are we more british than the british themselves?

live2thewire

what do you think? i dont know im split on the issue. i notice many irish seem to think we have some sort of cultural interlink but really its all one way. you won't find anybody in the uk knowing who our personalities are, most probably dont know what the capital is. also many irish seem to think were just a stones throw from uk when in reality the majority of them are closer to paris than dublin

_blank_

oi guvna, wot you on abaaaaaaat

Irlbo

GOD NO,I think that would justify Nuking ourselves

AnonoBoy

live2thewire wrote: »

also many irish seem to think were just a stones throw from uk when in reality the majority of them are closer to paris than dublin

What?

Zadkiel

Irlbo wrote: »

GOD NO,I think that would justify Nuking ourselves

Grand we'll buy them from England

Mr.Lizard

I'll have to ponder that question tonight whilst I cheer Liverpool onto victory against the rival town of Chelsea.

live2thewire

AnonoBoy wrote: »

What?

4 hours from london to paris

dublin longer

AnonoBoy

live2thewire wrote: »

4 hours from london to paris

dublin longer

We are just a stone's throw from the UK. I don't get your point at all.

Zadkiel

live2thewire wrote: »

4 hours from london to paris

dublin longer

dublin to London 55mins
dublin to Birmingham 45 Mins...You can fly now too!

na i'd definately say the british are more british. it's all in the name really..

HalloweenJack

Of course not.

We just watch the X-Factor, the Premiership, Sky movies/sports, Corrie, Eastenders; we just shop at Tesco's, HMV; we just support Celtic, Man U, Liverpool; we just obsess over Amy Winehouse, Jade Goody; we just read the Sun, the Mirror. That doesn't make us British.

Using the pound would and being part of the UK would.

Dudess

live2thewire wrote: »

what do you think? i dont know im split on the issue. i notice many irish seem to think we have some sort of cultural interlink but really its all one way. you won't find anybody in the uk knowing who our personalities are, most probably dont know what the capital is.

Agreed, but that hardly makes us "more British than the British themselves". We know more about Britain than Britain knows about Ireland, that's all.

stovelid

Time to merge all the British threads. Given the size, it might need its own server though

Dudess wrote: »

Agreed, but that hardly makes us "more British than the British themselves". We know more about Britain than Britain knows about Ireland, that's all.

The Brits couldn't care less; we couldn't care more. End.

live2thewire

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

I'll have to ponder that question tonight whilst I cheer Liverpool onto victory against the rival town of Chelsea.

thats what i mean. it makes no sense to me that irish have devotion to english teams. and its nothing to do with quality because english soccer was ****tt in the 80's

Rented Mule

The only people that i wopuld describe as 'more British than the British themselves' would be the Loyalists/Unionists in the North.

The only people that I would consider 'more Irish than the Irish themselves' are the Republicans/Nationalists in the North

Pighead

When we do try to be just like the British ie copying their television formats or their manufactured pop it generally turns out to be pretty embarrassing. As Jarvis Cocker once sang, it tends to be like a bad cover version.

Aah, sing your song about all the sad imitations that got it so wrong
It's like a later "Tom & Jerry" when the two of them could talk
Like the Stones since the Eighties, like the last days of Southfork.
Like "Planet of the Apes" on TV, the second side of "'Til the Band Comes in"
Like an own-brand box of cornflakes: he's going to let you down my friend.

Well said Jarvis.

live2thewire

Zadkiel wrote: »

dublin to London 55mins
dublin to Birmingham 45 Mins...You can fly now too!

london to paris under 1 hour

_blank_

Dublin is just West Britain anyway.

live2thewire

dover to calais=35 minutes

lol at the people hoping they are closer to london than parisiens

stovelid

live2thewire wrote: »

thats what i mean. it makes no sense to me that irish have devotion to english teams.

We're whores for glory and success. The teams that we are saddled with, by an accident of birth, over here don't quite chime with the inflated idea that we have of ourselves globally. Hence the constant support of English football, and the cyclical, bust-and-boom-support for rugby and international football.

Pighead

Des wrote: »

Dublin is just West Britain anyway.

Maybe you're wrong Desmond. Maybe just maybe Britain is East Dublin. Pighead was in Britain once and he heard a man say "Have you got the price of a cup of coffee there bud?" Definite Dub wannabe.

live2thewire

Des wrote: »

Dublin is just West Britain anyway.

nothing to do with politics, the masses have been brainwashed by the anti eu british tabloids

Mr.Lizard

Pighead wrote: »

Maybe you're wrong Desmond. Maybe just maybe Britain is East Dublin. Pighead was in Britain once and he heard a man say "Have you got the price of a cup of coffee there bud?" Definite Dub wannabe.

I'd imagine that was just one of our fine young minds who had emigrated in search of a better life than this country could provide. Looks like he found it.

