Irish racism in England

[angell84]

I am shocked. I am half English, half Irish. My Irish mum lived in England for a long time, gave birth to us children there with her English husband, and then moved back to Ireland.

The reason that she always gave me for returning to Ireland, was that, "she could not take the nastiness to her anymore". She described one incident of many to me: she went to my brother's primary teacher in England, and said that he had lost something, he must have been six at the time, and the teacher said to her , "sure what do you expect - he is half Irish".

I always thought of it in an abstract way, I never really understood what she meant. Until I spent quite a long time in the U.K this year.

I was absolutely shocked at the hatred and nastiness, and calling Irish people stupid.

How can it be possible? The U.K stole alot of Ireland's land, committed mass genocide during the famine, eradicated the Irish language,

And yet instead of apologising, many people are going around calling Irish people stupid.

Isn't it nearly unbelievable? It would be like a German going up to a Jew and calling them stupid. That it was their fault , thhat everything happened the way it did.

I am really shocked

I’m British living in Ireland and there’s just as much racism against various ethnicities here as in the UK. 🤷🏻‍♀️
People who hold nationalistic views tend to be racist and Brexit has brought them out in droves in the U.K. and there are plenty of similar nutters here in Ireland calling for Ire-exit. Twats.

Yeah yeah here we go again we're all nasty uneducated racists here in england who want the empire back.

I used to have a lot of Irish colleagues. Many of them said that although they'd had the occasional anti-Irish comment from isolated ignorant arseholes in England, they'd seen far more racism in general in Ireland than in England.

Boy George and Kathy Burke look to me very Irish. John Lydon less so, but still there. (All, like me, are London Irish.) I really can't explain it!!

Well I think if you are at the stage of claiming there is an Irish look and the heritage is just Northern Europe then you are into a hide into nothing.

Which bit is Irish then? The nose, the left earlobe? What about Ulster Scotsman?

The mind boggles.

Here’s some ‘typical’ Irish people

Are you talking just about the past?
Or have you experienced this more in the present?

We are a large Irish family with many Irish friends living in London area and have not experienced anything at all. Even our children who are born here with very unusual Irish names have not experienced anything!
We have mixed race (black) relations in our family and if anything they have been the ones who have experienced the racism cause of being half black not because of being from a Irish family.

If you are only talking about the past then yes there was racism against Irish folk now days I would find it very hard to believe.

It was a famine, not a genocide. Potato blight also caused famine in britain at the same time but we dont hear that being offensively described as 'genocide'. Nor would you expect people to still be blaming modern germans for the holocaust 170 years after it.

You need to learn some history Patroclus

It was a famine, not a genocide. Potato blight also caused famine in britain at the same time but we dont hear that being offensively described as 'genocide'. Nor would you expect people to still be blaming modern germans for the holocaust 170 years after it.

Potatoes were affected by the blight but there was other food in Ireland besides potatoes (Contrary to some peoples beliefs) That food was exported to mainland Britain (Ireland was a part of Britain at the time) under armed guard, that's why it's referred to as genocide

My mum moved over here (UK) in the late 50s when there was a lot of discrimination but hasn’t experienced any issues in the last 30 or so years. She sounds irish and has a very irish name - although she has blonde hair and green eyes so apparently doesn’t look it ...maybe that’s the difference!

black irish they're historically referred to, Piglet john. There are a lot of famous black irish. I dont think the armada thing is true, its more likely they're descendents of the basques. The Corrs, Dylan Moran, Graham Linehan, Colin Farrell, Enya, Shane McGowan, James Nesbitt etc

Got my degree in it thanks JaneJeffer with a module on this subject. It wasnt called a 'genocide; until 15 years ago or so and ridiculous nationalist revisionist history became common.

Then you should know better.

I am so intrigued to know what are typical Irish features grin pale and freckled?

I'm frequently mistaken for being Irish when on the continent, and yes, I have very fair skin and freckles.

(mostly I think it's that they recognise I'm not English or American from my accent and guess wrongly. I am, in reality, Scottish)

Thank you Arya, that Patroclus is ignorant is down to him/her, that the potato blight led to genocide is well-documented.

Modern British or German or Irish people along with many others all have deeply unpleasant elements of their history and are not to blame, but I do think we should know our history.

I’ve never really noticed this except on mn where people insist it happens. Maybe it’s a regional thing? I’ve noticed a degree of anticatholic sentiment though which I suppose might get tied up with Irishness though.

Are you Irish?

Here all that needs to be said on it. Nowhere else in the world would a botanical disease be called a genocide, except here where moronic blanket statement about the british can be made, who wernt even alive at the time, as seen on this thread.

www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/its-time-to-get-over-the-fact-that-the-great-famine-was-not-genocide-31580188.html

Know better? or say what you want me to?

Ah sorry Patroclus I see your disdain for ridiculous nationalist revisionist history.

www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-famine-genocide-british

Err do you know what nationalist revisionist history is?

Do you realise how hurtful your comments and denial is patroclus?
The potato crop failed in Ireland but it wasn't the only food source in the country. The other food sources animals and other crops were exported by the English to England to feed the English.

The don't teach about Empire in British school though. It's conveniently ignored.

I'm pretty sure no one ever suggested the disease was genocide.

It was the knowingly removing the other sources of food from Ireland leaving its people to starve that was the questionable bit.