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Are we (Irish) Really as Great as we Claim we Are?

KaloinIre

Now I am a proud Irish nationalist but there seems to be a huge number of people who believe that Ireland is literally the best thing since sliced bread and accept no criticism of anything to do with Ireland. When I lived in Australia I used to cringe as my fellow countrymen shouted to ozzies about how great Irish drinkers were whilst singing 'UP THE RA' songs and wearing their country GAA jerseys out EVERYWHERE (just so people know your Irish). Why on earth do Irish feel the need to boast about how much they can drink? and besides even the British are statistically heavier drinkers than us and the feckin 2litres of vodka a night Russians are definitely much better drinkers than us so whats the big deal?! Its a crying shame that the most troublesome bars across Sydney and Perth are Irish bars and not something to be proud of.

I lost also count of the amount of times when I heard the phrase 'the fightin irish' and how the Irish are some of the best fighters the world has ever seen! I mean how many Irish boxing champions have there been?? Even smaller countries have produced more boxing champions than we have! Sure Kevin McBride just gotten beaten by some Polish nobody! It was so embarassing hearing idiots going on to anyone that would listen about how the Irish are so tough and how they'll take any man.

Then there was all the talk about Irish being the best educated in the world and how we are attracting all the big foreign companies because of our educated workforce. Well that was turned out to be false as well, of the developed countries were below average in education and the foreign companies are evidently only here for the corporation tax. As it turns out the foreign companies have actually COMPLAINED that the quality of Irish workers coming to them is below par!!

How about we go on about our economy......oh lord the economy... remember the smugness during the Celtic Tiger???? I actually lost count of the amount of times I had to listen to people banging on about the genius Irish and how we pulled ourselves out of the dirt and became one of the richest countries in the wooooooooorld (ahh but no mention of the billions upon billions that the EU gave us)
I wonder where those same people are today.

We Irish seem to have a hugely inflated and it has to be said deluded, opinion of our standing in the world. We have had great writers and I'd argue thats about it. Now we are known in the world for being children who can't even run an economy.

So my question to you Boardsies is, do we over exagerrate our nations standing in the world and achievements?

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TeddyTedson

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

Ah, we're doin' grand sure

mom?
Must be you this time!

Dudess

Yeah, I hate how it's deemed ok by some to accept prejudice towards your own country - criticism is fair enough, but criticism and prejudice are not always the same thing.

Wolfe Tone

Dudess wrote: »

Yeah, I hate how it's deemed ok by some to accept prejudice towards your own country - criticism is fair enough, but criticism and prejudice are not always the same thing.

Its grand when Irish people say Ireland is sh!t, join in it myself, its when them foreigners do it it annoys me.

Dudess

fryup wrote: »

Yes the Irish are full of BS

we have this over exaggerated notion of our own popularity

"everyone loves the irish":rolleyes: ya right, well maybe on st patricks day but after that nobody gives two hoots

The above exists, but it's nowhere near as widespread as you say (so lose the "the Irish" and the "we" stuff - it doesn't apply to you for instance, does it?) Plus, there are plenty of Irish people who get a hard-on out of self-hating (e.g. you) to balance things out...

Poor Craythur

I just treat my nationality as an accident of birth. Not the most patriotic sort, me.

I used to be more patriotic as a kid though. Now, I don't really care.

TeddyTedson

I find on holidays in the likes of Spain when you talk to the locals, at first they may mistake you as English and then when they find out you're Irish they have a laugh with you about it because everyone kinda hates the English, not that people hate them but you kinda get what I'm trying to say

Both sets of people annoy me anyway, the crazy love ourselves and then anti Irish Irish.
People who say they support Rangers just because they hate the way some people go on about Celtic over here.

Dudess

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Both sets of people annoy me anyway, the crazy love ourselves and then anti Irish Irish.

Yep. Two sides of the same inferiority complex. And I'd assume most Irish people are neither - they just get on with things and don't obsess over their nationality.

Celly Smunt

why does anybody move to Australia?

Wolfe Tone

kaltz wrote: »

I know its from the Sindo but this letter was published in 2008. She seems to think we're not that great.

http://ferdia2010.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/the-world-does-not-love-the-irish/

What a complete cow

ShagNastii

Irish people are (and not to oversell it) "two parachutes" great.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Thor wrote: »

Why is america excluded from your point and considering the OP states his mates are the one stating they can drink anyone under the table, I also think are image as heavy drinkers(Although false in most case's) is not just american related. Although none of this can be proved. Its really just minor debate.

Also i never said we are a bunch of drinkers, I just stated thats what some people think, That cannot be disputed.

Also you can either be proud or not be proud, What else is there?

There are times you can be proud to be Irish and times you aren't for decisions that were made by other Irish people, Tus the point of the OP.

I was responding to your post, not the OP's. This should answer the question about why only Americans tend to view us as alcoholics. I agree that you never said it, but you said that a lot of people think it.