Pighead

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

I'd imagine that was just one of our fine young minds who had emigrated in search of a better life than this country could provide. Looks like he found it.

Nope, definite Brit. He had the spotted dick and everything.

schween

live2thewire wrote: »

dover to calais=35 minutes

lol at the people hoping they are closer to london than parisiens

Well geographically Paris is a little closer to London than Dublin.
Culturally though I'd say Britain and Ireland are far closer.

I think being culturally closer is far more significant than geographically.

Mr.Lizard

Pighead wrote: »

Nope, definite Brit. He had the spotted dick and everything.

He should probably see his GP about that.

Dan Dare

We are certainly more American than the British, Irish kids with American accents etc.

Dudess

stovelid wrote: »

We're whores for glory and success. The teams that we are saddled with, by an accident of birth, over here don't quite chime with the inflated idea that we have of ourselves globally. Hence the constant support of English football, and the cyclical, bust-and-boom-support for rugby and international football.

Despite people's insistence on Irish people being begruders, always putting themselves down etc, I have to say the above is spot-on too.

_blank_

Dan Dare wrote: »

We are certainly more American than the British, Irish kids with American accents etc.

annoying D4 dickheads with faux valley-accents you mean.

I want to kick the teeth of all of these ****.

Pighead

Des wrote: »

annoying D4 dickheads with faux valley-accents you mean.

I want to kick the teeth of all of these ****.

You sound like an annoying British football hooligan when you say that. Makes Pighead want to write a poem about how un-Irish you are.

CamperMan

live2thewire wrote: »

what do you think? i dont know im split on the issue. i notice many irish seem to think we have some sort of cultural interlink but really its all one way. you won't find anybody in the uk knowing who our personalities are, most probably dont know what the capital is. also many irish seem to think were just a stones throw from uk when in reality the majority of them are closer to paris than dublin

what are you smoking?

DrumSteve

you couldn't live beside someone for so long without picking up some of their traits.

we picked up their sports,language,culture,medi,so on.

they picked up our emmigrants.

partyguinness

live2thewire wrote: »

thats what i mean. it makes no sense to me that irish have devotion to english teams. and its nothing to do with quality because english soccer was ****tt in the 80's

I know, its a shame so called 'football' supporters in Ireland didnt spend more time and money supporting their local League of Ireland team.

I have been to many Premiership games and I can honestly say that..take away all the Sky Sports hype bull****...the standard isnt much different from the LOI..especially the lower teams and defo better than most Championship teams I have seen.

Pighead

DrumSteve wrote: »

you couldn't live beside someone for so long without picking up some of their traits.

It's true. Used to live beside a man from Roscommon. It was shortly afterwards that Pighead had his first intimate experience with a sheep.

Dudess

Des wrote: »

annoying D4 dickheads with faux valley-accents you mean.

I want to kick the teeth of all of these ****.

It's not just limited to D4 - there are some serious morons coming from the affluent suburbs of Cork also. This one I heard on the phone to someone yesterday... I actually thought she had a speech impediment the accent was so fake.
It's not just posh ones though - one of the funniest things you could possibly hear: "Oh I SO see what you did there" in a Cark accent...

live2thewire

schween wrote: »

Well geographically Paris is a little closer to London than Dublin.
Culturally though I'd say Britain and Ireland are far closer.

I think being culturally closer is far more significant than geographically.

lol your the person im talking about

a person from london has little in common with an irish speaker from gaoth dobhair..thanks you proved my point.

and ireland is close to british culture not the other way round

Terry

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Of course not.

We just watch the X-Factor, the Premiership, Sky movies/sports, Corrie, Eastenders; we just shop at Tesco's, HMV; we just support Celtic, Man U, Liverpool; we just obsess over Amy Winehouse, Jade Goody; we just read the Sun, the Mirror. That doesn't make us British.

Using the pound would and being part of the UK would.

Who's this "We" you speak of?

Mr.Lizard

Terry wrote: »

Who's this "We" you speak of?

The Royal 'we' of course. He's obsessed with Britain.

Zadkiel

live2thewire wrote: »

lol your the person im talking about

a person from london has little in common with an irish speaker from gaoth dobhair..thanks you proved my point.

Neither does a person from anywhere else in Ireland:rolleyes:

DrumSteve

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

The Royal 'we' of course. He's obsessed with Britain.

is royal wee extra yellow?

Mr.Lizard

DrumSteve wrote: »

is royal wee extra yellow?

No all the Royals have blue wee. The only exception to this is Prince Harry because he is the bastard son of James Hewitt. Harry's wee is orange just like his (and his fathers) hair.

live2thewire

Zadkiel wrote: »

Neither does a person from anywhere else in Ireland:rolleyes:

no you seem desperate to believe we are somehow culturally close to uk. we are, they are not culturally aware of us.

