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

[Decaffstilltastesweird]

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 ! If that's what he meant, did I just confirm his prejudices by looking like this 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).

I am Irish; I've lived in the UK for many years. This week - THIS WEEK - one of my best friends here made a comment about how thick Irish people are. There was no joke, really - her comment was 'Irish people would be too thick to work that out'. I had no idea what to say in response. Someone else made a comment about how I wouldn't be dressed nicely at an event because I only had 'Irish clothes'. In the past I've had 'very Irish' said to me to mean weird, off, illogical, stupid. I'm fed up with it. I could give you thousands of examples of snide or crass remarks I've had to listen to. There are posters in this thread attempting to justify it and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

OP, I really feel for you. I hate the heat here too and the casual racism.

The following gives an interesting perspective.

"We were stood at the bar talking about continuous tenses. . ."
Shock horror – Auntie ventures into non-standard English!

blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/10/continuous-tenses/

I am Irish and have worked in England periodically and, like PP, have experienced casual racist remarks and stereotyping and have been called "uptight" if I dare to challenge these remarks.

My favourite example was when I was a university student and had a summer job where a (non student) colleague labelled me as "very working class" .... I was studying a profession and came from an upper middle class background whereas the colleague had left school at 16, had no third level qualifications and had worked in an unskilled job since. But she was English and I was Irish so therefore she considered herself my social superior.

Disclaimer: I realise that there is nothing wrong with being working class - i have tremendous respect for anyone who works and especially in some of the underpaid undervalued jobs that exist nowadays. in fact in Ireland the concept of classes doesn't exist to the same extent as in the UK - thanks to free university education in Ireland people are much more socially and professionally mobile than in the U.K. I am relaying the above comment because it amused (and irritated TBH) me that no matter where I had come from or what I had achieved, I was Irish and therefore working class.

It's not just Irish. English people get it too. Try being Scouse. You're automatically a thieving whinger.

Liverpool being one of the UK's most Irish cities. Hmm, it's almost as if there's a connection there...

Yes that thought occurred to me too Flugel.

I've lurked and sadly have to agree with anti-Irish being the last acceptable racism .

My work takes me many places....that is my professional life which has university level qualification to enter the profession and which requires ongoing international level training and research to stay in.

I've had cracks about stupid/ thick/ drunk/ feckless/ backward/ bog-dwelling/ peasant/ bombers/ IRA sympathisers Irish people from fellow professionals.

One that I particularly enjoyed was the English (Nottingham) barrister (whom one would imagine was someway educated ). Sharing a lift to a work event, he asked me where I was from exactly....and when I answered , said

"oh? you still belong to us don't you? "

I really really don't even know where to start with that one.

I've also had the joyous experience of entering a conference call (me in Dublin, one of the other members of the team, based in England, several others in Sydney) and being told that I was speaking to someone on the Mainland.

That was early in my career....and I genuinely thought they meant they were in France.
Until, the penny dropped.

I had, mistakenly, thought I was living on an island off the coast of Europe....but nope! my independent sovereign nation is apparently, a subset of the mainland of Britain.

To balance that out, lest anyone think that I hopped onto the thread to bash England...

I am the grand-daughter of a man who often spoke about World War 2 (he lived through WW1 and 2).
He revered the RAF and felt that we Irish had benefitted from their bravery as much as anyone in England.
And he was quite happy to say this right through the 70's and early 80's when it would not have been a popular POV at all, in Ireland.

I've lurked and sadly have to agree with anti-Irish being the last acceptable racism

Is anti-English racism considered completely unacceptable in Ireland? I've never been, but always imagined it wasn't.

Some morons just think it's acceptable to insult your origins - wether you are Irish, Scots or from a region of the UK with a strong identity - like Liverpool. If you challenge it you are seen as a winger.
Frankly you can either ignore it or just head-but it out of the conversation (metaphorically) and put down the offender with a pointed comment or two.

Any anti British jokes out there from Irish people?

For balance.

OK I'll bite BigLad..
When I was growing up, there was a lot of "victim mentality".
Anti-English feeling was acceptable and a lot of digging over of history, 800 years and all that.

Remember, though, that when my grandmother went to school, the language she used at home (Irish) was beaten out of her (pre-pre-Independance)

Remember, my grandfather (see above) grew up with his grandmother having memories of seeing the Famine.

So, anti-English racism was more of a relevant and proportionate response to those people's actual lived experience.

