Ireland is a hard place to live

[Mooshamoo]

Just watching the video of the black child being not given a medal by Irish gymnastics.

I was wondering if there is anyone else on here on craicnet, who is not Irish, living in Ireland. What your experiences are.

I think that Ireland can be a very hard place to live if you are not fully white and fully irish.

I'm half Irish. I was bullied all the way through school for not having an Irish surname. Then when I grew up and lived in the same small town, all of the same girls from my school were living in that town. And as adults they refused to talk to me.

I see the women who are fully Irish, being popular , having great lives.

To be totally acceptable and popular in ireland, you have to have a rich family, brothers/father who play gaa etc.

All the rich girls in my school hung around together. And again as adults all the rich Irish women hung around together in small town Ireland.

If you were foreign, from a single parent family, seen as poor, you were not accepted at all.

And it's who you know

I think this makes Ireland a very difficult place to live

You say maybe you live in a different area to me. It's nothing to do with where you live. I've lived in lots of different areas in Ireland.

I went to a rural Irish school.
I went to college in a large town - different city.
I went to work in several different towns in ireland.

I've received remarks and comments about my surname in all of those different places.

To the poster who said that it must be where I live in ireland. Like there is only one racist village in ireland. I can think of five comments about my surname , that all happened in different parts of Ireland.

1. Rural school in ireland. Three girls said "you don't have an Irish surname, you are weird, you're not one of us".

1. At 19 I went to work as a waitress in a different town. Same county as where I grew up. The head waitress asked me what my name was and where I was from. She glared at me and said "what. That's not a navan name. What kind of name is that.".

1. I went to college in a different county. I made a friend there . I went to her parents house. Her mother said "you've a very weird name. I've never heard of that before. That's not Irish is it. "

And I said "no my dads English". And then I always rush to follow it up with "but my mam is Irish" so I don't get more abuse.

In the same college some of the girls (not all of tjem) used to to be nasty to me because I was english. They would invite me over to their student house. Then just as me and my friends were walking into the house, she would let everyone else in, until I started to walk in the door, them she would shut the door in my face. Some of the abuse I got was really awful.

And again it's not just me, because i am awful ans I deserve it. My English cousin moved over for a while, and he got the same abuse. He moved back to England and he has loads of friends there now.

Another time. Different town. In a Different county for work. I moved into a shared house with strangers. One of my flatmates sister came over to the house. She said "ill remember you as thole one with the weird name". Then she left me out of things they were organising.

My name is not weird. It's just you would know it's English and not Irish.

I'm not doubting or dismissing what you are saying but in my rural area, there is no issue with the GAA Club. Our GAA club is in the nearest village. They are welcoming and inclusive. Anyone can join training, sign up for the club, volunteer to help out. Non members can join in with fundraising events.

I also dont see any snobbery with the rugby and our club is further away in our nearest town.

I get the piece about the surname or the 'o you're not from around here' comments. This doesn't happen but when said to me, it's been more inquisitive and a conversation starter from the person saying it. It hasn't been a bad thing.

In your last line, did you mean you say "this does happen?

Yeah I meant 'does' happen - sorry! That happens a lot.

Moo it is a nice place to live. Not for everyone, obviously. But most people like it here.

I went to college in a different county. I made a friend there . I went to her parents house. Her mother said "you've a very weird name. I've never heard of that before. That's not Irish is it. "
And I said "no my dads English".
And then I always rush to follow it up with "but my mam is Irish" so I don't get more abuse

If this is what you class as abuse then I'm not surprised you get abused where ever you go. To me that's just conversation. A hospital consultant remarked on my surname the other day and said it was strange and asked where it came from, my surname is Irish just really uncommon outside of one particular small area of the county. Was I abused by my consultant or was he just curious?

It's a particular thing. I hated france, really hated it, but it was my issues. France and the french are just who they are. I was who i was. We didn't connect at the time. don't hold it against them now tbf.

She glared at me and said that I have a very weird name.

I notice you left out all the other incidents that I mentioned.

What are your thoughts on,

The girls in my school saying to me:
"You don't have an irish name, you are not one of us". And then they left me out of everything. And they bullied any of the other girls who talked to me. If any girl came up and talked to me, one of these girls would say "Sarah! Why are you talking to Ann". Until everyone was scared to talk to me

And what are your thoughts on the girls in my college who bullied me because I was English. They told me to my face that hey didn't like me cuz I was English.

They used to love being extremely cruel to me.

They used to leave me out of everything.
Then they would eventually give me an invitation to their house, and i would be happy to be included. Because everyone in my college class was going to their house.

But after they invited me round to their house, when I went around to their house, they would let everyone else in, them slam the door into my face. And then they would laugh at me out the window. Even though they had invited me.

What are your thoughts on those ones?

I just feel sad that people like "neverinamonthofsundays" say things like "well I never see it happening".

Just because you don't see it happening, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Do a quick Google. There are hundreds of stories about racism in Ireland, online.

I'll choose not to share my thoughts on those tbh, no good can come of it.

Leta leave racism /xenophobia aside for a moment.

What are your thoughts on the other things that people say makes Ireland a hard place to live.

They are:
High rents.
Everything is expensive.
Bad healthcare.
Bad public services.
Bad public transport. Everything that I've gotten a bus in England, the bus is exactly on time.
There are many times when I have gotten a bus in ireland, where the bus has been nearly an hour late. I can't understand why they don't put more funding into buses in ireland.

Right don't take the bus they say. Drive. But then if people drive in Ireland, petrol, and insurance is huge.

Not much to do. Bad amenities.

Dh is English, we have a very English surname. Very rare here in Ireland. Dc born in London but we moved back to an extremely rural village 200 miles from where I was born when they were little.

They never experienced any xenophobia and they didn't play GAA. Ds played rugby.

That's our lived experience.

My kids surname is one of the 'british' ones the op even mentioned and we have never been questioned.

No, read what I wrote again.

The British names I wrote, are the ones that I said are names that could pass for Irish or English. They are not seen as super english names.

Matthews/baker etc are names that could now be seen as Irish or english . They wouldn't really be questioned in Ireland.

That is what I said.

Your average person really doesn't care/notice. You are hyper aware, but not everyone else is.

That is because it doesn't happen to you! You don't see what doesn't happen to you.

If you can walk around Ireland without getting abused for your nationality, you have a better life than many people.

Yes, everyone else is wrong. Of course.

I get you to an extent, but i'm not sure it's so much worse than England? In general, people don't get abused for their nationality here. You may have had an awful experience, but it's your experience. We have friends from lots of places, we take them as we find them.

Yes I also understand what you are saying. You are saying that you are nice to every person, and that many Irish people are nice to every person And I get that. I'm sure that there are many Irish people that are lovely to everyone.

But you said that it's my experience. It's not just my experience. Many recent reports have shown that there are extremely high levels of racism in Ireland.

Two thirds of international students that come to ireland, say that they have experienced racism

https://www.internationalstudents.ie/news/racism-experienced-two-thirds-international-students-ireland-icos-report-shows

As an aside, my daughter's first name is polish, her second name is not irish. . She's happy out. Not a bother.

I'm glad she is happy. Genuinely.

I will look at that, and thank you for sharing. But you seem determined to hate irish people. And i don't get it tbh. I don't hate english people like.

No I dont hate anyone. I'm hurt by my experiences, but I definitely don't think that all Irish people are racist. There are many lovely Irish people.
I just think that Ireland as a whole can improve on certain things.

But yes there are things I like about Ireland..how are you today chickenkeev

Alright.hanging in there. Literally hanging in there.fcking school applications. Mithered.