What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

dxhound2005 · 13-09-2019 11:06pm

K.Flyer wrote: »

Using Escalators.
They understand the concept that some people might be in a hurry when using them, so those not in a hurry stand to the right leaving space for people to pass on the left.

It's mostly foreigners living in England these days. So they must have brought those good manners from abroad.

Achebe · 13-09-2019 11:06pm

The welfare state.

road_high · 13-09-2019 11:15pm

Achebe wrote: »

The welfare state.

Nah- experts at it here. Like for like social welfare payment is about 2.5 times the UK rate.

K.Flyer · 13-09-2019 11:20pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

It's mostly foreigners living in England these days. So they must have brought those good manners from abroad.

The practice dates back to around 1920 when escalators were first being installed in the underground network.

road_high · 13-09-2019 11:20pm

Working with the English they tend to make mountains out of molehills and will go and on about the task or outcome ad nauseum. We tend to just get the fcuk on with things and deal with whatever arises.
Some of them have this rather annoying childlike way of going on.

BDI · 13-09-2019 11:23pm

Tuco88 wrote: »

Construction and Engineering, we are not in the same league or in the same game in fact.

Hogwash,

Half of Ireland is over there running multi million pound projects.

dxhound2005 · 13-09-2019 11:29pm

K.Flyer wrote: »

The practice dates back to around 1920 when escalators were first being installed in the underground network.

I'm retracting my assertion that it is good manners to let others pass on the escalators. It is more efficient in moving the generality of passengers quicker to have standing on both sides. This should appeal to the unselfish nature of the British, always ready to sacrifice their own convenience for the common good.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 13-09-2019 11:30pm

BDI wrote: »

Hogwash,

Half of Ireland is over there running multi million pound projects.

I think he means in a historical sense.

Some of the greatest engineers of all time came from Britain. I couldn't imagine a world without all their innovations and inventions.

FishOnABike · 13-09-2019 11:57pm

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I think he means in a historical sense.

Some of the greatest engineers of all time came from Britain. I couldn't imagine a world without all their innovations and inventions.

Hypodermic needle, submarine, guided torpedo, tank, ejector seat, binaural stethoscope, cures for cholera and leprosy, column still, portable defibrillator, transatlantic telegraph, radiotherapy, nickel-zinc battery, modern tractor, ... all Irish inventions, and much more. For a small country we've contributed a lot.

MoashoaM · 14-09-2019 12:26am

FishOnABike wrote: »

Hypodermic needle, submarine, guided torpedo, tank, ejector seat, binaural stethoscope, cures for cholera and leprosy, column still, portable defibrillator, transatlantic telegraph, radiotherapy, nickel-zinc battery, modern tractor, ... all Irish inventions, and much more. For a small country we've contributed a lot.

The hypodermic needle wasn't invented by an Irishman. No one person gets that credit. Neither was radiotherapy or the submarine. The transatlantic telegraph is neat, but telegraph itself was the real achievement.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 14-09-2019 1:07am

MoashoaM wrote: »

The hypodermic needle wasn't invented by an Irishman. No one person gets that credit. Neither was radiotherapy or the submarine. The transatlantic telegraph is neat, but telegraph itself was the real achievement.

The first transatlantic cable was layed from Ireland but it was a British operation. Charles Blight was the chief engineer on the project.

It was actually partly layed from the SS Great Eastern, an Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed ship. Probably the most famous British engineer in history.

14-09-2019 1:15am

K.Flyer wrote: »

Using Escalators.
They understand the concept that some people might be in a hurry when using them, so those not in a hurry stand to the right leaving space for people to pass on the left.

No they're not. At peak times on the tube time and motion studies have shown that that is less efficient overall it just feels faster. People standing on both sides moves more people overall clearing the numbers from the platform.
Walking on the right feels faster but has probably cost you time as you were waiting longer to get onto the escalator itself.

FishOnABike · 14-09-2019 1:24am

MoashoaM wrote: »

The hypodermic needle wasn't invented by an Irishman. No one person gets that credit. Neither was radiotherapy or the submarine. The transatlantic telegraph is neat, but telegraph itself was the real achievement.

The hypodermic syringe was invented by Irish doctor Samuel Rynd in the 1840s.
He used it to make the first recorded subcutaneous injections in 1844 and later documented his pioneering treatment for the Dublin Medical Press.

While there were earlier cruder submarines, John Phillip Holland is recognised as the inventor of the modern submarine. This was the first submarine having power to run submerged for any considerable distance, and the first to combine electric motors for submerged travel and gasoline engines for use on the surface. Holland has over 20 related patents to his name.

