Very Irish Things

[RocketPanda]

A thread of appreciation of things that only seem to happen in Ireland.

I was away for two weeks and a couple of days after I returned the postman knocked on my door with a big bag of packages ( they were sent from work, only two were very delayed orders). He realised I was away so instead of leaving them and risking theft or damage he stored them for me.

Anyone else any good stories?

Yeah in a three litre bottle called country spring. Never was a fan.

Yes! We had it every Christmas This one 😁

And always holy water splashed around us, the children , and the house during a thunderstorm…
brattles of thunder

I remember my mother boasting to my Aunt that our cousin was "high up in the Post Office". Also we used to go visiting our cousins " out the country" every weekend ( without prior notice!) and they always had apple tart, scones and kimberley biscuits at the ready. When describing somewhere near my mother would say " it's a hen's race out the road"!. Also she loved telling me the ins and outs of her friend's kid's lives ( even though I hardly knew them....it was amazing the details she remembered. I remember having zero interest in all these people's lives, but I so miss her updates now as she passed away last November 😢

Is that a Country Spring a Donegal thing by any chance? Never seen it in my life, I’m south east, my DH is Kildare, he’s never heard of it either.

Visiting my mothers aunts and always having sliced ham, coleslaw and a tomato with tea, followed by apple tart if we were lucky.

And soda bread.
Love fruit soda bread, but it’s hard to get in Dublin..

May altar

Biscakes!

My granny, who was also from Cavan, said this too. Just to confirm it's a thing! (Even if it's maybe a really niche Cavan thing from 50 years ago!)

Mantillas

Im a Dub and we always got it in the local shops.

Thats gas on the cream soda, it definitely wasn’t in the shops around us - my family ran a supermarket, we didn’t have it.

@Shopgirl1 I’m a Dub too. We got ours from the local Crazy Prices 😁

We were just allowed red or white lemonade on a Sunday though, no other fizzy drinks :(

Now that I think of it - can you even get red lemonade these days? Haven’t seen it for a long time, but haven’t looked for it either.

LMNT, I am Irish but have lived in various parts of the UK since the late 1990s, and everywhere I've lived outside of London, most people thank the bus driver. So that's definitely not just an Irish thing! 😆

Mikados and Snacks. And the range of Cadbury's chocolate, still in the 8 square bar style. SO much tastier than UK chocolate.😋

In the road and out the road.

Being so much more precise with our language. Even after so many years over here, it still annoys me when the ground and steps are called the floor and stairs by so many UK people. No, no, they're not if they're outside!😆 And don't get me going on using the single word tonight instead of if it's (late) afternoon, evening or night. In NE England where I live now, tonight is used for any time after about 2 pm.
😬🤣

Choc ices on sticks were around in the 70's, my uncles had a small grocery shop in rural Ireland and I helped out and remember eating HB choc ices on sticks.

I remember the mantillas

White pudding
Barmbrack
Bonfire night in June
Red lemonade
Hot press
'Passing out' on the road
Baltic (for the weather)
Giving out to yer wan/man
Asking for 'a pint of beer' in the pub, and getting Smithwicks
Hot whiskies

Leaving the big light on when you went to bed.

Leaving the immersion on if you went out being the crime of the century.

Having a Trocaire box in your house and in your classroom.

Your granda telling you your bum's a plum and your head's a marley.

The Christmas hamper from Park catalogue and the subsequent sneaking treats from the Christmas cupboard and trying not to get caught for the whole of December...

I think that might have even been on in the 90s, i remember it anyway! How very far we've come 🤣

@ClaraMumsnet omg the Trocaire box 😂 By the time it was due to be brought back to school it would be held together with so much sellotape 😂😂

Macra and the Queen of the Land. Even more Irish than the Rose of Tralee!

The way that even a hint of snow brings the country to a standstill. See also bread/ toilet roll stockpiling for an impending storm.

I once got on a train going from Dublin to somewhere north of Dublin. It was a fast train not stopping at our preferred stop ( can't remember exactly where we were going as it was years ago). My mother asked the train guard if the train was stopping at X (knowing full well it wasn't). Anyway that evening the train stopped where we wanted to get out. Off we got along with a load of surprised but delighted passengers. I, being a teenager, was mortified.