Differences (rep Ireland) Irish V UK

'Another current difference - The Ploughing being celebrated across the land by media outlets as if it's Glastonbury'

Sorry for being thick, but does that mean the start of the ploughing season on farms? Being reported on national media?!

I'm Irish but haven't lived there for 25 years so clearly well out of the loop 😁

Or when a small amount of money in card " they broke their heart there" . We got mostly cash for our wedding 20 years ago , people always say if you are living together you already have the appliances and money is always needed. I got a couple of lovely presents from people that I use to this day and they are just as welcome .

Scots guy here, and I've been appalled through the years at how tight English folk are. These would be guys we've bumped into on holiday in boozers in Spain, Greece, etc. Happy to take drinks, and be included in rounds, but strangely reluctant, or forgetful, to get any back. I've watched English guys, who we've bought drinks for in our round, go up and buy drinks for themselves and miss us out.

The Eddie Hobbs pay for your wedding show was 2006. Its all his fault.

I can't get over the young scientist competition won't be sponsored by BT.

@ComemosZanahorias no it’s the display of generosity that’s important. You were both generous and thoughtful!

It must be something else.

That was a lovely gift!
It does seem to be mostly cash now but I went to a good few weddings 15 - 20 years ago and there were a lot of gift lists then. And not as many gave cash even if there was no list. I got pots and pans, towels, lamps, crystal at my own wedding in the noughties, though the majority did give money as a present.

Another current difference - The Ploughing being celebrated across the land by media outlets as if it's Glastonbury. RTÉ has decamped to Skreggan along with half the country.

I heard Pat Shortt being interviewed yesterday morning describing some people as even more rural than him "Sure them lads were bucket fed from birth!".

This is such a great discussion (even the arsey bits). As an NI person who has moved home after 30 years away in the UK and USA, there is a lot that rings true (superficial hyper friendliness, fast funerals, no divorces, creepy priests, abortions in the UK) but equally loads that is news to me! My oldest brother got married to a SoCo Dubliner, I was boggled at the show at the wedding, just seemed so OTT. And no wonder she barely speaks to me, I didn’t give them money, I paid for them to go away for a chef’s table meal and a night in a posh hotel! I had no idea until now (15 years later) that I had done something wrong!

Haha my dad grew up on a dairy farm and I am pretty sure he lost his front door key years ago, I haven’t seen it opened in at least a decade. We either go in the backdoor or a patio door. Nothing is ever locked!

Mine are too, but I never learned milking by hand, though my mother who grew up on one in the 40s/50s did of course. Grandparents did mostly use their back door when I visited as a child, but when I visit other farmers now (including relatives, close friends) I’d go in the front door. They’d use the back door themselves going out to the yard in the wellies though. I’m sure it varies, that’s just my own experience.

The salute is definitely a rural road thing. You greet everyone in case you cause offense by ignoring a neighbour. There are different versions, one finger, two fingers, a whole wave, the culchie head nod. The last one is hard to describe unless you've seen it in action, kind of a twist down to one side.

I think partly it’s about social class being less stratified — no one sends their child to private school in Ireland under the impression it’s going to magically elevate them, or give them this elusive confidence or ‘polish’ that gets wistfully talked about on Mn threads about private schools. Plus, I honestly think the education on offer is much of a muchness, in that most schools here offer a decent education. I have godsons at Glenstal and St Killian’s, and friends’ children I know well at St Columba’s, and the children are as ordinary as at DS’s secondary.

I’m in the country and we all use front doors here. Main meal in the evening as people working/at school all day. May be different if you’re farming I suppose, though the ones I know all have partners who work full time. I’ve never cut turf. The salute is a thing for sure, but only on smaller roads. It doesn’t matter if you know the person.

Anyways - back to more differences even between boggers/ culchies and jackeens.

• Dinner in the middle of the day
• The back door as the main entry point and the front door only for the priest/guards/coffin
• The holy communion as the dress rehearsal for the wedding, large cash amounts included.
• Following on from the communion, the perception that someone is tight with money if they are said to be still living off their communion money.
• Being able to mind a gap, stack a load of turf and complain about going to the bog on a sunny day
• the two fingered greeting from the steering wheel as you pass a neighbour in the car

The perception that this thread is about "Irish people/ways being better than the English" says more about the reading comprehension levels and general chip on the shoulder that some people carry.

The OP has repeatedly stated that one culture is not better than the other just different. 🤷

Honestly op. I’m not sure if you intended to insult either Irish or British people but making sweeping generalisations (even whilst saying you know that you’re making generalisations) is bound to raise heckles. This has just become another veiled ‘oh look aren’t Irish people just better’ threads. Newsflash. Neither are better. We’re all (both countries) full of mainly nice people with a few arseholes chucked in. Both countries.