Moments of Sheer Ignorance that take your breath away.

longhalloween · 21-04-2011 09:09PM

Saw a note scrawled in the airport toilets the other day:

'Blacks out of Ireland'

I felt like writing 'Irish out of Australia, America, Canada, Uk ect.' underneath it. Gotta be fair ya know.

Havermeyer · 21-04-2011 09:10PM

A few years ago, having just got our new pup (a male Irish Terrier), I was asked if "there were also female versions".

Adyx · 21-04-2011 09:58PM

Degag wrote: »

I hate it when people (especially Americans) refer to the Irish Language as "Gaelic"

I know that technically it's not incorrect for it to be known as that, it just annoys me for some reason.

I think it just doesn't sound right if it's said in an accent other than an Irish accent. It does sound especially bad in an American accent.

Yakult · 21-04-2011 10:21PM

"Do Chinese people think we look funny?"

CrazyRabbit · 21-04-2011 10:22PM

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Someone asked me how to spell I.R.A. Also, while in a pub me and my friends had some guy try and convince us that Ireland is in a different time zone to the UK because their news starts at 6:00PM and ours starts at 6:01PM.

There is a tiny bit of truth in this.

Since the longitudinal difference between Dublin and London is just under 2 degrees, it means that technically there is an almost 8 min time difference (every 15 degree longitude is an hour. 1 degree is 4 mins. )

Still in the same timezone though!

EDIT: Correction by 'bijapos' : Its actually 6 degrees longitude difference, ( its 2 degrees latitude) so the time difference is nearer to 25 mins.
(Seems I read the coords for Dublin & London incorrectly from the site I used)

Aoifey! · 21-04-2011 10:29PM

When I was 14 a went to Oakwood with my youth club. My friend was starring out the window with a confused look and eventually turned around and said, in complete disbelief "They have sheep in Wales?! I thought they were only in Ireland!"

Savage Tyrant · 21-04-2011 10:32PM

I was talking to a woman in the shop and she asked me about my accent. I told her I was from Co.Down a few miles south of Belfast... She says "Ah my son Sean has a friend lives up near you then. Liam fron Derry, do you know him?" .... Ffs?

bijapos · 21-04-2011 10:39PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

There is a tiny bit of truth in this.

Since the longitudinal difference between Dublin and London is just under 2 degrees, it means that technically there is an almost 8 min time difference (every 15 degree longitude is an hour. 1 degree is 4 mins. )

Still in the same timezone though!

Its actually 6 degrees longitude difference, ( its 2 degrees latitude) so the time difference is nearer to 25 mins.

Now thats ignorant.

Mr Trade In · 21-04-2011 10:47PM

My Grandmother landed on my doorstep two weeks ago while I was watching Man Utd play,she was one of the people who influenced my interest in them when I was a child,refering to either Evra or Nani she came out with a fcuking Gem,"I didn't know Manchester United had a Full Black Player". Nearly pissed myself with laughter as she was serious

So what do I win for this timeless example of senility.

james2006 · 21-04-2011 10:53PM

"When the black guys head ended up being chopped of by the scissor sisters my nan told me to be careful dating black girls because beheadings was part of african culture, turns out she was half right as its a Tallaght tradition.":p

:pac:

well said!!...couldn't agree more!!! :pac:

TangyZizzle · 21-04-2011 11:03PM

I was in my course there a few weeks ago. We were talking about the grounds for discrimination. Kolawole asked if it was racist when customs refused to let him bring food off the plane into Ireland. I asked "would that not have been down to maybe different countries having different standards for germ control .. or somethin?,"
One of the class plonkers added to the end of my answer " ...yeah, because like.. Africa wasn't in the EU back then,"

Africa? EU?

She's 22 years old.

orourkeda · 21-04-2011 11:04PM

I was chatting a girl from California in a Dublin Pub about 3 or 4 years ago. She had been travelling around Europe and had arrived in Dublin from Paris.

During the time we were chatting a clip of a U.S open tennis final that had been played in the days previously (the one andy murray played in) was show in T.V.

She asked if that tournament was played in france. I told her it was played in New York. She then argued with me that the U.S open could not possibly have been played in America because it had been shown on French T.V while she was there

danniemcq · 21-04-2011 11:09PM

being allergic to nuts i asked my housemate to make sure she washes the knifes and plates really well if she used her nutella.

There is no nuts in nutella she claims with a snotty stuck up face that she loved doing.

oh how the 8 others in the room and i laughed as she slowly (and i mean slowly) realised what she said and left the room.

danniemcq · 21-04-2011 11:10PM

james2006 wrote: »

"When the black guys head ended up being chopped of by the scissor sisters my nan told me to be careful dating black girls because beheadings was part of african culture, turns out she was half right as its a Tallaght tradition.":p :pac:

well said!!...couldn't agree more!!! :pac:

what?

Kimia · 21-04-2011 11:26PM

My American friend (who works in the accounting department of her company) asked me what 'euros' were, and did we not use dollars?

Solnskaya · 21-04-2011 11:29PM

Soooooo, ignorance obviously means a whole different thing in Dublin than in the country. Only culchies will understand this, especially kildare/offaly culchies.

elefant · 21-04-2011 11:35PM

While on erasmus and telling people I could speak Irish, one person laughed in my face and said:

"Ya, so you can speak English, and English with an Irish accent."

