An Irish person would never say this

[yodelehoho]

"I'm thinking of moving to the north east, where can you recommend"

Neither would a Scottish person, not a Welsh person.

Why do English people seem to think that everything revolves around England? I see this time and time again on Mumsnet. People assuming that "North East" is flipping England.

Well in a thread about Ireland of course they'd just say west! At that point everyone posting knows it's a thread about Ireland.

Which is the point. In general on MN we don't know where anyone is. Unless they tell us. So let's not all just assume.

Just think of the children in Newcastle Australia or Canada!!

Or Dublin (The Dublin in Republic of Ireland. Wouldn't want to make the assumption that everyone knows what I'm talking about) or Tipperary!!

When I was growing up (in NI), when I heard that song that goes "didn't we have a lovelrly time the day we went to Bangor" I always pictured them on a coach tour to the seaside town in County Down.

splendidisolation
"like "can everybody start specifying what country they mean because when you say West Coast i think Liverpool and it feels, like, really mean of you and really self centred and I find the whole thing just infuriating and also confusing. I am absolutely outraged, OUTRAGED!!!!!!!!!"
I've just read it with Pheobe's intonation (from Friends) and absolutely pissing myself very good point though (me non-British, non-English-Scottish-Welsh-Irish says). Just ridiculous how people find over what to get worked up in the middle of a working day btw!

In general on MN we don't know where anyone is.

In general on discussion boards that are Irish centric posters say 'The West' without a care in the world. Bet they do similar about countries on boards that are centric to that country

The Bastards!!

It's nothing to do with where people live. The North East is a geographical region of the UK.

No OvO, the point is that Irish people also do it on Irish hosted, majority Irish forums. Like how MN is English hosted and majority English. Which means OP was BU in her comparison.

You can want people to give more information about their location for clarity whilst also understanding that OP was verifiably wrong in her claim that Irish people don't do this and it's something English specific. It isn't either/or!

Maybe we could turn this into a new AIBU:
AIBU to be irritated that people don't understand the geographical names of areas of England and assume it's English arrogance when an English person refers to one of them? You just wouldn't get English people being so ignorant about other people's countries* and assuming that it was imperialist hubris that led them to referring to areas within their own nation by their correct names .

*Except of course you do get massive English ignorance about other countries, the way you get massive ignorance from people all over the world, because no one knows everything about everything. Op's assumption about the English not understanding that everywhere has a north and claiming to speak for all Irish, Welsh and Scots people being a case in point.The 'English' are not an homogenous, amorphous mass and neither are the Irish, hence why some Irish people will in fact refer to any part of Ireland in whatever way strikes them as appropriate. Claiming that all people from one place always or never do one particular thing is always going to be massively U.

OH is back.

It was definitely Halifax in Yorkshire, then...

It's true I can vouch that on Irish forums not only are there references geographically that you have to be a local to know, but also lots of inferences and sayings that are local to Ireland. It took me quite a while to learn it and I often still get berated for being too English to know if I've asked for clarification. Never once has anyone ever said sorry we should have been inclusive to you!

Well if you can find an Irish website that has 1 in 5 non Irish people posting and doing what you've claimed then I'll be surprised. If they did then they'd be just as irksome as the people that do it here. That goes for all countries, not just picking on the Irish.

That's part of the problem in Ireland though, its generally not a very open society so many things like forums aren't used by as many people from outside the country.

If it's 1in 5 people on mumsnet that are Irish that's a credit to how open the forum is.

End, it's about 1 in 5 that are something other than English.

But that's only going on figure from a MN census from 2009. I can well imagine there's more people in other countries posting now. Plus that census is only the results from the few thousand Mumnetters that filled in the form. (I say few thousand but I don't know the actual numbers)

Well if you can find an Irish website that has 1 in 5 non Irish people posting and doing what you've claimed then I'll be surprised.

But that's surely more to do with the fact that Irish websites are less internationally popular than the fact that the Irish are naturally more outward looking, global and inclusive than the insular and egocentric English? I doubt a klaxon goes off when the 80/20 tipping point is reached and suddenly no one references taytos, Penneys and Peig Sayers lest one of their foreign posters feels left out.

If MN were 80/20 English /Irish then maybe there would be a point about how we shouldn't assume everyone is English, but as it's 80/20 English/ literally the rest of the world including rUK, perhaps there is good a reason for a heavy Anglocentric leaning in posts. if 4/5 posters are English it means 4/5 people who see your post will have the same frame of reference as you. Expecting members of the 4/5 to be more specific to make sure that the 1/5 who could be from anywhere else in the world have a clear understanding of what is being said is picky to the point of just being English bashing for the sake of it.

I need to go do stuff so just one more post ( I usually hard post on MN anymore!).

Many non English people (not all, I know this) are coming to this thread with having year of English centric stuff under their belts. Like the whole England focused media. So it's not just a trivial non thing so many people think it is - it's one more thing on the list.

To add to the English centric media thing - if anyone complains we're told that there's so many more of you so of course it's that way. Basically shut up, you don't count.

I'm feeling like I'm being overly serious here but can I just say again that this thread is about a tiny little irksome thing but it's part of a thousand tiny little irksome things which is why people can get a bit het up or too serious.

