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

cajonlardo · 25-01-2017 11:43PM

May have posted this before...

Mate was out running in rural japan and due to dehydration and jet lag got very lost. He had no water and was in serious trouble. He saw someone walking towards him and as they got closer he realised the man was a westerner. When he was close enough my mate called to him for help.
Yer man turned out not only to speak English but was actually Irish. He offered to drive my mate back to his hotel. During the drive he asked my mate what part of Ireland he was from. Mate said Bray and the man asked him if he knew my own Father - turned out this lad was an Army guy who had served side by side with my Father for over 20 years.....

Also, an uncle of mine and I had sort of similar experiences. Uncle was driving through a market in Palestine ( 1940's) and saw a big crowd He climbed on the bonnet of the jeep to see what was going on and there were 2 lads he'd gone to school with in Bray boxing the heads off each other in the middle ....

In Florida I got attacked one night by about half a dozen serious head cases. Next thing this lad bursts into the middle and starts laying out bodies left right and centre - it was only when we got clear and were running for our lives we realised we'd been mates growing up.

Heard several other stories kinda like that over the years. Wherever you go, remember who you are and where you came from - because if you don't someone will be along very shortly to remind you

Father Hernandez · 25-01-2017 11:44PM

My story is a little different but kind of relatable so why not.

Sitting in a quiet bar in Johannesburg, South Africa around lunchtime with a local enjoying a beer and an Ozzie was strumming away on the guitar.

After a song, he mentioned how the night previous had been bad for SA rugby (losing to Japan in the RWC) where I commented the Irish had a great win.

Over the mic he asked where I was from and turns out he lived in the next town over to my hometown for 4 years with his now ex girlfriend who is my best friends cousin.

Small world.

Losty Dublin · 26-01-2017 12:01AM

Wandering down a random Chicago street one winter Sunday and who do I bump into but Conor Murray, Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong and CJ Stander. Mad, Ted

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 26-01-2017 12:21AM

In Canada, at niagra I got talking to someone from cork. He asked me where I was from, I told him. He told me his aunt was from same county. Told me his aunts name. His aunt lived across the road from me all my life.

uck51js9zml2yt · 26-01-2017 12:47AM

I was on the train from bratislava to northern Slovakia. A guy comes into my booth asking was the train going to another city further up the line. He was from dublin and going to see his wife who was over there studying.

darkpagandeath · 26-01-2017 12:49AM

I think I maybe the only one that would not find it strange to find an Irish person in another country or remote area. You are well known travellers of the world.

Arghus · 26-01-2017 12:55AM

There was that time I was in the Gulag in Siberia and sure wasn't the fella shackled in the cell beside me from Mullingar. What are the odds I thought.

He said it was actually better than Mullingar when all was said and done.

fuzzydunlop85 · 26-01-2017 01:04AM

Met an Irish fella absolutely steaming drunk on the tour of the Demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

FizzleSticks · 26-01-2017 01:09AM

This post has been deleted.

Calibos · 26-01-2017 03:05AM

Not me personally but....

Aunt and Uncle 40 year emmigrants to Perth walk into their local bar and are served by the new Barmaid. Soon as they hear her Irish accent they ask what part of Ireland she's from. "Bray Co. Wicklow" says she. "Wow" says my Aunt, "My Sister/brother-in-law own a shop in Bray". "Your not Calibos' Aunt are you?". "YES!!!!!!"

They were returning to live in Ireland for their retirement. At my uncles retirement party at work, the company owners daughter was in attendence with her new Irish Boyfriend. "What part of Ireland are you from Sonny??". "Bray Co. Wicklow" says he. "Wow, My Sister/brother-in-law etc own a shop in Bray!! Calibos'. Do you know it?". "I should do, my mother owns the premises that shop is in!"

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 26-01-2017 03:41AM

Not so much an Irish person, but I overheard two girls speaking Irish while in an ATM queue in Berlin during the summer.

Lyle Lanley · 26-01-2017 04:25AM

Don't think I've been to a country yet where I haven't met an Irish person. I would consider myself relatively well travelled but haven't been anywhere all that remote.

Met four lads from cork in Laos once, went to the Irish pub where it turned out the owner was a distant cousin of one of the lads.

I also met my childhood next door neighbour in an airport in Vietnam.

mfceiling · 26-01-2017 08:03AM

Standing on top of table mountain in Cape Town. Oul lad near us asks if we would take his picture. Wife takes his photo and hands him back his camera. Asks her where she's from? She tells him laois. What's the family name. She tells him. Oh are you "t's" daughter. Yes I am. Grand tell him I was asking for him. Ok so...

Teyla Emmagan · 26-01-2017 08:31AM

We are big into networking though. Or at least figuring people out. So a simple "I'm from Bray" is never enough for an Irish person, most would not be happy until a blood relationship has been established. And then both parties can retreat, satisfied.

bradolf pittler · 26-01-2017 09:08AM

Got talking to a guy in the rugby club in Doha,Qatar last year.You'd swear he was local cos the sun had turned him mahogany.Turned out he was from Letterkenny ,been there for the past 12 years and knew some friends of mine in Donegal.

razorblunt · 26-01-2017 10:45AM

Emerald Lake in Canada (ironic name I know).
Hiking through the woods and came across 3 lads having a pit stop, "how are de lads" they ask.
"Erra, not too bad now yourself?" was answered with.

