Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Do you see Ireland as European?

24

Comments

  • #32
    Killer Wench
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,386 ✭✭✭Killer Wench


    When I read 'right-wing', I think of 'extremist'. America is not mostly right-wing, 40% of the population considers themselves conservative, 35% consider themselves moderate, and 20% considers themselves liberal. The largest group is conservative but it is still under 50% of the population. That is a significant population but not most Americans.

    I wonder if this disconnect from the greater European continent is the reason y'all haven't won the Eurovision Song Contest in quite some time. :D


  • #33
    charlemont
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    Corvus Maximus wrote: »
    Certainly not. But are we the gimp of europe? Absolutely.

    That unfortunately would be true.:pac:


  • #34
    Zebra3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,101 ✭✭✭✭Zebra3


    Never consider myself European.

    In saying that I love travelling mainland Europe.


  • #35
    Celly Smunt
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,463 ✭✭✭Celly Smunt


    I wish we weren't an island.


  • #36
    IM0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,390 ✭✭✭IM0


    augustus_gloop wrote: »
    Ireland is not ( predominantly ) right wing , its incredibly centrist

    Id say more centre-right, look at the social welfare system we have!


  • Advertisement
  • #37
    rolliepoley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,871 ✭✭✭rolliepoley


    At the rate things are going in this country, in a view years time we will be all speaking German.


  • #38
    losthorizon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,565 ✭✭✭losthorizon


    Stinicker wrote: »
    Ireland is located off the coast of the European continent alongside its neighbor the United Kingdom. We share a language with our neighbors and a long and fraught history but we share very little with the European continent. Our way of thinking is different and our beliefs.

    Culturally we are very different wheras we have more in common with the people in the United States and Australia, New Zealand and white South Africans. Politically Ireland is predominantly right wing which is also more in common with the aforementioned countries.

    Most native Irish are of European Caucasian ancestry and this is undeniable but is Ireland really European? We have so little in common with Germans; French and practically nothing in common with Eastern Europeans. This can be seen among immigrants in Ireland where the Irish get on grand with Americans, Brits etc. wheras other groups tend to be their own circles and rather clannish.

    Yes we live near Europe but I consider myself closer to Boston Betty than Bruno from Belgium.


    Fog in Channel - Europe cut off. A famous BBC weather report.

    Yet your idea of what Irish people are like and our culture is is way too simplistic and then to claim that all Europeans are just one big block of monolithic sameness is craziness in the extreme. Me thinks you have not traveled that much in Europe or wider afield. Some countries in Europe are to the left of us, some to the right, but most, no matter what their outlook take a much bigger interest in their politics than us Irish and get involved.


    As for being clannish go to Spain its easy to track down an Irish person you won't find them in Extremadura or Ceuta more than likely but an Irish pub in the Costa del sol surrounded by loads of other Irish people on package holidays. God help them if they had to mix with locals.

    I've been away many times for games and and the first thing people want to know is where is the Irish pub - so much for mixing!


  • #39
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Before you use the urinal, you're Irish.

    After you use the urinal, you're Irish.

    But WHILE you're using the urinal... European!


  • #40
    carlmango11
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,019 ✭✭✭carlmango11


    rolliepoley wrote: »
    At the rate things are going in this country, in a view years time we will be all speaking German.

    :rolleyes:


  • #41
    pragmatic1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭pragmatic1


    pabloh999 wrote: »
    We've (most of us)probably more in common with UK/USA than mainland Europe.
    Language
    Food
    Music
    Movies
    Social scene(pubs etc)
    Yep and you'll find most of this in Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia too.


  • Advertisement
  • #42
    rolliepoley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,871 ✭✭✭rolliepoley


    carlmango11 wrote: »
    :rolleyes:
    What? have you got something in your eye?
    It was a bit of banter, what AH is all about.


  • #43
    Lbeard
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 311 ✭✭Lbeard


    I think we have a lot more in common with our European neighbours (specifically Poland) than we do with America.

    America is a New World country and is much more similar to other New World countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) which were settled by a particular breed of people (mostly Anglo Saxon, protestant, farmer types).

    Having said that, we've influence America in some ways, so that there are some clear similarities in some ways (e.g. the sporting context, with our own indigenous football codes, plus our mutual enjoyment of golf).


  • #44
    BlimpGaz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 86 ✭✭BlimpGaz


    Lbeard wrote: »
    I think we have a lot more in common with our European neighbours (specifically Poland) than we do with America.

    Definitely not in terms of female quality! :p (had to be said)


  • #45
    Amirani
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,554 Mod ✭✭✭✭Amirani


    Lbeard wrote: »
    Having said that, we've influence America in some ways, so that there are some clear similarities in some ways (e.g. the sporting context, with our own indigenous football codes, plus our mutual enjoyment of golf).

    I don't understand the footballing similarity? Do Europeans not enjoy golf also?


  • #46
    Lbeard
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 311 ✭✭Lbeard


    NiallSparky wrote: »
    I don't understand the footballing similarity? Do Europeans not enjoy golf also?

    The footballing similiarity is with regard to indigenous codes (i.e. Gaelic football, American football).