The BBC has BBC Scotland and BBC in Ireland also. They will refer to their locations as is appropriate

We don't have the BBC in Ireland. We have RTE.

Many non English people (not all, I know this) are coming to this thread with having year of English centric stuff under their belts. Like the whole England focused media. So it's not just a trivial non thing so many people think it is - it's one more thing on the list.

But one only has to see all the thread on MN about people in the North/ Midlands/ South West of England complaining that all news/ weather/ media is London (England)/ SE (England) centric to see that this isn't actually an England/ rUK problem. There is a definite media bias towards the south (of England). So to assume that English people aren't aware that this problem of ignoring the outlying areas exists is simply to demonstrate your own ignorance about the English. To then come onto an 80% English board to argue your point and defend said ignorance is going to end with people getting annoyed. We know there is media bias. We can see it too. Most posters on MN are not in charge of the BBC

To add to the English centric media thing - if anyone complains we're told that there's so many more of you so of course it's that way. Basically shut up, you don't count.

Proportional representation does need to be taken into account though. Fair representation does not always mean equal representation. It's not that you don't matter, but if 11 X more people live in one place, they are going to get 11 X more focus, because that is fair.

And then, of course, Ireland is a completely separate nation and doesn't come into it, any more than France does. As it should be. If Ireland's media has an overly English focus (and I can't imagine that it does) that is not the fault of people living in England.

And then, of course, Ireland is a completely separate nation and doesn't come into it, any more than France does. As it should be

Ireland-UK is nothing at all like UK-France! Don't be so daft,

If Ireland's media has an overly English focus (and I can't imagine that it does) that is not the fault of people living in England

Are you kidding with this?

Nonsense. In the republic of Ireland, people talk about the North all the time (Northern Ireland) or going to the West (of Ireland).

In Scotland I've heard people talk about going to the Islands. They're not talking about Guernsey or the Isle of Wight!

Strangest thread on MN for a while, this..

Ireland-UK is nothing at all like UK-France! Don't be so daft,

ROI is an entirely separate country to the UK, different laws, currency, religion, customs etc. There is no good reason why the British news would focus anymore on something happening in ROI than it would anywhere else. Basically, if there's big news in ROI we'll hear about - otherwise not.

Are you kidding with this?
I don't understand. I assume RTE is Ireland focused and doesn't spend too much time dwelling on what is happening in Britain (may have changed since Brexit, but prior to 2016, why on earth would the people in Ireland care about British news?) If RTE choose to report British news, how is that the fault of the everyday people that happen to live in Britain?

ROI is an entirely separate country to the UK, different laws, currency, religion, customs etc

Thanks for that, but we all know that already.

There is no good reason why the British news would focus anymore on something happening in ROI than it would anywhere else.Basically, if there's big news in ROI we'll hear about - otherwise not

Horseshit. You know nothing about anything.

I can't. I can see your points. Some I want to argue/add to but I know there's no point as we'll just go in circles.

Has anyone ever changed their opinions due to someone else's internet opinion?

The thing is so many people on this thread I disagree with but at least your actually reading what's said and thinking about it. Then posting how I/others are totally wrong but at least your thinking about what we're saying.

It's the other type of posters that are the irksome type. Who just disagree with an eye roll or sneery comment.

I'm now going to stand by the window getting cross my DH is taking forever with my chips but thank you to those who have taken the time to properly argue.

Has anyone ever changed their opinions due to someone else's internet opinion?
YES
I base my opinion on what I know. So sometimes, that is loads and others not a lot. If someone tells me more information, I will check it and then way well change my mind. My opinion is based on my knowledge and that can be expanded by any Tom, Dick or Harry. I'm not fussy, but do reserve the right to do more research.

Thanks for that, but we all know that already.
So, exactly why was my posting that Ireland, as a separate nation, didn't come into the argument about rUK representation in anyway controversial? There is an argument to be made that British media ignores the outlying areas too much, I agree with it. There is an argument to be made that British media is too insular and doesn't include enough foreign affairs. I'm totally willing to accept that. But they're not the same argument. ROI's representation in British media is not at all the same issue as Scotland's representation. Hence why I put it in a different paragraph saying it was a different thing.

Horseshit. You know nothing about anything.
What? I confess i know very little about RTE. I have no idea whether you're offended that I thought there might be British representation on it, or offended that I'm not aware that there's too much British representation. I honestly don't know, I've not seen it. My point is that whatever the Irish broadcasters are choosing to broadcast has nothing to do with the everyday people of Britain - we have no say, we're not aware of what is on your news because we can't see it (same as i don't know what's on the local news for Newcastle, don't see it, don't know). If Britain never gets mentioned I'm not remotely offended. if it gets mentioned a lot I can see why that would irritate Irish people. Still not the fault of people living in England or the rUK though

British news doesn't often mention ROI (once more, brexit might have increased its profile on the news, but prior to 2016 - not so much). NI gets mentioned, obviously but, unless something big has happened in ROI, it is mostly only mentioned in relation to the UK, specifically NI. Sorry if that offends you. I don't know why noting that a completely different country doesn't often appear on our national news means I don't know about anything though. Like, not even my times tables.