Why are you proud of Ireland?

Carsinian Thau

Peppapig wrote: »

Why are you proud of Ireland

I'm not.

But I'm not anti-Ireland either.

I like to maintain a healthy neutrality.

Peppapig

OMG Seamus Heaney is here!!!

powerzjim

because robbie keane has a great celebration when he scores

Crotchety

Not anymore.

spylon

PaulieD wrote: »

They need tourists alright, they need moronic drunks like a hole in the head. It costs the Spanish government a fortune dealing with drunkards, the policing, the medical costs. You get the picture.

The only time I am embarrassed about being from Ireland is when I run into fellow Irish abroad, be it in Prague or the Costa Del Sol, always the same.

Big mangey red face on them, more than likely looking for a brothel, Wooo everybody loves me I am Irish, I p*ss all over the street and spew my guts up on the road. Arent I great. Tools.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. There's nothing worse than having to witness Leprechaun-behatted morons trying to recreate "the craic" abroad and expecting locals to think they're "gas altogether". And its not just me: a poll conducted a couple of years ago in several different countries found that the Irish were regarded as among the world's worst tourists; only the Brits scored lower. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2137729.stm

HalloweenJack

I'm really struggling to think.

Ok, there's some great natural beauty (which we are gradually destroying) and we invented a great game (hurling). That's really all I can think of to be proud of.

Gallant_JJ

Our Beautiful landscape,
The GAA
Croke Park
Genuine welcoming people

Crotchety

The fact that we can produce bullshit like Naked Camera and find it funny. We only laugh at ourselves. That's why people think the Irish are great.

mickydoomsux

♫ wrote: »

That's why people think the Irish are great.

But they don't. They think we're drunken idiots.

neaideabh

I am so proud of being Irish... turning on the radio when in another country and hearing some Irish song whether it be sinead o connor, U2 or whoever. Seeing U2 become the best live act there is. Riverdance, Father Ted (I love the way the english love it even though one of the songs on eurosong is called "get out yee english bastards"!) Basically our harmless tongue in cheek humour! Our landscape, and so on...

BUT

I don't give a f()ck whether I come across racist... I hate the way we are increasingly losing our traditional values, the foreigners, I am nearly glad to see the back of them romanians in Belfast! I console with there recent plight but have no time for them, but this brings me to my next point... Scumbags... Them social benefit scrouging, burberry cap wearing scum... I would love if the govt passed an act allowing civilians to shoot the bastards if they were deemed not to be positively contributing to society. I would love if the gardai went out one night and shot all them drug dealing c()nts who are killing each other and mistakingly killing innocent civilians and say that they simply killed each other. I am sure the public would not raise any questions.

The economy... I am proud that we came from being the poorest country in the EU to being the fastest growing ever and the wealthiest. Greed got us where we are today but this is a human mistake and any country that had it like us would involuntarily suffer froom the same affliction. Time is the best healer (which will be hard times) but we will eventually come good.

A Neurotic

I read the title with a more negative inflection: Why are you proud of Ireland?...

Size=everything

Irish rugby.

Despite being a small nation we are in the top 4 sides in the World and currently have one of the greatest players to ever play the game. No other sport have we excelled on the world stage like rugby.

Orizio

neaideabh wrote: »

I am so proud of being Irish... turning on the radio when in another country and hearing some Irish song whether it be sinead o connor, U2 or whoever. Seeing U2 become the best live act there is. Riverdance, Father Ted (I love the way the english love it even though one of the songs on eurosong is called "get out yee english bastards"!) Basically our harmless tongue in cheek humour! Our landscape, and so on...

BUT

I don't give a f()ck whether I come across racist... I hate the way we are increasingly losing our traditional values, the foreigners, I am nearly glad to see the back of them romanians in Belfast! I console with there recent plight but have no time for them, but this brings me to my next point... Scumbags... Them social benefit scrouging, burberry cap wearing scum... I would love if the govt passed an act allowing civilians to shoot the bastards if they were deemed not to be positively contributing to society. I would love if the gardai went out one night and shot all them drug dealing c()nts who are killing each other and mistakingly killing innocent civilians and say that they simply killed each other. I am sure the public would not raise any questions.

The economy... I am proud that we came from being the poorest country in the EU to being the fastest growing ever and the wealthiest. Greed got us where we are today but this is a human mistake and any country that had it like us would involuntarily suffer froom the same affliction. Time is the best healer (which will be hard times) but we will eventually come good.

Clearly it hasn't occured to you that the former's growth in this country is closely related to the latter, our countries prosperity.

Euro_Kraut

neaideabh wrote: »

I don't give a f()ck whether I come across racist...

Gosh no, not in the slightest.

mickydoomsux

Size=everything wrote: »

Despite being a small nation we are in the top 4 sides in the World ....

Well, that's not very impressive considering about only 8 nations play rugby with any degree of seriousness.

cornbb

I'm not that proud of Ireland on the whole, there's plenty wrong with the place... but I think we can be proud of...