Medicine's first attempts at using radioactivity to kill cancer, devised shortly after radioactivity was discovered in 1896, were crude. Doctors placed tiny pieces of radium in and around the tumours, a hit-and-miss approach that rarely worked.

Instead of using radium, Joly thought of collecting the radioactive radon gas (or "emanation") it gave off, then injecting it into tumours. This was more effective, because the radon could percolate throughout the tumour and the dose could be controlled. It was also safer for both doctor and patient, and cheaper, as the original radium source could be used repeatedly.

Joly developed his ideas with Walter Clegg Stevenson, a cancer expert at Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin, beginning in 1903. By 1914, they had perfected the Dublin method, which formed the basis for the modern radium needle treatment.

Laying a transatlantic cable was 'neat' - I'd rate it a major engineering feat and also a major contributor to transatlantic communications and trade.

krissovo · 14-09-2019 1:30am

Climbing ranks in society, In Britain you can leave school with no qualifications and make a good crack of a career from starting at the bottom that pays well and rises through the ranks. In Ireland we are so hung up on leaving cert achievement its almost a joke.

Strumms · 14-09-2019 2:05am

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

From my experiences in England people in general are more direct and fortcoming. They speak to you if they've an issue, they don't bitch behind your back and be as sweet as pie to your face like the Irish.

Absolutely, in my last job I found this.

It can be a bit of a shock to the system initially but I appreciated that you always knew where you stood with them. And too I found they appreciated the same in return.

Here in the office it was political chess at every second of the day and it used to have me worn out.

PeteEd · 14-09-2019 2:16am

Keeping their spuds to themselves

bilbot79 · 14-09-2019 2:19am

Speaking in front of cameras

PeteEd · 14-09-2019 2:20am

Spelling Derry correctly with 11 letters

cumulonimbus · 14-09-2019 2:23am

Fish n chips.

bobbyss · 14-09-2019 3:46am

Their politicians are much much better speakers than our lot.
They have superior state occasions eg funerals, commerations.
They esp the English play better football.

Sam Quentin · 14-09-2019 3:55am

Wife swapping

Lyle Lanley · 14-09-2019 4:13am

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

From my experiences in England people in general are more direct and fortcoming. They speak to you if they've an issue, they don't bitch behind your back and be as sweet as pie to your face like the Irish.

Having worked for British owned companies with mostly British people for the past several years I think that's nonsense to be honest.

AngeloArgue · 14-09-2019 4:29am

What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

Preserving their culture and heritage.
In Ireland we have torn up our Georgian squares, we had a tram network from dalkey to howth we ripped up in the the 1960s, our satreets are full charity shops, 2 euro shops, mobile phone unlocking and cash for gold.
Ireland doesn't care about heritage

K.Flyer · 14-09-2019 9:56am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No they're not. At peak times on the tube time and motion studies have shown that that is less efficient overall it just feels faster. People standing on both sides moves more people overall clearing the numbers from the platform.
Walking on the right feels faster but has probably cost you time as you were waiting longer to get onto the escalator itself.

But that study only refers to peak times at the tube stations which is where that study was commissioned for..
I'm referring to the every other time courtesy of staying to the side allowing others to pass if needs be.

maestroamado · 14-09-2019 10:07am

beggars_bush wrote: »

I once met Enda Kenny in Liffey Valley shopping centre when he was Taoiseach and he was out canvassing for a referendum vote.
Told him to his face he was doing a **** job and needed to think about the people going out to work everyday.

Thankfully that's all sorted now with our new Taoiseach and his best friend Michael from Cork.

What are the brits better at than us "democracy" we just just shuffle the same faces around.

I forgot to mention "the tube" the only way Dublin traffic be solved is underground.

Mad_maxx · 14-09-2019 10:07am

Controlling their dogs

Mad_maxx · 14-09-2019 10:14am

Yer Da sells Avon wrote: »

Racism. I hope no racists are offended by this, but there's something very inauthentic about Irish racists. The Brits (mainly the English) have it nailed though. Proper ugly racism, not the half-arsed pale imitation that you see here.

If you class sectarianism as a form of racism, the Scots are a hundred times worse, the wrong kind of Scot will almost spontaneously combust if in the presence of an Irish Catholic

Didn't believe it until I experienced it myself, it's visceral

Buford T. Justice XIX · 14-09-2019 10:15am

PeteEd wrote: »

Spelling Derry correctly with 11 letters

Nah, 8 r's in Derrrrrrrry just looks silly.

vriesmays · 14-09-2019 10:16am

Philosophy.

mvl · 14-09-2019 10:45am

They've better universities.

