Does England feel like a foreign country to you?

SharpshooterTom wrote: »

There is no "Northern Irish" identity. Northern Ireland is two societies and two cultures still largely segregated along ethnic lines.

North Down with its 85%+ protestant population, has a very quintessential British feel and is very different in many ways to rural culchie Tyrone, which lives and breaths GAA.

You could make a case that the Native Ulster Irish population has its own distinct identity in many ways from say Irish culture in Leinster/Munster/Connaught etc. But it is Irish culture nonetheless and isn't identical to Orange culture which descendants from the Ulster plantations take pride in.

I recall driving around Banbridge and remarking that I might as well be in Tunbridge Wells. Hedges were cut, lawns trimmed to the inch.
A lot of the English cities are moving out from being big heavy industrial sites to a more modern style of architecture but still have the remnants of big working class areas. Certain areas of Belfast such as the Falls area, Shankill are not in great shape but then move across to South Belfast and there are areas straight out of Homes and Gardens.

Yyhhuuu wrote: »

Another poster said there is no class distinction in Ireland but there is and It's called working class and middle class.

That’s different as it’s a socio-economic distinction that Is meaning less and less nowadays as people become more educated and earn more money and do jobs that would have been beyond them generations ago.
I think those classes are now starting to merge into one and there will be less distinction in 30 to 50 year’s time.

The difference with England is that they still have a ruling Upper Class which is not the case here.
How many Prime Ministers of UK went to Eton and other schools?
How many “working class” Prime Ministers have there been when you look at Ireland had Bertie Ahern , Brian Cowen or even Enda Kenny as Taoiseach here?
Look at the house of lords and the blatant class system in operation there. People born into an upper-class family with an automatic right to a peerage and a say in the running of the country and British people tolerate that?
Nothing like that in Ireland and that’s one of the many reasons why I feel we’re very different and not that we watch same TV or football etc as many here say.

murpho999 wrote: »

That’s different as it’s a socio-economic distinction that Is meaning less and less nowadays as people become more educated and earn more money and do jobs that would have been beyond them generations ago.
I think those classes are now starting to merge into one and there will be less distinction in 30 to 50 year’s time.

The difference with England is that they still have a ruling Upper Class which is not the case here.
How many Prime Ministers of UK went to Eton and other schools?
How many “working class” Prime Ministers have there been when you look at Ireland had Bertie Ahern , Brian Cowen or even Enda Kenny as Taoiseach here?
Look at the house of lords and the blatant class system in operation there. People born into an upper-class family with an automatic right to a peerage and a say in the running of the country and British people tolerate that?
Nothing like that in Ireland and that’s one of the many reasons why I feel we’re very different and not that we watch same TV or football etc as many here say.

The difference in Ireland is the absence of an upper class or Aristocracy or landed Aristocrat. The British House of Lords is no longer exclusively represented by hereditary class peerage. Social mobility, which you alluded to, is also a facet of life in the U.K. There are many unelected representatives in Seanad Éireann.

It's such a diverse country that I'm not sure you can even say there's a pervasive "English" identity and tbh, I rather like that: homogeneity is boring. London is more of a global city than an "English" one and, outside of some of the ghettos British voters seem happy to ignore while voting for a buffoon with a silly haircut, it's an amazing place. There's a great freedom that comes with the anonymity of a city of it's size and being a global cultural melting pot, the breadth of choice on offer when it comes to music, dining, the arts, even dating is fantastic. Wouldn't fancy raising kids there (as referenced frequently on this thread, the standard of the state-funded education system there is deplorable: even in good schools the focus on specialisation from such a young age results in highly educated people who are ignorant of the world at large) but I do wish I'd spent a few years living there in my early twenties.

I've worked all over the UK for most of my career from the Highlands to Plymouth and Maidstone to Derry and to be honest, I'd feel more foreign in Belfast than anywhere else I've been (the Isle of Skye would be a close second and possibly only because I spent less time there). For those saying thee South of England is less friendly I'm not so sure I'd agree. I've had memorable nights in village pubs in places like Saffron Walden (ran out of smokes while working in the Wellcome Trust and the barman threw his tobacco pouch on the bar in front of me and told me to help myself for the night), Shere (stayed in rooms over a pub there for a couple of weeks in December a few years back and ended up tending bar by the Wednesday night, subbing in on the darts team the following week and being sent home with selection boxes for my kids!). Northerners are certainly louder and faster to start a conversation with a stranger but if you're looking for company for the evening you can usually find it in pubs in most parts of the UK if you avoid the likes of Wetherspoons, All Bar One, O' Neills etc.

Oh, nothing wrong with a Wetherspoons and I love the real ale selection (and guest crafts they often have at a reasonable price) but it's a place to go with people you already know rather than somewhere you'll get an evening going just by chatting to the barman while perched at the bar...

bubblypop wrote: »

The way you describe English people is exactly how I would describe Irish people.
The North of England is the opposite, I think you need to travel more over there.
Even shops stay open late in some cities

Do I find it foreign? No. Is it different to Ireland? Yep

Yes Irish people are also extremely indirect. We don't like giving offense or complaining directly.

maninasia wrote: »

Yes Irish people are also extremely indirect. We don't like giving offense or complaining directly.

Except instead of calling it a 'stiff upper lip' or 'muddling through' 'quite alright' as the English say.

The Irish way is called 'taking the harm out of it'. 'I'm grand' etc

I find down the country in Ireland. Their way is to literally minimise any problem. With one simple phrase 'a small biteen'.

Example:

Me: 'Is yer man an alcoholic, do you think?'

Country Cousin: 'A small biteen'

--

However, when all is said and done the two methods English/Irish have similar results.

McGinniesta wrote: »

I lived in Birmingham for 13 years. A lot of people don't like the city because of how it looks but i grew to like the place after a while and it has certainly improved over the years. Outside of London (maybe Edinburgh) Birmingham is as good as any British city gets. A lot of them are awful.

I had a few hours to kill before a flight out of Birmingham airport and took a bit of a walk around the city centre, I don't know what I was expecting but always got the impression from English media or people I knew that it was a bit of a dump. I was well impressed with a lot of it, there has clearly been a lot of work done around regenerating the place, particularly around the Broad Street and New Street areas. One of the nicer cities I've been to in the UK.