Colleague said something was a bit Irish

[0scon]

Something that hadn't been planned properly, she said it was a bit Irish and laughed.
Is that not quite racist? Or am I being too woke?

My Irish family joke about the same thing. They wouldn't be offended in the slightest.

In a work setting with people you don't know well, it's probably not the best idea

I have challenged her saying people are just a bit old school. I've said 'you say old school, I say racist' but just left that one because I was a bit shocked

@StephanieSuperpowers well they don't now as they are long dead but yes if younger cousins were having a tantrum they would have said that.

Really?
would you say:

thats a bit Jewish
that’s a bit Asian
Etc

insert stereotype of choice
🙄

It means the very opposite of this. Surely you know that?

It’s offensive. Hope she won’t do it again.

And as always with this stuff she's escalating until she finds out where the boundary is.

My parents would have said it to mean doing something the wrong way round. It was quite a common saying when I was growing up. I wouldn't have thought anything of it at the time but I wouldn't use it now.

In 200 years , humans will have no mouth and large thumbs

I'm Irish, and I find it offensive. I mean, I wouldn't have a paddy about it ( 🤗), but I would think that the person who said it was a bit of a dick.

It doesn't

I'm Irish and I find it offensive.

Go to HR. It's unacceptable

I’m gonna throw ’Irish twins’ on the ‘no nay never’ list.

That's very unusual for Irish people.

I think it depends on the intent, I don't say things that might offend people but if I said something innocently as a well meaning person, I'd be mortified if it was offensive and I hadn't realised and would hate to think my name/rep was damaged if I hadn't set out to upset anyone. In that circumstance I'd be happy to be honesty informed so I could apologise and learn the meaning behind the phrase.

I'm Irish heritage and described my (entire) family drinking too much, then it dawned on me the person I said it to was also Irish. Sometimes you just have brain farts that leak out of your mouth. As soon as I said it I realised I had just said my family are piss heads because we're Irish. I didn't mean it like that. However my family do drink too much. Possibly because they are piss heads, not because of where they was born. Thankfully she realised I wasn't meaning to offend.

That's what that means?

I thought it was a child throwing a fit, didn't realise was derogatory?

if you don't think you can be racist towards an ethnicity, tell that to the Jews and see how you get on.

Jewish people have a multiplicity of ethnic origins.

Racism in the modern sense is far wider than ethnicity.

It's a saying implying that all Irish people are thick.Not on.

Same. I remember a thread about the same saying years ago on mumsnet and being really surprised that that was a thing people said. I know that Irish people were dehumanised by Brits to make killing them more palatable and part of that was to make out that they were stupid and backwards but I had no idea that it was still an ongoing thing.

Edited to add, by ongoing thing I mean the idea that Irish people are thick and saying it openly.

It's definitely said in Ireland but it's one of those things you can say if you're Irish and not otherwise. I've only ever heard of having a paddy on here and never in Ireland. Although if you asked her why is she saying it and are Irish people bad planners and she mentioned The National Children's Hospital then just stop talking she's won.

Paddy is a common nickname for Patrick, a common name for Irish. The idea of 'throwing a Paddy' is to act in a disorderly and unreasonable manner, like an uncouth drunk Irish-man.

Nothing wrong in saying having a paddy.

I doubt from what you said that she meant any offence. People grow up hearing phrases and tend to continue using them without thought. Today everyone will get offended by everything. Nobody used to, but now it's insulting rather than friendly banter (I'm not referring to your specific phrase but more things in general. Everyone wants to be offended about everything). Sad generation.