Differences (rep Ireland) Irish V UK

I think the 'in South Dublin' is the clue. It's around 6 percent of children educated in fee paying schools in Ireland from a peak of around 9 percent in 2007. Girls lower than boys. Dublin, and particularly South Dublin, dominates those figures.

Yes but we don’t pay council tax like in the uk

Sorry, posted twice

It’s very location specific.

You pay to have your bins collected??

Actually even compared to Europe we have a low percentage of children in private schools.

It’s because you’re in South Dublin that you think this is the norm.

As an Irish lurker on Mums net i am amazing at the post about money. Particularly inheritance. From my own experience we never discussed inheritance with my parents or Parents in-law. You'd be seen as a grabby person. Co-incidentally alot of irish families fall out subsequent to parents passing away usually due to inheritance so clearly that stance doesn't help!

I have three kids in school and I can't think of the top of my head of one family who's blended or the parents are split. Most divorced people I know are either much older or got married very young.

Abortion is just not talked about. I wouldn't have a clue.

Defo for the money. Rounds are a must.

Also no one bring their kids to weddings unless they're babes in arms or kids of the bridal party. The brides and grooms cousins, nieces and nephews would be typical. But not cousins kids or friends kids. As a result a friend saying can I bring my 4 month old wouldn't ever cause an issue because noones nose would be out of joint, because it's so out of the norm. If that makes sense.

I also learned during the week- privatisation of rubbish collections. I was aghast so many people were advising that poster to use her neighbours bin until I realised it was the council collecting.

I am Irish, born in England, primary aged in Ireland, secondary in England. But when I lived in Ireland I spent summers in England, when I lived in England I spent summers in Ireland

Honestly I would think we are all pretty similar. There are of course differences. But there are differences between people that live in Scotland vrs someone in Wales .

But you spoke of step children. That one there def is a big difference. I was only talking about it yesterday. It is a lot more common now for people of my own age (30s) to have their own blended families. But growing up I don't think I knew any blended families. I knew one family where the parents lived apart. My own parents were divorced as well but that is it's whole other messy story!

Most younger Irish people (say under 50/60!) are more culturally Catholic really. They wouldn’t be too worried about living together before marriage or that sort of thing, but First Communions etc are still very much celebrated 😁 It’s stange all right. I think outsiders sometimes think we’re very religious and we’re not in many ways. Not fundamentalist like in other places, eg parts of the US.

I separated and divorced in 2 years here in Ireland. It can be done.

Religion in Belfast is completely different to religion in the Republic.

The majority of Irish people under the age of 50 are culturally catholic as opposed to devout believers. Only go to mass for weddings/funerals/Christmas, maybe family anniversaries at a push. Kids get baptism,, first communion and confirmation but it's very much viewed as a "day out" as opposed to the religious significance of it.

I'd say most young people couldn't even tell you the significance of Good Friday or Ash Wednesday. I'm not particularly religious myself but Catholicism has shaped Irish culture in massive ways, both good and bad and the hypocrisy of the above drives me insane. Probably my least favourite thing about Irish society (and yes I am Irish).

This isn't true - private schools are a lot more affordable (less than 5-10kEUR/year), and generally secondary, but theres loads of them.

About 30% of the children at a local state school (Church of Ireland, so a little bit out of the norm) go to one of 2 church of Ireland private schools in the locality. I can name 3 more private schools that other kids went to which were Catholic, and that's just in a 10km radius (admittedly in South Dublin)

Boarding is even still a thing - both the CoI schools I mentioned are boarding, and have plenty of Irish boarders.

Yes. I agree. At first I thought the prolonged ceronomies around death in Ireland were a bit strange. Especially people turning up who didn't know the deceased but knew their brother through work or played sports with their daughter. But now I think it's great. Why not spend time reflecting on someone's life and socialise with your community and why not go along to be with a friend or colleague even if you didn't know the deceased. If it is a tragic death then showing community support is important. Irish definitely do funerals and death better.

I agree, but it’s a reflection of the much less important role religion has, particularly in England.

I remember a good friend of mine from Belfast who came to work in England saying “Do you know what’s the best thing about this country? Nobody in England gives a fuck about bloody religion.”

I'm English but DH is a child of 2 Irish immigrants and we visit Ireland a lot. Family in NI and Ireland.
Yes to the wedding thing! And money and hospitality in general. In England if we offer a drink or a brew and the person says no, we accept it. Apparently I was very rude to not make guests a cup of tea even though they'd said no.
Totally yes to the history. All the Irish seem to thing we know about all of the past and it's on the news all the time. I was oblivious until I married in the family and I'm pretty well read.
History and religion is still very much a hot topic.
This may also just be down to the backgrounds of family and friends but all of their young people seem to be much more polite and well set up in their lives. They have homes and jobs and families much earlier and in generally act older and more mature. But this may be that family are more rural and jobs are physical. We have family in their 20's building their own homes and running farms etc. I was still a child at that age!

The Irish relationship with Catholicism is complicated, many are in name only. Then you look at the amount of people who cohabit, the fact we voted for marriage equality and abortion etc... It's very complicated. I think people still have a perception of Ireland back in the day when we were a young and poor nation and don't realise how wealthy and well educated the country is and the choices and liberalisation that has brought, things have shifted dramatically from when I was a child 30 years ago.

I don't recognise this at all - rounds is totally normal for brits.

The wedding thing though yes, Irish do give insane amounts at weddings.

OP, don't take anything on here as typical of British culture. I can barely relate to at least 50% of what gets said.

People often live together now and have children before marriage. That’s a big change even from when I was growing up (70s, 80s) when it was very much frowned upon.

That’s so interesting. Before this thread, if I had been asked to guess whether the average age for marrying in Ireland was higher or lower than UK, I would have said lower due to high proportion of Catholics. The only people I know who got married quite young here (UK) are very catholic and so their families wouldn’t let them live together etc without being married. One couple were virgins when they got married for instance.

I say all this without having ever set foot in Ireland so it would have been a completely blind guess.

I did a road trip through southern England last August. I found the villages really different to Irish villages. Lots of them had no shops or pubs that I could see, just houses, churches, etc. Or maybe one pub. Villages seem more full of things here in Ireland, but that's just an impossible I got at as I travelled around.

Its a very Dublin thing.

If I could single out one thing though, it's the English attitude to death. The English secular 'twenty minute slot down the crem' funeral is just grim.