How are the English different from us?

IrishProd wrote: »

Why because some Irish people wear English football jerseys or support non-Irish clubs?

By your logic there is no difference between Lithuanians & Polish people because some wear each other sports jerseys, or French people watching American Netflix programs means there is little difference between Americans and French people, or there is very little difference between English people and Germans because some shop on amazon.gr instead of amazon.uk.....:rolleyes:

Its called 'globalisation'

All neighboring countries have a shared history with another that is normal, it does not mean there is "little difference".

As the op is talking about Spain, no, the average Spaniard will see little or no difference.

Anyone drinking beer to excess, wearing a Man United jersey and swearing in English is instantly considered English.

You can talk about genetics all you like, people aren't more or less friendly because they have more of one gene than another.

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Pure negativity again rather than any attempt to contribute positively to the forum. Its very easy to complain about the nature and type of posts by others without attempting to contribute positively. Well done both. How many times did you both report posts for being off topic or not suitable on forum?
Back to the start then- So the thread OP asks an innocent question -he places it on the history & heritage forum. Why not attempt to place the answers into a suitable context relating to the forum. Instead you complain... pathetic lack of initiative.

Look at the OP again.

We are different. Try looking at how the class system took hold and control of society in England, compare this to how the same hierarchical structure dismantled in Ireland. How did this effect the general type of stereotypical view of Irish people. Take the period 1870 to 1990 for example and look at the social change in both countries. Ireland faced revolution isolation and certain levels of poverty. England faced war and the end of empire. Place answers in historical context. Relate answers to our heritage.

I do report posts, most of which are ignored although in fairness to Dubhthach I find him more responsive, fairer and less acerbic that your retorts.

That out of the way, and as you are throwing down the gauntlet, take this debate back to basics. Your comments above cover far more ground than that implied by or even can be inferred from the OP – your remarks extend to the views and perceptions of the English when it comes to class, Ireland and the Irish.

Firstly, look at the OP. It’s badly phrased, imprecise and the initial poster has - in his/her single additional post to the topic after dozens of responses – days ago essentially reiterated the opening post and added nothing else. However, s/he has had time to add the following to another thread

Jesus I hate feckin spiders. Two worst experiences...I met a rather large huntsman in the northern beaches while on acid….

And, continuing to ignore this thread, s/he went on elsewhere to post about playing with Lego. Now, does that cr@ap merit you getting worked up?

To use your own expression, place the answers question in a suitable context. So what is meant by “English”? What social class? What ethnic background? What level of education? What level of intelligence? As a student, L.Cert just over, I went to England to get a summer job, (like everyone then we pretended to be farmers’ sons, rough and hardened, in the belief that it was easier to get a job there), started working as a cleaner in a Grimsby fish factory. I fitted in, as did the couple of schoolmates with me. I liked my English colleagues, they were friendly, polite and fun. I went out with them for drinks on paynight, and even was told by a semi-literate foreman that I had a future, might even be promoted if I lost my Paddy accent. They were nice, friendly and fun, superficially, but we had nothing in common. Socially elsewhere, I got laid by several girls (not all at the same time) from Hull University at parties because I was the first Irish person they had met who is not a construction worker and had an ability to discuss existentialism, Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus with them, topics that were very important in those days. We were no different and had a great time. How would they have treated me had I been a brickie/chippie/sparks? They would not have bothered talking to me, I would have been just another Paddy. View it in context. (Paddy, what is the difference between a joist and a girder? One wrote Ulysses, the other Faust.)

In 'business' people want to learn what others know and can impart - there is no class system and no frontier when it comes to money, debate on class/ethnicity is a BS topic for sociologists and academics. If one meets a Brit of similar education/background, there are no issues. But if you meet a Brit who is less educated than you, there will be problems. There is an arrogance in those people that is hard to stomach, and it was exemplified during the Celtic Tiger when - for example – English bankers came over here with a supercilious attitude of “We will show Paddy how to do it” and lost their collective shirts. Sadly too many Paddy bankers had inferiority complexes and followed suit.

I disagree with you on a 'dismantled' Irish class system - there always was one here and it never was dismantled – the entire coda of Brehon law was based on it, everything and everybody body had a price/value. It continued long after the Brehon Codex disappeared. After ‘Surrender & Regrant’ came along a class system prevailed among the “Irish” - Do you think the various Desmonds, Fitzgeralds, Butlers, O’Neills, O’Briens, etc. were nice & friendly to their servants and tenants? In the 1800’s, 1900’s and even today the class system prevails with town looking down on country and vice-a-versa. Similarly there was a class system in “England” (let’s go with that geographic definition) even before William the Bastard came along. And after his arrival, there was a hierarchy, serf, villain, yeoman, lord of the manor, knight of the Shire, etc. It continued when the English came to Ireland with Cromwell. Snobbery, better to be the ‘First Commoner’ of the County rather than accept a ‘new’ title. And all that prevails to this day, both in England and Ireland and is important to some people. Henry Vivien Pierpont Conyngham, Viscount whatever-he-was before he inherited and became the 8th Marquess Conyngham, was viewed as an Irishman when at school in England and as such was known as ‘Boggy’ - now does that explain it?

As for Boston / Berlin and the US legal system being closed to ours than Germany’s, I suggest that the poster who wrote that try standing up in our High Court and cite a US case law precedent and see what happens (after the laughter dissolves!). Actually Delaware is about the only State that has commonality with Irish /English law, as each State has its own ‘corpus legis’ and several e.g. Louisiana has heavy overtones of the Code Napoleon.

And to those daft Spaniards the OP was on about, he should have told them what happened to the Armada sailors when they were shipwrecked on our West Coast. Those poor eejits who came here to help the Irish were, after being cast ashore, knocked on the head, throats slit and robbed of everything, including the clothes they wore.

Sorry for the long post, as Oscar W said ‘I did not have time to write a short one’