To not want to be slagged off all the time because I was born in England?

[JustaNickname]

I've lived in Ireland nearly my whole life and my heritage is Irish essentially Both my parents were born in England when my grandparents went there to work when times were hard. My parents grew up in England, met each other, had me, moved to Ireland and had my sister etc. Even though my family tree would be Irish and my son was born here I'm not ashamed of having been born in England and I love it there and still have plenty of family there. My problem is that a lot of the people I know slag off the English all the time to the point I actually end up getting into heated discussions with them. Usually on FB over Football matches and such but sometimes in RL as well.

AIBU to expect that If you really hate the English that much and insistent on labeling every English person a C**T then maybe you shouldn't be such a hypocrite and Go to England, eat English food, watch English tv shows/films and support English football teams? I think i might actually be over sensitive but it honestly bothers me :(

I think it is fine to identify with your nationality; you have grown up surrounded by cultural influences from your culture, but I don't think anyone from any culture should apologise for coming from a particular country.

Agree, but people identify with their nationality even when they don't live in their native country - perhaps even more so.

I left my country of birth at 5, haven't spoken the language since 7 and haven't visited since my grandmother's funeral when I was 18. I still have a dutch passport though and refer to myself as dutch and feel as strongly about holland as I do about ireland.

....people living local to me who think anyone who comes from outside Meath is a bit lacking, never mind from England!

Chipmonkey,but everyone knows that Meath is the best county of all!!

I lived in England for many years and never had any sort of racism directed at me,but I was once in a pub in North Finchley for an England/Scotland game and was horrified when the people at the table beside us started picking on a group of Geordies saying they were Scottish.It didn't end well,one of the Geordies was glassed even tho he repeatedly told them that he was from Newcastle and not north of the border. I was long gone,at that stage.

Actually,re-thinking it,that probably wasn't a case of racism,really,more like a few d*ckheads looking for a ruck.

scottish but lived in England with scottish husband for about 14 yrs and have children born here with southern (sound very posh to scottish ears) english accents. I find myself in both camps these days and overall I love living here and have no real problems at all. In England I stick up for Scotland as the casual indifference/smugness/ignorance is there especially in the south but it's not overall really bad just annoying sometimes but then that same southern smugness/sense of entitlement is as much against the north (Newcastle/Liverpool etc as it is against Scots/Irish/Welsh. In Scotland, I stick up for England as there is a lot of anti english feeling - it's there since birth though most normal, fair minded people would never pick on the individual - it was always directed at England and englishness as a whole though confusingly not so much the north of england as already mentioned Newcastle/Liverpool so wonder if it's more of a poor North and rich South divide.

It's all very complicated and deeply ingrained. I remember an english boy joining my primary school (poor, quite insular little town near Glasgow in the late 70's) and he was bullied quite horrible especially at High School (still wonder what he's doing now and if he's OK). I would worry about my kids if we moved back up there what with their little polite southern england accents and do hover at the park when visiting to make sure some of the little darlings don't give them a hard time (which has never happened at al so far).

Saying all that, the antagonism isn't all about the distant past aka Braveheart etc, - Thatcher and Jimmy Hill and the BBC (english broadcasting company) have done a lot to refuel and keep the antagonism going - all very more recent.

I find the most irritating thing about being picked on for being born in England is that when I first moved to Ireland as a small child I lived in Galway in the gaeltacht. I only moved to Mayo when I was 14 so had to that point done all of my schooling in the Irish language (apart from English class obviously :o) My friends parents used to blatantly speak to me in English even though i knew Irish as well as there own children and that was the start of it. Now when people bring up the black and tans etc I just say my heritage is Irish but i will not apologize for being English born. Also i speak Irish. Something I feel very few people do now. Surely if your going to bash someone for being English shouldn't you check that they don't speak the Irish language better then the person doing the bullying?

just could just say, to anyone who starts, something like:
yeah yeah, chuala 800 bliain ó leatrom, blah blah, go léir roimhe seo, ach ós rud é nach bhfuil m'ainm Oilibhéar Cromail, conas mar gheall ar stoptar tú an fuck suas, twat?

caught 'fuck' and 'twat' - does that make me bilingual?

Thats brilliant Winter :o I swear I'm using that the next time!

