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.

giveitago the cafe was attached to the villa accommodation we were staying in on the hol, so we got to know the staff quite well.

They didn't seem to mind being asked.

TryLiking, I do find that people from NI seem to have a bit of an obsession with figuring out which side you are on, but don't think people from the South are so obsessed and get less obsessed the further from the border you get!
I do remember one conversation where a few of us, some from the North and some from the South, were discussing a mutual acquaintance. My Dublin friend commented that she was surprised that he had a girlfriend because she had assumed he was of "the opposite persuasion" She meant gay. My northern colleagues wondered why she had thought he was a Protestant.

Actually swan, what I find annoying is people of Irish descent or who were born here and moved away, who come back to visit and complain that it's changed utterly and is not the same place at all. By this they mean that they dislike the motorways, the way women dress and the way the children know who Barney is!
So it was OK for them to move somewhere progressive but they don't like it when we make progress ourselves!

Have to say, give the current climate, they may very well be less disappointed the next time they come back!