Am I right in being slightly annoyed?

[RottenTomatoes959]

For reference I am Irish living in Ireland.

I took DS to soft play over the weekend and got chatting to an English woman who was there with her DD.
Her DD starting having tantrum as 3 year olds tend to do and she starting laughing and joking with me over her throwing " a paddy".

Maybe she didn't understand the negative connotations of it but using this phrase to an Irish person in Ireland is a bit bloody stupid.

She ended up taking her DD and leaving so I didn't say anything but I wish I did.
Do I have right to be slightly annoyed by this?

I've never heard anything so bloody stupid either about ' doing an english' wtf??

My point well made.

IStandWithPosie sure do. I call friends who do eccentric things 'crazy' and 'nutters'. Lock me up, throw away the key, and may god have mercy on my soul.

Context is everything.

I know @juells although I did laugh at the reference to Paddy being a perfect man and the God. It lists the use if the word paddy in a more everyday usage way than the Oxford Dictionary which is what the OP is referring to. It seemed to ring true, there seems to be both inoffensive and offensive meanings of the word Paddy. Which for the OP and others, it’s just a good reason to be more careful about using.

Basically I agree with the OP.

Irish living in England and don't find it offensive in the slightest. In fact, I may have said "throwing a complete paddy" in relation to my own DC.

As a matter of interest OP, how do you feel about the (Irish) company called Paddywagon Tours given that the origin of that name is a 19th century police van that mainly contained Irish drunken criminals!

I had no idea it was related to Ireland

You're free to choose what you want to be offended about OP

But I find this very strange... I never even knew that phrase existed until a few years ago when I went to England for the first time and heard it.

I'm 49 and come from a huge Irish family. I've heard the phrase said just as much in Ireland, by Irish people than I have anywhere else.

how do you feel about the (Irish) company called Paddywagon Tours

Have a wee think about that one.

You had to think of that to say that

I used the exact wording you used to describe a “Paddy”, which is another word for an Irish person and said what if that was applied to scottish people? Pretty offensive isn’t it?

And I know scottish people get the piss taken out of them for some things. I lived there for years myself! It is outrageous that anyone might think it acceptable to generalise about another nation like that. Anyone who did it in my presence would get pulled up on it, whether it was directed at the Irish, the English, the Scottish or any other nation.

I know but @everanewbie there are plenty of people in mental health organizations who feel that crazy or nutter are derogatory too.

I’m irish and I’ve never heard the phrase used in Ireland in my life. I’ve only ever heard it used by English people and MNers (who’s nationalities I don’t know)

@Worraliberty. I'm only 23 so would have been about 17/18 when I first heard it.

Possibly never heard it due to being a younger generation. No-one in my family or wider circle ever used it. I don't think it's that strange.

It’s just a good thing isn’t it to stop using terms if they mean a negative stereotype? Paddy = tantrum isn’t that nice is it?

Whereas Paddywagon tours... actually that is negative too! Just clocked

Quick google and it has got a fairly inappropriate meaning so I guess if I was the OP and knew this fact then rather than getting pissed off I would just educate people (would have been helpful in original post maybe). Clearly me and other people have no idea it is actually offensive....

"It comes from the slightly rude reference to Irish-ness, a historical reference to the Irish complaints about English oppression – so throwing a paddy is a complaint about William of Orange’s troops killing Catholics"

Possibly never heard it due to being a younger generation. No-one in my family or wider circle ever used it. I don't think it's that strange.

I think it's very strange, unless perhaps you're living in a very rural area?

Even then though, I'm surprised you haven't read it on internet forums/Facebook etc.

@schroedingersmeowth

You had to think of that to say that

I used the exact wording you used to describe a “Paddy”, which is another word for an Irish person and said what if that was applied to scottish people? Pretty offensive isn’t it?

So actually, no, I didn’t “have to think” of anything. I used YOUR wording to describe “paddies” (another word for the Irish).

@Worraliberty no not rural, not Dublin but definitely not what I'd call rural.
I've seen it loads since, but as I said I'd never heard of it until I was about 18.

Gosh, I live in NI and my Scottish mum would say this a lot. I've never thought about the connotations. Having said that I won't use it now I know!

I’ve never heard of the Irish being referred to as Paddies though, I know I went to school with a lot of boys called Paddy so I’d have found the term silly.

I’ll probably stop using it, I don’t say it much anyway.

Although I do find getting offended about it a bit pearl clutchy and precious, given that it’s so widely used in certain places without it even occurring it’s about Irish men in the late 19th century!

My in laws are all Irish and committed Republicans. They’re all intelligent educated people and understand about semantics and the evolution of language and would realise this woman was unaware of the etymology and was neither aware of the offensive connotations nor intending to give offence. I’ve heard Irish people themselves use the word on multiple occasions.

Does sound a bit like you’re quite delighted to have a pop at the English woman though, which is interesting as Ireland doesn’t have a great record with racism and xenophobia itself. I think you know full well a lot of Irish people are unwelcoming towards ‘blow ins’ from the next village let alone people from other countries or with different skin colours.

Before getting offended by someone who clearly meant no offence and branding them racist, you might want to think about how much your own latent xenophobia contributed to your reaction to this incident. I suspect no little amount.

I suspect that a paddywagon is so called not because it contained Irishmen but because it was driven by them; police forces in the US used to be (and in some places still are) predominatly staffed by Irish-Americans.

And I’m 27 and have heard it used for as long as I can remember. And by Irish guys as well!

You didn’t even know what it meant either but decided to become offended about it anyway despite not hearing it knowing about it earlier?

I'm Scottish and couldn't care less when people take the piss out of me or call me names or go on about us being mean. The woman meant no malice in saying the word paddy to mean a toddler having a tantrum. You've chosen to be offended by this.

I used the exact wording you used to describe a “Paddy”, which is another word for an Irish person and said what if that was applied to scottish people? Pretty offensive isn’tah it?

Well Irish people tend to use terms like sweaties or bluenoses for the Scottish don’t they?

@Gingerrogered, how on earth did you get that from what I said?

Trust me there was no pop at an English woman. I was slightly annoyed.
And there really is no more Irish people who are unwelcoming to "blow ins" as you say then there are in any other country.

You really are talking out of your arse.

Well Irish people tend to use terms like sweaties or bluenoses for the Scottish don’t they?

I’ve never heard either of those terms in my life! And I am Irish and lived for years in Scotland.

As I have already said, if I heard anyone making derogatory comments about any nation, I’d pull them up on it.

The fact that you assume I wouldn’t defend scottish people if they had rude comments directed at them, just because I don’t happen to be Scottish is way off the mark.