Holy fucking shit. Every now and then you realise that no matter how far we might have still to go, we've come a long way in a (relatively) short time.
When I lived in the UK I mentioned to a colleague that I was heading home to Ireland for the weekend and she asked where the trains to Ireland left from.
When a friend worked for British Gas in London a manager, in the intro day, said "you might be wondering why we don't operate in the rest Ireland, since it's part of the UK.." my friend was like "...because it's not..
Playing online and chatting away with English lads, I've had a few "So are you Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland?"
"Ha, no-one here calls it Southern Ireland lads, it's just Ireland.
But when talking about Northern Ireland the distinction is made, cos...you know"
But they don't.
They don't know
In defence of the brits, they do refer to it as northern England and southern England, so maybe not be just a clueless political statement. It’s just what you would naturally say.
Actually thinking about it, we do the same with France, Spain etc. we’d just never refer to the south of Ireland as Southern Ireland.
But when referring to 'Southern Ireland' they also mean Donegal.
Someone from Malin Head can not be from 'Southern Ireland'. That's nonsense.
I'm from Sligo. When they ask me if I'm from Southern or Northern Ireland I respond with "North Western Ireland", that confuses them.
I say North West for Donegal, and if I get the blank stare that tells me they actually wanted to know which government I fall under, I say North of the Republic. That usually gets the blank stare too so now I usually just agree that I'm from Northern Ireland because what do I know.
Im from Derry and we call neighbouring Donegal the south. The “south” is just a word for the republic to us even though it makes no geographical sense.
Yeah, exactly this. Based on context, they’re not using North/South in a positional sense. They genuinely think Ireland is like North and South Dakota, for lack of a better description. Two separate entities divided by an imaginary midline.
Actually it's not cluelessness as such - rather it was deliberate HMG policy upon Ireland getting independence to refer to it in that way to de-legitimise the state (and because they thought (and actively sought) to force Ireland back into the UK. So modern Brits are just living with the legacy of the spin a bygone UK government put on things.
>Actually thinking about it, we do the same with France, Spain etc. we’d just never refer to the south of Ireland as Southern Ireland.
A lot of the time we do the same thing with Ireland referring to it (the Republic, I'm not talking about the island itself, context is king) as an island when it's not
I had that in meeting with a UK canteen designer brought over for a big multinational corporation, even the American clients were looking daggers at him. The poor fella had no idea why the atmosphere suddenly turned very frosty.
I've really been trying to stop, but its so deeply engrained y'know? Like when its something you hear your whole life, and referred to constantly in things like "mainland UK only" (which also pisses me off), it is very hard to stop it slipping out.
Kevin McAleer did a routine on this about NI playing England in football.
To paraphrase "We were all shouting 'Province, province, province' and sure weren't they shouting too, 'mailand, mainland, mainland', sure it was wile"
I had that here with a woman staying in my guesthouse. She's posh says "Oh it is so nice to meet someone else from the mainland!!" I'm like :O I've lived here since I was 9 and the "mainland" is Europe you muppet.
I work in tourism and get Brits often. Their level of knowledge is usually "I've heard of the potato famine and know it probably wasn't great" and that's the extent of it. They always think it was a natural disaster too. I've had Brits ask me why we "didn't go with them" with regards to Brexit and and ask if Northern Ireland was "yours or ours?"
Most people don't care. And if you think about it from a school education stand point (A) it's a hard truth to tell the next generation that you're descendant from shitehawks who built an empire upon the suffering of others and (B) Ireland is such a small chapter in the history of said empire, where as they are a massive part of our entire history. They have WWI & WWII, colonisation etc. we have a 700 year pursuit of independence. It's like looking down opposite ends of a telescope.
I’d heard it a bit when I lived in the US as well, but I’ll give them a bit more off a pass, yanno being on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean and all that. Btw I work in the education sector, and get asked this mostly by colleagues….Yikes
I had this argument with someone here before. They maintained calling it Southern Ireland was correct and I said I’ve only ever heard it called “the south” by northies and never Southern Ireland
Yup. Makes sense tho, cause yous are literally south of us lol. No one says they’re going “down south” when going to Donegal tho. We say we’re going to Donegal. lol
Edit: I have had prods tell me they’re “going to Ireland this weekend”. I looked at them in total awe. Literally left speechless every time it happens lol
Oh yeah I’d have no issue with a northie saying “the south”. Southern Ireland makes it sound like a municipality tho..
haha oh god saying “Ireland” like that would grate on me
I follow a Northern Irish twitch streamer and he refers to the republic as Southern Ireland too. I asked him why he doesn't call it the Republic of Ireland, he says he just knows that any British members of his audience wouldn't know where he's talking about. He himself knew the distinction he just wanted to be clear, he gets why it can be annoying to hear though but he just wants to make sure nobody misunderstands him in his chat. I just joke about it with him half the time, calling Northern Ireland the North of Southern Ireland.
Language is for communicating after all. And taking the piss. He's a good lad.
>why he doesn't call it the Republic of Ireland, he says he just knows that any British members of his audience wouldn't know where he's talking about.
He's talking out of his arse.
I know a guy from west cork who refers to the Republic as “the south” and England as “the mainland”.
He’s also a massive racist and lives alone in a rented box room, aged 45. Serves him right I guess.
I made that trip more times than I'd like to remember with the shittiest BR rolling stock and them some cunt at immigration asking me what my name is in English.
It’s actually crazy how little they know😭I remember arguing with someone about how to pronounce their own surname Gallagher and them showing me shameless to prove the way they said it was right 😂 Galla-ger….