Parchment · 26-01-2017 10:47AM

Met a guy in Miami, he was from Laois. Turned out he managed a very fancy golf club there and invited us over - we got to fly around on golf carts amongst very wealthy people.

Lollipops23 · 26-01-2017 10:50AM

Not remote, but I was staying/living in a hostel just off Queen St in Toronto. Was walked through the reception one evening on my way to the kitchen and ran smack bang into the lad I grew up next door to back home. His family had moved away about 9 years ago and we'd fallen out of touch.

OU812 · 26-01-2017 10:55AM

Not remote, but bloody strange.

Was in universal studios in LA about 15 years ago with my missus.

About 50,000 people in the park and we'd zig-zagged through it all day, no direct route, just running to the attractions we wanted to see first before doing the rest.

About 4pm we just got off the BTTF ride and I wanted a photo at the Delorean, so I tapped this girl on the shoulder to ask her would she take one of us both.

She turn around, looks at me for a second and said "are you (my brother's name)'s brother?"

I nearly fell over. Turned out she lived in SF for the past five years, but her mother lived about 10 houses away from my brothers girlfriend.

I'd never met her, he had once or twice. But she recognised me through him (& we're not even very similar).

Totally bizarre.

Flibble · 26-01-2017 11:10AM

In Nanjing working for a couple of months & staying in a filthy dive of a hotel- was having a particularly shítty week and as an introvert it was beginning to bother me tremendously that everywhere I went I was being treated like an attraction. Like, if I stopped for more than 5 minutes on the street, a crowd like those on Grafton Street would form around me, "the pale westerner". I just felt really bleh & homesick.

I found it really tough to try & exercise outdoors due to 1) the smog & 2) the staring so I decided to treat myself to a gym membership in a swanky hotel at the other end of the town. It was about 15 stories high, I think. Anyway, on this particular day, heading to the gym & feeling bleh, I got into the hotel elevator to take me to the 8th floor where the gym was located.

Looking at the elevator button listing thingy (is there a name for that??) I noticed a small shamrock next to the 11th floor button I hadn't seen before, so I pressed it.

Lo & Behold, on the 11th floor of this swanky hotel, was an Irish bar

manned by a lovely lad from Galway who made me feel right at home! I really, really, REALLY needed that right then. It was a really quiet bar, can't see how there might have been a demand for it, but it was lovely to have pizza & beer & watch movies in English on the TV and hang out with him. Of course, gym membership didn't get used again...

Not a remote place by any means, but I just thought it was an odd place to find an Irish bar!!

La_Gordy · 26-01-2017 11:25AM

I was working in a university in the northern Caucasus, Rostov on Don, Russia. There were rarely any Europeans there, only the odd few from the Baltic states, so when my colleagues met an Irish guy that was over for on an EU/Tuning trip they made a point of escorting him down to meet me. It was the first time I'd met an Irish person in a year!

Spudman_20000 · 26-01-2017 11:43AM

Not really "meeting an Irish person in a remote place", but funny all the same.

Was in Grand Cayman in the Caribbean a few years back, visiting an accountant friend. Some friends of hers met me at the airport and took me to a sports field, where a full on GAA blitz was in full swing. No joke, the whole population of the island seemed to be either playing football or hurling.

Then there was an announcement over the intercom for a person whose name I recognised. Turned out to be my brother's brother-in-law, spotted him strolling off the pitch.

Small world.

Was in New York a few years back, staying with a friend from Cavan out in Queens. We planned a night out in the city itself with military precision. We'd get off at a certain subway station, find a bar close by, and stay in the vicinity so we could get home again without getting lost.

So we get off the subway, and walk for at least an hour without seeing a bar, all high-end retail stores. "City that never sleeps, me hole" we say. Finally, we see a neon bar sign, up a sort of staircase.

Up we go, and it’s a tiny bar. Of course it's a Cavan guy who owns it, from the same village as my friend. Even has a copy of the local paper behind the bar. He explained how rents in this section of the city meant only high-end retail stores were around, and pointed us in the direction of the nightlife.

Red Kev · 26-01-2017 11:46AM

I spent about 8 years living in West Africa, very few Irish there. Came across a rough car accident in Senegal, the driver was still trapped. He was Irish, he also recognised me as I went out with a housemate of his in college for a while. I initially didn't recognise him as he'd changed a lot.

Met three lads in a Leitrim registered Merc in Morocco, they had broken down and had been there for a day, they were getting slightly panicky as it's a little travelled track.

Met another Irish guy in Vladivostok in 1997 who had moved there to be with a local woman. Odd chap.

And met an Irish nun cycling on a jungle road in Equatorial Guinea. The road was that overgrown that it rubbed along both sides of the Land Rover. This was in 1997, she hadnt been to Europe in 25 years and hadn't met an Irish person in 15 years. Seriously interesting woman all the same, went as a missionary but dropped a lot of Catholic ideology after a few years and was a big promoter of contraception.