    Also, golf is incredibly popular in Ireland and America. While it's growing in popularity in Europe, there's only a handful of countries where it would be considered a major sport (Ireland, UK, Spain, Sweden possibly).


  • #47
    BlimpGaz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 86 ✭✭BlimpGaz


    Lbeard wrote: »
    Also, golf is incredibly popular in Ireland and America. While it's growing in popularity in Europe, there's only a handful of countries where it would be considered a major sport (Ireland, UK, Spain, Sweden possibly).

    Really though?? I heard 85% of golf balls purchased here get used as anal toys, rather than to play the INCREDIBLY boring and tedious sport.


  • #48
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    I was on a visit over to Dublin last week and driving along the motorway with my brother I always feel I could be in UK ,Holland or any other EU country so from that perspective it feels very much European but I would say that the neighbourly Germans ,Dutch and Belgians have more in common with each other just as the neighbourly Irish , English ,Welsh and Scottish do.


  • #49
    losthorizon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,565 ✭✭✭losthorizon


    Latchy wrote: »
    I was on a visit over to Dublin last week and driving along the motorway with my brother I always feel I could be in UK ,Holland or any other EU country so from that perspective it feels very much European but I would say that the neighbourly Germans ,Dutch and Belgians have more in common with each other just as the neighbourly Irish , English Welsh and Scottish do.

    Bloody hell Belgians have very little in common with each other never mind with other nations.


  • #50
    Micky Dolenz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    losthorizon wrote: »
    Bloody hell Belgians have very little in common with each other never mind with other nations.

    Belgium is like NI without the violence. With regard to their national identity.


  • #51
    biko
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,219 ✭✭✭✭biko


    I'm only European as in not American, not Asian and so on.
    I never identify myself with or feel particularly close to other European nations.


  • Advertisement
  • #52
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    losthorizon wrote: »
    Bloody hell Belgians have very little in common with each other never mind with other nations.
    I guess drinking their Stella Artois is what they best have in common .


  • #53
    ONeill2013
    Closed Accounts Posts: 447 ✭✭ONeill2013


    It's a good question, I do to an extent, I listen to a lot of European metal music though we have close ties to USA, GB and Australia as you have said. alot of us watch european soccer don't we?

    We have some history with other europeans, the vikings, also the spanish had some involvement in the Nine-Years war in the elizabethan era i think, the flight of the earls and all that.


  • #54
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    ONeill2013 wrote: »
    It's a good question, I do to an extent, I listen to a lot of European metal music though we have close ties to USA, UK and Australia as you have said. alot of us watch european soccer don't we?

    We have some history with other europeans, the vikings, also the spanish had some involvement in the Nine-Years war in the elizabethan era i think.
    For sure ,there is a bit of Danish/ Norwegian in many of us and their castles and remains of their fortresses are all around Ireland .


  • #55
    crockholm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭crockholm


    ONeill2013 wrote: »
    It's a good question, I do to an extent, I listen to a lot of European metal music though we have close ties to USA, GB and Australia as you have said. alot of us watch european soccer don't we?

    We have some history with other europeans, the vikings, also the spanish had some involvement in the Nine-Years war in the elizabethan era i think, the flight of the earls and all that.

    Well technically,the Spaniards showed up at the wrong place, leaving the Irish forces to march the entire length of the country to rendez-vous in Kinsale,and at the eponymous battle,the didn't fight and sued for safe return from the victorious Mountjoy.Flight of the Earls came 6(I think,rathmullen,co donegal)years later.

    I lived in the Netherlands some years ago and many Dutch I spoke to were hopefull for a disintergration of Belgium,so that they could anschluss Flanders back into a "Greater Netherlands" similar to before the war that seperated them.

    I asked a flemish man about all this carry-on and whereas he didn't have much respect for the Walloon's,he felt Belgian nonetheless,and if it were to balkanize,he would prefer an Indepenent Flanders.

    Smashing beer there too.


  • #56
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Corvus Maximus wrote: »
    Certainly not. But are we the gimp of europe? Absolutely.

    No, that would be Albania.


  • #57
    pragmatic1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭pragmatic1


    Latchy wrote: »
    For sure ,there is a bit of Danish/ Norwegian in many of us and their castles and remains of their fortresses are all around Ireland .
    Their genetic legacy in this country is negligible.


  • #58
    crockholm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭crockholm


    April O Neill wrote: »
    No, that would be Albania.


    I read PJ O'Rourke's account of Albania in "Eat the rich",crazy names,crazy folks:eek:


  • #59
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    pragmatic1 wrote: »
    Their genetic legacy in this country is negligible.
    Hmm....their descendants in Dubh Linn ,Wexfjord and Waterfjord might beg to differ


  • #60
    ush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭ush


    We belong firmly in the anglo-saxon sphere. That doesn't mean that we aren't european. Europe is full of cultural and linguistic divisions. Our "quirks" are in no way so extreme that we can't be considered european. Besides, what is Europe. Is it a continent or an idea?


  • Advertisement
  • #61
    pragmatic1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭pragmatic1


    Latchy wrote: »
    Hmm....their descendants in Dubh Linn ,Wexfjord and Waterfjord might beg to differ
    Fairly large cultural impact, but when it comes to genetics not so much.


Advertisement