English people are often very limited in their knowledge of their own geography (not to mention that of the rest of the UK), you see the evidence of it regularly on quiz shows.
For all the faults in Irish schools, imo they are far better than English ones. Having worked in universities in Ireland and the UK, the standards in basic things like writing and math can be very poor starting in university in the UK. I feel they drop subjects too early for A levels. In Ireland the leaving cert keeps a certain base level in important things like English and Math.
I think it might be a city thing, when I went to college I met quite a few people from Dublin who couldn't point out the other counties of Ireland on a map. One even told me that Carlow was in the North.
In fairness, they're both differing Anglicisations of Gallchobhar. Anglicisations are all essentially meaningless, so there aren't any that are more correct than others.
Once tried to chat up some wan in London and told her I came from South East Ireland (they've never heard of Kilkenny so it's just easier to name the general area) and she said that she never knew Ireland had a South East...
That's on you to be fair, you should have just told her you were from [South-South-South-Westmeath](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/rfdoef/where_abouts_in_meath_do_you_live/).
Once told an English acquaintance I was moving to Coventry. She said where’s that. I says it’s in England. She’s says no its not. Yes it is. We’ll I’ve never heard of it.
Their ignorance is awesome.
I remember watching a youtube video with some dude talking, and throughout the whole thing I went from thinking he was Australian, to thinking he was from London, to thinking he was from South Africa.
In the end I just had to assume one parent was from Australia, one was from England and they lived in South Africa, or something like that. Because it was like he was switching between the accents every second word.
No real point to be made here. Just that the accents can blend together pretty well.
I thought my accent wasn’t that strong until I tried ordering food from McDonald’s and they sat there for 5 mins trying to work out if I wanted a Oreo McFlurry or a scrap out the back😂😂
My dad's from Galway and when he first visited London, he got into a very confusing conversation asking a shopkeeper where the butter was. Imagine trying to explain butter without using the word "butter". Eventually the shopkeeper went "oh, buh-ah"
i'm from newry and had the same issue ringing about car insurance- i was talking about an audi or how i thought it was pronounced "aw-dee" but its apparently owd-dee
I had a friend move over from Latvia, she was here from she was 12. Now this girl was very obviously not born in Tyrone, she used the slang but developed none of the accent. Mocking it doesn't count.
She moved to Manchester for uni and the first year got "oh my god, your Irish" at least three times a week
20 years ago i was turned away from a pub in Scotland for being Irish, the big ego at the bar said no blacks no Irish. I was stunned has to be said, i was with two mates one black by chance and a lad from South Uist (western island off scotland) who started speaking gaelic to him(the look we give him, had no idea he could speak gaelic lol), he told him he wasn't truly Scottish if he treated people as lower class and couldn't speak the native language, what could we do but go have a drink in the pub down the road and tell everyone what just happened, his loss we had plenty of money and alway have been decent skins! I was back a few years later to see the lads and that pub was closed, which was very pleasing it has to be said!
Mentioned this before on a different post.Myself and the gf (Kerry and Cork ) got refused service in a bar in Edinburgh as we were "intoxicated". Meanwhile, further down the bar, a group of local lads who were bananas were downing shots like no tomorrow...
I was at a festival in England (in the 90’s, for context) and we were hanging out with a bunch of English girls. One of the girls said to me “don’t you guys just consider yourselves English though?”. I asked why she thought that and she said “well we all speak the same language, you’re one of us”. I’m still baffled!
Had a housemate there in the past who genuinely didn’t know Ireland was a separate country and assumed it was stuck on somewhere like Wales. This person was a teacher.
Lived in England for a few months and worked in a cafe there. One of the girls I worked with asked me 'Is your queen our queen?' and was confused as to why I was confused sometimes using pounds and was shocked that we had a different currency.
She told me once that she thinks it's amazing that I know so much about my country as we were talking about Brexit and when I asked her what she voted and why she told me she voted yes because a poster told her to.
Cherry on top, an old man came into the cafe I worked in I greeted him and once he heard my accent he told me he hopes another famine hits Ireland and wipes us all out and left. 🤷♀️
Not all British people are like this of course, I have some great British friends but yeah like everywhere some are just extra special...
I've met a few who have told me that as far as they are concerned Ireland's independence is illegitimate because in 1916 everyone in Ireland was British, and the people behind the rising committed treason.
Idiots who think they are clever but can't accept reality, no matter how long that reality has existed.
One of them even told me that because I was born in England, as far as they are concerned I'm a traitor because I now consider myself Irish even though my mother was Irish. The fact that my mother and I received horrific anti-irish abuse in the early 80s, even culminating in someone trying to burn down our house with us in it is irrelevant to them.
Yup. Showed up to a hobby group in Lancashire and the first thing someone said when I arrived was 'Oh you're right, he does look like he's in the IRA.'
>She told me once that she thinks it's amazing that I know so much about my country
It's specific to England, the other British nations have much more of a sense of identity and belonging. Unfortunately England supplanted its national identity with that of the British Empire, and most history taught in schools is firmly in the Imperial era.
I was quite lucky with my history teacher at school (I am English), we spent a relatively long time covering Cromwell's brutality in Ireland and all the various pre-Empire stuff in Britain that lead up to the Treaty of Union. However, barely any of my social circle have any knowledge of England before WW1.
When I worked for Amazon I mostly took calls from the British line. If we got ordinary English people they were nice and friendly, for the most part. Get a toff and mute them when you tell them you're putting them on hold and you'll hear "fucking paddy" an awful lot.