Iwannahurl · 21-04-2011 11:35PM

A friend of mine, born and reared in a neighbouring island, once went into a Garda station to report a car blocking a pedestrian crossing just around the corner. Their initial response: "You're English, aren't you?"

couldntthink · 21-04-2011 11:50PM

For an example of a teachers ignorance this will take some beating........

Leaving Cert 2003. Higher level geography teacher. I'm sitting at the teachers desk because I'm a "troublemaker". She is going on about the Po valley in northern Italy.

She talks a bit about Italy and to finish up says "and the capital of Italy is of course The Vatican".

I said "I think you'll find The Vatican is a seperate state within Italy".

She replies "oh yes of course, it's Milan."

I say "I think you'll find it's actually be Rome".

She looked at me funny, everyone else said it's Rome, then she agreed too.

And that was my higher level geography teacher for leaving cert. We never stood a chance. Lambs to the slaughter.

teddy_303 · 21-04-2011 11:53PM

"It's not fair, all youse bleedin culchies, comin up to Dublin, takin our dole"????

FFS!

Forest Master · 21-04-2011 11:56PM

Solnskaya wrote: »

Soooooo, ignorance obviously means a whole different thing in Dublin than in the country. Only culchies will understand this, especially kildare/offaly culchies.

Eh, you forgot the actual anecdote.

21-04-2011 11:59PM

I think I was about 17, in secondary school, when I mentioned something about seahorses. One of the girls in the class said "that doesn't count, they're not real". I told her than seahorses were in fact real. She didn't believe me, turns to another girl and said in a disbelieving tone that I believed in seahorses, as if I had just said I believe in the easter bunny. The girl she turned to laughed, as she too did not believe in sea horses. There was a class wide argument, which was about 30% believers and 70% non-believers.

70% of a class of 17 year olds thought that the idea of a real seahorse was laughable. One person even claimed that they were of course fictional because they were in the little mermaid. Even though the mermaids were pretty much the only fictional species in that film. So I guess the turtles, fish, lobsters, crabs, octopus, jellyfish etc are all fictional too?

mikemac · 22-04-2011 12:00AM

Did a postgraduate course in Belfast, went on my own so heading out for pints during the first week

"So where are you from?"
"Oh Tipperary, do you know it? I'd be near the Offaly border so near the midlands"
"No, where's that?"
"Ok, nearest city is Limerick, would you have heard of there?"
"Isn't Limerick in Wales" :eek:

When I went to primary school we had to stand in front of the class and point on a map every county, every lake like Lough Leagh, the mountains like Arra Mountains and Slieve Bloom and every GAA county jersey
Same for most of you

Where's KeithAFC? What exactly are you teaching in those schools up North?

RichieC · 22-04-2011 12:01AM

Oranage2 wrote: »

When the black guys head ended up being chopped of by the scissor sisters my nan told me to be careful dating black girls because beheadings was part of african culture, turns out she was half right as its a Tallaght tradition.

this post.

orourkeda · 22-04-2011 12:03AM

This thread is beginning to make me believe that I am correct for hating the human race

mikemac · 22-04-2011 12:04AM

Afaik the population of Ireland before the famine was around eight and a half million.

Some girl I worked with telling me it was twenty million :confused
And would not take any correction from me, I just gave up

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 22-04-2011 12:08AM

I absolutely hate people with no knowledge of basic geography. Like the many people I've met who think Mayo is a border county, or that Cavan is in Leinster, or that Dundalk is a county.

Unpossible · 22-04-2011 12:08AM

elefant wrote: »

While on erasmus and telling people I could speak Irish, one person laughed in my face and said:

"Ya, so you can speak English, and English with an Irish accent."

I had to call it Gaelige or Gaelic when living abroad, any time I said Irish people would reply "oh yes, its a dialect of english isn't it". The worst was when an english girl (who wasn't the brightest) told all the other foreign students that she couldn't understand the actors in intermission because it was in Irish. I then had a load of them come up to me and exclaim that they could understand bits of Irish as it was similar to english :rolleyes: .

A year late when we were hosting a Ceili in the local Irish pub*, some english woman came up to the bar and said "Why don't you play real irish music like boyzone or westlife instead of this diddly iddly stuff". She got irrate when the barman told her no, she started asking me and my parents when we were going to finish the ceili then sat nearby giving us the evil eye.

Forest Master wrote: »

Eh, you forgot the actual anecdote.

No quick, pretend its there like I do. You don't want to be labelled a culchie.

*Edit: this was on St. Patricks day, the international students organisation had been advertising the ceili for over a week around the city and the place was packed with people having a go at dancing.

Tayla · 22-04-2011 12:09AM

I asked my friend what was her sons birthday to which she replied 'well he was born in april but he didn't come out till may'

I was also witness to the first time she cracked an egg - by getting it in her hand and squeezing with all her strength

Alonso77 · 22-04-2011 12:15AM

In Primary school the teacher asked one of the lads how long the river Shannon was. He replied "40 metres". We laughed. The end.

Moments of Sheer Ignorance that take your breath away.

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