Ah you're a Catholic!

[Appleday11]

I moved to England to work last year. I'm Irish.

When I arrived at my workplace, one of my colleagues said "Ah you are Irish, this is a nice city, there is a Catholic church down the road that you can go to".

I think she was trying to be helpful but I thought it was quite bizarre. I'm not Catholic and I told her so.

Second time - I was out in the pub with a mixed group of people. Some of them I had never met before. One man said "ah you're Irish, you're a Catholic!" I told him Im not.

Third time- I was at another group. A woman said to me "you are Irish. Ah so you like such and such. And you are a Catholic". I told her I am not.

I found it strange as I have never really thought about religiom. Do some people here think that all Irish people are Catholics? My family were not religious at all and I was never brought up any religion

No I haven't I was surprised about the racist incidents from kids that have the knowledge and historical appreciation to be racist towards an Irish person as you were calling for it to be tackled in schools. It is in PSHE lessons but I don't think they teach kids about racism towards Irish people. It will be about all the racist incidents that are probably to do with skin colour and islamaphobia and anti-Semitism.

What racist incidents from kids?

Well no, that’s not actually historically accurate - unless you are from Dublin/The Pale and were raised CoI/Jewish/other minority religion, the Catholic Church held an almighty sway on Irish society, particularly education. I too am of similar age (slightly younger) and would be interested to know what free spirited school you and so many others went to, as it simply doesn’t tally with historic reality I’m afraid.

What? I was answering the thread on AIBU. Yes, I think they are being.

If we are discussing motivations I think there are many to whip up divisions and hate.

I'm not from Dublin. I wasnt raised any religion

So I was in school in the 1990s in Ireland.

The Catholic church definitely did not hold "an almighty sway" in my area at that time. I never really even saw anyone from the catholic church like priests or nuns.

In the 1990s lots of people from abroad had moved to Ireland. I remember muslims, hindus and athiests being at school with me.

Yes it is absolutely historically accurate

You have posted about racist incidents on this thread and how the kids need to be taught about racism so I assumed you meant to educate them against racism towards Irish people otherwise why would you mention it. Do you honestly think racism is not covered in schools?

Before i go @Goldenbear what is your response to the poster who wrote this

"I grew up in early 90s Ireland as a child of an Irish mother and foreign father, I was treated better back then than recently in modern day diverse England.
Being diverse does not make your country welcoming, just look at USA, a melting pot of every culture you can think of with the majority of the population coming from immigrant backgrounds yet despite it all the racism and hatred is off the scale.

My time in England it was made clear to me that being anything other than white English was unwelcome, ironically for all your diversity you're far less accepting than many nations who are less diverse".

Well you have just confirmed what I stated you were alluding to as you think kids should be taught about Irish racism in schools presumably because you experienced it.

You are good at stirring up division I'll give you that.

Do they really?
I very much doubt that the CoE or association with it is the first or even the hundred and eleventh thing that would be assumed about a British person, and it is certainly well down the list of items anyone would think of in relation to Britain.

Only someone who had never bothered to look up Ireland or Ireland's history, culture, and literature would have the lazy and completely unexamined impression that the Irish are all Catholics.

I find that shocking. We are neighbours after all, and a part of the island is a constituent part of the United Kingdom.of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The rest of the island was a constituent part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until about 105 years ago.

I also find it interesting that you think people associate Spain or Italy with Catholicism. This would only be relevant to someone who came from a Reformation-influenced cultural tradition.

They experienced what they experienced but being existing in a segregated community is not something that is common place in many parts of the UK. I don't think the UK is anything like the U.S. But it will be if we keep sowing the kind of division you have with this thread.

You are pooh poohing the lived experiences of other people.

Why?

And why so invested?

You are unreal. How can you be so totally blind to what happens in England.

Me saying that I have experienced abuse in England , is causing division, how?

The people who abused me are the ones causing the division. Antother poster wrote that she was also abused in England...yet you deny that it happens.....

People including the OP have mentioned the CofE again and again, including made up bollox that is not baked up at all with stats that the British attend churches frequently and that CofE have a tie with all baby groups up and down the country. It was very much at the forefront of the OP's mind and Britishness did you not read those posts.

I have to say you love playing the contrarian, to what end I don't know. I really don't have a fucking clue what you are on about, why so much angst and division sewing. You need to look at why you like doing that.

I didn't deny it happened, I posted it was shocked that it happened, that people had a clue about any of the history still as the reality is that they don't- that's a fact not a moral position.

that CofE have a tie with all baby groups up and down the country

I never wrote that. You are very overly dramatic.

I think it's very common to live in a segregated / separate/ isolated community in the UK. There are large swathes of urban and rural areas whose residents only encounter people of different ethnicities when they use NHS services.

I have a suspicion that you personally have never had the experience of life as a member of a majority minority community, but it's always a good idea to remember that there is a difference between you and other people.

I'm not invested. This is a chat forum I am offering an opinion, not a hidden agenda. You on the other hand love your sewing of division.

Maybe the racists are the ones sewing division

I always got the impression you were American but you must be quite a bit older than me as the many parts of the UK you know and have lived in sound like they were existences of the 1960s? 70s?

It is quite telling that you assume certain things about me presumably as you are referencing your own sheltered upbringing.

You haven't read the posts mentioning the CoE very carefully, if that's what you think was posted.

I'm not sowing (or 'sewing') division.

I'm asking you (1) why you can't understand what stereotyping consists of, (2) why stereotyping is a problem, and (3) why you can't understand that the blithe assumption that an Irish person is a Catholic is a serious case of stereotyping.

My brothers ex girlfriend was Russian

she would get a lot of (before war)

ah so you’re a spy!
I bet you’re kgb!
You like putin?
Do you drink vodka every day?”
“I hear Russians can handle so much alcohol!”
Do you ride bears to work in Siberia?
”are you a communist” /You must miss the good old Soviet times.”
“Life must have been simpler under communism.”

what are you like a commie? (when she was travelling in America)

people are weird

There is no need whatsoever to make up nonsense about me.

I am Irish and live in the US. I have lived in the UK, not in the 60s or 70s, but later. I have friends and relatives who are Irish who currently live in the UK.

You are yet again denying lived experience, and I am once again asking why, and why you keep on doing it?

Why are you so invested in your contrary narrative here?

And why are you posting at 3am GMT?

This is literally you stating the influence of the church in England.