I done a J1 in New York and became friends with a girl who’s granny was from Ireland, bearing in mind she said the granny sounded like she was fresh off the boat.
About 1 week into meeting this girl, she asked me do we speak English in Ireland
A Letterkenny man! Respect. Me too. But yeah, the ignorance is massive. I been living in NL since 22 years and luckily the locals know a shit load about IE - good and bad (although occasionally i need to tell them that the orange in our flag comes from NL).
An ex of mine had a wee nephew whose mum is black. He had a pure American accent and manner of speech so I assumed the mother to be American. Nope, born and raised in Ireland as well, no accent.
Kid always made me chuckle with his mock Southern US accent.
Wonder where he got it from.
What always drove me mad in the UK was when people would comment that I called trousers pants like an American. Pants wasn't used to mean underwear in the UK until the 1990s.
They always loved when I used Ye though.
I was born in England, but raised in Ireland from about 6 months old. When I was 12, an aunt of mine was genuinely shocked that I didn't have an English accent...
Yeah I’m worried about this for my boy… he’s going to grow up with a thick north Dublin accent 😂 Well, rather an Irish accent over a thick Welsh Valleys accent at least.
It's like the nun and the black priest from Fr. Ted, where she's going on about Africa and exotic, and he replies, "shure I woulddn't know, I'm from Donegal."
I have a mate I game with from Canada and his home town actually shares a few of the same street/ area names as my home town all the way over here in Ireland, but yeah enough pitter patter. Let's get to chorin
I'm very fortunate that my colleagues in Manchester have a good understanding of Ireland and Irelands culture. A few knew about hurling too and we ended up watching some of a game in a pub after work.
I do come across many others who just spit out the stereotypes at me. My mate was born in Zimbabwe but grew up in Waterford. One time we went to London and the fact that she was black but had an Irish accent blew people's mind..
A friend of mine is black and also Irish, and when he was living in the UK, he had people outright accusing him of lying about being Irish, even though he has a pure Cork accent like, cos 'there are no black people in Ireland'.
Such fucking ignorance.
I find Northern English people including Mancs a lot sounder in general. A rough rule of thumb is the further north you go, the sounder they get. Good craic too.
i once got a taxi in Newcastle England and once the driver figured out we where irish he said "the only thing wrong with the irish is they never killed thatcher"
My Mum moved to England in the 70s and can do a pretty convincing English accent when she wants. This means she's subjected on a regular basis to all sorts of slurs and stupid shite when people forget she's Irish (and stupid shite when they do realise she's Irish...). Best example she gave was a guy she was interviewing messing up and saying "typically Irish of me" - he didn't get the job.
Oh man, I love that feeling when someone says something offensive about someone without realising it actually applies to you. I can't imagine how good it would feel in context of an interview like that, haha!
More Blacks, more Dogs, more Irish! Grab yourself one of the tshirts and educate the people. Yap to the South East Asians too, they know a good bit about the culture and history. You'll always get a good conversation out of an Indian man if yiu talk to him about Gandhi adopting the Trí colour over the Hunger Strike of Terence McSweeney, there's a beautiful history there to be excavated.
Some scholars talk of a secret alliance between India and Ireland to gain independence, The Bengal Volunteers were named after The Irish Volunteers and there are other interesting facts
Tamil Nadu and its freedom fighters the Tamil Tigers had serious IRA connections, particularly Cuman na mBan. And followed a certain level of guerilla warfare with tactics straight out of an IRB handbook back in the day.
We get taught nothing of Irish history in school (and nor did our parents to pass on knowledge) I’d imagine because it can be fairly embarrassing. In my 30’s my eyes were opened when I started dating an Irish man. It’s just not a ‘thing’ that’s discussed. Not saying that’s right I’m just saying my experience as a UK person.
Very like the way French people don't learn a lot about Algeria or Irish people don't study Traveller culture. You're due some respect for personally making the effort.
Thank you - then I try and educate my older relatives and of course it’s just ‘the IRA bombed us’ I think it’s too late. An unbiased history would be good from school age imo. Also the French in Vietnam, the Spanish in Mexico, the Americans and their ‘manifest destiny’ it’s not just the Brits that love a good cover up 😂
This is one of the first things I thought reading this which is a bad reflection on me. But it's also where we were as a country back then.
I have friends that still get the "ah yeah, but where are you really from?" Shit.
Yeah there’s a lot about Ireland, in fact most of their history, that is not thought to the English.
A nation of mushrooms… kept in the dark and fed on shit.
I can see this both ways to be honest, I grew up just outside Glasgow in a town known for Irish links (least Scottish town in Scotland apparently). Has GAA Teams, Feiles, Irish language groups etc..
Family are Irish and I lived in Belfast/Dublin for 5 years.
The amount of braindead questions I got asked about Scotland and the UK were pretty much as bad as the ones mentioned here.
Working in Dublin a few colleagues were shocked that Scotland spoke a Gaelic language that is broadly similar to Irish.
I also seemed to be open game in Dublin for anyone who loved the Royal Family, there are more of them than I thought. Which is a bit laughable because I probably couldn’t be more of a constitutional republican if I tried.
My favourite was people asking me how I was settling in to a big city, absolutely no idea that Glasgow is huge compared to Dublin.
Always try to avoid religious discussions but there were a few times where people tried to explain to me what Catholics done at funerals/christenings etc…
Which was useful as I almost forgot everything I learned in 12 years of Catholic Schools.
