Lonely Planet says Irish people are pessimistic and lacking self esteem

"Garrulous sociability"....I'd have to agree....we're the Kings and Queens of just saying whatever comes into our heads. ****e talk extraordinaires. I miss that...

peculiar art of self-deprecation

That's a bad thing?

I love a bit of self-deprecating humour. Done well, it's very amusing and witty.

The book says “everything good about Ireland can be found in County Cork”.

If they said Kerry and Cork then it would have been a stronger point. If I was planning a weekend away I'd go to Kerry

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”

True and who cares about the rain. It's also very mild, it's a few degrees warmer by the ocean. Thinking back to my secondary school geography. It's warmer then the midlands, wind not as bitter

Derry city is a “pleasant surprise to many visitors”

Derry is a hole and there's a menacing air about that town. One that you would not find in friendly Belfast

Letterkenny has been “ruined by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger era”.

True

They are right about the begrudgery thing. So so right...

Johnny Foreigner wrote: »

Englanders?
I think you mean English.

I didn't misspell it, it was posted for a reason

You've never heard the phrase little Englanders?

I think a lot of it has to do with the current economic situation. It would be very surprising, in fact, weird, if Irish people were going around feeling all cocky and self-confident at the moment.

We were very self-confident a few years ago in my experience of the place. Everything was possible, everything was booming.

We have gone from a situation where we were literally on top of the world in terms of our economy and everyone was in great humour to a situation where we are quite literally financially embarrassed.

The national ego has taken a massive bruising and it will take a long time to get over it and readjust.

There really are very few things for most people to be positive about at the moment.

I do think too that there is a sense of collective embarrassment/humiliation rather than a sense of anger amongst a lot of the people who were out rooting for Bertienomics back in the day. After all, we had the warnings of impending doom. Yet, most people (not me) voted for Fianna Fail, and continued to buy into the property bubble hysteria, Bertism, the boom could only get boomer etc etc etc.

While some of us are rightly annoyed and angry, I do think there's a large swathe of middle-Ireland that is just feeling a bit like the guy who put the house and life savings on the wrong horse.

I think that's why we aren't seeing massive social unrest too. A large % of the population were very culpable in what happened. Fianna Fail didn't elect itself and 2nd and 3rd mortgages for harebrained investment schemes didn't get imposed upon anyone.

I just constantly get the sense of a lot of people (not by any means everyone) going 'ooops!' and cringing.

I think a lot of those people are also the opinion formers in the media and chattering classes so their sudden ego-bruising is trickling into the mainstream.

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

What the hell is Lonely Planet and why should anyone give a ****?

This inane method of posting, whereby the poster states that they've no idea of what people are talking about, is getting really old and annoying.

"I'm too cool to google it and can't help but express how cool I am by showing my supposed indifference"

For the record, the BBC-owned Lonely Planet guidebooks are the books that most potential travellers to a given country read before and during their travels. So they're pretty damn important.

Bambi wrote: »

Is'nt it one of those ya-roysh tools of ****etalk 104 FM that wrote this?

Yup, Fionn Davenport, that pain in the hole from Newstalk 106. I used to find him tolerable but now just find him pompous, annoying and I feel he might just have a thesaurus by his side in studio.

mikemac1 wrote: »

If they said Kerry and Cork then it would have been a stronger point. If I was planning a weekend away I'd go to Kerry



True and who cares about the rain. It's also very mild, it's a few degrees warmer by the ocean. Thinking back to my secondary school geography. It's warmer then the midlands, wind not as bitter



Derry is a hole and there's a menacing air about that town. One that you would not find in friendly Belfast



True

Just opinion though, as are all critiques/reviews - not purporting to be fact.

Lonely Planet must have read AH.