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AIBU?

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Original poster

Did someone just tell me (an Irishwoman) an anti-Irish joke?

217 replies

Decaffstilltastesweird · 16/07/2017 21:22

I was sitting in a cafe with DD earlier today. We sat down next to a man who was on his own. He said hello to DD and then chatted to me a bit about the weather; how it was too warm last week.

Me: well, being Irish, I'm not great with hot weather (ho ho)
Him: did you hear about the Irishman who was on Mastermind recently?
Me: [thinking he was actually going to tell me about a Mastermind contestant] oh no, I didn't
Him: they asked him his name and he said "pass"
Me: oh... oh... em, no, no

We went back to eating lunch and he left.

So, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I am guessing this is supposed to mean he's so thick he can't even remember his name? Because he's Irish? Is that what he meant? I'm genuinely confused Confused! If that's what he meant, did I just confirm his prejudices by looking like this Confused at him?

He seemed a pleasant enough man, so I don't think he was being intentionally hurtful to me. Maybe I'm missing something or being over sensitive, (although actually I feel more confused than outraged about it).

OP posts:
newtlover · 16/07/2017 21:59

yes, this kind of joke was common in England in the 60s and 70s, along with general suspicion towards Irish people because of the Troubles. I thought it had gone away, but an Irish friend was still facing it in the 80s. It's pathetic really, and very telling that an apparently pleasant person can tell such a joke and think it's OK.

Original poster
Decaffstilltastesweird · 16/07/2017 22:00

And thanks for that scottish. Maybe that's where he got it from and totally misremembered it.

Being charitable to him. He may just be someone who doesn't get the chance to talk to people very much, so is a little awkward socially. Maybe he thought this would be a right laugh. Who can say?

OP posts:
PurplePeppers · 16/07/2017 22:04

It's the same TBH than when people rant about immigrants in Front of a foreigner and then say 'oh but I'm not taking about you'

Well either they suffer from a very high level of dissociation. Or that yes they do mean you but clearly think you are too stupid to understand or they are so superior that it doesn't matter.

I'm sorry that you've had to encounter that. I thought these comments/attacks on Irish people had stopped in the last century... :(

outputgap · 16/07/2017 22:05

How rude.

BarbarianMum · 16/07/2017 22:06

I know a version of the same joke as scottish (in my version its a member of the IRA and the subject is the troubles). That's funny -what he said to you was not. I'm not surprised that you wonder if you heard right, it was a definite wtf moment.

hackmum · 16/07/2017 22:08

When I was a kid, jokes based on the premise that Irish people were stupid were commonplace. But they seemed to stop sometime in the 90s. Mercifully.

Slimthistime · 16/07/2017 22:08

I don't think for a minute he was nice
My experience is that when people tell me a "joke" like that, it's their way of saying, how dare you not be white. They rely on a fake pleasant demeanour to surprise you into silence.

A lot of horrible prejudice is having a resurgence, sorry to say.

Hassled · 16/07/2017 22:08

When I was a kid in Ireland the thick jokes were always about Kerrymen. The rest of the world told jokes about how thick the Irish were, and we just substituted "Kerryman" for Irish man. Poor bloody Kerrymen - who did they make unpleasant jokes about? But this was the 70s - you'd have thought people would have come to their senses by now.

Atenco · 16/07/2017 22:09

The twist in the tail is that the reason the English got this impression of the Irish is that there an Irish type of joke like "I must water the garden before it rains" that the English don't get. I read an 18th Century Englishman's account of an encounter with an Irishman, where the Irishman made a joke of this ilk and the stupid Englishman thought he was being serious.

I live in Mexico and some thick American told a Mexican friend a joke about God making a paradise which was Mexico and when the angels complained that it was too perfect, he invented the Mexicans.

Asianweddingslastthreedays · 16/07/2017 22:09

Derailing a bit but I'm from a country in Asia - hate hate hate the heat/sun - feel like I'm a roast in an oven.

People, in 2017, still say - "bet you love this weather don't you?"