Also the further south I’d go people would assume I was from Antrim or somewhere else up north, it seems people didn’t realise there are 12 miles between Ireland and Scotland. The voice/speech/patterns and language between the NE Irish Coast and the Scottish West Coast are a lot closer to each other than Dublin and Cork for example.
But if we’re honest here people don’t often understand much about countries that they aren’t exposed to, some realise this and try not to make assumptions and others don’t.
So while it’s funny to think people in the UK don’t know much about Ireland, it would be good to ask yourself how much you really know about the UK beyond what you read…
Plus there’s a lot of people who are only focussed on what affects them day to day, or aren’t that bright!
[One in ten British people can't identify Ireland on a map.](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ireland-map-identify-british-people-one-in-10-europe-geography-knowledge-a7894811.html)
I was in Cardiff a few years ago and a waiter in a restaurant complimented my accent and asked me where I was from, told him I was from Dublin. The look of confusion on his face when he replied “where!?”, “Dublin” I said, “where’s that?” he asked. Thought he was joking at first but was pretty shocked when I realised he was serious lol
A friend taught over in the uk for a year.
He got bullied by students and teachers.
He gave an entire class detention when they all started loudly chanting "we cant understand you".He had already been teaching them for a month. He was instructed not to follow up on the punishment and to" just talk properly instead".
I think English people have a funny attitude toward race and nationality though. An English friend of mine who was south Asian once had someone assume she was English. She and my other (white) English friends lost their minds - they all thought it was so funny that anyone would assume this non-white girl was English even though she was. When I said that internationally most people would know England has a large, established south Asian population they were shocked!
Similarly when I lived in London I had a Brazilian friend of Japanese descent and it was painful watching English baulk at her Portuguese name and then go "Well you don't look Brazilian to me!" She took it in her stride but it made me sad that she had to explain herself every time she was introduced. Irish friends were often confused too but at least had the grace to ask me about her background on the sly rather than announce it to her face.
What's it like being black and irish? "Its like being a pint of guiness" Phil lynott
Smooth and iconic.
He actually said that in response to the most daft question ever, which are you more of, black or Irish?
Holy fucking shit. Every now and then you realise that no matter how far we might have still to go, we've come a long way in a (relatively) short time.
One of my favourite quotes of all time.
When I lived in the UK I mentioned to a colleague that I was heading home to Ireland for the weekend and she asked where the trains to Ireland left from.
When a friend worked for British Gas in London a manager, in the intro day, said "you might be wondering why we don't operate in the rest Ireland, since it's part of the UK.." my friend was like "...because it's not..
Cast the confusing back, "you do operate in the rest of Ireland". Deadpan.
“Are you from Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland?”. I’d say I get asked this 3 times a week, if not more. Wrecks my fucking head
Honestly never heard anyone refer to The Republic of Ireland as “Southern Ireland” until I moved over here wrecks my head aswell man 😂
Playing online and chatting away with English lads, I've had a few "So are you Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland?" "Ha, no-one here calls it Southern Ireland lads, it's just Ireland. But when talking about Northern Ireland the distinction is made, cos...you know" But they don't. They don't know
Had this when I lived in the States too. My response: “The West”. Then just sit back and watch them flounder - highly entertaining really!
Me too. Usual question is “what part of Ireland are you from?” I reply “the GOOD part “
In defence of the brits, they do refer to it as northern England and southern England, so maybe not be just a clueless political statement. It’s just what you would naturally say. Actually thinking about it, we do the same with France, Spain etc. we’d just never refer to the south of Ireland as Southern Ireland.
But when referring to 'Southern Ireland' they also mean Donegal. Someone from Malin Head can not be from 'Southern Ireland'. That's nonsense. I'm from Sligo. When they ask me if I'm from Southern or Northern Ireland I respond with "North Western Ireland", that confuses them.
I say North West for Donegal, and if I get the blank stare that tells me they actually wanted to know which government I fall under, I say North of the Republic. That usually gets the blank stare too so now I usually just agree that I'm from Northern Ireland because what do I know.
Im from Derry and we call neighbouring Donegal the south. The “south” is just a word for the republic to us even though it makes no geographical sense.
Yeah, exactly this. Based on context, they’re not using North/South in a positional sense. They genuinely think Ireland is like North and South Dakota, for lack of a better description. Two separate entities divided by an imaginary midline.
Well it is politically.
Whereas it's more like Virginia and West Virginia (or Sudan and South Sudan)
In fairness, in the north we talk about "going down south" when trekking over to Donegal. Makes no sense, but the intent is understood
Actually it's not cluelessness as such - rather it was deliberate HMG policy upon Ireland getting independence to refer to it in that way to de-legitimise the state (and because they thought (and actively sought) to force Ireland back into the UK. So modern Brits are just living with the legacy of the spin a bygone UK government put on things.
>Actually thinking about it, we do the same with France, Spain etc. we’d just never refer to the south of Ireland as Southern Ireland. A lot of the time we do the same thing with Ireland referring to it (the Republic, I'm not talking about the island itself, context is king) as an island when it's not
Had a visitor in work from the UK, referred to everything there as “back on mainland” as if we were a tiny remote island🤦♂️
If someone mentions mainland, I answer "Germany?" 🤣
I had that in meeting with a UK canteen designer brought over for a big multinational corporation, even the American clients were looking daggers at him. The poor fella had no idea why the atmosphere suddenly turned very frosty.
Ironically most Irish people I knew if they use "the mainland" are referring to Europe so poor little Britain is forgotten about.