Me...being called a bog-dwelling peasant....not relevant, not proportionate; and in the way of all racism, designed to prop up the fragile ego of the speaker rather than having any relevance to the recipient.

Perhaps you should go for a visit then badlad, rather than making assumptions about a place you've never been to.

Perhaps you should go for a visit then badlad, rather than making assumptions about a place you've never been to.

Everybody makes assumptions about places they've never been to.

Nomchanged, it's so true. I was teased about being 'posh' growing up in Ireland. I had to adopt an edge at times, to assimilate. Luckily I left it all behind, the blazer, the violin, off I went to the UK where I was asked if my Dad was a builder and if we had pigs in the kitchen.

True story! One really hot sunny Saturday morning I went to the supermarket and there was a homeless drunk man collapsed outside my house when I returned. He was the worse for wear and I brought him out some water. I called the emergency services when he couldn't drink it and couldn't get up. It was about 30 degrees and I thought he'd die. They thought he was my DAD! My parents hardly drink. My Dad can eke six glasses of wine out of a bottle!

TheInvincibleMadameMoi

Thanks for the thoughtful reply; however, I meant "is it unacceptable?" rather than "was it unacceptable?". Would people be afraid now to make racist comments against the English because other Irish people would call them out for their racism.

For example, I can understand the anti-Japanese feeling of my great-uncle, who had the misfortune of being a PoW, but I don't accept that people of my generation therefore have the right to make racist comments against Japanese people.

Having family links with both Ireland and England, I've never heard any anti-English racism from and Irish person. I've heard lots of dissatisfaction with British government policy, and plenty of hurt about the many things that Britain inflicted upon Ireland, but no casual racism about the English, no negative stereotypes that are believed and joked about. In England, I hear casual racism about Ireland all the time.

Ah I see BadLad. Apologies...I misjudged the tone of your post- I thought you were being a bit aggressive. Sorry.

Re anti-English feeling...."Is it unacceptable?" ...personally, I'd say yes.

Two reasons come to mind.... one was your Queen's visit to Dublin and her bow at the Garden of Remembrance. She's a gutsy lady.
Never underestimate the power of a good symbol.

And the second is that racism is a hot issue here...definitely where I live. There are something like 20+ nationalities in DC's school. They come down hard on any hint of exclusion be it disability, colour, religion, accent, whatever.
We're working hard to assimilate "new Irish".

Of course, like everywhere there are gits and throwbacks who like to have a go.

Come on over for a trip....you'll love it !

I'm sure I'd like it - the reason I haven't been is merely that I didn't get round to it while I lived in the UK. Same with Scotland.

I'm Irish-Australian. I think it can still be very much a race issue. I have dark hair/dark eyes , olive skin and get told suspiciously "You don't look Irish". Then you realise the acceptable version of being Irish (especially to the nutty racial purity types) is having red/blonde hair and freckles which is actually from the Viking invaders. It depends on the tone in which it's said - I can laugh if the joke is told in good humour but do get offended if it's sneery.

I know what you mean. My so is too dark to be 100% irish. I'm often made explain that

I'm horrified when I remember the bulk of the jokes we used to tell as I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. Some about Irish people, but I remember a huge number were about Ethiopians, and centred hugely on their extremely thin bodies. Truly shameful, but seemed absolutely normal and hilarious then

I think it is now very different from how it was and the Irish I have worked with are all lawyers and very bright indeed. I just don't come across badly educated Irish people whereas my great grandmother's grandmother (born in Ireland 1820) I presume did not go to school and came to England (we were then the same country) around 1850. I don't think her children in England got much of an education either until about the 1880s.

Lucy, your posts are eye-wateringly ignorant. You appear to be suggesting that the thick, workshy, feckless anti-Irish stereotypes were ok because Irish people really were like that in the past, but now we can leave the unpleasantness to history purely because the Irish people you know are 'bright' highly-educated professionals and have therefore earned, in your eyes, the right to be considered as equivalent to English people?

Let me suggest that you educate yourself. You could begin by looking up the history of 'othering' ethnic groups by colonisers/slavers -- there are remarkable similarities between Irish stereotypes and African-American stereotypes started by slavers. Also, the Penal Laws, and Catholic Emancipation, for specific education policies under British rule. Not to mention the colonial policies which turned potato blight into genocide, and sent a wave of impoverished, semi-starved Irish immigrants to the UK and the US.

And Ireland was not 'the same country'.