Why is our connection with Wales so weak?

The Welsh have always had a “dislike” for us. I don’t think we think too much about them.

Back in the day, when the sport of rugby was in its infancy, the Welsh wouldn’t select players with “Irish sounding” names. Some were selected but they were forced to drop the O’ in their surname, if they had one.

Then, they refused to turn up, along with the Scotch, for the 1972 championship. One we were in a great position to win. After that they, again along with the Scotch, wouldn’t vote for us to host the rugby World Cup.

I would say we have, a lot, more reasons to hate them, than vice versa.

I used to travel into wales for work and always found them to be pretty insular and sullen, apart from when they were taking the p**$ out of me.

Maybe things are different now though. That was nearly 30 years ago.

About the gist of it.

Wales has always been more insular than Scotland, or even England. They have just 3 million people, they tend not to migrate as much.

Over Covid lockdown I traced my own family line back to the Cambro-Norman Lords and Knights that had land in Wales before coming to Ireland with and after Strongbow. So I intend to find out a bit more about Wales and where they lived, maybe even get a steer to trace back further to the European continent.

When I was a kid, we used to get HTV, the Welsh regional version of ITV, on Cablelink in Dublin. Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, they switched to UTV. That was pretty much the end of my cultural exposure to our brythonic brethren. Although I did see Welsh-language punk band Anhrefn play in Charlies in 1991.

I reckon when the Irish and Welsh first met each other back in the day, neither could make head nor tail what the other was saying, so both decided to leave each other alone. It's why most of Ireland leaves Wexford alone.

Wasn't the largest vote for Brexit based in Wales?

Personally I still hold a grudge over them giving us Saint Patrick

Welsh hate the Irish 😳, utter nonsense, I worked and lived in Wales and have retained many friendships over the years, actually fantastic people and country IMO.

The Welsh and Irish actually very similar in many ways.

Isle of Man 🤔 well that's one weird place I have to say, can't think of a positive thing to say about the place, just out there in every respect.

Well, there is a even difference on that scale between being “Welsh” and being “from Wales”.

You’ll hear, more, highly thought of people being described as from Wales, whereas less desirables will be called Welsh.

Not sure why you posted this in After Hours?

A lot has to do with media & societal perception I think - the supposed special relationship with Scotland is often talked up, whereas we love to give out about the Brits. The Welsh are somewhere in the middle, a bit invisible to us.

In reality there have been and are strong enough cultural links across the Irish Sea between Wexford in particular and Wales. For all sorts of historical trade and settlement reasons. Twas the 'Normans' who arrived and landed in Bannow Bay etc and subsequently built many castle in the SE. These 'Normans' were largely from Wales and down the coast to Cornwall as far as I understand it. So maybe that colours our modern views. In recent years, there have been at least a couple of joint EU schemes linking communities on both sides - gone now of course with Brexit.

In terms of Scotland, look up the sixth century Dál Riata, Dalriada kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1l_Riata which extended from Ulster to Scotland and is largely why Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaeilge are similar. In many ways, the depised Ulster Plantation was just a reversal of this movement and of course many people from Ulster went for work in Scotland etc

Likewise it's generally thought that the kingdom(s) of Laigin/ Leinster shared territory across into Wales and the Lleyn area is named for same reason. Read a book once where the author claimed the Leinster clans invaded a large part of Wales at one stage.

In truth, the whole history between these islands is far more complicated than the usual '800 years of occupation' narrative. We were at it too and genetically there'd be very little difference between all of us.

I've met a few Welsh people and found them very decent and likeable, easy going.

I think it’s a religious thing, Welsh were traditionally Methodist and pretty anti-Catholic. And there was no history of emigration from Ireland to Wales to develop diaspora ties

Good to see a balance between the comments that have some substance and the buffoonery of "because they're pricks"

But it is After Hours so I'll be expecting more of the latter than the former

And being from Wales and being Welsh... I'll not generalise as the buffoons would do, but like all places, Wales & Ireland have their fair share of "pricks"