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Child Item

Are we the greatest nation on the planet?

Pronto63

A day before our National holiday this question must be asked.

Ok we're not perfect, we have our issues but seriously can any other nation punch above their weight like us?

1. Sport. Even though we have 4 main field sports on the island (hurling, GAA, soccer & rugby) we still manage to complete at the highest level in rugby - I know disappointing result today - well done Wales.

2. Literature. Joyce, Beckett, Heaney to name just 3. I know English is our de facto mother language but again we can express ourselves at the highest level.

3. Music. Boyzone, Westlife, U2 again naming 3 that just pop into my head and although I'm a U2 fan I think Bono talks some sh1te.

4. U.N. For a small nation we have an enviable record of UN service well served by our small but throughly professional Defence Forces.

5. What other nation, with the possible exception of the USA has the entire planet celebrate their National Holiday.
Examples:
- Saw a piece on morning TV this morning about a Paddy's Day parade in some Japanese city that was in its 3rd year. Complete with loads of little japanese kids dressed in green tryin to do jigs.

- A 1 on 1 with the leader of the free world (God help us!) every year - guaranteed.

- From the Eiffel Tour and Sydney Opera House to Niagra Falls some 290 global landmarks in 50 countries turn green to celebrate OUR national day.

6. The entire population of the planet claim to be Irish on the 17th. And they're allowed on the 17th.

Well?

Are we great or what?

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XsApollo

Yup

Squatter

How could you omit Traveller Culture and Conor McGregor from that comprehensive list?

Signore Fancy Pants

Brennans Bread
Real Butter
Proper Milk
Tayto

grindle

You've ruined your point and the thread with number 3, OP. I was almost feeling patriotic and then you mentioned the musical variants of herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Pronto63

Dale Doback wrote: »

Brennans Bread
Real Butter
Proper Milk
Tayto

Lyons tea
Guinness
Black and white pudding
Bacon and cabbage
Hang sandwiches

I forgot our contribution to the world of fine dining

[Deleted User]

Boyzone, Westlife

Our greatest export.

[Deleted User]

Tax haven.

votecounts

Nope, but we are a lot better than some nations.
Solve the health and housing crisis and then we maybe there.

BENDYBINN

What about dancin at crossroads?

grindle

Pronto63 wrote: »

Lyons tea

Whoa whoa whoa. Paddy's Day is tomorrow. Hang back on the booze, you're being unreasonable.

Barry's4Lyf

colm_mcm

Deleted User wrote: »

Music. Boyzone, Westlife

Our greatest export.

Not many countries that can export raw sewage in exchange for money.

Pronto63

grindle wrote: »

You've ruined your point and the thread with number 3, OP. I was almost feeling patriotic and then you mentioned the musical variants of herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Not a musical post.

What about:
The Chieftians
Dubliners
Horslips

International
Thin Lizzy
Cranberries
Rory Gallagher

[Deleted User]

Pronto63 wrote: »

1. Sport. Even though we have 4 main field sports on the island (hurling, GAA, soccer & rugby) we still manage to complete at the highest level in rugby - I know disappointing result today - well done Wales.

About 8 nations play rugby to an elite standard. We've never progressed beyond a quarter final. I'd say that's a massive underachievement, if anything.

Soccer, we've historically relied on England to develop our players. If you wanna look at nations our size pinching above their weight, try Uruguay or Croatia. Domestically, our National League is either derided or ignored.

Non-sporting but it's embarrassing that the vast majority can't hold a sentence in their own national tongue.

We do punch above our weight in other fields but no need for the hyperbole. All in all, if I were to sum us up, we'd be grand like...

grindle

Pronto63 wrote: »

Not a musical post.

What about:
The Chieftians
Dubliners
Horslips

International
Thin Lizzy
Cranberries
Rory Gallagher

Much better, thank you. Now edit the correct tea into your other post.

corner of hells

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not many countries that can export raw sewage in exchange for money.

We're pretty talented at exporting large amounts of **** to Australia too at the moment.
Particularly if you look at the amount of Irish roofers , landscape and tarmac contractors that have made their way there.

Pronto63

grindle wrote: »

Much better, thank you. Now edit the correct tea into your other post.

No but I will add TK Red Lemonade

Mysterypunter

Not by a million miles, half the country emigrated, this is a disgrace. And we are a welfare state, and trying to be progressive, no future for our young, no incentive to work or upskill, Ireland the land of the working poor.

McCrack

votecounts wrote: »

Nope, but we are a lot better than some nations.
Solve the health and housing crisis and then we maybe there.

If you think Ireland has a health and housing "crisis" you need to travel

Squatter

Deleted User wrote: »

Boyzone, Westlife

Our greatest export.

Only if you ignore Jedward and the tosser in the cream jacket in this historic picture:-

housetypeb

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;—
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

biko

We're the grandest nation on Earth

Kintarō Hattori

On holiday in Poland at the moment with the missus and whippersnapper. We were mulling over the idea of maybe going to live in another country and looking at the pros and cons when it hit me that the quality of our food in Ireland is actually quite outstanding. We probably take it for granted but the quality of meat is superb and it's relatively inexpensive. Every foreigner I know including the extended family rave about our butter and it is miles better than anything you can get here. We have a huge range of eggs to choose from. I went to a fairly large chain of shops here today looking for some and all I could get were poor in comparison.

dxhound2005

Mysterypunter wrote: »

Not by a million miles, half the country emigrated, this is a disgrace. And we are a welfare state, and trying to be progressive, no future for our young, no incentive to work or upskill, Ireland the land of the working poor.

Half the country emigrated but our population increased by one million in the last twenty years. That is some achievement.

Gonad

“I think, by declaring a state of emergency, by admitting that a country that trains nurses can’t keep them, that a country that has, tonight, in bed and breakfast accommodation, children who have to get up around six o’clock tomorrow morning, get a bus for an hour, go to school, walk the streets, come back to the bed and breakfast.

“What on earth did we fight for our freedom for? To live in a kip like this

Eamon Dunphy

Pinch Flat

The basics of a functioning society are missing, the ones that spring to mind are

A functioning health service
Decent public transport
Adequate and affordable private and social housing
functioning childcare system
Public Pensions that avoid poverty in retirement

So no. The basics need to be fixed before I’d put us there as a functioning country

DeanAustin

Gonad wrote: »

“I think, by declaring a state of emergency, by admitting that a country that trains nurses can’t keep them, that a country that has, tonight, in bed and breakfast accommodation, children who have to get up around six o’clock tomorrow morning, get a bus for an hour, go to school, walk the streets, come back to the bed and breakfast.

“What on earth did we fight for our freedom for? To live in a kip like this

Eamon Dunphy

I like Dunphy as much as the next man but that’s a whole load of hyperbolic nonsense.

[Deleted User]

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Every foreigner I know including the extended family rave about our butter

You need to meet more interesting people.

odyssey06

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."
- Jebediah Springfield

We are certainly the embiggenist nation on the planet.

In an unfortunate twist of geography we were colonised and subjugated by our nearest neighbour without being totally assimilated or subsumed, but then in a bizarre twist of history our neighbour went on to found the greatest empire in history AND a colony which superseded it as as a global superpower in economics and culture and language spread.

But we'd probably have had a higher total sum of happiness if we'd been say, boring Sweden.

janfebmar

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Half the country emigrated but our population increased by one million in the last twenty years. That is some achievement.

Some achievement for global insustainability?
Most banana Republics in Africa do better.

Richard Hillman

This is the only time of the year when Yes is the only acceptable answer