As I dart from shadow to shadow wearing long flowing linens, wide brimmed sunhat, and yes, sometimes, even a parasol.

Greggers2017 · 16/07/2017 22:10

Since when did everybody stop having a sense of humour?
My mums as Irish as they come and would have laughed at that. Irish and paddy and Murphy jokes have been around for years.
Same as blonde jokes with me. I don't care if I'm called a bimbo, I know I'm not so what does it matter.
This is why political correctness has gone bonkers and you can't say anything anymore without people being offended

ipsofatto234 · 16/07/2017 22:11

Sympathies OP - I still get this sometimes too (Irish and lived here for a decade). IT'S NOT FUNNY.

Met new neighbour last week and he immediately launched into why he was so pleased to have moved to our town as his old town "used to be lovely" and "has changed so much now" and then went on to say "y'know cos of all the bloody foreigners". To which I pointedly replied, well I hope you're not too disappointed now you've met your new neighbours and he said (srsly) Oh, I don't mean you - the Irish aren't even really foreign now compared to what we get these days.
I just walked off. Won't be popping round to borrow a cup of sugar from him anytime soon. Harrumph.

Again, all cheerily said and he clearly meant no ill but only because he just didn't see ANYTHING at all wrong with his views. Especially now, I suppose when the Daily Fail et al have basically affirmed his opinions...

NomChanged · 16/07/2017 22:16

This is unacceptable

treaclesoda · 16/07/2017 22:18

If not liking to be the butt of jokes because of where I am from makes me easily offended then sign me right up, I am happy to be a fully fledged member of that club. I bloody hate Paddy the Irishman jokes.

skinnymalinkmalojin · 16/07/2017 22:19

Has nobody heard the 'Paddy Englishman, Paddy Irishman and Paddy Scotsman' jokes? I remember cringing at them in my youth. It's been a long time since I heard one.

AtHomeDadGlos · 16/07/2017 22:19

Did you not sort of set it up with your joke first?

outputgap · 16/07/2017 22:22

Jesus, Greggers, just because crap racist jokes have been around for years, that makes them neither acceptable nor funny.

RebootYourEngine · 16/07/2017 22:24

Whats you being irish got to do with not liking the heat? I am from North Scotland. Its cold for about 363 days of the year and i love love love the heat. He maybe thought that because you told a stereotype about being irish you were fine with other people doing it too.

outputgap · 16/07/2017 22:27

The fact that Ireland is fairly chilly is not a racist stereotype, unlike Paddy being thick, which is. FFS.

SilentlyScreamingAgain · 16/07/2017 22:30

Sounds like the fella was none too bright and socially inadequate, just like anyone else who'd see his behaviour as acceptable.

scaryclown · 16/07/2017 22:30

The weird thing is that it is quite normal in Irish and Scots humour to deliberately play up to what you think someone's prejudice of you is as a sort of knowing satire.. Eg someone from muirhouse telling you their hobby is heroin..when it clearly isn't but they are from an area where that is what people think its like.. Similarly Irish people joking in an English cafe that they'd like a potato. English people cant tell tone very well so exaggerated knowing jokes kind of don't compute and can be treated o Er seriously.

Bumdishcloths · 16/07/2017 22:31

I think you're being a bit oversensitive tbh OP.

waits for everyone to pile in and tell me I'm wrong and how dare I

scaryclown · 16/07/2017 22:32

Wasn't he just joining in your own 'as an irishwoman' comment to illustrate its odd prejudice?

EssexCat · 16/07/2017 22:32

I hear you. Living in Essex it's apparently fine for people not living here to make endless 'hilarious' Essex girl jokes to me. Which I've lost any fucking sense of humour over tbh.

LearnAsIgo · 16/07/2017 22:32

Sorry you got this. Unfortunately it seems that benign racism in the form of 'jokes' can seem OK to a certain type of ignorant person. I've experienced these jokes frequently ... I deal with them politely but firmly these days. Good luck xx

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