Irish in Ireland AMA

[SrSteveOskowski]

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

@BillywigSting, yes, apparently it's to do with the grass fed cows.
The only three things I'm fussy about are: Kerrygold butter, Batchelors beans and Heinz ketchup.
After that it's Aldi all the way for me.

I'm a convert to branston beans, and it has to be Barry's tea, otherwise I agree.

Dp likes clover on his toast. Sometimes he puts it on mine.

I may or may not have threatened, with some seriousness, to leave him over this serious transgression.

I can't get decent tea. I like it very strong and most bags tend to be too weak. I'm currently on Robert Roberts extra strong.

As a friend of mine would say 'tea should be chewy!'

No one in England seems to be able to make a decent brew despite how much they go on about it. Most of them seem to just show a teabag a bit of hot water for a few seconds and call it done.

Is it an Irish thing to talk in circles and not get to a point or is that just my family. I have lived in UK so long I assume I have been influenced by this culture. I notice a certain discomfort when I asked direct questions and more discomfort when I try to pin down an answer.

It is. The structure of the Irish language is indirect, and when our ancestors had to use English, we naturally translated with the Irish sentence structure and translated some of the culture of the Irish language into the way we use English. And traditionally, you don't get too specific about stuff in Ireland - you talk around it and hope the message gets across. And you're always vague about dates/times /money in Ireland. Like the way ppl arrive at parties late... which is right on time if you're Irish. Or my dad would say 'Have you enough cash?' that could mean anything from coinage to thousands of euro and only the context or some careful questioning will help you figure it out. Irish culture is also traditionally extremely modest/self-deprecating. You don't accept a compliment directly, you must find a way to add a negative. So if you admire someone's dress they might say 'Oh this old thing, sure I have it years. Only came from Dunnes. It'll do the job.'

I find the language translations fascinating! For instance, there is no word for 'yes' or 'no' in Irish. You have to use a positive it negative form with the verb. 'Do you like bread?' 'I do' or 'I don't.'

You don't say 'I'm tired' or 'I'm hungry' you say 'There is tiredness/hunger on me'. And Irish people commonly say something along the lines of 'I've a fierce thirst on me.' - they generally mean a thirst for a beer on that case!

You don't say 'Do you want some cheese?' you have to say 'Would it please you to have some cheese?'

You don't say 'Thanks so much' you say 'You were a thousand times good'. And when people want to really show appreciation for something you've done they'll say 'Ah you're very good' (usually accompanied by a few 'there was no need's). If they say that they really are grateful.

The conditional tense is also used an awful lot in Irish. Anyone who went to school in Ireland and had to learn Irish will be very familiar with the modh coinníollach!

@BadTigerKitty very well said. Also we don't directly say hello to anyone, we say Dia Dhuit or God be with you.

This is making sense of some difficulties we are having in my family. My Irish mother never answers questions directly and with her, we never ask them directly. We all assumed from comments she made that we knew what she would want for her funeral. We compared notes, and found that we had all come to completely different conclusions. We have had to ask her directly or there would have been feuds over the funeral (when it comes in the future). She is quite rebellious though, so maybe we should do something she wouldn't expect! 😀

It is quite odd, because normally we are all quite straightforward and would ask people what they want.

@BadTigerKitty, oh the modh coinniollach! What with that and Peig, I have to ask, who remembers Ann & Barry? Showing my age now because my brother had Tara and Been.

BadTigerKitty very interesting post.

It makes everything make sense from my numerous visits to Ireland as a child years ago and less frequent visits now.

*Ben.

@whosafraidofabigduckfart The Healy Raes! They sent a mass card for my mother after she died (in Dublin but from the Kingdom) Gave us a laugh though.

‘Whosafraid, I’m Irish living in rural England, and the thing I absolutely love is the network of fieldpaths and bridleways that means I can walk out of my house and straight into the fields, and need almost never walk on roads. If I could import one thing back to Ireland, it would be public rights of way.

I asked my mum about walking and footpaths in Ireland. She said that there weren't any specific footpaths but everyone just walked around the fields and nobody worried about it. There was effectively free access. People used to walk into their fields and use water from their well, including the school which didn't have another supply of water.

Sounds like things must have changed a lot since then.

Of course you can cut through fields in Ireland — I do it on neighbours’ land when I’m at home — but you have no legal right to do so in most cases. If the land changes hands, access can be refused and gaps etc made inaccessible by a new owner.

www.irishwildlife.ie/blog/public-rights-of-way-and-planning-law-kevin-hoy

What I like about the network of footpaths in England is that you can easily go on a fifteen mile walk knowing in advance that you won’t need to walk on the road, and that most footpaths are clear and have marker posts, and that if you get over a waymarked stile into a huge field, you will be able to get out again at the opposite side, rather than discover you would have to swim a small river or scale a twelve-foot ditch.

whosafraidofabigduckfart Another Kerry
Woman here!

Yes to talking around it, "I see you one of the days" in my area, means I don't want to see or hear from you really so one of the days could be tomorrow or it could be 20 years down the line as 20 years is still one of the days.

Yes to the compliment followed by the negative, "Penneys in the sale, sure it's only a cheap thing"

I've found with people outside Ireland that they arrange to visit their neighbours and its all done in advance, so will see you at yours on Sunday at 2pm for dinner, in Ireland your name is in the pot for dinner come on down (no time specified). you don't need to ring in advance either and arrange to call, it's just call down and if there they are there and if not they're not

Has anyone else ever got a copy of the parish bulletin off one of their friends with the message of who said mass so esp as a child could go home and have the story right?

BartonHollow what is shake hands night??