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Lonely Planet says Irish people are pessimistic and lacking self esteem

  • 12-01-2012 10:26PM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 130 ✭✭


    Do you agree with them or think that's a load of crap. I personally think its a dumb thing to say in a guide to Ireland.


«134

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,117 ✭✭✭✭MrJoeSoap


    Kohl wrote: »
    Do you agree with them or think that's a load of crap. I personally think its a dumb thing to say in a guide to Ireland.

    Lonely Planet won't be around in five years time, I'd write a letter of complaint but I'm really bad at that kind of thing.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,322 ✭✭✭Merch


    I agree, generally. Not sure why it needs mentioning in a travel guide book?
    still, accurate I think


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,581 ✭✭✭✭TheZohanS


    They'll probably say worse things about us in years to come, but who are we to stop them. :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭Captain_Generic


    Good on them for being honest

    Better than the usual "everything here is the best everything anywhere ever" shíte you get from the tourist board


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,128 ✭✭✭✭aaronjumper


    Isn't that most peoples opinion of the Irish?
    That or alcoholics.

    I disagree. Most of the people I know are annoyingly optimistic.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,036 ✭✭✭cocoshovel


    Yup, that sums us up alright. I often think we're an majorly lacking in self esteem especially for the country in general even though when I think about it and think of all the people from other countries and how they have it, we really do have it pretty good here. Im still not happy with it though.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭Kevin Duffy


    What a crock. You can't generalise about 4 million or whatever people like that. Means as much as a horoscope. "You will cross water today and have a row with your boss. All half a billion of you who were born on the same day."


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,059 ✭✭✭Sindri


    I don't think I have the ability to apply to this:(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,440 ✭✭✭sideswipe


    This is terrible, terrible news, really awful. I think it will probably be the ruination of our tourist industry, it's terrible, no good will come from this, it's very depressing.
    I wish I could do something to change this but I'm not very good at that sort of thing, come to think of it I'm not really good at many things really.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,739 ✭✭✭✭starbelgrade


    Lonely bollox.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Bit of a generalization

    I may as well say the French are rude and the little Englanders are arrogant


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Some generalisations have their roots in reality. But meh, don't see it as cause for bother.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,598 ✭✭✭✭Aidric


    Lonely bollox.

    Have you tried dating websites?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    Is it cos we iz losers?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,315 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    Had the Lonely Island in mind after reading the thread title, disappointing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 731 ✭✭✭Butterface


    Sounds like Lonely Planet had sexy times with an Irish person


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 73 ✭✭Pissmire


    This is bleak, but then again who am I to have an opinion.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,551 ✭✭✭SeaFields


    God damn hippies.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,626 ✭✭✭✭My name is URL


    It's definitely a lonely planet when you need to travel the world and view it in the light of a handbook.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 270 ✭✭bicardi19


    Good on them for being honest

    Better than the usual "everything here is the best everything anywhere ever" shíte you get from the tourist board

    See thats where they get the pessimistic thing from


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,535 ✭✭✭Raekwon


    Dudess wrote: »
    Some generalisations have their roots in reality. But meh, don't see it as cause for bother.

    Never a truer word spoken


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,884 ✭✭✭Eve_Dublin


    Bizarre thing to write in a guide book. People will be in the country for a maximum of 2 weeks and the only interaction they'll have with the locals is asking directions and talking to a hostel receptionist. Do they really need a breakdown of the Irish psyche?

    Have all nationalities had the same treatment?

    And this quote, "Our reputation for friendliness is mostly a manifestation of our desire to chat"....ehh...that'd be my definition of what friendly means. The desire to talk and interact with others. Am I missing something here??

    I'd be interested to hear what they said about other nationalities...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,390 ✭✭✭IM0


    pics or link or gtfo :mad:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭Captain_Generic


    It's definitely a lonely planet when you need to travel the world and view it in the light of a handbook.

    All you need to travel is an electric heater and google streetview
    bicardi19 wrote: »
    See thats where they get the pessimistic thing from

    I shouldn't have let them interview me, I was having a bad day


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    Here's what the Irish times report.
    The Irish lack self-esteem despite a veneer of “garrulous sociability and self-deprecating twaddle”, according to the latest edition of the Lonely Planet which has just been published.
    The best-selling guide book says Irish people’s reputation for having an “easygoing, affable nature is justified”, but our reputation for friendliness is mostly a manifestation of our desire to chat – and our lack of self-esteem is our “dark secret”.

    The guide says the pub remains the number one attraction for visitors to Ireland and the focus of Irish life.

    Ireland has not lost its “mojo” despite years of recession, says the guide: “the good times may have gone, but Dublin still knows how to have a good time”.

    While the book lavishes praise on the capital, it criticises the city’s best-known tourist attractions, notably the Book of Kells and Temple Bar.

    The Celtic Tiger may be over but Ireland remains a country transformed for the better over the last two decades, it says.

    The writers opine that it may be “ridiculously crude and simplistic” to suggest the Irish are used to hard knocks, but, nevertheless, “there is some truth in it”.

    The Irish are “fatalistic and pessimistic to the core”, which is why they have accepted their economic fate more readily than the Greeks, who have rioted in the streets.

    While suspicious of praise and tending not to believe anything nice that’s ever said about them, the Irish “wallow in false modesty like a sport” and are fond of the “peculiar art of self-deprecation”.

    Begrudgery is also regarded as a national sport and the writers find it amusing that Bono is subject to more criticism in Ireland than he is elsewhere.

    The book has two pieces of advice for travellers. Don’t use expressions like “top o’ the morning to you” or “begorrah”, which belong in 1950s Hollywood movies, and do buy your round. The book says “everything good about Ireland can be found in County Cork”.

    Galway city has “an overlaying vibe of fun and frolic that’s addictive” but it is also “a very rainy city, even by Irish standards” and Derry city is a “pleasant surprise to many visitors” even if it is not pretty. The book is less than kind to Armagh city, which has “a dreary, rundown feel to it”.

    Larne is “lacking in the charm department”, while Letterkenny has been “ruined by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger era”.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Lot of doom and gloom here though - a lot of peeps have this thing of being ashamed to be Irish or whatever. Obviously not all, but it's noticeable. Lonely Planet's approach is different to the usual travel guide. It's said lots of good stuff about here too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,915 ✭✭✭cursai


    America is a nation of macaroni eating terrorists.




    True statement.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭Sky King


    Lonely bollox.

    I logged in just to thank this.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    “peculiar art of self-deprecation”.

    Is it just me or does that sound kinda hawt :P


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,739 ✭✭✭✭starbelgrade


    Here's what the Irish times report.

    It's not too far off the mark.

    The bit about Letterkenny is particularly true.. because of the Celtic Tiger, it's now essentially a retail park with an old street going through the middle.


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