Differences between Irish and British people

[Picnicinnovember]

Inspired by the very interesting thread on differences between British people and Americans.

I'm Irish and over here we watch British TV, have loads of British chain stores in our towns and cities, read very similar newspapers, British magazines, grew up reading British comics etc. but yet we're very different in many ways from British people, particularly English people I would say.

I'm just wondering what people think the main differences are? We're pretty crap at timekeeping in Ireland, have a fairly distinctive sense of humour, and aren't that bothered about breaking minor rules and regulations.

Any other differences people have noticed?

I heard an Irish rugby player on the radio the other day and he was asked the difference between playing here and in England, it was very light heated but made me smile.

He said he went to visit a house where they had just baked granola bars and they smelled amazing, he was offered tea, which he accepted and offered granola which he said "ah no thanks", typical Irish as he really did want it, but they put it away!! So in England if you want it say it because they'll take you literally the first time, in Ireland you refuse politely even though you want but it because you know you will keep getting offered all evening

British people will buy occasion gifts according to their budget.
Irish people would go into debt to ensure their gift is generous enough to avoid 'losing face' in front of people

Huh? I've never found this to be an Irish/English thing, more down to individual people being bad/good with money.

I do agree with the pp who said Irish take the piss out of each other, whereas the English are more sarcastic. God I miss talking shite with randomers while out and about...

Ha, ha, where was he from Returnofthesmileybar?

That does happen in some parts of Ireland in varying degrees. The character of Mrs Doyle wasn’t licked off the stones.

I'm very glad the Irish OP mentioned timekeeping - because my large extended Irish family are all of the habitually late persuasion. Time is like an abstract concept to them. That could just be my family, in fairness.

I don't think the Irish are heavier drinkers than the English - I'd say the reverse is true. The Irish drink way more tea than the English, but not alcohol.

I’d love to celebrate our commonality.

I’m Irish living in England, my adopted country.

I love both places and the people from both. I wish we didn’t focus so much on our differences.

Yes we did have a difficult past but no one alive today is responsible for that.

I think - very similar sense of humour, both Island mentalities, same social etiquette for the most part, similar values and we have a great rapport. I find it as easy to make English as Irish friends and I love both equally.

StripySocksandDocs is was Donnacha O'Callaghan on I think the Matt Cooper show, he is a funny guy, he couldn't believe it 😂

Stereotypically.... Irish people seem more in tune with their traditions and culture (much of this is lost in the U.K.) Food in Ireland is FAR superior and tends to be locally sourced.

Religion. They're mad for it in Ireland, not so much in Britain.

Lol. Eh, no. The big event of a day out for Communion/Confirmation/weddings, sure. Actually going to church week in, week out or generally believing? Nah, that's going down the tubes.

I heard the lunacy of Intelligent Design was getting some traction over there. Utter madness and delusion, and teaching it to kids is tantamount to child abuse.

Also lol.

I heard the lunacy of Intelligent Design was getting some traction over there. Utter madness and delusion, and teaching it to kids is tantamount to child abuse.

Eh, no. This is not happening.

however the flip side is the Irish I have "heard" about growing up there were several times when there were bomb scares that was apparently Irish people too I find it hard to reconcile the two groups so 🤷‍♀️

Sometimes it's hard to know where to begin.

I think that both the Irish and English have a sense of humour it’s just that they are different. For example if I as an Irish person try and have the craic with my sister in law itnis usually lost and I used to think she was boring but then when I see her with her family (English) she is funny and can enjoy herself just very very different sense of humour. We dont really take anything serious and enjoy taken the piss out of each other.