Dudess

live2thewire wrote: »

ireland is close to british culture not the other way round

British culture is close to Irish culture, Irish culture is close to British culture... same thing really.

Zadkiel

live2thewire wrote: »

no you seem desperate to believe we are somehow culturally close to uk. we are, they are not culturally aware of us.

Not really desperate to believe no

_blank_

Dudess wrote: »

British culture is close to Irish culture, Irish culture is close to British culture... same thing really.

No, it isn't really.

Irish people receive BBC (1-4, news24 etc) and ITV (Ch4 incl, more4 e4 etc) and the many other "British" channels available on Sky/NTHell (sky news, skyone and two), all showing Britain-centric shows.

RTE, as far as I know, is not widely available in British homes.

thebman

It isn't that we are more british then the British, it is that we have more exposure to their media than they have to ours.

It is simple really and it doesn't make us British or change our culture.

I think when Ireland was poor, a lot of peoples main aspiration was for the country to be at least as good as Britain and have everything they have an more if possible so this has lead to us adopting some of their policies etc...

However, we still have our own culture, traditions, language and dialect(s) of English that separates us from them.

So no we aren't more British than the British that would be impossible, we are a healthy mix of American, British and Irish culture and policies all mixed up.

TBH I don't think that is too different to any other western country which all adopt some of these things.

And those British shows RTE are supposedly copying like Ireland's got talent or whatever, those are American shows copied by Britain. They are also crap and bottom of the barrel entertainment. Britain does comedy best and our best talents go there to get bigger budgets and get them so to say we don't have any effect on Britain would be wrong with shows like Father Ted and shows inspired and written by Irish people winning awards in Britain.

Pollythene Pam

Yes we are.

markesmith

Dublin's got a right British thing going on. I mean, the accent on the Southside, let's not kid ourselves, it's not really an Irish accent.

mayotom

One of the British national daily newspapers is asking readers
"What it means to be British?"

Some of the emails are hilarious but this is one from a chap in
Switzerland...

Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub
for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian
curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture
and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British
thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.

Oh and!!!!!

Only in Britain... can a pizza get to your house faster than an
ambulance.

Only in Britain... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the
way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while
healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Britain... do banks leave both doors open and chain the
pens to the counters.

Only in Britain... do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on
the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Britain... do we use answering machines to screen calls
and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone
we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Britain... are there disabled parking places in
front of a skating rink.

NOT TO MENTION...

3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their
tongue.

142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new
shirts.

58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of
screwdrivers.

31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree
while the fairy lights were plugged in.

10 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas
decorations were chocolate.

British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker
pulling accidents.

101 people since 1999 have had broken parts of plastic toys
pulled out of the soles of their feet.

8 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying
on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.

A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years
after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.

5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of
Control Scalextric cars.

And finally.........

In 2000 eight Brits cracked their skull whilst throwing up into
the toilet.

RULE BRITANNIA!!!!


Now surely the average Irish person isn't that Stupid

thebman

Pollythene Pam wrote: »

Yes we are.

Really? Explain how that is possible?

Anyone can say yes or no, give us the reasons behind your answer.

Dudess

schween wrote: »

Well geographically Paris is a little closer to London than Dublin.
Culturally though I'd say Britain and Ireland are far closer.

I think being culturally closer is far more significant than geographically.

live2thewire wrote: »

lol your the person im talking about

a person from london has little in common with an irish speaker from gaoth dobhair..thanks you proved my point.

and ireland is close to british culture not the other way round

What the hell? Proved what point? Schween just said Britain and Ireland (in general - the gaeilgeoir example is pointless) are closer (meaning more similar) culturally than Britain and France, which is true. Wow, great reason to sneer at him/her.

live2thewire wrote: »

no you seem desperate to believe we are somehow culturally close to uk. we are, they are not culturally aware of us.

Um... yeah. "Desperate". LOL.

Des wrote: »

No, it isn't really.

Irish people receive BBC (1-4, news24 etc) and ITV (Ch4 incl, more4 e4 etc) and the many other "British" channels available on Sky/NTHell (sky news, skyone and two), all showing Britain-centric shows.

RTE, as far as I know, is not widely available in British homes.

Ok, we're taking "closer" to mean different things - what I'm taking it to mean is "similar to". Irish culture is similar to British culture, British culture is similar to Irish culture.
Sure, maybe some of the aspects of culture we have in common with the British were handed to us/forced on us by them... but that's irrelevant when we now both embrace them, ergo we are close culturally.
That doesn't mean there aren't differences, but in general we have similar cultures in a lot of ways.
And the TV thing you cited is only one example - plus, culture doesn't mean specifics like TV channels. Ok, British people may not have RTE but RTE is still predominantly English speaking and shows many of the programmes/types of programmes aired on British channels.

Pollythene Pam wrote: »

Yes we are.

More British than the British themselves? How?