- the fact that we punch above our weight in world affairs... ok not very much but the Irish lobby is pretty strong in the US and elsewhere (let's not mention the Lisbon debacle, that's not something to be proud of :rolleyes:)
- we haven't become an Orwellian, quasi-fascist police state like many of our European neighbours have. Say what you like about the justice system and the Gardai, they seem lovely and sweet in comparison to police forces in the UK and elsewhere. Maybe its because we're slow on the uptake
- I think Irish people are (mostly) genuinely more laid back and good humoured than many other races. The "craic" is clichéd but its real.
- we've managed to keep the place running reasonably well since our independence (I know I know, we've had plenty of f*ckups but at least we can reasonably count ourselves among the relatively rich and progressive nations of the world)
- a relatively decent education system and respect for education

Reasons not to be proud of Ireland:
- gombeen politics
- the idiots who repeatedly vote in the gombeen politicians
- bigotry which threatens to drag us back to the dark ages
- a great number of AH posts (see last point - "bleedin' fordners takin our jahbs and wimmins everything is their fault rah rah rah")

K-9

Last 20 years:

Hurling. (Can't count Gaelic, barring 92!) So many great Sundays watching the sport of the Gods.

Turning our biggest export, people, around to have immigration. Based on good reasons until 03/04, till a fair few of us got property mad, but enough of that!

Relative peace in NI.

Best of all our sense of humour, though we moan way too much.

mickydoomsux

K-9 wrote: »

Last 20 years:
Relative peace in NI.

How can peace in another country make you proud of Ireland?

K-9

mickydoomsux wrote: »

How can peace in another country make you proud of Ireland?

I suppose I live 10 miles from that other country and seeing as our Govts. played a part in creating that peace over a couple of decades, I can feel proud of that. Prefer peace and negotiation winning out over terrorism, but I'm just odd that way.

mickydoomsux

K-9 wrote: »

Prefer peace and negotiation winning out over terrorism, but I'm just odd that way.

Did they really or was it just that most of the major terrorist organisations in the North realised it's much easier for them to have a truce of sorts between them so they could sells drugs and control other aspects of organised crime?

Hard to hold onto to your grand principles when the cash is rolling in.

Peppapig

mickydoomsux wrote: »

How can peace in another country make you proud of Ireland?

I suppose the fact that the IRA and any violence on our part has stopped

mickydoomsux

Peppapig wrote: »

I suppose the fact that the IRA and any violence on our part has stopped

Yeah the IRA are just drug dealers now so technically it's not sectarian violence anymore.

Yaaaaaaaaaaay! :pac:

nitrogen

No. And I'm also not proud to be Irish. I can never understand how people think their place on earth is special just because of an accident of birth regarding their location.

Nationalism and patriotism draws sustenance from the same psychic wellsprings as sexism, racism, and the other deadly chauvinisms that plague our species.

The sooner we forget about which tribe we come from, and simply co-operate as people, the better off we, and our planet will be.

mickydoomsux

You know, i've always had that notion too. It's rather stupid that we draw lines on a map and say 'this is X-land!' and you have people willing to devote their lives to fighting for that and they have pride because the fell within the boundries of one place and not another. Nationalism and patriotism are completely abstract concepts.

Then again we are just animals so i guess it has something to do with the basic territorial instincts that most animals have.

K-9

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Did they really or was it just that most of the major terrorist organisations in the North realised it's much easier for them to have a truce of sorts between them so they could sells drugs and control other aspects of organised crime?

Hard to hold onto to your grand principles when the cash is rolling in.

Politics forum is good for this type of stuff, they usually have threads on that everyday.

I like this thread.

Some Irish people seem to have a problem with any praise.

anonymous_joe

nitrogen wrote: »

No. And I'm also not proud to be Irish. I can never understand how people think their place on earth is special just because of an accident of birth regarding their location.

Nationalism and patriotism draws sustenance from the same psychic wellsprings as sexism, racism, and the other deadly chauvinisms that plague our species.

The sooner we forget about which tribe we come from, and simply co-operate as people, the better off we, and our planet will be.

Football would suck if we were all like you.

nitrogen

mickydoomsux wrote: »

You know, i've always had that notion too. It's rather stupid that we draw lines on a map and say 'this is X-land!' and you have people willing to devote their lives to fighting for that and they have pride because the fell within the boundries of one place and not another. Nationalism and patriotism are completely abstract concepts.

Then again we are just animals so i guess it has something to do with the basic territorial instincts that most animals have.

And a couple of decades later, or even centuries, more people want to divide X-land up into Y-land and Z-land, because they feel they are so different and unique compared to their neighbours, who all originate from the same tribe.

Yugoslavia is a modern day example of this. The Middle East, where there were the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Israelites and now the division between the Hebrew and Arabic people show this on a longer time-scale.

From Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

K-9

nitrogen wrote: »

And a couple of decades later, or even centuries, more people want to divide X-land up into Y-land and Z-land, because they feel they are so different and unique compared to their neighbours, who all originate from the same tribe.

Yugoslavia is a modern day example of this. The Middle East, where there were the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Israelites and now the division between the Hebrew and Arabic people show this on a longer time-scale.

From Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Would a United States of Europe solve this?

A Global Govt.?

Crotchety

We can be proud we got away from the British.

a5y

Irish writers. Irish poets. Irish musicians.

Thats (let me count) a few hundred reasons there.

And even though we do have so serious breakouts begrudgery and smallmindedness we don't take outselves too seriously

*cue theme tune from Father Ted*