Just 8% Of Americans Regard St.Patricks Day As An Important Holiday

SharpshooterTom · 18-03-2012 12:41AM #1

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/holidays/march_2012/8_rate_st_patrick_s_day_as_an_important_holiday

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults finds that just eight percent (8%) feel St. Patrick’s Day is one of the nation’s most important holidays. Fifty-seven percent (57%) consider the holiday one of the least important, while another 32% say it’s somewhere in between.

Ah well sure "everyone loves the Irish".

If I'm being honest, I've always found the hype of the reputation of the Irish abroad to be exaggurated. "Everyone wants to be Irish" and all that crap.

I've never been to America, but I bet you most Americans don't care about Irish people or most people around the world, see them as strange foreigners and have no interest in Irish culture.

I've been reading a lot online blogs and forums mainly political ones with all the Republican meatheads criticising President Obama for drinking Guinness today, calling him unamerican for it, not drinking Budweiser and celebrating a "foreign holiday". Blah.

I hear a lot of people go on about how Americans "want to be Irish" and that if you went over there every American will be gushing over there to hear you're Irish accent and every American will be telling you of their great great great grandfather was Irish etc. I can't deny other peoples experiances in America, that could well be true, but my gut instinct is that it's exaggurated by far.

I was in Australia recently, met very few Irish and met very few Australians who cared about Ireland. I never met one who told me about any relations, most of them considered themselves Australians only. They don't hate Irish people, they just don't care about them, they don't really give a stuff about the Brits either, despite being massively descended from them.

So this poll result doesn't suprise me, I suspect most people couldn't care less about St.Patricks day, infact most people in England appear to be angry for not celebrating St Georges day (well its a crap holiday thats why).

Is the "love for the Irish" exaggurated abroad or is it a real thing for you whenever you leave??

galwayrush · 18-03-2012 12:42AM

That's still a very large amount of people..:cool:

DarkJager · 18-03-2012 12:43AM

They're not Irish anyway so what does it matter?

IsMiseLisa · 18-03-2012 12:45AM

Well, I'm Irish and I think St. Patrick's day - though great craic - is ridiculously stupid and entirely unimportant.

Chuck Stone · 18-03-2012 12:46AM

Being born Irish is a good start in life.

I think we're well received abroad because we're one of the only western European nations that hasn't a past of gun point colonialism and resource thieving.

44leto · 18-03-2012 12:46AM

24 million that is a lot of people, off course they are not going to find it important as it is not an american holiday.

Nodin · 18-03-2012 12:47AM

From your article....

More Americans than ever consider St. Patrick’s Day one of the nation’s least important holidays, but a sizable number still plan to wear green. One-in four will have an alcoholic drink to celebrate.

Superbus · 18-03-2012 12:48AM

Why would they want a Budweiser-drinking president?

LH Pathe · 18-03-2012 12:53AM

Kiss my Irish ass! oo-ar!!!

.. I think thats supposedly to be a outrageouz flirtatiouz. But if it fails.. 9 times out of 10 so when it fails.. then it means just that, actually!! haaaa

the thought of making out with an arsehole may sound savage but it don't do it for me. But I do feel very Irish..

Jesus Wept · 18-03-2012 01:15AM

I tend to agree with the 92%.

18-03-2012 01:20AM

It's likely that only 8% of people in Ireland regard St. Patrick's Day as an important holiday. The other 92% see it as just an excuse to get drunk.

Killer Wench · 18-03-2012 01:26AM

In the States, there is a large amount of people who identify as being Irish - not Irish American - but as Irish. They don't have any recent ties. They have never stepped a foot on Ireland. They don't know the name of their Irish ancestors or know what county they came from, but they are Irish nonetheless.

So, St. Patrick's Day is about celebrating this tenuous connection to this fantastical homeland.

Tangentially, it annoys the piss out of me to meet people who can claim to be Irish and reminisce about the tragedies of the Irish famine and how it shaped their ancestral journey, but I can't discuss how slavery had an impact on my family's unity and construction. Funny, because the largest migration wave of Irish took place before the end of slavery; yet, you would think that their Irish connection was only a generation or two ago and not four to five generations back.

