Calling all rep-of Ireland Mumsnetters!! Main differences between Ireland and UK??

[Neighbour1]

Just that really, posting here for traffic!

What are the main differences that you can see, about lifestyle, wages, attitudes, work, education, people?? In general I can see a few on here so thought I’d ask, as the two countries are so close (and were once 1) there seems to be a lot of differences!!

Remember when you'd get a chicken curry in the nightclub as part of your entry fee? Good times

OMG, yes!

Was it some weird licensing bylaw?

'under subsection B paragraph 17 Bacardi Breezers can only be sold if accompanied by a serving of a most awful chicken curry'

Whatever bylaw it was it was a good one. I loved that curry, that saved me many a hangover. Those were the days where you slept half the day and got back up for more Bacardi breezer orange and another curry the very next night

If the night club gave out food they could stay open late without paying extra licensing fees or something like that. It was usually something very salty so then you would have to buy more beer

Never in my life been offered a thai green curry - chicken curry made with McDonnells curry sauce and overcooked boiled rice!

Miss the curry on way out if a club - got ye sobered up before your mammy saw ye 😁

Also, I completely and wholeheartedly agree with this from a PP:

One thing that was striking was bureaucracy - dealing with state bodies, big firms, etc. In the U.K. those things were invariably more efficient, there was more cohesion of services and homogeneity of online platforms and that sort of thing. But they were also much less flexible; any request even slightly outside the norm was likely to be met with "Computer says no". The person at the other end of the phone was typically unfailingly polite and completely unhelpful. In Ireland you're much more likely to have to dial three numbers before you get through to the office you need, but equally likely to find that the person who picks up the phone will go above and beyond to help you out. There is also, I think, a more pragmatic, case-by-case approach to things like safeguarding etc. in Ireland, rather than the very rigid adherence to all-encompassing rules that you tend to get in the UK. There are pros and cons to both those attitudes, I think

And also, now I think of it, a Chinese takeaway would be the general fast food of choice over the English equivalent of a curry.
Although that said for reasons unknown to man, a popular order, and possibly THE most popular, from a Chinese takeaway in Ireland is an order of chips smothered in curry sauce. (Maybe curry sauce on the side for those of us with Notions)
I'm not aware of its culinary significance in China - any more than sweet and sour chicken balls to be fair - but it is certainly on the menu of every Chinese takeaway through out the land.

Potatoes and pasta

A 3 in 1 was the height of sophistication in my peer group as teens - curry chips and rice in a tray. Also as a dub chicken balls are a staple when ordering from the chinese. I cant see man restaurants in china selling battered deep fried balls of chicken but there ya go. Indian ‘curry’ shops are only popular about 15 years here i think.

Regarding postcodes, a parcel we ordered went missing and I ended up in the sorting office trying to track it down. I told the post man that the parcel had the post code on it (I could see the shipping address the company had used), he said well that doesn't matter because An Post doesn't use post codes, they don't have access to the information.

I remember at the time that the postcodes were being introduced An Post put in a bid with their own system but the weren't chosen in the end. Apparently postcodes are only used by the emergency services and some courier companies not the actual postal service. How Irish is that!