afghanistan. Have you come across any Irish folk in remote or strange places?

This isn't exactly strange or very remote but I think it fits the bill.

I had just arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and started making my way to a "cool hidden beach campsite off the tourist trail" somebody recommended to me.

"Nobody knows about this place, it's not in the Lonely Planet books" etc. etc.

It was a bit of a trek to get there - had to take a taxi and a tuk tuk through polluted streets and then a dangerously overloaded ferry and then another tuk tuk.

Just to give you a mental image of the place I arrived to - the campsite was on the Indian Ocean. Secluded, quiet, away from the city, right on the white sand turquoise water beach which was lined with palm trees - ticked all the boxes. Hammocks were dotted around the campsite gently swaying in the breeze and the bar/reception was a thatched structure with no walls, so the breeze made its way through the bar which was a godsend in the roasting heat. You could hear the sound of waves breaking quietly in the background and nothing else. There were no other tourists there. The place was totally empty.

I thought to myself - I couldn't be further away from home.

After throwing my luggage into a tent I went back to the bar and ordered a beer. Then I turned around to eye up one of the hammocks and saw a ginger guy standing beside me, burnt to an absolute crisp and wearing a football jersey. He had just arrived. I asked him where's he's from. He said Mayo. And that was the end of my secluded holiday.

25-01-2017 10:41PM

A couple of days ago up the side of a mountain I was climbing in New Zealand. There wasn't a soul around for hundred miles (or so I thought) when this guy appears out of nowhere, shirtless, sunburnt, and a bit jarred, and asks me if he's near the top yet. No, seriously.

ClovenHoof · 25-01-2017 10:44PM

Tulsk, County Roscommon. I was amazed it was capable of sustaining any human existence at all.

fleet_admiral · 25-01-2017 10:45PM

Dublin, Ireland. Driving a taxi

antodeco · 25-01-2017 10:46PM

Balgaddy (may be a locales joke only!)

Mr. FoggPatches · 25-01-2017 10:49PM

In an art gallery.

Toots · 25-01-2017 10:53PM

I was on a bus in Sydney on my way home from work. A couple of stops later this guy in his 20s gets on and sits next to me. I suspected from his swaying gait as he walked up the bus that he was half pissed, and my suspicion was confirmed by the strong smell of cider off him. A few mins later my dad rang me on my mobile and at various points during the conversation the guy beside me kept laughing.

He was really creeping me out and I was horrified when I got off the bus, he got off at the same stop and started following me down the street. I sped up, so did he. I crossed a side road, he followed. He caught up with me at the pedestrian crossing (by then I was convinced he had planned to either rape or kill me) and drunkenly explained to me that he thought it was gas to hear my south dublin accent in the middle of an aussie bus (

) and he wanted to know where I was from. Turned out he lived on the road behind my parents. He thought this was the funniest thing that had ever happened. I said good luck and started walking home, looked back at the end of the road to see him still standing where I left him, cracking his hole laughing, and hanging onto a lamp post for support.

muddypaws · 25-01-2017 10:59PM

I guess it wasn't really that strange, but while backpacking around Israel in the 80s we stayed in a hostel that was in a convent in Nazareth. One of the nuns was from Dublin, and took us on a tour of places that aren't open to the public, purely because of the Irish connection.

I also stayed on a kibbutz whilst there, there was an Irish family living there, I went to their home for dinner a couple of times at their invitation.

cml387 · 25-01-2017 11:01PM

So I can take it from these posts that if mankind ever makes it to the moons of Jupiter there'll be a half cut guy in a Roscommon jersey wandering around asking "How's the craic".

retalivity · 25-01-2017 11:02PM

In the wall across from me in a capsule motel in fukuoka, japan. He was from roscommon

eeguy · 25-01-2017 11:04PM

Times Square NY.

I was walking through and a lad handed me a pub flier and said "come on over lad, craic is mighty"
Met another lad from Palmerstown in the hostel

Rumpy Pumpy · 25-01-2017 11:05PM

I was on a small boat off Tierra del Fuego going out to see the seals, whales, penguins etc. They had this raffle on the way back where they'd give you a flag with the promise you'd take a picture of it when you got home and sent it to them. I won and announced I was from Ireland. Turns out the girl sitting across from me was from the next county over and I'd gone to college with his sister. We spent the next month or so travelling back up through Southern Argentina and Chile.

rossie1977 · 25-01-2017 11:07PM

Temple bar

Conor Bourke · 25-01-2017 11:07PM

eeguy wrote: »

Times Square NY.

I was walking through and a lad handed me a pub flier and said "come on over lad, craic is mighty"
Met another lad from Palmerstown in the hostel

Hardly strange or remote?!

Jawgap · 25-01-2017 11:08PM

Kerguelen!!

Arrived to do a research assessment, and as part of the orientation for the site you had to have a chat with the doc......who was from Dublin!!

jackwigan · 25-01-2017 11:09PM

eeguy wrote: »

Times Square NY.

I was walking through and a lad handed me a pub flier and said "come on over lad, craic is mighty"
Met another lad from Palmerstown in the hostel

Irish in New York! Small world so it is.

cml387 · 25-01-2017 11:12PM

Didn't happen me, but to my brother.
On his travels at a remote telegraph station in Darjeeling, there was a white man there who accused my brother of imitating his accent.

Yes, of course. Both of them were from Mullingar and this story is absolutely true.