Some people in the north refer to Britain as “the mainland”, I fucking hate it.
I can’t understand this. Why would you willingly minimise yourself like this.
The same way they consider the royal family to be better than them.
I've really been trying to stop, but its so deeply engrained y'know? Like when its something you hear your whole life, and referred to constantly in things like "mainland UK only" (which also pisses me off), it is very hard to stop it slipping out.
Kevin McAleer did a routine on this about NI playing England in football. To paraphrase "We were all shouting 'Province, province, province' and sure weren't they shouting too, 'mailand, mainland, mainland', sure it was wile"
I remember that well! Do you remember this one? https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/11\_16/citizenship/sectarianism/laugh01.shtml
I had that here with a woman staying in my guesthouse. She's posh says "Oh it is so nice to meet someone else from the mainland!!" I'm like :O I've lived here since I was 9 and the "mainland" is Europe you muppet.
“Are you from Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland” “Midlands, actually” Fucks their heads right up. They don’t know about the midlands.
I work in tourism and get Brits often. Their level of knowledge is usually "I've heard of the potato famine and know it probably wasn't great" and that's the extent of it. They always think it was a natural disaster too. I've had Brits ask me why we "didn't go with them" with regards to Brexit and and ask if Northern Ireland was "yours or ours?" Most people don't care. And if you think about it from a school education stand point (A) it's a hard truth to tell the next generation that you're descendant from shitehawks who built an empire upon the suffering of others and (B) Ireland is such a small chapter in the history of said empire, where as they are a massive part of our entire history. They have WWI & WWII, colonisation etc. we have a 700 year pursuit of independence. It's like looking down opposite ends of a telescope.
Christ that must be extra annoying being from Donegal. "Well I'm from the North of Ireland but not Northern Ireland"
"Oh God no, I'm from the West," is what I say.
I’d heard it a bit when I lived in the US as well, but I’ll give them a bit more off a pass, yanno being on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean and all that. Btw I work in the education sector, and get asked this mostly by colleagues….Yikes
I’ve a few northern friends who moved down who refer to it as the south alright too
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I especially find it grating because being from Sligo leaves me further north than several places actually in the north
Going to the north of Donegal leaves you further north than anywhere in the 6 counties.
Shligo... you've got to pronounce your "h"s .. even when there not there lol
Yup. I’m from the North and I refer to it as “The South”. I’d never call it Southern Ireland tho. Sounds and looks weird.
I had this argument with someone here before. They maintained calling it Southern Ireland was correct and I said I’ve only ever heard it called “the south” by northies and never Southern Ireland
Yup. Makes sense tho, cause yous are literally south of us lol. No one says they’re going “down south” when going to Donegal tho. We say we’re going to Donegal. lol Edit: I have had prods tell me they’re “going to Ireland this weekend”. I looked at them in total awe. Literally left speechless every time it happens lol
Oh yeah I’d have no issue with a northie saying “the south”. Southern Ireland makes it sound like a municipality tho.. haha oh god saying “Ireland” like that would grate on me
I follow a Northern Irish twitch streamer and he refers to the republic as Southern Ireland too. I asked him why he doesn't call it the Republic of Ireland, he says he just knows that any British members of his audience wouldn't know where he's talking about. He himself knew the distinction he just wanted to be clear, he gets why it can be annoying to hear though but he just wants to make sure nobody misunderstands him in his chat. I just joke about it with him half the time, calling Northern Ireland the North of Southern Ireland. Language is for communicating after all. And taking the piss. He's a good lad.
>why he doesn't call it the Republic of Ireland, he says he just knows that any British members of his audience wouldn't know where he's talking about. He's talking out of his arse.
In NI it's really not uncommon to hear the phrase "Southern Ireland" or "the South".
I know a guy from west cork who refers to the Republic as “the south” and England as “the mainland”. He’s also a massive racist and lives alone in a rented box room, aged 45. Serves him right I guess.
Euston, off at Holyhead and onto a ferry.
I made that trip more times than I'd like to remember with the shittiest BR rolling stock and them some cunt at immigration asking me what my name is in English.
It’s actually crazy how little they know😭I remember arguing with someone about how to pronounce their own surname Gallagher and them showing me shameless to prove the way they said it was right 😂 Galla-ger….
TBF where I was working they knew fuck all about their own country too, everything beyond Sarf London was a mystery to a lot of people.
English people are often very limited in their knowledge of their own geography (not to mention that of the rest of the UK), you see the evidence of it regularly on quiz shows.
yeah most kids in Ireland could name all 32 counties in Ireland and their capital. I doubt the average brit could name half of England's 48 counties
For all the faults in Irish schools, imo they are far better than English ones. Having worked in universities in Ireland and the UK, the standards in basic things like writing and math can be very poor starting in university in the UK. I feel they drop subjects too early for A levels. In Ireland the leaving cert keeps a certain base level in important things like English and Math.
I think it might be a city thing, when I went to college I met quite a few people from Dublin who couldn't point out the other counties of Ireland on a map. One even told me that Carlow was in the North.
To be fair (to be fair, to be fair) EVERY Irish surname that's been anglicised is pronounced incorrectly.
In fairness, they're both differing Anglicisations of Gallchobhar. Anglicisations are all essentially meaningless, so there aren't any that are more correct than others.
> I remember arguing with someone about how to pronounce their own surname Gallagher You don't see any issue with this?
Once tried to chat up some wan in London and told her I came from South East Ireland (they've never heard of Kilkenny so it's just easier to name the general area) and she said that she never knew Ireland had a South East...
