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Irish in Ireland AMA

606 replies

SrSteveOskowski · 01/03/2019 22:47

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

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Thread gallery
15
SrSteveOskowski · 05/03/2019 18:26

@JaneJeffer, yes, it might be safer NOT to resurrect her at this stage!

@HelmutFrontbut, I like a nice Scottish accent. I can differentiate between Edinburgh and Glasgow, but not much else there. I think a Glaswegian accent is stronger and Edinburgh is softer.
I can pick out accents from Newcastle (go over to my friend there lots so definitely recognise a Geordie accent), Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Cornwall and Cockney London. I can tell a Welsh accent, but wouldn't have a clue whether it's Swansea or Cardiff or anywhere else.

@Marmite27, ah you should give the 'lovely girls competition' a try. Only Fr Ted fans will get that reference!

@Duchess, oh I'm sure it probably is her. Peig had a lot of children, there must be loads of grandchildren there.

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SeaweedDress · 05/03/2019 19:20

I love the idea of someone going around pretending to be Peig's grandchild -- for generations of Irish people it would be a bit like showing off about being Jack the Ripper's baby sister or something.

I have this vision of the granddaughter being chased out of a town by a maddened mob reliving their Leaving Cert and screaming 'I'll put your other fecking foot in the grave for ya!'

Teanocoffee · 05/03/2019 21:13

@SrSteveOskowski yep Youghal and across to Dungarvan and Ardmore....

SrSteveOskowski · 05/03/2019 21:40

@SesweedDress, GrinGrinGrinGrinGrin

@Teanocoffee, bring an umbrella Sad Pissing down again at the moment.

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wizzywig · 05/03/2019 21:42

Thanks op. Those pictures are stunning!

GregoryPeckingDuck · 05/03/2019 21:59

This thread is making me wish I lived in Ireland. This is probably an odd question and open to all posters but it just came to mind so I want to ask-how does it feel to actually be from the place where you live? Like you were born there and so were your parents and so were their parents?

PlasticPatty · 05/03/2019 22:15

This is probably an odd question and open to all posters but it just came to mind so I want to ask-how does it feel to actually be from the place where you live? Like you were born there and so were your parents and so were their parents?
Doing my family tree now. Began by wanting to track down the Irish ancestry. I can tell you that where I live now, in Lancashire, one strand of ancestors have lived since around 1800. Another great grandma was born four miles from where I am now, in 1745. It feels great. But the 'romantic' bits are the Irish, and finding that my irrational love of tourist town Killarney might have a genetic root, as some ancestors came from there.

Tolleshunt · 05/03/2019 23:26

Thanks for the link, SrSteve, you're being v kind.

Imagine if Deirdre and me are related! That would be v exciting.

Off the back of this thread I finally asked a chap who works in our local cafe if he is from Cork, as I had clocked the accent a while ago, though wasn't 100% sure. Turns out he's from Castletownbere! I will have to have more of a chat with him next time, as it was lunchtime, and too busy to monopolise his attention today.

Deadringer · 06/03/2019 12:21

Frequently on here I read about men verbally abusing women on the street, or shouting stuff from cars, show us your tits etc (sorry to lower the tone). Growing up I got the odd beep or whatever but nothing like what is described on here, have other women experienced a lot of this in Ireland? Are Irish men generally more respectful or was I just a deeply unattractive teenager? Smile

Deadringer · 06/03/2019 12:22

Just to be clear I am Irish living in Ireland.

mineallmine · 06/03/2019 13:11

I never received any catcalling either and never knew it to be a thing here (Ireland.)

BartonHollow · 06/03/2019 13:30

@Deadringer

Irish in the UK, had it in England, never in Ireland

Disney2 · 06/03/2019 13:32

I've never experienced any cat calling, etc growing up in Ireland once. I heard a theory that it could have something to do with Ireland having a largely matriarchal society (Mammy is the boss) and so Irish men have more respect for women because of that. Also could have something to do with all those years of sexual repression from the Catholic church?
I actually can't imagine an Irish man cat calling Confused

ElspethFlashman · 06/03/2019 13:38

Never been cat called. I think I'd be quite frightened by it.

I didn't know it was a thing in the UK.

BartonHollow · 06/03/2019 13:38

To clarify myself a bit to be honest I've realised just through conversations I've had on here that I'm a bit of a Third Culture Kid through having one British and one Irish parent

Frequently on MN I find I identify more culturally with the Irish posters

But then also identify with something really British that gets posted.

But I'm fully neither, sad times

SrSteveOskowski · 07/03/2019 13:14

@wizzywig, yep, Kerry is beautiful Smile

@GregoryPeckingDuck, where I live now is about half an hour away from where I grew up, but where I grew up (on a farm a couple of miles outside a small village) my ancestors go back about 5 or 6 generations. The headstone in the graveyard where most of my relatives are buried dates back to 1852. I think it's one of the oldest there. My great great grandfather is the first person named on it.
Growing up in a small village however has its downside because EVERYONE knows everyone else's business. It's particularly bad when other families also go back for generations and your great great grandfathers were either the best of friends or else absolutely hated each other, and some people have long memories!

