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?

HS2 springs to mind 🤔

My family Irish we say it.

I live in Wales no-one bats an eye here about Welshmen and sheep either.

Get over yourselves

Why? Because a handful of people find it ‘offensive’

We’re walking a path towards a culture-less existence. Where jokes and differences between cultures cannot be discussed. In fact they are to be feared and shunned in case we’re labelled a racist.. it’s absurd.

I wouldn’t have taken that as offensive. I dropped in unannounced on my Irish aunt while on a trip from another country and she commented that is was very Irish to do that. This might be meant in the same way, that things are done more spontaneously than meticulously planned?

Having just consulted my biggest dictionary:

Paddy (capital 'p') = a familiar name for an Irishman,

'having a paddy' (lower case 'p') = a colloquial term for 'being enraged'
'paddy wagon' (lower case 'p') = a black Maria

'black Maria' = a prison van

If we include rice fields and a few other forms, there are more paddies than you can throw a stick at, most inoffensive.

That isn't using it in the same way at all @Lilacanemone

Is Brit offensive?

Brit - British person

What about Aussie?

Is Aussie offensive? Australian?

Your posts are seriously offensive. No smoke without fire, now cultural differences? You think that Irish people being a bit thick is a cultural difference between ireland and the UK? If you go back to the roots of the Irish people are stupid stereotype you might see why it is offensive, especially from a British person.

@crepid because we know better having had the reasons and meanings explained to us we can no longer hide our ignorance and use it as an excuse. How can that not be a good thing? Unless of course you’re a bigoted arse?

I'm sorry but you can't compare the two.

Nobody is saying Paddy for Irish people is offensive so your post makes no sense. It's the added connotations as I'm sure you know

Thank you for this thread. Down the rabbit hole it sent me I've found a list of all the phrases my dad used to use that are now going out of use (not offensive ones I must add) and it's made he smile and brought back fond memories. I still use his phrases.

Here they are for anyone interested.

www.itv.com/news/2022-01-26/the-50-saying-at-risk-of-being-lost-from-our-language-and-what-they-mean

😂 that particular saying should be "it's a bit Irish Government"

That is a ridiculous overreaction. Particularly as the phrase isn't universally well understood as evidenced by this thread. Surely a first response would be to discuss appropriate speech at work and proceed to disciplinary if issues continued.

Surely she just meant that it is still common in Ireland to visit unannounced? I gather this is not so common elsewhere. So she was not being pejorative about Irish people, while "a bit Irish" is generally pejorative.

Completely unacceptable.

Why is being ‘a bit Irish’ worse than being ‘very Irish’. Your logic is flawed in that comment.

Why not? What exactly is the difference if both are being used to refer to a negative trait.

It's racist / prejudiced. Woke usually means being considerate and sensitive ('awake') to a diversity of people/backgrounds rather than think your own background/ethnicity is a norm by which everything else is judged.

Great link! Also reminds me of my dad. I use quite a few of them still.

Lighten up @CluelessPepperoni

It's not at all unusual for any of my large Irish family.

However, none would be so stupid to say it at work.

In case it needs to be spelled out - it's offensive for a British person to say it due to centuries of colonialism and anti-Irish prejudice.

Paddy is in the dictionary. The other two arent. Says a lot really. I don't say paddy to be offensive. I say it to my son when he's having a tantrum. I don't have anything against the Irish and honestly never crossed my mind they'd find it offensive. As everyone I know says it. I say it lovingly to my son.