- Even if with Brexit there is a wind of change in this domain (some say Germany would be no 1 at EU level), think none of their top universities would drop 44 places in the world university ranking any time soon.

Bitter about that, tbh, hopefully the future government would address something on this subject !

14-09-2019 10:46am

AngeloArgue wrote: »

What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

Preserving their culture and heritage.
In Ireland we have torn up our Georgian squares, we had a tram network from dalkey to howth we ripped up in the the 1960s, our satreets are full charity shops, 2 euro shops, mobile phone unlocking and cash for gold.
Ireland doesn't care about heritage

You could just as easily be describing British regional towns or cities once away from tourist centres. Except in some well know examples like Blackpool the UK ripped up it's tram lines too.

They do preserve things but sometimes it is too restrictive.

vriesmays · 14-09-2019 10:49am

mvl wrote: »

They've better universities.

- Even if with Brexit there is a wind of change in this domain (some say Germany would be no 1 at EU level), think none of their top universities would drop 44 places in the world university ranking any time soon.

Bitter about that, tbh, hopefully the future government would address something on this subject !

That's because their universities won't accept chancers like Ibrahim Halawa with free fees.

Church on Tuesday · 14-09-2019 11:27am

maxwell smart wrote: »

Bombing Civilians? Don't get me wrong some Irish gave it a good go but the Brits really know how to do a good bombing.

Don't forget the Germans too!

Tom Mann Centuria · 14-09-2019 11:33am

Britain does animal welfare better, and organisations with the power to charge people with animal neglect. The RSPCA's powers is what animal welfare in Ireland could do with.

Happy4all · 14-09-2019 11:34am

Morris Dancing

Mad_maxx · 14-09-2019 12:13pm

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Britain do animal welfare better, and organisations with the power to charge people with animal neglect. The RSPCA's powers is what animal welfare in Ireland could do with.

They do anything related to pets better, a dog warden is the most useless position anyone can have in Ireland, they do absolutely nothing

14-09-2019 12:34pm

Driving.

Parking cars.

Fixing roads.

biko · 14-09-2019 12:39pm

Savannah Bewildered Crab wrote: »

Colonising.

And looking dashing while doing it

dresden8 · 14-09-2019 12:44pm

Stark wrote: »

Those were "polite, peaceful" protests!

Apparently it was kidnapping.

the_syco · 14-09-2019 12:54pm

Savannah Bewildered Crab wrote: »

Colonising.

Having an issue when the people they colonise come to the UK.

ElectronVolt · 14-09-2019 1:08pm

krissovo wrote: »

Climbing ranks in society, In Britain you can leave school with no qualifications and make a good crack of a career from starting at the bottom that pays well and rises through the ranks. In Ireland we are so hung up on leaving cert achievement its almost a joke.

Oddly enough, the statistics don't support that and, interestingly, both Ireland and the UK are dramatically more socially mobile than the USA, despite the perception. The current batch of Tories may well bring about a more American style mess though, by pulling out long established social supports.

One thing you'll always find is emigrants, to almost any country, have an opportunity to somewhat reinvent themselves. Even moving city within a country can give that sense of freedom.

In Ireland in general I've found people willing to take on all sorts of things without serious qualifications and work their way up. I hear these kinds of comments from French people who've moved here specifically to get their first job and some experience under their belt because they feel they're being caught with overly bureaucratic recruitment at home.

I'd also say that in Ireland, not one employer has ever asked to see my degree or leaving cert other than one multinational who demanded transcripts, but that was an American bureaucratic system, not an Irish one.

ElectronVolt · 14-09-2019 1:12pm

AngeloArgue wrote: »

What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

Preserving their culture and heritage.
In Ireland we have torn up our Georgian squares, we had a tram network from dalkey to howth we ripped up in the the 1960s, our satreets are full charity shops, 2 euro shops, mobile phone unlocking and cash for gold.
Ireland doesn't care about heritage

Have you been to Birmingham?

storker · 14-09-2019 1:17pm

maxwell smart wrote: »

Bombing Civilians? Don't get me wrong some Irish gave it a good go but the Brits really know how to do a good bombing.

