Whats a West Brit and what makes someone a West Brit?

ardmacha · 26-09-2011 06:56PM

Eat British Foods

Anyone with a positive preference for British food must have some political axe to grind. Anyone picking another nation's food would pick Italian, or French or almost anything.

irishh_bob · 26-09-2011 06:58PM

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

A west brit, in basic terms, is someone who looks down on all things Irish and looks up to all things British.

These people tend to be somewhat unionist in outlook and are often heard berating Irish freedom fighters from all generations and making excuses for Britains behavior.

They hate republicans and have been known to make laws censoring them. They look down on displays of Irish nationalism yet they will fawn and brown-nose to an embaressing degree if they meet a royal.

Often they would not look out of place in the DUP or the Brit conservative party. Quite a few of them in FG over the years. Lots in the media.

good post wolf tone but i think FG get an unfair rap on this one , maybe its different in dublin but where i live , FG voters are no more unionist and anti irish unity than anyone else , if you dont like FF populism and are not a socilist , like me , you find yourself voting FG , that doesnt make you a queen lizzy fawning monarchist

irishh_bob · 26-09-2011 07:05PM

Denerick wrote: »

Eoghan Harris probably has bipolar disorder or something. He's unhinged. The late O'Brien though... He was a true intellectual, lets give the man some credit. He pissed off the right sort's of people, the kind of folk who like to think Ireland was once a rural idyll with comely maidens dancing round the village green.

agree about conor cruise having a great mind but he still made excuses for unionist prejudice all day long while vilifying republicans for daring to shout enough

spot on about eoghan harris , doesnt matter what hes talking about , it all comes back to him at the end of the day , he is the story

FloatingVoter · 26-09-2011 07:11PM

I alway assumed a West Brit was someone from Hawaii. My dumb luck.

Steodonn · 26-09-2011 10:16PM

I hate the GAA and the Irish language. I watch football ( but I support and Irish team with Man Utd as a second team ). I used to play rugby and still watch it. I also like British food better than Irish food

but

I love the wolftones and siting down the pub singing ra song I think Ireland should be reunited and hate the queen with a passion

Am I a west brit ?

Enkidu · 26-09-2011 11:06PM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Not that I'm skeptical, but what are the sources for this statement? Or at least, in what sense did "cultural nationalists like Yeats" invent traditional Irish culture?

Corsendonk · 26-09-2011 11:37PM

ardmacha wrote: »

Anyone with a positive preference for British food must have some political axe to grind. Anyone picking another nation's food would pick Italian, or French or almost anything.

I am partial to the odd Pork Pie:pac:

Alopex · 26-09-2011 11:42PM

Well this thread shows it is now a meaningless term.

I always thought it was someone who is from the ROI, or 26 county state, or Ireland (I've been pulled up on the term ROI before, anyway you know what I mean) who isn't bothered about a united Ireland, and looks at things in less straight forward terms than the 1918 election winners being the legitimate government of Ireland.

In Northern Ireland they get called Castle-Catholics. Its effectively the same thing, basically someone who by republican interpretations, *should* be a republican, but isn't bothered, as well as disagreeing with IRA tactics

mike65 · 26-09-2011 11:43PM

ardmacha wrote: »

Anyone with a positive preference for British food must have some political axe to grind. Anyone picking another nation's food would pick Italian, or French or almost anything.

Well that's pure snobbery/ignorance, watch the Hairy Bikers or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. They'll show you what's possible with some base ingredients.

Pork pie...mmmmm.

caseyann · 27-09-2011 09:02PM

Steodonn wrote: »

I hate the GAA and the Irish language. I watch football ( but I support and Irish team with Man Utd as a second team ). I used to play rugby and still watch it. I also like British food better than Irish food

but

I love the wolftones and siting down the pub singing ra song I think Ireland should be reunited and hate the queen with a passion

Am I a west brit ?

That would be a no lol

How can you hate GAA? Not into it ok understandable.And hate Irish language? How can anyone hate it.Dislike or unable to learn it so therefore not interested in it understandable.But hate is a bit loud a protest.

Are they still allowed sing RA songs in the pub? :eek:

dashboard_hula · 28-09-2011 12:45AM

Alopex wrote: »

basically someone who by republican interpretations, *should* be a republican, but isn't bothered, as well as disagreeing with IRA tactics

^^^That's a better explanation of "West Brit" than I was going to give. Mine would have had more swearing.

It's like there's this trend of revisionism going on which is a nasty by product of Irish patriotism that puts blinkers over anything in our history where the British may possibly have not been quite as evil as our history books portray them. Or any notion of giving a British person/event institution credit where it's due. Or any situation where the fault lay within Irish circles.

Martin McGuinness was never going to get my support anyway, but that is because I don't like his party, his past or his policies. But proclaiming that too loudly in certain places (like my local. Or the Politics forum.), or going into details as to why will invariably draw down the claim of West Brit on my head.
It is a stupid, offensive, out of date and unwanted term and at this point it should be treated with the same zero tolerance policy as any other cultural insult. At least on Boards anyway.

TheUsual · 28-09-2011 02:41AM

Steodonn wrote: »

I blah blah blah ..... really want people to notice me over the millions of Irish people living here ... but I can't really make people see the difference

Good luck to you, you need a girlfriend.

Steodonn wrote: »

Am I a west brit ?

See when a someone important says that ... we listen and debate.
With you ... meh.

niallers1 · 03-10-2011 08:58PM

From wiki

West Brit, an abbreviation of West British, is a pejorative term for an Irish person, usually from South Dublin, who is perceived by his or her countrymen as being too anglophilic in matters of culture or politics

I think this description is the most accurate..

"Sir" Tony O' Reily being a good example.. Doesn't like to be referred to as plain old Tony.

Snickers Man · 04-10-2011 02:05AM

Dudess wrote: »

I have no time for Eoghan Harris, Conor Cruise O'Brien types, but still... "west Brit" just seems to me a very juvenile and thick-sounding term.
.

It is. The nearest equivalent, albeit in a different context is "ni**er lover", someone deemed to be unacceptably tolerant of another ethnic grouping that it is encumbent among all ordinary decent members of one's own tribe to despise.

Mind you, Mr McGuinness can't get elected in his home town of Derry so he doesn't even run there. He represents Mid Ulster, where his pet goldfish could get elected if he stuck an SF rosette on him.

Must be a lot of West Brits in the Bogside and Creggan.

wee truck big driver · 04-10-2011 07:20PM

Snickers Man wrote: »

It is. The nearest equivalent, albeit in a different context is "ni**er lover", someone deemed to be unacceptably tolerant of another ethnic grouping that it is encumbent among all ordinary decent members of one's own tribe to despise.

Mind you, Mr McGuinness can't get elected in his home town of Derry so he doesn't even run there. He represents Mid Ulster, where his pet goldfish could get elected if he stuck an SF rosette on him.

Must be a lot of West Brits in the Bogside and Creggan.

there is a big difference between being tolerant of another nation and having a deep desire to imitate that othe nation at the expense of your own rich culture and heritage

K-9 · 04-10-2011 09:08PM

Tends to be a slur thrown at people by "Nationalists" who define themselves more by what they are against, rather than what they are for. A patriot is proud of their culture and country but can appreciate and understand others, the more extreme Nationalists just hate other countries more, hence terms like West Brit.

Whats a West Brit and what makes someone a West Brit?

Comments