Fastedwina :o

it says (I hope ) yeah yeah, 800 years of oppression, blah blah, heard it all before, but since my name is not Oliver Cromwell, how about you shut the fuck up, twat?

People bring up the Black and Tans when talking to you? Really?

Many years ago I worked in a call centre in the north of England and it was close to army barracks and a few soldiers wives worked there. Their husbands had previously served in Ireland and once when the football was on the management said we could wear football shirts etc to work - I came in Irish colours and the majority obviously came in English shirts with the exception of a few other nationalities whose teams were partaking. A couple of these army wives were horrified and one refused to sit next to me and one went stomping off to management to say she found it offensive that I was wearing an Irish shirt given this was an army town and the Irish had spent ten years trying to murder her and her colleagues husbands and blah bloody blah. The management called me in and said I was not to wear it again for duration of the tournament as it was provocative.

I clarified that they were saying employees could wear England shirts or any other nationality partaking who happened to work there with the exception of Irish only.

I asked could I have this in writing - surprisingly enough they declined .

Suda,I don't know if I could've worn an Irish shirt in your situation...I understand from what you are saying that it was a bit unfair of them to change their minds,but all the same...

Yes I know what you mean FITE but I honestly didnt wear it to provoke - I always support/follow Ireland in any competition and the thing is they didnt change their minds as such they just kinda presumed I think that everyone who wanted to partake in the non uniform would come in an England shirt because - well we were in England.

I really didnt think I should hide my Irishness under a bushel just because I worked with some army wives. I could have been hostile to them about their husbands presence in my country but I never ever was and I just didnt feel their situation gave them the right to be openly hostile and marginalising to anyone Irish.

I really find your experiences strange OP. Where do you live? Wherever it is I would move, as it sounds like a very strange place.

I'm Irish, born in England, been back and forth a lot and the only hassle I had was in secondary school in London. It has never been mentioned to me here in Ireland, except for "is that a bit of an accent, where are you from?" passing the time of day questions.

Unfortunately there are bigotted twats wherever you go.
I'm a Scot living in London so I've seen some pretty nasty things at home and experienced some pretty nasty things here. I do worry about it as my little boy was born in England to Scottish parents.
However, I tend to think that most folk just don't realise that they're being racist or offensive. If you ask them to replay what they've just said to you but replace the "Sassenach" or "Jocko" with something they'd recognise as being racist against other groups it does stop them in their tracks.
Obviously there are some diehards who do it to offend but in my experience they are in a small minority, thank goodness.

Suda,I get ya

Why wouldn't you wear an Irish shirt? You could have pointed out to them that they were thinking of the wrong country, for a start.

Yes ITCHY its almost as if its a lesser degree of racism the nearer to home your target hails from.

For example a friend of ours is regularly called 'Mick' started on a building site because he's Irish - his name isnt a derivative of Michael or even similiar - and its just stuck really and he genuinely doesnt seem to mind and people who meet him socially just think its his name now tbh as I did when I met him. But can you imagine the hoo-ha if a person from more distant climes were to be referred to by a common name rather than their own.

Thanks FITE

Well yes WINTER there is that but they dont have a problem with the N.Irish who are happy to be under UK rule do they - without getting into all that - just that Irish people from the Republic are associated with being mainly anti British army I suppose.

I would have just though...fuck em. But then I'm not very conciliatory. What if I found their strips offensive because of the whole side of their argument? Nah, balls to that.

Yeah I agree and I did wear my Irish strip for duration of Ireland being still in it and after my 'Can i have that in writing' comment the management never said another word about it - I presume on the advice of their head office because I do know that they flagged up my 'insubordinance' to them apparently for advice.

God I've had this forever. Both my parents are Irish but I spent some of my childhood in Ireland, and some in England so I've got what they call an English accent and the slagging never stops! Most of it is tongue in cheek but you do get the odd dick head with a chip on their shoulder.

NI people get it just as bad - DH would always wear an Ireland shirt though, never ever an NI one!

The only time I've actually been subjected to real racism was in Blackpool on holiday with my parents when I was about 11 or 12 or so. (We're from NI). So it was about 1988 or so. We went into a corner shop to buy sweets or something and were told they would not serve us as they didn't serve the Irish. I remember feeling a bit scared and bewildered by that. But I was terrified when these drunk thugs started shouting at me that we were all terrorist murderers when I was in our B&B one evening. I was only a child ffs!