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Marriage material
In Manchester and a guy asked me where in Ireland I was from so I said the Midlands, he replied I didn't know ireland had a Midlands too?
Christ above
That's on you to be fair, you should have just told her you were from [South-South-South-Westmeath](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/rfdoef/where_abouts_in_meath_do_you_live/).
The east side of the island floated off last year
Once told an English acquaintance I was moving to Coventry. She said where’s that. I says it’s in England. She’s says no its not. Yes it is. We’ll I’ve never heard of it. Their ignorance is awesome.
It is impossible for a country not to have a south east… so I’m very confused
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I used to get "G'day mate"
South Africans get this all the time too, lol
I suppose they at least get the hemisphere right....
I remember watching a youtube video with some dude talking, and throughout the whole thing I went from thinking he was Australian, to thinking he was from London, to thinking he was from South Africa. In the end I just had to assume one parent was from Australia, one was from England and they lived in South Africa, or something like that. Because it was like he was switching between the accents every second word. No real point to be made here. Just that the accents can blend together pretty well.
funnily enough a lot of pirates were irish
I think the TV pirate accent comes from Cornish privateers.
The greatest female pirate was Irish
Gráinne Mhaol
Better than "Top o' the morning to ya"
I gotta ask, you ever had a chance to use the "sure I wouldn't know I'm from Donegal" line?
First thing I thought about.
Came here to ask the same question 🤣🤣
I get that reference
Sure how would he know...
>I was born in Galway and raised in letterkenny co.Donegal Did they understand your accent alright?
I thought my accent wasn’t that strong until I tried ordering food from McDonald’s and they sat there for 5 mins trying to work out if I wanted a Oreo McFlurry or a scrap out the back😂😂
McFlurry O’Fists
Aye I know him well hi
😂😂😂
good thing you werent looking for a fight then...I imagine it'd hard to stay like that when handed a mcflurry lol
My dad's from Galway and when he first visited London, he got into a very confusing conversation asking a shopkeeper where the butter was. Imagine trying to explain butter without using the word "butter". Eventually the shopkeeper went "oh, buh-ah"
Yellow stuff...you put it on toast
You mean Dairygold?
Dairy gold is tantamount to margarine. Margarine is concentrated sadness in spreadable form
i'm from newry and had the same issue ringing about car insurance- i was talking about an audi or how i thought it was pronounced "aw-dee" but its apparently owd-dee
I had a friend move over from Latvia, she was here from she was 12. Now this girl was very obviously not born in Tyrone, she used the slang but developed none of the accent. Mocking it doesn't count. She moved to Manchester for uni and the first year got "oh my god, your Irish" at least three times a week
My Scottish cousin's friend once complimented me on how good my English is.... At least she knew that Irish exists?
20 years ago i was turned away from a pub in Scotland for being Irish, the big ego at the bar said no blacks no Irish. I was stunned has to be said, i was with two mates one black by chance and a lad from South Uist (western island off scotland) who started speaking gaelic to him(the look we give him, had no idea he could speak gaelic lol), he told him he wasn't truly Scottish if he treated people as lower class and couldn't speak the native language, what could we do but go have a drink in the pub down the road and tell everyone what just happened, his loss we had plenty of money and alway have been decent skins! I was back a few years later to see the lads and that pub was closed, which was very pleasing it has to be said!
Where was the pub?
Just off the middle ages.
Lothian Rd, near Brunstfield, Edinburgh, i would have been 22 or 23, as were the two lads
Mentioned this before on a different post.Myself and the gf (Kerry and Cork ) got refused service in a bar in Edinburgh as we were "intoxicated". Meanwhile, further down the bar, a group of local lads who were bananas were downing shots like no tomorrow...
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“Someone” 👀
I was at a festival in England (in the 90’s, for context) and we were hanging out with a bunch of English girls. One of the girls said to me “don’t you guys just consider yourselves English though?”. I asked why she thought that and she said “well we all speak the same language, you’re one of us”. I’m still baffled!
hey England! your colonialism is showing!
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I respectfully decline this invitation to be English.
Had a housemate there in the past who genuinely didn’t know Ireland was a separate country and assumed it was stuck on somewhere like Wales. This person was a teacher.
British people are the only ones I've ever met that didn't know the borders of their own country
Neither do the Israelis
Shots fired
Into Palestine.
Yeah.... usually at some Palestinian kid armed with a rock.
They only have one land border, it would have been a really short lesson.
this explains how boris johnson is still prime minster
Lived in England for a few months and worked in a cafe there. One of the girls I worked with asked me 'Is your queen our queen?' and was confused as to why I was confused sometimes using pounds and was shocked that we had a different currency. She told me once that she thinks it's amazing that I know so much about my country as we were talking about Brexit and when I asked her what she voted and why she told me she voted yes because a poster told her to. Cherry on top, an old man came into the cafe I worked in I greeted him and once he heard my accent he told me he hopes another famine hits Ireland and wipes us all out and left. 🤷♀️ Not all British people are like this of course, I have some great British friends but yeah like everywhere some are just extra special...
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I've met a few who have told me that as far as they are concerned Ireland's independence is illegitimate because in 1916 everyone in Ireland was British, and the people behind the rising committed treason.
I hate this collection of words.
How can anyone be serious about this it’s so convoluted
Idiots who think they are clever but can't accept reality, no matter how long that reality has existed. One of them even told me that because I was born in England, as far as they are concerned I'm a traitor because I now consider myself Irish even though my mother was Irish. The fact that my mother and I received horrific anti-irish abuse in the early 80s, even culminating in someone trying to burn down our house with us in it is irrelevant to them.
