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The pro’s and con’s of the Irish
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Positive: St Patrick. A Welshman, like myself, who was granted Irish
citizenship, like myself. It’s a wonderful thing about the Irish – they
welcome everyone.Negative: the Irish habit of looking at other people. I don’t think anyone
in Wales would advise his next door neighbour to cut his grass, but within
a few months of moving to Derry I was given a quiet tip by the fellow across
the street, “Keep your grass short or people will think you’ve got a dirty house”.
I was too polite to give the answer I should have given.Expresbro wrote:
Peter,
I’d agree about the political aspect..that a history of colonialism does probably give a race a different world view than countries that have BEEN colonised.
Although I’m not totally convinced…the British and the Dutch were both Colonial powers..but I don’t think it is exhibited in the same way.
Anyway, I like to think that in a way, the Irish are probably the ultimate colonisers, just that we do it in a much more surreptitious manner ;-)
We enticed bigger more powerful countries to invade us..then we slowly took them over from the inside..hehe!!
I agree, irish people have gone absolutely everywhere (sometimes forced) in this world and have made a massive impression and thats the positive,
one of the negatives for me is that they more than likely if they can in the end they come back!
dont get me wrong, fair play to them but this country can be a sad place if you think of all the negatives.schools, health service, infrastructure, climate . . .
which brings me to my next negative . . . THE FAMINE = emmigration and death.
I think the population of Ireland at present is a negative factor contributing the struggles of the
economy in the last decade or so. for such a large island with only 4.5 ish million inhabitants it is a large task
to finance the country, while at the time of the FAMINE there was said to have been around 8 million inhabitants.thats it for now, i will have another little rant here soon i think. its too big of a subjevt to note in 2 lines.
Alan
Alan
Your absolutly right. In this country there is at least enough room for 20 million more if you compare it to Holland which is basically the size of Connaught (do I spell this right, don’t you have a proper english word for that) with 16 million people in it.
It would also very good for me personally if you all started to work you socks of in the bedroom to make up the numbers again since I work in a babyworld Galway and sell car seats, prams and cots.
And can you imagine the national football team if we had 24 million people to choose from.Peter,
I was cruising the internet, searching for an out-of-print book of photographs on Ireland by Dorothea Lange (one of the great photographers imo), when I came across this quote on the Irish.“In one scribbled entry she observed that in Ireland, there is no hurry, and there is no sense of want, or wanting, or urge to buy more and more, and of bombardment of new goods and advertising. Just the name of the family over the store….A contented and relaxed people live on this island.”
( http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft3f59n5wt&chunk.id=omca_742&brand=oac )That was 1954, I’ll leave it to yourself to decide if it is still valid.
Martin
Expresbro wrote:
Well strangely I think Podge’s answer is probably the most honest, considering the question. With any question that tries to tie down a whole race of people to single factors you can’t have anything BUT stereotypes imo.
It’s a bit like me saying all Dutch people smoke hash or are football crazy which i know is not true, as the few Dutch people I know are guilty of neither.
I think what the last 20 or so years have done is make the task of defining what makes an Irish person Irish, even more difficult.
These days an Irish person can be black, white, christian, Jewish, muslim, pagan, atheist, gay, homophobic, right wing, left wing, apolitical, rude, friendly, rich, poor etc etc.
The point being, I guess, is that we are pretty much the same as most other western civilisations these days, a pick and mix of race, creed and cultures.
There is the tourist board version of the friendly Irish and there is the commonly held stereotypical view of the Irish as a craic loving alcohol loving race of friendly, slightly comic, types. As ever a visitor here is just as likely to be robbed and beaten up as offered a cup of tea and a friendly welcome. Both can and do happen here.
I may be wrong on this, but I think if you took most Irish people and transplanted them pretty much anywhere esle in the western world and changed just their accent to the local one, you’d be hard pushed to tell them apart :D
Whether or not that is a good or bad thing I’ll leave to the socio philosophers :wink:
8)
I agree and disagree with you.
I know that it’s not possible to generalize a whole nation (especially considering all different religions, etnhic groups races etc.), but having lived abroad for over a year now, I do think you can say that every nation has it’s own things, that make them different from each other.
I am Dutch as well living in Dublin, and when I go back to Holland, I notice the people are a lot more nosier (walk past ye avarege terrace, and see the amount of people staring at you!), they are more direct, in your face if you like. I think it’s quite typical that this thread was start b ya Dutch guy, it just seems like something a Dutch person would do :D.
Irish people are generally a lot more to themself, a bit more private (been living with an irish family for over 1 year, my girlfiend is from Dublin). One thing I hate in Dublin, is the amount of rich people, who love to show of their cash and have so little consideration for others around them. This is really just the younger generation I think, as they are suddenly faced with a lot of money in a short amount of time etc..
The older Irish generations though, are ‘proper irish’ to me, my girlfiends grandmother for example (93 years old), always asking for me, always generous and kind to everyone, I love that in a person.Of course, this is all just my point of view, but I tend to be quite analyzing when it comes to people’s behavious, especially since I live in a different country :)
I would like to know what other Irish/Dutch think of these ideas.
proach wrote:
One thing I hate in Dublin, is the amount of rich people, who love to show of their cash and have so little consideration for others around them. This is really just the younger generation I think, as they are suddenly faced with a lot of money in a short amount of time etc..
Damn nouveaux riches :wink: Not for much longer…….
Podge wrote:
Significant positive aspect
GuinnessSignificant negative aspect
Guinness:lol:
Oh please, someone injects some humour and some people went “OMG stereotypes!”
I personally think it’s true, most of us do love our drink. Admit it.
Shleed wrote:
I personally think it’s true, most of us do love our drink. Admit it.
I am italian, but I do enjoy my pint (maybe 2, well 3, rarely 4 or above) a lot.
peter hoenderdos wrote:
Well I’m Dutch. living here for a while. And to stay polite I won’t comment on the Irish, except to say that i think your a lovelovely bunch. But what do the Irish think of themselves (themselfs?)
So can you name a FOR YOU very significant positive aspect and a FOR YOU very significant negative aspect of the Irish psyche. This allows me to get to know the Irish better and for everybody else to get to know YOU betterPositive aspect of being Irish? : “….yerra..sure, that’ll do tomorrow’ :)
Negative aspect of being Irish? : “….yerra..sure, that’ll do tomorrow” :wink:
Interesting discussion. My 2 cents…
Positive – Most people are pretty friendly and will chat away to you.
Negative – probably 50% of those same people will talk shit about you the minute you leave, an awful lot of two faced and incredibly nosey people in this country unfortunately, and like someone said earlier huge begrudgery toward anyone more successful.
Ever hear of “Irish Amnesia – forget everything except the Grudges!” (cant remember where i heard that!)
Positive – That we are fairly content and seem to cope well with bad situations, laughing them off and just getting on with it. “Ah sure what harm”
Negative – We RARELY complain properly no matter how we feel just so we avoid making a scene!! We will happily take all the shit given to us, complain about it to everyone you know, but do nothing to sort it.
Small example –
Woman to her husband – Jesus this food is awful cold, they could at least heat it up
Husband – I know mine too, wont be coming back here again i can tell you, shower of…
Waiter – everything allright folks?
Husband and wife – Yep, grand thanks! Lovely. (also adds more to the first negative point about 2faced people )To be honest it probably isnt the best time to be having this discussion with the way the weather has been!! I know i for one am fairly fed up with living here at this stage
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