To be surprised at how little British people seem to know about Ireland?

[WriterofDreams]

I'm from Ireland and I've lived in England for a total of two years. In Ireland we watch all the British channels and get all the British newspapers so most Irish people are pretty up to date on everything that's going on in Britain. Also, the Irish news tends to mention Britain a lot, so even if you only watch Irish tv or read Irish newspapers you'll still get a lot of information on current affairs in Britain.

When the whole thing with Ireland going down the pan financially came up on Channel 4 my mum rang me to say "Ireland's on the British news!" and we knew then it must be bad, simply because Ireland is so rarely mentioned over here. Now I know it's a tiny country but it's a close neighbour of Britain and a large population of Irish people live in Britain, so I would have thought it was reasonable that there would be a fair amount of mention of Ireland in schools and in newspapers and on the tv. But that's not the case.

Since living here it has struck me that so many people don't seem to know basic facts about Ireland, such as who the President is, who the Taoiseach is, what the native language is called, what the native sports are and so on. I've noticed in primary schools (not sure about secondary) that Ireland is rarely mentioned as part of history or geography despite the long and complicated historical links between the two countries.

Would it be fair to say that there isn't much mention of Ireland in Britain? Do you feel you know much about Ireland? Not saying we're special or owt, just curious.

Where I'm from, we generally refer to it as 'the Free State' or '26 counties'. That said, I refer to where I am from as 'occupied territories' or '6 counties' but that is a different thread/era altogether.

The word that confused the life out of the folks I worked with in London was 'poke', as in 'I would love a poke'.

a poke of chips?

no, an icecream cone.

Apologies. The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles. Not England.Or Britain. Or UK. Stand corrected by Manx husband. All the rest true though.

Sorry, WoD, I have to disagree with your Gaelic/Gaeilge pedantry - my mum was a fluent Irish Gaelic speaker, having only attended Gaeltacht schools from 4-18 years old and long before Gaelic was standardised, and she always referred to it as Gaelic, so - to me at least - Gaeilge is a modern revival.

The thing that really drives me nuts though (apart from the 'Southern Ireland' thing - so ignorant - which I most recently got when the bank asked me where my husband's from), is not the lack of knowledge about Ireland, it's the weird stereotypes. Everyone in England seems to think Ireland is stuck in a 1950s timewarp, pulling carts with donkeys and tugging their forlocks to the church. Every news/current affairs report on Ireland bangs on about the influence of the church. Guys - no-one cares any more! The Catholic Church has no influence in Ireland anymore and what little it had left was swept away by the Ryan and the Murphy reports.

Gaaaah!

very amusing - and revealing - thread. Diamondback - I fear the way things are going that that 1950s stereotype might be true once again.

I have done the reverse move from the OP (many years ago now) and was utterly appalled at my own ignorance when I first arrived: I knew virtually nothing about Ireland, despite being highly educated, and despite having grown up around lots and lots of kids from Irish families. I often now cringe for English visitors (some very intellectual friends of mine tried to pay for everything with sterling - this was pre-euro) and how little they know. But not knowing is one thing, but assuming that you do is quite another...

I agree. Those in 'England' know little about Ireland.
But then i knew little about Aspegers till they thought my ds1 had it this summer.
Not many people know much about diabetes , or being on a pump, its only thta I've had diabetes since almost birth, that makes me knowlegeable.
And i had never heard of Bells Palsy , till my dh has it, after what we thought was a stroke last week.

We are all ignorant. need-to-know-basis.
Why is anyone surprised by this ?

I'd guess that most Brits wouldn't know what the Taoiseach is (let alone who has the job) and especially not how to pronounce it.

As for Erse, well since the Irish don't want to know about it, why should the British? It gives you headaches like "Taoiseach" for example.

And why would Ireland want a President when it has a, you know, Taoiseach?

I'm Irish and I don't know loads about England! I agree with Oblomov, People will know about it if they've lived/visited there etc.
I don't know lots about Denmark or Switzerland either!

oblomov I take your point, but disagree - I think lots of people have boundless curiosity about certain things (I know a bit about aspergers - not a lot, admittedly; I know what diabetes is and its long-term effects, the basics about treatment; I know what Bells Palsy is - hope DH is ok); that's why I was totally taken aback about what I didn't know about Ireland, because I know a bit about quite a few things. I'd done 'Irish' history in school (which turned out to have been Irish history done very much from a british - i.e. unionist - point of view), I'd read books about Ireland etc.

