Is the Irish/Northern Irish social class system the same as UK?

[merrymaryquitecontrary]

Visited Ireland recently and was wondering if there is the same obsession with class as UK? If so, what would the signifiers be? Do people recoil in horror if you use a certain word instead of another 'posher' word? Eg red sauce vs ketchup in the UK. There's no point in this thread other than me just wondering.

Oh, well if you saw it on television, it must be true!

Largely of Irish descent and still with houses in Ireland, as well as beautiful homes in prime SW London.

But they sound like Anglo-Irish, the landlord class in Ireland... they're of British descent not Irish.

If they're Irish citizens then they're Irish. Irish can mean more than one thing, which is something we should all be conscious of, particularly these days with increased immigration.

Obviously, but pp was speaking of descent which is different.

I heard a young woman from NI and her work colleague chatting once - she was pregnant and they were discussing names. She was upper class apparently- she was going for really over the top stuffy English names and she said this was the done thing in her circles , the more ott English the better. She was going for Peregrine Aloysius and her colleague was pretty stunned.

I hope she knew Aloysius is a Catholic name.

How long ago was that descent though? And how much marrying in of more typical Irish backgrounds.

No idea. She clearly was going for the sort of name even Jacob Reese Mogg would find too much. Maybe someone would tell her.

Also not particularly English I suspect - I checked the Irish 1911 census and there are 410 Aloysiuses, everyone one of them Catholic. No idea how many in England at the same time.

I love the census, so much about so much.

There has been loads of mixing of course. My best's friend's father had to convert to Catholicism from COI when he married in the 1950s. Several of my own Catholic (culturally at least!) family are married to people who are COI and who thankfully are no longer asked to convert. Of course there's a mix. Very, very normal where I live in the far south of the country.

That said, I don't move in the circles pp spoke of, but I have a suspicion that those who do move in them ...with sons at public school in England, houses in London etc... don't mix with ordinary Irish people as much? I do recognise their 'British descent', but that's because of their lifestyle really.

Ach, I'm from an ordinary family from South County Dublin, no wealth or anything. Yeah, there's those with the Dort accent alright but just about any group can be satirised - there's good and bad everywhere.

Everyone has something that upsets them or something to worry about - noone has a perfect life.

Same sort of social groups where I live now in the UK. I just take people as I find them.

I remember once having to cancel a dinner at short notice because I was chairing an academic talk on Irish history that night and had double booked. I explained to the host that I had to take the speaker, Paddy, out for dinner instead. So the Scottish host said, 'Bring him along if he's happy to come to us'.

So I did. Trouble is when I said 'Paddy' they thought Irish, Christian Brothers, hurling, UCD, Guinness etc.

He was Paddy - English, Stowe, Rowing, Oxford, ale.

The look on their faces when he turned up. Poor Paddy - a really lovely guy.

He totally won them over though 😁

This has killed me, I am shook!
I am a Mercy girl, or rather I was a very long time ago.

With regards class, I love it in Ireland that I have never been asked what I do, as in work, when I visit. I find that very classy.

I'm a Mercy girl, as were my mother and several of her sister, my grand aunts, and many friends. I think they did an excellent job in many ways, despite the occasional snobberies rearing their ugly heads.

Bringing in Catherine Scully, later Mrs Tom Nevin to give a course of correct deportment was probably a mistake, but they meant well.

Oh Holy God -Catherine Scully? I worked with someone who went to school with her. She was, allegedly, a horror even then!

Poor Tom Nevin, RIP.

She was quite something. Like most of the country I followed the trial with fascination wondering did she? didn't she? is this fair commentary?, and the at the end when they told us her family name and earlier career and I realised the connection I decided yes, she deffo dunnit.

don't get so upset @CherryValley5

I’m not the one getting upset, nor am I in denial that (like everywhere else in the world) classism does in fact exist in Ireland + NI.

you sound quite upset to me, people have different opinions, accept that.

There’s differing opinions and there’s refusing to accept fact. I’m not upset in the slightest - simply telling you (like other posters already have) that you are wrong. Have a nice day.

I think your last sentence explains why she voted for him @DeanElderberry 😉
That man !!!!!!
Mind you my mother and father love the free travel.

Is it Thurles you're talking about re Ursuline and Presentation @DeanElderberry ?

I didn't know that about Mercy.

It is - I don't live there but have known plenty of people who do over the last 50 years and find the minute stratification interesting.

I'm very pro Mercy - at least the ones I knew. One family of cousins had a bad time with some in Mayo.

The Colthursts I would regard as an unfortunate anachronism

@DesigningWoman why are the Colthursts an unfortunate anachronism?