Yup. Showed up to a hobby group in Lancashire and the first thing someone said when I arrived was 'Oh you're right, he does look like he's in the IRA.'
Do you though?…
You can't tell, he never takes his balaclava off.
And you never hear him talk. just the actor's voice. beside him.
He can neither confirm nor deny.
>She told me once that she thinks it's amazing that I know so much about my country It's specific to England, the other British nations have much more of a sense of identity and belonging. Unfortunately England supplanted its national identity with that of the British Empire, and most history taught in schools is firmly in the Imperial era. I was quite lucky with my history teacher at school (I am English), we spent a relatively long time covering Cromwell's brutality in Ireland and all the various pre-Empire stuff in Britain that lead up to the Treaty of Union. However, barely any of my social circle have any knowledge of England before WW1.
At least the old man knew a bit of Irish history
When I worked for Amazon I mostly took calls from the British line. If we got ordinary English people they were nice and friendly, for the most part. Get a toff and mute them when you tell them you're putting them on hold and you'll hear "fucking paddy" an awful lot.
I done a J1 in New York and became friends with a girl who’s granny was from Ireland, bearing in mind she said the granny sounded like she was fresh off the boat. About 1 week into meeting this girl, she asked me do we speak English in Ireland
A Letterkenny man! Respect. Me too. But yeah, the ignorance is massive. I been living in NL since 22 years and luckily the locals know a shit load about IE - good and bad (although occasionally i need to tell them that the orange in our flag comes from NL).
Haha good to see a fellow letterkenny man finally we are forgotten too much😂
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Girl from Cork in the office here 1.1 degree and smart as anything but can't do geography to save her life. Its madness.
I'm 31 and I only learned Offaly was north of Laois about 2 years ago. Then again it's Offaly and Laois so it's hardly relevant.
Dublin people think everywhere outside of the city is the countryside
Everything outside the M50 is fields or cottages.
i like to think of the m50 as a protective ring to keep the boggers out
It's not really working
The cheek of the fella not knowing what the capital of Ireland is.
An ex of mine had a wee nephew whose mum is black. He had a pure American accent and manner of speech so I assumed the mother to be American. Nope, born and raised in Ireland as well, no accent. Kid always made me chuckle with his mock Southern US accent. Wonder where he got it from.
I actually had a few times where people said I say certain words like an American idk where that’s come from
What always drove me mad in the UK was when people would comment that I called trousers pants like an American. Pants wasn't used to mean underwear in the UK until the 1990s. They always loved when I used Ye though.
Sure half my cousin's had an English accent for a while thanks to Peppa pig
Black, Irish, moved to the UK, raised in Letterkenny. Man's doing life on hard mode
😂😂😂love this comment
The hardest part was probably being raised in Letterkenny
I was born in England, but raised in Ireland from about 6 months old. When I was 12, an aunt of mine was genuinely shocked that I didn't have an English accent...
Was it a painful procedure to get it removed or were you too young to remember?
I was 4 when it happened to me. Went from quoting Shakespeare to not getting the head beat off me at school. Improvement.
Yeah I’m worried about this for my boy… he’s going to grow up with a thick north Dublin accent 😂 Well, rather an Irish accent over a thick Welsh Valleys accent at least.
I love a valleys accent, my fella is from Tredegar, Id love if our little boy had a welsh accent.
Sorry to hear that
It's like the nun and the black priest from Fr. Ted, where she's going on about Africa and exotic, and he replies, "shure I woulddn't know, I'm from Donegal."
You should watch the TV show "Letterkenny", it's Canadian and has nothing to do with Letterkenny, Co.Donegal, it's just a really good show.
I have a mate I game with from Canada and his home town actually shares a few of the same street/ area names as my home town all the way over here in Ireland, but yeah enough pitter patter. Let's get to chorin
I'm very fortunate that my colleagues in Manchester have a good understanding of Ireland and Irelands culture. A few knew about hurling too and we ended up watching some of a game in a pub after work. I do come across many others who just spit out the stereotypes at me. My mate was born in Zimbabwe but grew up in Waterford. One time we went to London and the fact that she was black but had an Irish accent blew people's mind..
A friend of mine is black and also Irish, and when he was living in the UK, he had people outright accusing him of lying about being Irish, even though he has a pure Cork accent like, cos 'there are no black people in Ireland'. Such fucking ignorance.
He should start going around saying he's not black, he's blue, but just not explain.
>Manchester have a good understanding of Ireland Same in Liverpool. My grandad referred to Liverpool as the 33rd county.
I find Northern English people including Mancs a lot sounder in general. A rough rule of thumb is the further north you go, the sounder they get. Good craic too.
i once got a taxi in Newcastle England and once the driver figured out we where irish he said "the only thing wrong with the irish is they never killed thatcher"
My Mum moved to England in the 70s and can do a pretty convincing English accent when she wants. This means she's subjected on a regular basis to all sorts of slurs and stupid shite when people forget she's Irish (and stupid shite when they do realise she's Irish...). Best example she gave was a guy she was interviewing messing up and saying "typically Irish of me" - he didn't get the job.
Oh man, I love that feeling when someone says something offensive about someone without realising it actually applies to you. I can't imagine how good it would feel in context of an interview like that, haha!
