International Irish bashing starts to grate

The slaters are dead right

darkman2 wrote: »

Im not saying we don't deserve some of it after giving it loads for ten years about how great we were but the anti irishness in the UK particularly has found it's excuse to come to the surface in the last year. Seems to me they are deflecting from their own huge problems by commenting on ours intentionally to make them feel better.

Well they might be and each to their own as they say . But your highlighted comment which is an over-exaggeration if ever I saw one , is old hat .The days of blaming the Brits for everything that goes wrong in Ireland are over ,at least as far as the Celtic tiger is concerened . That is an Irish phenomenon which requires an Irish solution to the fall out of it's deminese .

I saw that article today - it was in the entertainment supplement, not the main paper. I only buy the indo for the TV guide.

As an proud Irish patriot, I laugh at the way things have gone.

I'm not proud of the stupid fools that voted FF over the years though.

WHAT WERE YE THINKING???

Still, nothin new.

I rem when a good load of fools sang 'Arise & follow Charlie'.

Even, at age 10 I could see what was going on.:rolleyes:

Ye get what ye deserve FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

neil_hosey wrote: »

I never voted Fianna Fail, i voted Sinn Fein since i could vote, mainly because they were the only party willing to do anything pro-active in the area (a **** area) where i grew up. BUT... 5 years ago here, and Id say to this day, id still get slated for voting for Sinn Fein.

Well,that's the way it goes.
SF voters achieve nothing & then wonder why things don't go their way.

That's why they're always looked upon as underachieving complainers.:rolleyes:

TBH the original article doesn't really mention anything that I would not have read on boards first before spotting it in any media abroad. I think it's a nice trait to be *able* to look at oneself critically, rather than just taking oneself as the pinnacle of goodness. Ireland excels at that though and sometimes overdoes it.

When you feel hurt by spiteful foreign media reports, please also remember that the economic boom in Ireland came at a cost to the high-wage countries. They lost significant parts of their employment to Ireland. Yes, other jobs were created in turn and nothing is ever as one-sided as that but if you are at the receiving end of rationalisation/relocation, it's something very real and you don't look 'beyond your plate', so to speak. It has caused a lot of hurt, psychological mostly, and that's what's being vented in foreign media as well, from time to time.

Finally, one newspaper or TV station does not make a country. All it takes is just one reporter, to be honest. They just have a huge reach.

If people of other nationalities are going to take digs at Ireland and Irish people, why give a ****? Leave them to their ignorance - makes no difference to me or my life.
I don't think the article is serious...

the article wrote:

They are all apparently eager to portray us as a nation of wide boy property spivs, dodgy beer-swilling bankers, and politicians who could barely tie their shoelaces, let alone run a country. Not to mention, ladies who wear their pyjamas during the day.

Lots of the above would feature in Irish society quite prominently, so nothing wrong there.

It's the Paddywhackery that rather grates on the nerves.

The Sunday Times was the latest to drape this land in 40 shades of spleen last weekend with a hoary old tale under the headline, 'How the Celtic Tiger lost its roar'.

The cover story was illustrated with a picture of a mournful, and somewhat damp, shamrock-emblazoned kitten.

Don't see anything wrong with an article about how Ireland's economy took a nosedive... and the kitten thing, well it's not very original, but I don't see a problem with it other than that.

No Celtic Tiger metaphor is too laboured for our friends in the international media, of course, as we flounder around in the gutter. The man from the Canberra Times (Yes, even they are rubbing our noses in it) said the Celtic Tiger "turned out to be no more than a pussycat on steroids''.

Again, what's wrong with that? And "even they are rubbing our noses in it" - because... they're not in a position to do so is it? Why not?

And the Herald, from that beacon of prosperity, Glasgow

Probably the most prejudiced comment of the article.

noted gleefully, "the beast that was once the pride of the EU cowers in the undergrowth, licking mainly self-inflicted wounds".

"Gleefully" if you choose to interpret it that way - seems to me like simply describing things as they are.

As with other Celtic Tiger fables, now appearing daily in the international media, the subtext was clear: the priest-ridden peasants got their hands on some dough, became a little bit uppity, and now they are receiving their rightful comeuppance.

Perhaps, or perhaps it's being read into that bit too much...

"The Celtic Tiger that transformed a beer-soaked backwater into the envy of every small nation with a thirst for a makeover is dead, and its cubs are looking to emigrate because they see no future.''

"Beer-soaked backwater" aside, what's actually wrong with that statement?

neil_hosey wrote: »

former british colony with an inferiority complex? :rolleyes:

Yeah, in my opinion that's pretty much spot-on. Most of the stuff described in that article is good-natured teasing - or simply straightforward facts. But a lot of Irish people have to take offence because it's written by "the Brits".
Being able to laugh at oneself is a sign of self-confidence... so yeah, "inferiority complex" is pretty accurate.

the brits will say anything to make themselves feel better.... articles and posts like this prove who REALLY has the inferiority complex.

Latchy's Irish.

darkman2 wrote: »

Yeah, Anyway so listen up. The Brits have no say here so yeah it is Fianna Fail's fault. BUT the Brits are havin a go at us - and they really should not considering the amount of sh*t we could dig up on them and their not so unimportant "let's go to the IMF! No shame" economic circumstance. Not really ones to be talking are they?

I think you're taking it a bit too personally and seriously. "The Brits" (god I hate that phrase) are well able to slag themselves off also - doesn't mean they should keep their mouths shut when it comes to other nations.
Oh but they had better behave towards the Irish with hushed awe because they were nasty to the Irish up to 90 years ago and therefore, no good-natured jokes should be allowed in case they hurt the Irish's feelings.

Article reminds me of what the German Ambassador said a while back about Ireland (that we were coarse, avaricious and money obsessed) and while pople were offended by it, I remember people on the radio (Talk to Joe!) grudgingly admitting that he had a point.

The Times article nails the situation spot on in some respects:

We WERE run by a collection of wide boy spivs, spoofers and chancers for a good decade and 41% of us reelected last time (and 2 times before that). We, as a nation, were told by OECD etc that our economy would overheat through the property-bubble and it was unsustainable but this was laughed at. And these people warning us were considered 'jealous' and 'begrudgers' by people like McCreevy who also called these European Economists 'numerically challenged'.

The article could have been worse....I remember overhearing a British businessman at Heathrow coming back from Ireland stating that he thought the country was quote:

'Like a Janitor that just won the Lottery'