Irish mn'ers, how much can you relate to UK mumsnetters?

[Anotherdayanotherdollar]

I read a lot of different threads on here, and recently I have come across so many issues/practices that I think just don't happen in Ireland. Now, I could be completely off the mark here, obviously there's local/cultural differences everywhere!

I don't know any parents who attend childrens birthday parties with their children (unless family etc),

I'm not aware of any dads who work "compressed hours" to care for their children. Although I know a lot of parents who work opposite shifts I suppose.

Funerals and the culture and practices surrounding death are all very different.

I don't have an abundance of parks/softplay/childrens activities nearby. If I did I'm sure they'd be too expensive to just pop in after school etc. 2 within 40 mins drive of me are €8-10 per hr.

Most children just go to their local school (baptism barrier dependent)

New mums here all seem to be inundated with visitors in hospital after their babies are born. I've never come across a new mum who isn't having visitors for the first week/fortnight etc so that they can bond.

Just a few examples there. So, are these typical observations of Irish people? Or just where I live/work? I know that local amenities are dependent on funding etc but it just seems that despite our close proximity to the UK there are big differences in day to day life.
I hope that all comes across ok. I'm just curious really.

And others don't want to send their DC to the Gaeltacht. I certainly didn't.

Mine wouldn't go to the Gaeltacht if they got paid!

Mine wouldn't either Jane. It's the sort of thing their 'perfect' cousins did, so there's no way they'd have wanted to go

Drama I'm singing The Undertones song now!

Haha! My boys do that every time those cousins are mentioned. They haven't heard me singing it, oh no, not at all

bold Mammy

Ah here, I meant well re the Gaeltacht thing.

Right, with that I'm off to leaba anois

Yes there is the Irish Mammy and the penis portions for the men.

Still happens.

It's OK keyboardkate, Jane & I 'know' each other from other threads on here, we're only messing.

Oiche mhaith Drama!

Dave o'gorman had a bit in his last show about his perfect cousin. V funny. I think irish people have more cousins so The Perfect Cousin is a bigger hazard

We did a wee tour of southern Ireland for our honeymoon. We said if we ever went back we'd take a compass. Half the road signs were in miles and the other half in kms but it rarely told you which. Sometimes signs would be squint so you didn't know which way to go at the junction. At a few points, farm hedges were so high we couldn't get our bearings at all and DH ended up standing on the roof of the car. Of course It was mostly raining so couldn't use the sun to navigate either. This was nearly 30 years ago right enough. We had a brilliant time though. :)

We did a wee tour of southern Ireland for our honeymoon. We said if we ever went back we'd take a compass. Half the road signs were in miles and the other half in kms but it rarely told you which

Whereabouts in 'southern ireland' were you?!

That wasn't meant to be a northern Ireland v Ireland post but can see it could come like that. I mean that we flew into Dublin but then drove South and toured along the South coast before heading up the coast to Galway and straight over to Dublin for the flight home. We went to wexford, Waterford, Tipperary, cork, tralee, limerick and some more places that im struggling to remember. We stopped at castledermot and stayed in castle to visit friends nearby.

I refer to Southern Ireland same as i would refer to Southern Scotland.

Ooh I’d assumed she meant Cork/ Kerry! 😂. Yeah, roadsigns and hedging still not great really.

Lookingcat map it was Clonmel we stayed in where i think hedging was high. Maybe between there and Tipperary. Can't really remember too much other the castle, our hotel in cork having a fire and we got decanted to a bit of a dive in cobh. The burren was fab and we stayrd in the Gresham in dublin on our last night as the travel agent fecked up and forgot to book our flight home!

Oh and a woman in a bar where we were having lunch kept calling me "son" despite DH telling her we were on our honeymoon... :o

I went to the Gaeltacht - fricking loved it! I’m 29 and met one of my best friends there. Another one of my friends married her husband who she met there and I’m no perfect cousin .

I love being Irish, we are really laid back about lots of social things that I’ve found living abroad that other nationalities get their knickers in a twist over... mainly school, getting a school place, keeping up with the Jones in school.. Jesus I’d be knackered if I worried that much!

WaxOn just to boggle your mind, we call those tall hedges you mention 'ditches' round here It took me a while to get my head around that one.

30 years ago it would have all been miles on the signs - we only adopted kilometres about 15ish years ago here. Mind you its km's in the republic and then you change to miles up north so thats a nice bit of confusion along the way too :D

Nobody in my family went to the Gaeltacht. My gaelige is utterly uafásach!

Most kids I know don't GO to the Gaeltacht, they are sent to the Gaeltacht

My older nephew went, hated it as Ceilis and Irish lessons are not his thing, and came back not having improved his Irish at all.

Two years later, his younger brother was allowed to go to Sports Camp instead. My brother reckoned if they were paying that kind of money he might as well enjoy it.