Met two Scottish and one Irish mercenaries in Bosnia in 1994. Ex British army who had been rejected by the Foreign Legion. Irish fella was very paranoid, suffered a lot from PTSD.

Boom_Bap · 26-01-2017 11:59AM

Was walking down a street in Sydney, there was one shop opened on the street, walked passed the door and was looking in to see what it was. It was an internet cafe.
Locked eyes with the lad behind reception and immediately recognised him. I roared out a big 'Ah jaysus how are ye X'
He responded saying that he was X's identical twin brother and the two of us laughed. Then X popped his head out from behind a monitor and says howya to me.

RobertKK · 26-01-2017 01:53PM

Many years ago my brother in law and I were on this bus in the middle of Ohio in the US, we were returning from Indianapolis back to New York.
There was this couple from Armagh we met and we chatted as they too were returning to New York from the F1 race.
The journey took about 18 hours, I was unable to sleep on the bus. My companion did sleep, when I got back to NY I went to bed, and my brother in law went out for the night.
Next day he tells me that he met the couple from Armagh when out, it had not been organised and we didn't know what part of the city they lived in, just a strange coincidence.

dwayneshintzy · 26-01-2017 02:01PM

Not "strangest place", but very strange coincidence.....

Started a new job as a teacher here in Hong Kong last August. At our induction day, I heard one of the senior teachers/mentors and recognised his accent (I'm from Letterkenny). Walked over to talk to him;

"Where are you from? - Ireland
Whereabouts? - Donegal
Where in Donegal? - Ah **** off, you're not from Letterkenny are you?!?!"

Got chatting to him, he's been out here nearly 20 years. I told him I'd be doing PE teaching out here as well as English, he told me he'd some GAA kit (balls, cones, etc) and could give it to me if I wanted it. Arranged to meet him out in a pub a couple weeks later.

Brought my girlfriend with me (a HK local) when I was going to get the balls. They both recognised each other; asked where he taught/where she went to school. Turns out he was her English teacher in secondary school about a decade ago.

So this girl I'm going out with, in Hong Kong, had a teacher from Letterkenny in school, and is now going out with a guy from Letterkenny.

Badly Drunk Boy · 26-01-2017 02:02PM

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Was walking down a street in Sydney, there was one shop opened on the street, walked passed the door and was looking in to see what it was. It was an internet cafe.
Locked eyes with the lad behind reception and immediately recognised him. I roared out a big 'Ah jaysus how are ye X'
He responded saying that he was X's identical twin brother and the two of us laughed. Then X popped his head out from behind a monitor and says howya to me.

If they were male/female twins, they could have been called X and Y. But they wouldn't have been identical.

Sorry!

Conor Bourke · 26-01-2017 02:12PM

dwayneshintzy wrote: »

Not "strangest place", but very strange coincidence.....

Started a new job as a teacher here in Hong Kong last August. At our induction day, I heard one of the senior teachers/mentors and recognised his accent (I'm from Letterkenny). Walked over to talk to him;

"Where are you from? - Ireland
Whereabouts? - Donegal
Where in Donegal? - Ah **** off, you're not from Letterkenny are you?!?!"

Got chatting to him, he's been out here nearly 20 years. I told him I'd be doing PE teaching out here as well as English, he told me he'd some GAA kit (balls, cones, etc) and could give it to me if I wanted it. Arranged to meet him out in a pub a couple weeks later.

Brought my girlfriend with me (a HK local) when I was going to get the balls. They both recognised each other; asked where he taught/where she went to school. Turns out he was her English teacher in secondary school about a decade ago.

So this girl I'm going out with, in Hong Kong, had a teacher from Letterkenny in school, and is now going out with a guy from Letterkenny.

I'm hitting up HK in May, I'll keep an eye/ear out for ye

Parachutes · 26-01-2017 02:20PM

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Not so much an Irish person, but I overheard two girls speaking Irish while in an ATM queue in Berlin during the summer.

Similar thing happened to me. Was in a cafe on the continent and heard two girls speaking Gaeilge to each other in a weird accent, not having two words of Irish but thinking I should say something went up and said "An bhfuill cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?"

After getting over the initial shock of some strange man asking them could he go toilet they casually explained they were learning Irish in university as part of some module or something and liked conversing in Irish for the sheer novelty of speaking a language nobody could understand.

lovable snowman · 26-01-2017 05:44PM

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

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.

Maybe I can explain why some Irish people do this. I've been living in America for almost 15 years and my wife is American. Anytime we meet an Irish person and they hear my wife's accent they immediately start rambling on about politics. We visited Ireland last year and when we got in the taxi at the airport the first question the taximan asked was "do you support Donald Trump? America has gone insane!" blah blah blah.

No other nationality does this but every Paddy has an opinion and you can bet that they'll let you know. Nowadays I try to hide my accent if I run into another Irishman. I don't want another tedious lecture about his personal political views.

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

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