@Tolleshunt, no problem at all Smile. I had a look for a Facebook page too, but could only find ones for local sports clubs in Casthetownbere. Isn't that gas (Irish equivalent of 'funny coincidence!) that the guy working in your local cafe is from Castletownbere. Imagine if he turned out to be a long lost cousin!

@Deadringer, I don't think I've ever been catcalled here (Ireland) either. I have had a few wolf whistles, but not recently Grin

@BartonHollow, you're a good mix Smile

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BillywigSting · 07/03/2019 13:18

Will you post me some cheese and onion tayto crisps?

And do you have a decent recipe for brown bread? I'm in Liverpool (originally co wicklow) and they don't sell it anywhere here. They sell something they claim is 'soda bread' but it's just not the same beastie!

BillywigSting · 07/03/2019 13:20

Also did you have to endure peig and did your copy have any... Interesting.. Altérations by former students?

cstaff · 07/03/2019 13:31

This is probably an odd question and open to all posters but it just came to mind so I want to ask-how does it feel to actually be from the place where you live? Like you were born there and so were your parents and so were their parents?

I was born and reared in Dublin and have lived here most of my life. All of my family back as far as my grandparent and probably further were born and raised in Dublin which is unusual in this day and age as Dublin is the go to place in Ireland. So four generations that I can name (my grandparents, parents, my bros and sis and my nieces and nephews). You will find people from all counties and countries living and working here.

SrSteveOskowski · 07/03/2019 15:55

@BillywigSting, I can't help you out on the brown bread I'm afraid. I have to confess that I buy mine from Aldi. I'll swap you some Tayto cheese & onion for some lime Doritos. Can't get them here at all. I went a bit mad stocking up in Belfast last time I was up there.
Oh yes, I suffered with Peig too. If you go back a couple of pages on the thread she was mentioned earlier. A lot of us are still suffering the after effects! Confused

@cstaff, agree. Ireland is hugely multicultural now, though it's really just in the last twenty years or so that it's finally happened.

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Unguent · 07/03/2019 16:39

This is probably an odd question and open to all posters but it just came to mind so I want to ask-how does it feel to actually be from the place where you live? Like you were born there and so were your parents and so were their parents?

My sister did do one of those ancestral DNA tests, which suggests that our family has never moved very far from about 40 square miles. Grin

Are you assuming that staying-put is true of Irish people in general, though? In fact, I think (other than customs surrounding death and funerals) one of the other big differences between English and Irish people (I can say nothing for Welsh people and Scots, not having spent any real time in either country) is attitudes to emigration.

Obviously there's a long tradition of Irish economic emigration since the Famine (1.5 million people emigrated between 1845 and 1855), and moving abroad for long or short periods, or for a lifetime, is seen as a perfectly usual thing to do -- I remember being very taken aback by threads on Mn which made it clear that it was seen as quite an unusual, even anomalous thing to do, and there were remarks about selfishness and people saying they weren't 'going to do that my parents'.

My generation (I left school in 1990 in a bad recession which had lasted for years) always knew we had to leave for jobs, and we all tended to work abroad (mostly UK or US) for the summer holidays when we were students. Since 1993 I've lived in the US, France, the ME, London and various other parts of England, and in Ireland, for various periods of several years at a time. At one point my parents had children in Dublin, Beijing, Boston and Dubai. I think this is pretty usual.

mineallmine · 07/03/2019 21:08

Delia Smith's brown bread- foolproof and you don't get your hands dirty...and absolutely gorgeous.

6oz brown flour
2oz plain flour
2oz pinhead oatmeal
1oz wheatgerm
1tsp bread soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

1 large egg
10 fl oz buttermilk

1lb loaf tin, well greased
Preheat oven to gas mark 5, 190C

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the 2 wet ingredients and stir well.
Pour into loaf tin, (At this point I put sesame seeds on top, she says a dusting of flour).

Bake in the centre of the oven for 50-60 mins, then turn straight out onto a wire rack to cool.

Best eaten fresh but makes wonderful toast (her words, it's never lasted that long in my house).

BillywigSting · 07/03/2019 22:04

@mineallmine cheers for that like!

I have tried to make it myself a few times and it always comes out like a rock.

My nana made the best brown bread ever and took her recipe to the grave. We used to have it with rashers and about an inch of kerrygold on Saturday mornings

SrSteveOskowski · 07/03/2019 22:14

@BillywigSting, you can't beat Kerrygold.

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BillywigSting · 08/03/2019 07:28

Absolutely.

You can keep your lurpak and your west country salted with the tears of virgins nonsense, kerrygold is the good stuff. Something to do with the grass the cows eat I think