TreesAreCrowd · 18-03-2012 01:27AM

Gnobe wrote: »

So this poll result doesn't suprise me

I don't see why it would, you yourself have admitted you know nothing about the US.

I can't say what the overall impression is, however I've been to the US a number of times and almost every single time I've talked to an American there they've made a fuss about me being Irish, telling me how they'd love to visit or how they have visited, what fraction of "Irish" they are etc.

It's fairly mad and isn't in response to me initiating it either, I would generally prefer people to not know I'm from this shítehole but thankfully most non-Irish think I'm English anyway...purely due to the fact that I pronounce my words properly.

MagicMarker · 18-03-2012 01:33AM

Patrick's day is meaningless.

hondasam · 18-03-2012 01:33AM

TreesAreCrowd wrote: »

It's fairly mad and isn't in response to me initiating it either, I would generally prefer people to not know I'm from this shítehole but thankfully most non-Irish think I'm English anyway...purely due to the fact that I pronounce my words properly.

I would have thought it's the english who don't pronounce their words properly.
why do you think Ireland is a ****hole?

starlit · 18-03-2012 01:34AM

That's a change thought everyone was Irish in America for St Patrick's Day!lol!

TreesAreCrowd · 18-03-2012 01:38AM

hondasam wrote: »

I would have thought it's the english who don't pronounce their words properly.

Not the kind of English I'm mistaken for

why do you think Ireland is a ****hole?

Topic for another thread really but the list is pretty endless. The people here are probably number one on the list. Throw in the shíte weather, the fact that we're backward enough to have actively implemented blasphemy laws in the last 5 years and more and it points towards a shítty little country with hilarious delusions of grandeur.

woodoo · 18-03-2012 01:38AM

I'm amazed that almost 1 in 10 Americans consider it important at all. Thats quite high.

How many of them could even tell you anything about St Georges day or St Andrews day or St Davids day?

Freddie59 · 18-03-2012 01:38AM

Gnobe wrote: »

I've never been to America, but I bet you most Americans don't care about Irish people or most people around the world, see them as strange foreigners and have no interest in Irish culture.

:rolleyes:

darlett · 18-03-2012 01:39AM

Im sure a large part depends on a persons definition of 'Important holiday'.

I bought shamrocks during the week (2 tubs for a euro ya cant beat that) I wore a green tee-shirt, followed the parade on the box, saw the pisa tower was lit up green, I know several of the myths and facts about the saint himself, watched the rugby, drank the booze, and im happier that I have the day off than if I was working that day. But I wouldnt say its an important holiday whatever that is. Its tshirt and hat for sale begorrah bejaysus format seems a typically commercial evolution from something more meaningful BUT less entertaining, like ALL holidays now I think of it. I like it but thats the limit for me.

hondasam · 18-03-2012 01:41AM

TreesAreCrowd wrote: »

Topic for another thread really but the list is pretty endless. The people here are probably number one on the list. Throw in the shíte weather, the fact that we're backward enough to have actively implemented blasphemy laws in the last 5 years and more and it points towards a shítty little country with hilarious delusions of grandeur.

I know it has it's bad points but overall it's still our country, people are friendly,it might not be as relaxed and easy going these days but still I love it.

LizT · 18-03-2012 01:43AM

I wonder if you surveyed Irish people would they consider thanksgiving an important holiday. Of course not, this is a non story.

fat__tony · 18-03-2012 01:46AM

Im Irish and I couldn't give two ****s about the day.

Its a nonsense of a holiday about an obscure 'saint' who lived 1500 years ago.

Also it seems to give a licence to people to drink and act like utter twats.

darlett · 18-03-2012 01:50AM

Ive been fortunate enough to have been to both America and Australia and experience working there, and Ive felt the love from plenty due to my being irish. Theres also a healthy portion of apathy there and more power to each and all of them. I think its hard for us who probably go back hundreds of years in the same area of the same country to relate to someone whose great grandparents came from a far away nugget on a map so I wouldnt be too quick to mock those who are enthusiastically trying to learn a little about or connect in some spurious way to that place.