Also wakes and funerals - in my expereience the English don’t have wakes as we do (ie body being waked in the persons home for 2 days prior to the funeral)

Weddings - I was unaware weddings in England finished at 12 until this post! We most defiantly cleebrate a lot longer than this. Starts with mass at 12/1 and continues til the wee hours

Ridiculous (& light hearted) observation alert: I'm Irish and I reckon English men are better looking and have nicer accents but I have noticed that good looking English men tend to be with not so good looking women, which makes them less shallaw maybe?? Here good looking people tend to pair off, you see a good looking man/woman and their partner tends to be similar, I've seen loads of good looking English men and they often have women clearly not as good looking as them (making me a lot more shallow that English men it would seem 😉)

Some already mentioned but :

1. Death/ funerals. English more uptight
2. Community spirit- more evident in Ireland. Perhaps this is different in north of England (my experience is in south)
3. View of teachers- very respected in Ireland. This is a very good profession to be in. In fact there are no jobs for teachers in NI
4. Christmas- lots of people in Ireland don't wrap 'Santa' presents
5. Christmas trees- I've noticed Irish put trees up early
6. Food. Yes Chinese takeaways in England are rotten compared to those in Ireland. Food in general is better in Ireland.
7. English young people mature quicker/ more sensible- especially the more middle classes. In Ireland you can be middle class and still go a bit wild and nobody bats an eyelid! Less class system in Ireland imo
8. Weddings/ parties in general go on much longer/ later at night in Ireland
9. Irish more generous with gifts. They would give people their last pennies if needed. I haven't experienced this in England. I've found English people more frugal- perhaps this is due to higher cost of living where I am??

10. Sport. I am always annoyed at how negative English people are about their country when playing. E.g World Cup. They had lost before they won!

I was shocked when my Irish friend lost his uncle, had the funeral 3 days later and mentioned that his uncle wasn’t able to be at the wake. ‘Well of course he wouldn’t be at the wake of his own funeral, is that some kind of odd joke’ I thought, having only known English funerals when you have a week or two to plan and the wake AFTER the funeral and wouldn’t all spend time with the body. I know there are exceptions but I couldn’t ever imagine a gathering of all friends and family in England and the body is there. I do wonder if their attitude is healthier. The funerals I’ve attended I feel very disconnected to the coffin

We never wrap Santa presents, also here in Ireland Santa leaves all the presents (parents presents not family presents obviously), we still have stockings and Santa fills them too but in England I think stocking from Santa and gifts from parents is pretty common is it?

Also kids here (if you believe mn) believe in Santa much later, I would say 10 on average here but 11 would be very common too, in fact anything up to when they finish primary really but according to posts I see here anything after 7 and your child is thick and really must struggle with independent thought

A friend suffered an injury at a big Irish music festival, apparently as paramedics took her away everyone crossed themselves as she went past. I can’t imagine that happening at Glastonbury

I would of also added abortion but that’s changing now, I hope the law changes to NI too soon

Why OP? Just why?

No good will come of this so I’m not going to read the comments - even though I’m particularly well placed to answer!

Returnofthesmileybar, that really isn’t how Santa works in every single household in Ireland. It doesn’t even happen enough to be classed as ‘here in ireland’.

Irish people care a lot less about what other people/countries thing ifnthem than the English do. And we don’t have the same antagonist attitude towards other countries INHO, particularly Americans,
French and Germans...

Well of course it isn't every single house in Ireland I'm not speaking for the entire population slot in "in my experience" then and keep everything else

Irish people fight and drink beer
English people eat Victoria sponge and drink tea*

Right?

*this is what I actually do

I’m Northern Irish, living in Manchester. One thing I noticed is that we love to tell a good story and part of that automatically includes exaggerating every aspect of it, just to make it a good story. English people like to keep everything low key and factually accurate.

Also I like a good argument but English people like to avoid confrontation.

We went on a driving holiday around Ireland. At every single hotel, the breakfast room was almost deserted until 5 mins before service ended, when the Irish strolled in en masse. So admirably cheeky!

Before Brexit and the referendum and all that, I had noticed something refreshing and different about Irish TV news programmes:

The headlines and discussions featured items on the EU (shock!) Indeed it was a shock to the system to see items about EU Ministers meetings and snippets of debates in the European Parliament. In the UK the news focussed on Westminster and Whitehall without so much as a passing interest in Europe beyond the Calais camp.

I came to the conclusion that the British media were not doing a good job, and that I was woefully ill-informed about the politics and structures of the EU.

I'm convinced that the failure to report on EU activities reinforced the idea that the EU wasn't relevant to British interests and that we were already detached. I'm also convinced that Irish attitudes to the EU come from better information and robust press coverage.