Have you ever experienced hibernophobia?

Shenshen wrote: »

Put it this way, if you hear someone speaking French, could you tell immediately if they're from Normandy, Corsica, Switzerland or Canada?

Agreed. It's not easy. I've been accused of being Canadian(by Americans wut? I was all "eh ye sound very similar except for words like out"), English(again by Americans, French, German, a New Zelander and oddly by a highland Scots chap). No way do I sound either English or Canadian. I most certainly don't have either received pronunciation nor a mid Atlantic drawl common in some quarters here. I think some outsiders think "Irish" and assume "begorrah, top of the morning".

Bertie Woot wrote: »

We are not the same. The English came from a different island, colonised Ireland, then negatively stereotyped the entire Irish people as "stupid", "alcoholics", "lazy" and most recently, "terrorists" to justify 800 years of British colonial oppression, tyranny and genocide.

Well hang on there a minute. Genetically we are very closely related to the English and Scots and Welsh. The English contrary to popular belief(of outsiders and themselves) aren't Anglo Saxons. I dunno if you caught the recent TV programme where Eddie Izzard traced his genetic heritage? It turns out that his stock had a very rare variant among the English that actually was Anglo Saxon. It stood out because it was so rare. You have to go to places like east Anglia(handily named) to find much Saxon stock and even there it's tiny, present in under 2% of the population. Only on the male lines too. As far as researchers have found, no Saxon female lines remain. So English = Anglo Saxon is wrong. Hate to break it to some, but we're not "Celts" either. The Celtic populations of central Europe have no markers here, outside of us all being European(oh and we're not Spanish/Basques either and even Basques genetics though unique in some places aren't that ancient either). Historically and genetically the peoples of these islands have been going too and fro and mixing since the ice retreated 12,000 years ago. They even found a Roman era Irish blokes gravemarker complete with Ogham inscription from a Roman town in southern England. In essence telling a "pure" Irishman and a "pure" Englishman(or Scots or Welsh) is pretty difficult. We're more alike to each other than the vast majoriy of us would be to mainland Europeans.

The Irish have never done that to England or indeed any other nation,

Oh really? The Irish had Kingdoms in both Scotland and Wales. There are remains of Irish crannogs on Welsh lakes and ever wonder why Scots Gaelic is pretty much the Irish language? Where did the Pictish languages of that region go? Hell even Bede one f the first chroniclers of what would become "England" mentioned the Irish language as one of the tongues spoken.

As for the Irish "never done(sic) to any other nation", we were part of a larger empire for long enough and were the arms and weapons of same for long enough too. Never mind "the Brits", the US 7th cavalry had a large proportion of Irish men serving and ask a native American how friendly they were...

in the kingdom and now that England the coloniser has become the colonised, they can no longer hold onto their outdated and redundant superiority complex.

Better off historically blaming the Norman French. They were the colonisers of both here and the UK, not the English. Indeed they acted more shítty towards the English in the early days. It was near three centuries before an "English" king could speak English like a native.

As for gingervitis, as well as infecting large swathes of Scotland and Ireland, it has also infected many parts of England. Queen Elizabeth II and her entire extended royal family are all gingers. Most have their hair dyed regularly, with Prince Harry being the only member of the Windsor household to not care.

Conspiracy theory forum that away ==> Though there you may be told they're also lizards so... In any event the red hair gene is to be found in England too. It was more common in the past. Among their royalty there were a number of gingers. Henry the eighth was a ginge as was his daughter Lizzy the first. Both were quite proud of their hair colour too. Then again they were of Welsh stock so... Actually precious few of the English royalty have been native "English". Some were Saxon, but the Normans sorted that one, then the Dutch lot, followed by the mid European royal families chimed in(most recently German). So if the current lot are all gingers the gene is French, Scandinavian, Dutch(was king billy a ginge? I seem to recall he may have been) or German.

"No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish" and "No Irish Need Apply" (NINA signs) were a common sight in the windows of bed and breakfasts in London in the 1960's, a time long before political correctness.

That's true enough. It got worse with the Troubles, though you can see at least some reasoning there, however daft.

Anti-Irish discrimination was rife in England at that time, and you'll still encounter it today, only in a much subtler form.

I've never really come across it myself. Perhaps I've been lucky. I think it''s maybe because the vast majority of my dealings with English people have been outside the less educated underclass, though I have always been surprised how little even educated English people know about Ireland or Irish history. Most seemed eager to learn more too. They can even be a bit blank on their own. Their history seems to be dominated by the chinless wonders of their aristocracy, the history of the common man really takes a back seat. I suppose it was a way of keeping them down. Socialist English types seem to know way more on that score. I've been shocked how few Brits know about things like the Scottish land clearances. It was a government led act of genocide by movement of huge numbers of ordinary people from their lands for the sake of big landowners. While there can at least be debate over the conduct of the English ruling classes regarding our Irish Famine, there is little or no debate about the clearances and you very very rarely hear it even being mentioned in their media. As if it never happened.

I know a couple of Northern Irish lads that have had crap mind you, so maybe my southern accent makes the difference? I remember years ago a survey done by the BBC Radio Times IIRC that polled the attractiveness of various accents and the accent that won was a soft southern Irish accent, but the one considered least attractive(along with South African) was a harsh Northern accent. I'd suspect the Terry Wogan and Ian Paisley effect respectively going on there.

I have however had some BS from Scottish types. Not much, but way more than with English.

Many English people also oppose Northern Ireland's place within the UK, as NI benefits slightly more under the Barnett Formula, and some English people resent that despite the NI economy suffering a lot more due to 30 years of political violence. During my time on a UK forum I learned that most English people (certainly on that forum) are in favour of Irish unification, as they view N.Ireland as "a nuisance state", a "waste of British tax-payer's money" and "a liability" They do not appreciate Ulster's 'loyalty'.

Ohh I've heard that one myself, more than once and some even dislike the Unionist side more than the Nationalist. They consider the former more "ranty".

LincolnsBeard wrote: »

I hear there is growing anti-Irish sentiment in Australia because of the way a lot of Irish lads behave out there.

I've heard that one alright. I've also heard of a similar sentiment in some paces like tourist areas of Spain, where we can be lumped in with the British and Germans as being "louts".