Irish in Ireland AMA

[SrSteveOskowski]

Following on from a Dane in Denmark, I'm Irish, living in Ireland AMA

Is Dublin airport still very welcoming? Last time I was there, an auld fella scrutinised my passport and asked if it was me. After a few minutes he declared 'Bejesus, you're like a fine wine!'

Well I’ve normally found them fairly friendly as in using my first name and saying welcome home but never have I been compared to a fine wine Helmut!

@JaneJeffer (LOVE the name, very good) I've seen that video before. It's gas. The fact that they had to subtitle it for an Irish audience really says something

@derxa, the building economy plummeted a few years ago and very few new estates were built for a while, but it's starting to take off a bit now again.
I've never been to a Scottish funeral, but as we have a similar culture, I can imagine funerals being very similar.
Weddings are HUGE here, both in terms of numbers and in terms of celebration. Less than 250 now is considered 'a small wedding'. A lot of the time they're two day events now with a bbq on the second day. They generally go on until about 4 o' clock in the morning. Is Scotland similar? I've been to a couple of English weddings and everything finished up around 11pm. Sure we wouldn't even have got going here yet at that stage. The DJ wouldn't even have started

I love the way @ZestyDragon knows the pub that @x2boys Dad was born in. Only in Ireland!

@BejamNostalgia, could be possible about Fungi alright Oh you'll always be a blow-in if you can't go back about four generations.

@Unsureursula, West Clare, West Cork, West Kerry, West Limerick. I think it might be a Munster thing.

@PeaBrazilCoco, sadly I think I'm more of an Aisling, but I'm not a COMPLETE Aisling!

@BartonHollow, never mind the kitchen press now, tis the hot press you really need to be worried about!

@Whoops75, I've seen Martin's Life before. It's spot on alright

@x2boys, I like a nice heavy fruitcake personally, but I never make them myself. A local lady supplies home baking to the local Centra and I nab one of hers when I can, but they usually fly out the door.

@Merename, what a strange comment

@Camellia5, like the poor man on the bus, I have no idea

@Cel92, maybe it's more of a country thing so? I haven't been to too many Dublin funerals, so I'm not sure.

@HelmutFrontbut, I've always been called by name in Dublin airport anyway. Some of them are friendly than others. Last time I was going through security I was stopped because my case was 'suspicious'. The customs officer politely tole me he'd have to open it and then couldn't stop laughing when the 'suspicious' object was revealed to be a case of cheese and onion Tayto that my (Irish in the UK) friend had asked me to bring over

Any more questions?

Do you still have to pay €10 to get out of the airport in Knock? 😂

Would you say Ireland is welcoming to emigrants? I have heard contradictory views from family members.

Mere, God forbid any other country doesn’t engage in ritual confusion and self-loathing about its identity — are you confusing the absence of a largely benign national pride (associated in Ireland in recent years with socially progressive referenda legalising gay marriage and abortion, and settling scores with institutional Catholicism) with sophistication?

Ireland is commemorating a series of difficult, complicated national events these years associated with the foundation of the State — the Rising, War of Independence, the Civil War, events in which my generation’s grandparents and great-grandparents were often participants — so its not that Ireland is surfing along on some mindless wave of self-congratulation.

@BartonHollow, I'm afraid I've never been in Knock airport, but have a listen to Christy:

@jewel1968, I think it might be a generational thing to be honest. I'm in my thirties and I don't know anyone my age that has a problem with immigrants, but my parents generation seem to be a bit more "I wouldn't trust them foreigners" attitude.
Where I live has a huge Polish population and I have a few Polish friends (and one from Latvia) They've always found it to be friendly here. Their only complaint is the Irish weather (which I can well understand, it's pouring down as we speak)

The next generation (current school going children) are very integrated which is great. They start school and kids in their class are Irish, Polish, Latvian, Lithuania, Estonian, Pakistani etc, but kids just see "My friend Michal" not "My Polish friend Michal"

@SeaweedDress, well said

@bartonhollow, yep still have to pay to leave. Hurts every time.

Why have they not completed that fecking runway after all the years of 10 Euro?

Scammers

Thank SrSteve. How's your mother for sugar?

I’m sorry I don’t think I articulated myself very well, I wouldn’t want anyone to do any self loathing... it’s more like all the Irish people I know will make a point of highlighting when someone’s third granny once removed is Irish, so they must be sound. Or the way that many ask one another when they will move ‘back home’, assuming that’s what everyone wants to do because it’s the best place in the world. Maybe it’s just DH’s family who talk all the time about how everything Irish is better, or everything good is Irish.

I’m Scottish and a ‘nationalist’ in the sense I believe we should be independent, but in the main to be free of a Tory government and increasingly right wing politics in England, not because I think Scotland is particularly amazing or special. Maybe we just do self loathing and I’m not even aware, probably. DH has dealt with ‘stupid paddy’ type abuse since living in the uk (well in England) and his theory is that following colonialism and a message from the brits that Irish are inferior, that there’s a collective ‘actually were fecking amazing’. Which you are! I genuinely was interested if this is an observation shared and don’t mean to offend, I hope that’s a bit clearer.

@Mere

Thanks. That clarification has smoothed my feathers.

I definitely think I (I won't speak for anyone else) am always a little bit defensive about my Irishness when talking to someone English (which I now know you're not.) There is an inbuilt 'wait for the English putdown and be ready for it.'
But I'm middle aged and lived through the Troubles and real anti-Irish sentiment in the 1980s. The younger generation hopefully don't have that armour up.