Proud, not proud, indifferent. I am very much indifferent.

fryup

ShagNastii wrote: »

Irish people are (and not to oversell it) "two parachutes" great.

wha

Knasher

I do think its a bit of a disgrace the way we act in foreign countries. It's not something that's unique to the Irish by any stretch of the imagination though, most foreigners when they first land in a country tend to play up to the stereotypes of their culture, and unfortunately our stereotype is drunken lout (why couldn't we have been blessed with the Italian "Casanova" stereotype).

The reasoning behind this is probably the social contract, when you first get into a foreign country you have no idea what the unwritten rules of the social contract are. The accent itself won't be enough to cover you because there are plenty of others around who have been there long enough to know the rules, so you play up the stereotype (and a stereotype is really just behaviour that others expect you to conform to - often judged against unfairly) so people will cut you a bit of slack until you know the ropes.

The idea of judging a culture based on observations of a group of people playing up a stereotype is frankly idiotic.

It's also not unusual for people to big up their countries achievements when they are abroad (for example "Texans like to do everything bigger"). It's just people trying to be accepted by others at a point where their stereotype and by extension nationality is the biggest part of their public persona. Hardly uniquely Irish.

sandmanporto

You shouldnt have wasted your energy typing that out for here. Look at all the dumb, stupid replies youve gotten! Thats apparently what after hours is about. Making dumb replies to serious topics.

ejmaztec

KeithAFC wrote: »

I don't see how anyone can argue with my post.

A corrupt government, an economy which went from boom to bust in a very short period of time. In the sh*t in terms of debt and yet still some people want millions pumped into the Irish language when its an irrelevant language and not used that much.

...from the place that would have been a Bangladesh look-alike wasteland, had it not been for the Westminster government pumping billions in and employing the loyal population as civil servants.:pac:

sollar

KeithAFC wrote: »

I was being nice. It is a debate after all. Im just putting the negative across.

I don't understand how your still here keith everytime i see your name on a thread your in trolling.

But whats worse is you spend alot of time on an irish discussion board talking to irish people. You are irish too though i suppose whether you like to admit it or not.

Keith don't forget that your people are piggybacking on england like overgrown children.

PrzemoF

KaloinIre wrote: »

Sure Kevin McBride just gotten beaten by some Polish nobody!

Mr. Nobody will fight against one of Klitschko brothers...

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2011/01/wladimir-klitschko-vs-tomasz-adamek-in-september-in-poland/

spoofilyj

Well look at it this way...

We have a cool temprit maratime climate with a slight summer increase in rain fall which keeps our land a rich green and is great for growing corps and farming cattle.

We are not effected by Earthquakes, volcanos and most other natural disasters bar the odd flood...

We have a stable peaceful country even with the twat government we still seem to have.

We now have mostly good roads and rail networks,
Thanks to the resession no one is talking about the value of their houses anymore.

We have a rich history and culture and fantastic national sports.

Whats not to be proud of, sure we got carried away with the spoils of a boom economy but so did most other coountries including Germany and france who could handle such losses but we cant.

Some of us are a bit overenthustastic in our pride but what harm, there will always be egits in every society.

For such a small country on the fringe of Europe overall we are over achievers and have put our stamp on the world and why not :-D

was.deevey

I don't think we're "Great" ..

But we're good socialites and generally don't seem to offend other nations too much, even when what we say or do things could be deemed offensive, they seem buy into the whole "Sure its just a bit of craic" :P .. shake their head and grin to their mates "he don't ya know he's Irish":D

For such a small country on the fringe of Europe overall we are over achievers

Fixed: We're better at BullSh1tting than most countries citizens

I'd say im proud to be an "solo" ex-pat, and in a way kinda glad I haven't met any others in a while (in large numbers we can be a bit overwhelming).

Oh and despite rumors, we might be the best drinkers in the world, but also some of the worst drunks (apart from the english).

PrzemoF

spoofilyj wrote: »

We have a cool temprit maratime climate with a slight summer increase in rain fall which keeps our land a rich green[..]

I have feeling that most people don't appreciate it - the green is there, it always was there, so nothing special about it. From my point of view: it's something unique and absolutely beautiful.

CSU

I would imagine our geographic location has a lot to do it. In pre-aviation years we were the stepping stone and gateway to the EU countries for the USofA and visa-versa, many, many tales and stories would have spread far an wide at a very early stage about the Irish all boozed up on Guinness

SharpshooterTom

Meh, more chest thumping nationalism. When will the human race try to get along and live in a one world state? All this nationalistic crap p*sses me off.

mikemac

KaloinIre wrote: »

I lost also count of the amount of times when I heard the phrase 'the fightin irish' and how the Irish are some of the best fighters the world has ever seen! I mean how many Irish boxing champions have there been??

That has nothing to with boxing or street fights.

Cames from the Irish brigade in the US Civil War.

Pick most any war in history and you'll find the Irish involved. Both sides of the US civil war, one third of the British army in the Napoleanic Wars, French regiments and even that admiral in South America, O'Higgins I believe his name is.

Scanlas The 2nd

PrzemoF wrote: »

I have feeling that most people don't appreciate it - the green is there, it always was there, so nothing special about it. From my point of view: it's something unique and absolutely beautiful.

How is it unique. There is landscapes and weather similar to ours all over the world.