Capt'n Midnight · 25-01-2017 11:14PM

Mr. FoggPatches wrote: »

In an art gallery.

Was it raining ?

Duff · 25-01-2017 11:14PM

Was hiking with two friends fairly off the beaten trail in Yosemite National Park and was taking a pish in a bush when I heard "Jaysis Mark, there could be a feckin' grizzly two foot from us and ya wouldn't see it". Turns out there was two other Irish lads from Waterford hiking the same area. Didn't meet a single other person in the 3 days we were there.

Dr Crayfish · 25-01-2017 11:14PM

I love how meeting Irish people annoys Irish tourists who are trying to out-backpack everyone else by being unique in their experiences, like no one else has ever gone to these places.
I remember being in Argentina somewhere on my own and was happy to hear some albeit D4ish accents. I approached them in the hostel in a friendly manner asking how they were doing etc, while drinking a beer, usually other humans tend to exchange pleasantries and perhaps even have conversations and fun etc. They just cold shouldered me totally and muttered something about not meeting any Irish people on their travels. I was travelling with a French guy at the time and whatever we did our own thing but I remember how friendly and talkative they were with the other backpackers of all nationalities. I don't particularly fit the sunburnt GAA jersey stereotype (I tan quite well!!) either.
Anyway, I feel like going back to these places and burning the sh*t out of my skin, wearing a Dublin jersey and following these types around hostels just trying to embarrass the f*ck out of them by getting blind drunk and singing Luke Kelly songs etc. Maybe that's my next holiday

ChikiChiki · 25-01-2017 11:14PM

Heard some lad speaking some mad language from the distance in Barabinsk Russia on the trans siberian railway. Got a little closer and turned out he was from Banagher Co Offaly. Absolute lunatic aswell.

To be honest I'd say his family were delighted he was let do his thing in the wilds of Russia.

cml387 · 25-01-2017 11:15PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Was it raining ?

I hadn't noticed.

Sorry couldn't resist

eeguy · 25-01-2017 11:16PM

jackwigan wrote: »

Irish in New York! Small world so it is.

It's the strangest place I've met another Irishman. Sorry it doesn't meet your criteria;):D

Aka Ishur · 25-01-2017 11:22PM

Parked up the campervan in the wilderness of the new Zealand South Island at 2 in the morning. Drove hours to get to the back arse of nowhere, genuinely nothing for hundred miles in any direction, difficult mountain roads etc etc.

So of course when I got up the next day another camper van was parked up beside us, tricolor flying, and the most red freckled Irish bearded head pokin out the back. Kerry accent roaring to me 'lovely mornin'

No feckin escape.

Berserker · 25-01-2017 11:24PM

At a Shell station in North Dallas, Texas. Was filling up the car, person walking by me dropped something on the ground and I pointed it out to him. He thanked me and I noticed the accent. Chatted briefly to him. He was from Leitrim.

Dr Crayfish · 25-01-2017 11:24PM

Aka Ishur wrote: »

Parked up the campervan in the wilderness of the new Zealand South Island at 2 in the morning. Drove hours to get to the back arse of nowhere, genuinely nothing for hundred miles in any direction, difficult mountain roads etc etc.

So of course when I got up the next day another camper van was parked up beside us, tricolor flying, and the most red freckled Irish bearded head pokin out the back. Kerry accent roaring to me 'lovely mornin'

No feckin escape.

You poor thing he sounded like a real bastard.
You really went to the wrong place to avoid Irish people, NZ is full of them.

Aka Ishur · 25-01-2017 11:28PM

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

You poor thing he sounded like a real bastard.
You really went to the wrong place to avoid Irish people, NZ is full of them.

Ah hé was grand cooked him breakfast, just the strangest place to encounter a countryman as the op asked. Would have been just as surprised to see Santa himself turn up it was so remote.

maudgonner · 25-01-2017 11:38PM

Aka Ishur wrote: »

Parked up the campervan in the wilderness of the new Zealand South Island at 2 in the morning. Drove hours to get to the back arse of nowhere, genuinely nothing for hundred miles in any direction, difficult mountain roads etc etc.

The whole of the South Island is around 500 miles long.

Are you Bear Grylls by any chance?

Roadtoad · 25-01-2017 11:39PM

Sat on a log on a beach in Oregon USA once. Looked over and a next-door neighbour from Dublin was sitting further down the same log.

Ferrari3600 · 25-01-2017 11:40PM

eeguy wrote: »

Times Square NY.

I was walking through and a lad handed me a pub flier and said "come on over lad, craic is mighty"
Met another lad from Palmerstown in the hostel

No offense but that really isn't particularly strange, is it? I mean, half of NYC was practically founded by the Irish.

The first time I went to NYC I went to the Breeder's Cup with some friends and I saw a guy that looked remarkably like my cousin. I has half thinking of approaching him but he walked off and I thought, never mind, probably just a look alike, plus I'd have felt pretty stupid if it turned out to not be him.

A few weeks later back home in Ireland, found out from his mother back that it was indeed him, he had been posted to NYC for a few months for a work project and had attended the Breeders Cup.

SkinnyBuddha · 25-01-2017 11:43PM

I met somebody who I went to secondary school with , who I had never seen after the inter cert , in the UN club in Gaza.Late 90's.

He was sound in school and he was sound when we met as adults.

true story

What's the strangest or most remote place you've met an Irish person?

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