Wish I knew where my great grandparents came from...possibly cork
I want to visit
Have never been but would love to see where my ancestors on mums side were from

My great great grandparents on dad’s side were also from Ireland. They settled in Glasgow first and then moved to Fife

It’s hard to trace them because Ireland had a fire I believe that destroyed the records.

@Dowser, yes during the civil war in 1922 there was a fire in the four courts in Dublin and an awful lot of records were destroyed. The 1901 and 1911 census survived however and are available online, so if you knew roughly where they were from you might be able to get some information there.

If you want to mention their surname, we could possibly hazard a guess as to where they were from as certain surnames were very prevalent in certain areas. For example, Murphy, O' Sullivan and McCarthy would be very Cork surnames, Butler would be Kilkenny/Tipperary based as Kilkenny castle was owned by the Butler family.
Ryan is hugely common around Tipperary and Limerick, so much so that all the Ryans had a nickname attached to the end of Ryan in order to tell them apart.

I would like to get more info on my Irish ancestors who came from Castletown Beare in the 19th century. Do you think those would have been lost? It's been v difficult to find much, though not helped by them having a v common surname for the area (Harrington).

This all you need to know about being Irish:

Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

How the did Irish people become, and manage to remain, so flippin friendly?

We spent two weeks travelling around there last summer. I was shocked at the attitudes, I had heard it mentioned on travel forums, and I have been there a lot in my time through work, but I had forgotten just how different it is from the UK, or any other place. Just two examples, random and unrelated.

We were staying in a B & B in Kerry. We were about three miles outside Killarney. We had planned to head into town for a few drinks and asked the owner for a taxi number. She replied

"ah sure sit down there now and we'll run ye down in a bit"

Not only did her husband drive us into the middle of Killarney, he gave us directions to the "old sweet shop" (Killarney people you know what I'm talking about!) And he offered to pick us back up again after, we declined as we felt it was a step too far! But I cant imagine any UK B&B owners driving two random guests three miles into the nearest town, not without being paid anyway.

A few days later we were up in Cork. It was a very bad road, really rough surface, lots of bends and potholes. I was driving and got distracted looking at some sheep (don't ask) anyway we went off the verge and hit a big wooden post. The car was not too badly damaged, just a knackered bumper. But we were completely stuck. A jeep passed and pulled over as we were getting out of the car. The driver (Patrick) was the friendliest stranger I have ever met. Long story short, he came back to us with a tractor and pulled us out, then he gave DH a hand to tie the bumper up so we could drive the car. My DH offered him money but he refused. As we were about to leave another car stopped, it was Patrick's mother! She wanted to bring us back to her house and have food! Because apparently our car was a death trap but

"the lads will sort it out grand for ye now".

It took ages to talk her out of it but we had to compromise and let Patrick "see ye to the road anyway". This meant having Patrick follow us in his tractor for a good five miles until we got to the main road.

Amazing people the Irish

The B&B thing is completely normal. Last summer our B&B owner drove us to the wedding location "ah sure it's only up the road".

Often if people miss their taxis after last orders in a pub and are getting worried, the landlord will drop them home.

It's not really a big deal tbh. You don't expect these things at all, though. The other side of the friendliness is not wanting the owner to put themselves out for you when they could be relaxing at home. So there's a lot of "Ah no now we'll be grand"

You'd never ever offer money though. The thoughts of it! As if anyone would take money!

mineallmine - it’s such a shame you encountered anti Irish sentiment and put downs. I have to say it hasn’t been my experience. Moved to London in the 80s from Dublin. Yes there were Irish jokes but we gave as good as we got. Dh is British and we moved overseas from Uk and I’ve always found I got very positive reactions to saying I’m Irish.

Chaircat - it’s my British MIL who does the ‘bye bye bye bye’ here!

Have you been for your messages yet today?

My in-laws are Irish, living in England and even I go ‘back home’ these days When we took DD1 who was 9 weeks old, it was like travelling it’s a minor celebrity with people stopping us on the street to see the baby. When we went back a year later, same thing. Same people too, so lots of ‘hasn’t she grown’. Is every town so crazy about small children? We were given Newbridge for the baby by a complete stranger, which I couldn’t find a way to refuse. And it’s not cheap!

Oh and we stopped in a pub/restaurant in Carlow the same trip as we needed the baby out of the car seat for a while. I think the staff were just about to call it a night, but they were lovely with us and were scandalised we didn’t want the left over food boxing up (we weren’t really hungry). They then chased us into the carpark as trying to return the tip we’d left as it was too much. Came across one of them at a wedding a few days later and he used our tip money to buy us a round!

I definitely think I (I won't speak for anyone else) am always a little bit defensive about my Irishness when talking to someone English (which I now know you're not.) There is an inbuilt 'wait for the English putdown and be ready for it.' But I'm middle aged and lived through the Troubles and real anti-Irish sentiment in the 1980s. The younger generation hopefully don't have that armour up.

Well, I'm not defensive at all about my nationality, and I've certainly encountered this on a semi-regular basis, and I moved here just before the GFA -- everything from it being assumed I am an IRA sympathiser, if not actual member, to assumptions that I drink heavily, am superstitious, from an Angela's Ashes level of deprivation, and hilarity that I have one child, not the eight or thirteen that might be expected.

Far worse outside London, in my experience, worse among people who are in their fifties upwards, and in 'genteel' middle-class environments where 'Irish' seems to code as 'drunk, thick Paddy', and where people have openly been baffled because my nationality for them doesn't match my job, or the elite institution I studied at.

Fortunately, I am an extremely direct person, and happy to offer to issue this type of person with a reading list so that they can fill in the embarrassing gaps in their knowledge about Ireland.

PS. Small minority of people who behave this way, obviously.