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Do you see Ireland as European?

13

Comments

  • #62
    Amirani
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,622 Mod ✭✭✭✭Amirani


    Latchy wrote: »
    I guess drinking their Stella Artois is what they best have in common .

    Stella Artois isn't really popular in Belgium.


  • #63
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,190 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    pragmatic1 wrote: »
    Fairly large cultural impact, but when it comes to genetics not so much.
    I guess they kidnapped and took them all back to Scandinavia so ,along with all the other plunder to .


  • #64
    orestes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭orestes


    ush wrote: »
    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?

    What makes you say anglo-saxon? Our history and culture was influenced far more by the viking and norman settlements than it was by the English of that period.


  • #65
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,190 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    NiallSparky wrote: »
    Stella Artois isn't really popular in Belgium.
    so what , it's brewed in Leuven, Belgium, since 1926 so I would say a lot of Belgians would comment and make reference to it in that same way as Irish people do about Guinness


  • #66
    ush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭ush


    orestes wrote: »
    What makes you say anglo-saxon? Our history and culture was influenced far more by the viking and norman settlements than it was by the English of that period.

    The angles and saxons too were influenced by later viking and norman invasions. Anglo-Saxon is a lazy way of placing the us in some kind broader context.


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  • #67
    orestes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭orestes


    Latchy wrote: »
    so what , it's brewed in Leuven, Belgium, since 1926 so I would say a lot of Belgians would comment and make reference to it in that same way as Irish people do about Guinness

    Leuven is a university town, the people there drink it because it's made there so it's cheap as hell and they're all broke ass students. There are about a thousand beers made in Belgium, they really take the stuff seriously. Stella is their version of Dutch Gold.
    ush wrote: »
    The angles and saxons too were influenced by later viking and norman invasions. Anglo-Saxon is a lazy way of placing the us in some kind broader context.

    While the Anglo-Saxons were kicking about in England, Ireland was still Celtic, the same way we were until the Vikings showed up. It's not a lazy way of putting us in some kind of larger context, it's a lazy way of putting us in an incorrect context.


  • #68
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,499 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Belgium is a hidden gem for beer connoisseurs.


  • #69
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    Much as we deny it, we are undeniably (culturally and geographically) part of the Anglosphere! The State has made a dececision
    to become more European, and that's great, but we can't deny are cultural DNA, which is rooted within these islands.


  • #70
    crockholm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭crockholm


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    Belgium is a hidden gem for beer connoisseurs.


    On a sunday morn,myself and a few other hoppites would drive to the nearest Belgian town,maybe 10km away, and buy beer from what I can only describe as an industrial-sized warehouse with hundreds if not thousands of different beers to choose from.

    I was never in so much awe again until I saw the Grand Canyon:)


  • #71
    ush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭ush


    LordSutch wrote: »
    Much as we deny it, we are undeniably (culturally and geographically) part of the Anglosphere! The State has made a dececision
    to become more European, and that's great, but we can't deny are cultural DNA, which is rooted within these islands.

    And these islands are in europe.


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  • #72
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    ush wrote: »
    And these islands are in europe.

    The NW periphery of europe, to be more precise.


  • #73
    Micky Dolenz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    Belgium is a hidden gem for beer connoisseurs.


    I've been living here the last year and have made it my business to drink as many of the beers as I can. Not sure I am even 10% through them already.

    This evening I try: Gentse Tripel, Quintine Amber, Cuvee des Trolls.

    Tough job but someone has to do it.


  • #74
    ush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭ush


    LordSutch wrote: »
    The NW periphery of europe, to be more precise.

    Well spotted.


  • #75
    Chucken
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,459 ✭✭✭Chucken


    Micky Dolenz wrote: »
    I've been living here the last year and have made it my business to drink as many of the beers as I can. Not sure I am even 10% through them already.

    This evening I try: Gentse Tripel, Quintine Amber, Cuvee des Trolls.

    Tough job but someone has to do it.

    :D Can that be our 'national' drink in AHs?


  • #76
    miralize
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,207 ✭✭✭miralize


    We are in the continent of Europe. So, yes.


  • #77
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    miralize wrote: »
    We are in the continent of Europe. So, yes.

    Err no, please read #76 again :)


  • #78
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,190 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    I was only in Belgium once while on the way home to Ireland and had a Guinness in a local Brussels bar but I had just left Holland after several months stay in which I had drank enough Heineken and Amstel beer so t'was time to revert back to the old black stuff.


  • #79
    miralize
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,207 ✭✭✭miralize


    LordSutch wrote: »
    Err no, please read #76 again :)

    Of Europe.... Not landlocked, but we are a part of Europe.