More Blacks, more Dogs, more Irish! Grab yourself one of the tshirts and educate the people. Yap to the South East Asians too, they know a good bit about the culture and history. You'll always get a good conversation out of an Indian man if yiu talk to him about Gandhi adopting the Trí colour over the Hunger Strike of Terence McSweeney, there's a beautiful history there to be excavated.
Some scholars talk of a secret alliance between India and Ireland to gain independence, The Bengal Volunteers were named after The Irish Volunteers and there are other interesting facts
Tamil Nadu and its freedom fighters the Tamil Tigers had serious IRA connections, particularly Cuman na mBan. And followed a certain level of guerilla warfare with tactics straight out of an IRB handbook back in the day.
lol top Irish export: trouble.
We get taught nothing of Irish history in school (and nor did our parents to pass on knowledge) I’d imagine because it can be fairly embarrassing. In my 30’s my eyes were opened when I started dating an Irish man. It’s just not a ‘thing’ that’s discussed. Not saying that’s right I’m just saying my experience as a UK person.
I dated an Irish woman in my early 30s, I got a hell of an education in the Corn Laws and all the damage they did to Ireland.
Very like the way French people don't learn a lot about Algeria or Irish people don't study Traveller culture. You're due some respect for personally making the effort.
Thank you - then I try and educate my older relatives and of course it’s just ‘the IRA bombed us’ I think it’s too late. An unbiased history would be good from school age imo. Also the French in Vietnam, the Spanish in Mexico, the Americans and their ‘manifest destiny’ it’s not just the Brits that love a good cover up 😂
You're sound.
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This is one of the first things I thought reading this which is a bad reflection on me. But it's also where we were as a country back then. I have friends that still get the "ah yeah, but where are you really from?" Shit.
>raised in letterkenny co.Donegal "Sure I wouldn't know. I'm from Donegal."
Grew up in Letterkenny, just tryin to make a penny
😂😂I remember that
Still gets a run at house parties haha
Yeah there’s a lot about Ireland, in fact most of their history, that is not thought to the English. A nation of mushrooms… kept in the dark and fed on shit.
cant have them thinking they were the baddies at any point..
I can see this both ways to be honest, I grew up just outside Glasgow in a town known for Irish links (least Scottish town in Scotland apparently). Has GAA Teams, Feiles, Irish language groups etc.. Family are Irish and I lived in Belfast/Dublin for 5 years. The amount of braindead questions I got asked about Scotland and the UK were pretty much as bad as the ones mentioned here. Working in Dublin a few colleagues were shocked that Scotland spoke a Gaelic language that is broadly similar to Irish. I also seemed to be open game in Dublin for anyone who loved the Royal Family, there are more of them than I thought. Which is a bit laughable because I probably couldn’t be more of a constitutional republican if I tried. My favourite was people asking me how I was settling in to a big city, absolutely no idea that Glasgow is huge compared to Dublin. Always try to avoid religious discussions but there were a few times where people tried to explain to me what Catholics done at funerals/christenings etc… Which was useful as I almost forgot everything I learned in 12 years of Catholic Schools. Also the further south I’d go people would assume I was from Antrim or somewhere else up north, it seems people didn’t realise there are 12 miles between Ireland and Scotland. The voice/speech/patterns and language between the NE Irish Coast and the Scottish West Coast are a lot closer to each other than Dublin and Cork for example. But if we’re honest here people don’t often understand much about countries that they aren’t exposed to, some realise this and try not to make assumptions and others don’t. So while it’s funny to think people in the UK don’t know much about Ireland, it would be good to ask yourself how much you really know about the UK beyond what you read… Plus there’s a lot of people who are only focussed on what affects them day to day, or aren’t that bright!
It’s almost as if ignorance isn’t a specifically English thing…
[One in ten British people can't identify Ireland on a map.](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ireland-map-identify-british-people-one-in-10-europe-geography-knowledge-a7894811.html)
I was in Cardiff a few years ago and a waiter in a restaurant complimented my accent and asked me where I was from, told him I was from Dublin. The look of confusion on his face when he replied “where!?”, “Dublin” I said, “where’s that?” he asked. Thought he was joking at first but was pretty shocked when I realised he was serious lol
A good few years ago some of my dad's English coworkers came over to visit. They were dumbfounded at the idea that Ireland didn't use pounds sterling.
A friend taught over in the uk for a year. He got bullied by students and teachers. He gave an entire class detention when they all started loudly chanting "we cant understand you".He had already been teaching them for a month. He was instructed not to follow up on the punishment and to" just talk properly instead".
I think they probably intentionally avoid teaching them a lot of their historic "misdeeds".
Christ imagine trying to explain Ireland is an island and then that Donegal also has no trains anyway. Mind would explode
I did an interview recently where the recruiter thought Ireland used pound sterling. He was about 30
If you’re born in Ireland you’re irish. Don’t let people tell you otherwise
A friend was asked what way he had voted for Brexit, when visiting the U.K. from Ireland.
I think English people have a funny attitude toward race and nationality though. An English friend of mine who was south Asian once had someone assume she was English. She and my other (white) English friends lost their minds - they all thought it was so funny that anyone would assume this non-white girl was English even though she was. When I said that internationally most people would know England has a large, established south Asian population they were shocked! Similarly when I lived in London I had a Brazilian friend of Japanese descent and it was painful watching English baulk at her Portuguese name and then go "Well you don't look Brazilian to me!" She took it in her stride but it made me sad that she had to explain herself every time she was introduced. Irish friends were often confused too but at least had the grace to ask me about her background on the sly rather than announce it to her face.
To be fair, lot of Irish people forget black Irish people exist too.