TreesAreCrowd · 18-03-2012 01:51AM

hondasam wrote: »

I know it has it's bad points but overall it's still our country, people are friendly,it might not be as relaxed and easy going these days but still I love it.

How do you define "our country"? In that we happened to be born here?

I spent over 10 years working with customers here in a variety of roles and one thing remained the same - Irish people are cúnts. For the most part unintelligent, ignorant and only "good craic" when they've a few drinks in them. Worse still is that over the past few years as a day cannot go by without some random cúnt ignorantly moaning about "de gubberment, de bankoors and de developoors" on topics he has absolutely zero understanding of.

There's cúnts everywhere but the sheer density of them here is just surreal. You leave Dublin and there's cúnts moaning at you about the above, plus "de jackeens", in their unintelligible regional dialect. You stay in Dublin and you're surrounded by the moaning cúnts or an underclass of absolute scum who are protected by social services or having their "culture" blindly respected .

I'm not one to have "pride" or "shame" in where I happened to be born, but for the most part I'm embarrassed to be associated with such an internationally known pack of cúnts.

This is a beautiful island and we're lucky to have had a ruling class here who built some absolutely stunning buildings in our cities before our shambolic "independence", it's the people that make the place unbearable and it's only getting worse, as the rise in support for cúnts like SF can attest to.

Lust4Life · 18-03-2012 01:51AM

I wasn't a part of that poll.
My Wisconsin city is filled with people celebrating Paddy's day today! I even saw a man with a Green Mowhawk standing outside of a pub smoking!

What's not to love about St Patrick's Day? I am on my way out to the pub to watch an Irish Rock band play. And yes, they really are straight from Ireland.

Killer Wench · 18-03-2012 01:57AM

TreesAreCrowd wrote: »

How do you define "our country"? In that we happened to be born here?

I spent over 10 years working with customers here in a variety of roles and one thing remained the same - Irish people are cúnts. For the most part unintelligent, ignorant and only "good craic" when they've a few drinks in them. Worse still is that over the past few years as a day cannot go by without some random cúnt ignorantly moaning about "de gubberment, de bankoors and de developoors" on topics he has absolutely zero understanding of.

There's cúnts everywhere but the sheer density of them here is just surreal. You leave Dublin and there's cúnts moaning at you about the above, plus "de jackeens", in their unintelligible regional dialect. You stay in Dublin and you're surrounded by the moaning cúnts or an underclass of absolute scum who are protected by social services or having their "culture" blindly respected .

I'm not one to have "pride" or "shame" in where I happened to be born, but for the most part I'm embarrassed to be associated with such an internationally known pack of cúnts.

This is a beautiful island and we're lucky to have had a ruling class here who built some absolutely stunning buildings in our cities before our shambolic "independence", it's the people that make the place unbearable and it's only getting worse, as the rise in support for cúnts like SF can attest to.

Sometimes my sarcasm meter is off...?

hondasam · 18-03-2012 02:03AM

TreesAreCrowd wrote: »

one thing remained the same - Irish people are cúnts. For the most part unintelligent, ignorant and only "good craic" when they've a few drinks in them.

This might be a description of you and people you know but it's not what the majority of Irish people are like.

TreesAreCrowd · 18-03-2012 02:05AM

Killer Wench wrote: »

Sometimes my sarcasm meter is off...?

No sarcasm there buddy. Might be seen to be a bit hypocritical of me to be moaning about moany cúnts but I genuinely spend my days trying to discuss the cheeriest things I can find these days in the hopes of preventing a moan rant from some cúnt...not very successful though, I must say, they want their rant and they're going to get it one way or another. Just like the ignorant cúnts here who bring up the government, bankers and developers in every single thread posted. Might not have to do with the topic at hand, of course, but they're damn well going to rant about it.

cena · 18-03-2012 02:08AM

It was on fox news that Americans spend 4.5 billion dollars on st patricks day

minidazzler · 18-03-2012 02:09AM

So 8% of people who were HOME on St Patricks Day think it's an important holiday. That's because around the ones who think it's awesome are out getting drunk!

Just 8% Of Americans Regard St.Patricks Day As An Important Holiday

Comments