They have better technology to do it with.

storker · 14-09-2019 1:23pm

Blahfool wrote: »

Queuing

I think we match them for queuing.The first time I got a bus somewhere in France it was a bit of culture shock as everyone waiting was just milling around the bus stop in no discernible order. I was wondering how the priority would work, and supposed that when the bus came everyone would organise themselves into the order in which they arrived. In my defence, I was only 17.

Of course, when the bus arrived there was a big rush to clump around the door, and the fastest got to board first. Among the fastest was not the Irish guy who was still hanging back to see how it would all sort itself out...

faceman · 14-09-2019 1:25pm

Public transport for sure
Most definitely British accents too

storker · 14-09-2019 1:29pm

Parliamentary speaking and debating...if you pretend the last few weeks didn't happen. But generally, their MPs and ministers speak more eloquently, more clearly, and spend more time looking at the people they're addressing. Irish TDs and ministers seem to be incapable of delivering a Dail speech without having their head buried in the script. It's like a flashback to school when you had to endure listening to a long reading from a textbook by one of the guys who wasn't very good at reading.

storker · 14-09-2019 1:30pm

faceman wrote: »

Public transport for sure

Definitely. I remember hearing moans about London buses and the London Underground when I lived there and thinking to myself "These people don't know they're alive.."

Timberrrrrrrr · 14-09-2019 1:32pm

storker wrote: »

I think we match them for queuing.The first time I got a bus somewhere in France it was a bit of culture shock as everyone waiting was just milling around the bus stop in no discernible order. I was wondering how the priority would work, and supposed that when the bus came everyone would organise themselves into the order in which they arrived. In my defence, I was only 17.

Of course, when the bus arrived there was a big rush to clump around the door, and the fastest got to board first. Among the fastest was not the Irish guy who was still hanging back to see how it would all sort itself out...

You have just described getting on a bus in Dublin

14-09-2019 1:36pm

storker wrote: »

Parliamentary speaking and debating...if you pretend the last few weeks didn't happen. But generally, their MPs and ministers speak more eloquently, more clearly, and spend more time looking at the people they're addressing. Irish TDs and ministers seem to be incapable of delivering a Dail speech without having their head buried in the script. It's like a flashback to school when you had to endure listening to a long reading from a textbook by one of the guys who wasn't very good at reading.

This a good one. They're infinitely better at delivery a speech from the head or heart and not 'ehhing' every second word.

TDs are like senior infants reading a scene from The Merchant of Venice.

ElectronVolt · 14-09-2019 2:15pm

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

You have just described getting on a bus in Dublin

To be fair, I find irish people tend to be pretty polite about queuing. Also Ryanair has us brainwashed into queueing up for all flights, even when we have assigned seats.

In general though, I think irish people have an outstanding ability to go into self criticism and pulling up negative stereotypes of themselves. To a degree English people can be similar but it's tempered by a dose of imperial arrogance when it goes too far. The balance tends to go one way or the other, depending on who you're talking to.

Also I don't buy the argument that English people are more direct. Some Northern English people can be fairly direct, but it's far from universal. I have has this discussion with American colleagues who interact with the UK and find they can be unbelievably indirect, often being polite to the point that nobody's sure what's been agreed. Also they can, just like us, be polite to your face and then either nasty behind your back or be extremely passive agresssive. Take the character played by John Le Muserier on Dad's Army, Sargent Wilson. He embodied that utterly polite but horrendously indirect and passive agressive thing.

There's that kind of Yorkshire straight taking stereotype like Norah Batty, but then Ireland has it to with the likes of stereotype of the Cork nun on Derry Girls, Sister Michael.

There are some differences and there's obviously very bad history between Ireland and England but they're massively outweighed by similarities.

Also if anyone gives me the trope that English politics is more forthright than our system : I would just point to the current Tories. They're literally unbelievable and also totally unable to be honest about what they're up to. It's all a game of trying to pull a fast one with spin.

The major differences I'd notice politically is that Ireland doesn't have the hangover of the class system and aristocracy and Irish politics, because of the design of the system (PR STV voting) tends to be about compromise and consensus building. The British approach tends to be more about power grabs. I wouldn't read that there's some deep cultural difference though - Ireland has has almost a century of proportional representation democracy, one of the only places in the world that can say that.

We also don't really have the clear left Vs right divide that still exists in UK politics, although I'm not convinced it still exists in the public - it's an industrial era politics of Labour vs Capital trying to function in a post industrial UK that's about a whole load of other things that don't fit neatly into those boxes and I think that's a huge part of the reason their politics has gone nuts.

What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

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