Just cos it might be true (the need to know thing) doesn't mean it's OK in any of the instances cited (surely it's not OK to know nothing about aspergers?)

drivingmisscrazy, well I think you must be exceptional then
becasue I don't know that much about Ireland, even though dh's family are BIG Irish catholics.
And I did not know anything about bells, or aspergers, til they happened to me.
But I like to think that I have basic knowledge of things when someone mentions them, or I go straight home and google them.
But actually, I think that is few-and-far-between !!

yes, well a lot of my 'knowledge' is google-knowledge (or gleaned from mn!!)

only know about bells to be fair cos friend's DP had it (Lyme disease)

Taoiseach is the PM, we have a president as well. Why do you have the queen then if you have a PM?

Its not really the same thing though is it? If you walked around with a miniture diabetic just off your coast you'd know a bit about it wouldn't you? (IFSWIM with that bizarre analogy )

Nobody is expecting anyone to know anything, the point of the thread is that it is surprising for Irish people that the British know a lot less about Ireland than vice versa. Even when you understand why, its still a little surprising. But then generally speaking Irish people are more well-travelled and tend to have more connections in different countries, which also explains a lot.

"I just remembered another phrase that separates the goats from the sheep.... to plug something out instead of unplug. Well we say plug something in..."

Ha! I say 'plug it out" all the time! Thought it was just my bad grammar - now I can blame the parents (Irish)
Also for the words: tackies, tay, craythur, blackguard, ouist/whished (sp)?

ChickensHaveNoMercyForTurkeys: sorry not calling you a liar, but do not believe that ANYONE has ever won an argument with a Ryanair bod, ever ever, ever, ever, ever. I?d believe that BNP are really just nice people who want the best for everyone really first before I believe that

Or hang on do you have some weird super power that causes Ryanair employees to actually be reasonable????
Are you God?
Or Santa (or rather Santy, as he was called in our house)

Sorry, just had so many bad experiences with them, and am proud to say I once managed to hold up one of their flights for over an hour, ashamed that I inconvenienced others but FFS it was a one letter difference in my name between the boarding ticket and my passport and was their fucking fault (back when they printed out your stuff.)

When one of my colleagues found a website called I hate Ryanair they were convinced that I had started it. (And no I don?t use them anymore, Aer Arann and the train is the way to go would rather swim that give any money to that smug fecker)

And deep breath. .

Anyway did anyone else family use a chuisle mo chroí ? or Heart scald for when you?re being bold? And will admit I still use bring and take incorrectly.
Until I just read it here I didn?t realise that I say plug it out.

She does indeed have magical powers, and a stare that can turn any man, even a Ryanair bod, to stone.

staranise - I am just 'careful' when I hear (or more likely read) mention of Newcastle because I have friends living close to both, have visited both myself, and know they're like chalk and cheese (and with a significant temperature difference too) !

Kitta, I won because the stupid bint was trying to prevent me taking my own son on a flight back to England, when we had flown over minus the passport just two days before. I rather forcefully pointed out that he wasn't overweight baggage, and I couldn't leave him at the airport. She was still insisting on policy when I mentioned the press, and possibly the police, and anyone else I could threaten her with. She then made out she was doing me a massive favour allowing my 10 week old baby to travel with me. Bitch

When DH and I were on holiday in Cyprus 4 years ago we were at a cafe and overheard a group of English people talking about NI, our school systems, segregation etc and what a backward place it was. Both DH and I were and

We got the waiter to tell them that we were from NI and if they wanted to talk about it then to come over to us.

We ended up having an 'enlightening' conversation about their prejudices. Turns out that only one of them had ever been to NI - he was there for one day for a cousins wedding 10 years ago. Font of all knowledge he was not.

A friend of mine was on holiday in Florida and got chatting to some local fellas she was trying to touch for. They were talking about actors and films. One of the fellas she liked was genuinely shocked that we had cinemas in NI. Suffice to say she quickly was turned off him.

TryLiking: cinemas! shocking!

TryLiking - but it is true, isn't it, apart from the school integration movement, that schooling is largely along denominational lines in NI? (as it is of course in the republic - still relatively few multi-denominational schools).

I grew up in Belfast, I lived in Cambridge for most of the eighties, I live in Cork - but I admit my geography of Dublin is a little vague. I can do Inchicore because we get lost there, the city centre and Rathgar. But I have no idea where Lucan, Stillorgan,Strawberry Beds, James's hospital etc are. I can read a map though! [fbear]

I don't know much aboout Luxembourg or Denmark either.