  • #80
    carlmango11
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,019 ✭✭✭carlmango11


    I actually think we're very much in the middle between the rest of Europe and the US.

    Our European qualities:
    • (almost) Free university
    • Government healthcare
    • More socialist Government in general (welfare payments etc.)
    • Anti-guns
    • Less religious (yes, I actually do believe this - your religion is less of a deal here)
    • More relaxed police force
    • No circumcision
    • Smaller cars
    • Smaller homes
    • More dense cities, less suburban/sprawling
    • Football
    • Older/more historic cities, castles etc.
    • No patriotism culture
    • Metric system (well a lot of people use both...)
    • Manual transmission
    • European home-grown films are generally less flashy than their US counterparts

    But as Europeans go we're pretty Americanised, whether due to the whole part-of-the-UK thing or just from TV I don't know
    • Very car reliant
    • Big coffees ("why are you drinking that tiny, strong coffee - bigger is better")
    • Popularity of huge shopping centres off motorways. I always saw retail streets as European and "malls" as American, but perhaps the latter is just more convenient.
    • Growing importance of big expensive, prom-like debs with limosines etc.
    • Little interest in nice beers, we drink mass-produced s**t to get drunk, not for flavour
    • Love for American food and aversion to "foreign" foods - this one annoys me
    • Adoption by some young Irish people of a semi-American accent and vocabulary
    • I thought I'd have a lot more on this list!

    I'm sure there's more than that and of course some could be disputed.


  • #81
    orestes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭orestes


    LordSutch wrote: »
    The NW periphery of europe, to be more precise.
    LordSutch wrote: »
    Err no, please read #76 again :)

    I don't know what definition you're working on, but every single one I can think of has Ireland within Europe.


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  • #82
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    miralize wrote: »
    Of Europe.... Not landlocked, but we are a part of Europe.

    Correct, as are the rest of these islands, geographically speaking.


  • #83
    miralize
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,207 ✭✭✭miralize


    LordSutch wrote: »
    Correct, as are the rest of these islands.

    So, thats your argument - semantics & technicalities?


  • #84
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    My answer is in #73.


  • #85
    miralize
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,207 ✭✭✭miralize


    LordSutch wrote: »
    My answer is in #73.

    But the question was do you see Ireland as European, not "Do you see yourself being more Irish than European?". Different question.


  • #86
    ONeill2013
    Closed Accounts Posts: 447 ✭✭ONeill2013


    crockholm wrote: »
    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.

    And the Irish lost the battle basically because they didn't have stirrups on their horses, I heard that in a documentary, not sure if it is true


  • #87
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    The state (over several decades) has made a decision that we were to become good European citizens.

    ...so yes, by design, Ireland has become european.


  • #88
    ONeill2013
    Closed Accounts Posts: 447 ✭✭ONeill2013


    carlmango11 wrote: »
    • (almost) Free university
    • Government healthcare
    • More socialist Government in general (welfare payments etc.)
    • Anti-guns
    • Less religious (yes, I actually do believe this - your religion is less of a deal here)
    • More relaxed police force
    • No circumcision
    • Smaller cars
    • Smaller homes
    • More dense cities, less suburban/sprawling
    • Football

    You could argue with football, gaelic games is a lot more popular here, soccer is also starting to become a lot more popular in the usa almost to the same level as here


  • #89
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,499 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    ONeill2013 wrote: »
    You could argue with football, gaelic games is a lot more popular here, soccer is also starting to become a lot more popular in the usa almost to the same level as here

    It's not really, kids play it at a young age but drop it when they go to high school. Football, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey are still the big four.


  • #90
    ONeill2013
    Closed Accounts Posts: 447 ✭✭ONeill2013


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    It's not really, kids play it at a young age but drop it when they go to high school. Football, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey are still the big four.

    you're right but in terms of fans it is getting more popular, mostly english premier league fans though.


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  • #91
    hedgehog2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 317 ✭✭hedgehog2


    The state and its policies have lead us down the European path.
    Once the masses from Eastern Europe flocked to our shores in this past decade it was too much too quick for Ireland and there has been a massive shift in attitude by the politicians as they know Europe has them by the balls and they want to affiliate Ireland with Europe even further to avoid any conflict with Europe in the hope that they will keep the purse open.
    Before the euro Ireland considered Europe as that continent that feeds us grant money and we will take some of their laws on board to keep the monies coming.The psyche was and still is we have the craic with the anglo countries and were running solo,now that the govt made a mess of the country we cant ignore the eurocrats and the party line is to merge further with the Europeans or we r fecked on our own and shove it down the pubkics throat even though we have nothing much in common with eastern or southern europeans except that were all been fcuked by the Germans.


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