How does the Irish middle class compare to ours

[Norfolker]

My sister in law is from the Republic & she says the class system in Ireland is there but less obvious than ours.. Not as many private schools but more subtle markers.
She also thinks their state education system is far superior so private schooling is unnecessary. Any Irish on here want to elaborate? I found it interesting.
YABU there is no difference between UK & ROI. Exact same class system no difference in markets.
YANBU different traits contribute to the Irish middle class system

I spotted dry robes in a park in London a few weeks ago. Not within an ass’s roar of open water and accessorised with turned up jeans, beany hats and keep-cup coffee mugs.

You bet your backside I judged, mumbled about notions, and sent a picture of the behaviour to my SoCoDu friends.

Cacacoisfarraige
'Sure who'd be looking at you anyway!'

The dry robe thing is ridiculous.

Have to say the Dunnes coat, was it PC or what? Remember when Awear did Quin and Donnelly? I miss Awear.

My inlaws are old school. they think it's cheating to use wetsuits and dry robes (unless you're a child)

I've been sea swimming for 30 years and think people should wear what they like. I can't bear the ones who look down on others for doing it their own way.
It's sneery and divisive from some. For others, who don't judge, its light hearted humour.

@HeyGirlHeyBoy

Thanks. That makes sense. I like a lot about the Irish system- I think the UK one relies too much on what we now call ‘cultural capital’ and those who can refer to a wider context than the classroom affords. The Irish system, I imagine, was intentionally designed to go against that and be more egalitarian? so the capacity is there to write from a small, localised perspective and the focus (imv) is on the language used.

I think the Irish system adheres to a more American perspective known as ‘new formalism’ in the study of English (my subject). I studied American literature in Europe with an American professor for a short period and we covered Hawthorne, Hemingway, Melville, etc and I really like that stuff and the way it is presented to the reader. Elizabeth Bishop is on the LC and she has that same physicality in her writing and I found it so accessible compared to how in the UK, we have to find our way into the canon of English thought and the obstacles present in that.

So, in balance, I am saying that I think the Irish system is more democratic however the process, like all systems is gamed. My reference to essay swopping came from comments Irish friends have made regarding getting into a certain stream in school, not the exams.

I missed the dry robe thing at the time but all I can say is if a supervalu bag is good enough for Matt Damon a towel is good enough for everyone.
Unless of course the supervalu bag was crammed full of dry robes.

Forget even the looking down, why would you even care what someone else wears? Weird.

@Apileofballyhoo

I missed the dry robe thing at the time but all I can say is if a supervalu bag is good enough for Matt Damon a towel is good enough for everyone. Unless of course the supervalu bag was crammed full of dry robes.

I watched The Bourne Identity on tv last night, and I can now not think of Matt Damon as anything other than a Dalkey regular renting Eddie Irvine's bad-taste house and wandering about with his Supervalu bag. It kind of wrecked my ability to see him as a lethal, multilingual CIA assassin with amnesia and advanced hand to hand combat skills. (Mind you, that was less unlikely that Clive Owen playing an assassin codenamed 'the Professor'...)

And @HeyGirlHeyBoy, I still have two pairs of Quinn and Donnelly trousers, ancient, but very well cut and a perfect fit, from their A-Wear days.

@Apileofballyhoo

I missed the dry robe thing at the time but all I can say is if a supervalu bag is good enough for Matt Damon a towel is good enough for everyone. Unless of course the supervalu bag was crammed full of dry robes.

That was undoubtedly the best advertising SV ever got!

www.dailyedge.ie/dunnes-joanne-hynes-900-euro-coat-2986616-Sep2016/

This is the coat. Ah, those were simpler times.

As for the Dry Robe thing, I don't even understand it. Surely anything that makes it more bearable to swim in the sea in Ireland is a wonderful blessing?

Notions I tell ye, notions!

Ha, funny article

Surely anything that makes it more bearable to swim in the sea in Ireland is a wonderful blessing?
You're not wrong there.

Also miss A-Wear and Quin and Donnelly. I have fond memories of a top my sister had that I borrowed for special occasions. Still have a few things from A-Wear in my wardrobe too.

I like the daily edge piece too. Will have to start following them.

I can’t work out the Irish humour. I always feel I am being told off or shouted down or that I am being argued with just because I am English then people say it’s humour yet if I do it back there is rage and fury.

I think it is definitely that thing of not taking yourself seriously whereas in the UK I always feel I have to work hard to be taken seriously. The people I prob clicked with most were NI Protestants I met at college but that tended to change once they found out I was RC!

Awear stuff never fit me. You'd want to be a Daddy long legs to fit their trousers!! That, or I'm a short arse - but man those legs were long!

Anybody follow the official crumlin shopping centre page? I know it's just one person updating the page but I find it funny.

I saw one of those dry robes for the first time the other day. I was in the people's park. I didn't realise they had ''dry robe'' written across the back! I was shivering so much drinking my cup of tea, my hands were too cold to put the lid on my tea properly and I ended up pouring half my tea over myself. I could have done with a dry robe and I didn't get near the sea.

Those Joanne Hynes coats are not for me! But i'm old enough to remember Quin and Donnelly and I had a lovely little suit from them. It was quite star trek. I felt like Uhura at the office in it. Loved it.

@HeyGirlHeyBoy

Vegan dinner lady Peak notions.

yeh, just take the sausages off the plate fgs. Done!

@Notimeforaname

To quote Deirdre O'kane

''The Irish could never produce a James Blunt. If any of us attempted to begin a song with the line ''My life is brilliant' we'd all reply

''Is it? Well we'll soon fuck that up for you'' 🤣

Haha love it!!

I love that daily edge article ''Dunnes Just Trolling us now ''

@SkylightAndChandelier

There's definitely indicators - although in my experience not of class as you'd think of it in England, more of what your religion is, where you're from etc. (places in Dublin 5km apart have tremendously different accents and expectations!).

So if I said for example that at my kids school they do Hockey - that would tell you a lot more about it if you know Ireland than if you don't.

I am agog- what does hockey signify please?

And thank you for this thread, it's been very educational. (Badoom-tish!)

The whole "notions" thing makes me think of Sweden and their Lagon mentality (similar to tall poppy syndrome, but means having enough), and the way Markus Persson, founder of Minecraft, has been castigated for having a private aeroplane, etc well, along with being a misogynist and racist, but hey!

@AwaAnBileYerHeid

I've lived in both Scotland and Ireland. The people in Ireland always made a big deal of the Irish being 'different' somehow, or making out everything was so 'Irish'. Personally, I noticed no difference between home and Scotland!

What's your point? That Scottish people also think they are special and different from everyone else?