Quick poll.... is the word 'Paddy' offensive to the Irish?

PinkTulips

Whiskey Devil wrote: »

Was this on Boards? I'd actually like to read it now.

no, not on boards, on a british site and the origional thread got deleted as it got fairly arsey.... sadly mostly due to an irish poster getting a bit too riled up (not me i hasten to add!)

personally i found her tone more so than the word annoyed me but don't seem to have been able to get that point across, there is a spin off thread but without the origional post that sparked it's a bit pointless really as almost every post referances things said in the first thread :rolleyes:

for me the tone of the post and the use of the word 'paddy' to say 'irish' seemed to go hand in hand with the whole 'diddly ireland' mentality that britain and america so often have.... that ireland is this amusingly quaint but slightly backward country.

Latchy

donkey balls wrote: »

i remember been in a irish pub in auckland during an ireland/england rugby match where some english lad was taking the piss out of the irsh in general.

One thing the Irish share with the brits and other races is the ability to rip into and take the piss out of every race in the world ..including the brits .

i told him to f**k off and go else where and find a traditional english pub and said you might find it hard as your country is not very popular around the world.

The paragraph below is taken from a tourists survey Here

Despite cliches about beer-guzzling hordes descending on Mediterranean resorts each summer, Britons came a surprise second for their overall behaviour, politeness, quietness and even elegance -- second for dress sense only to the Italians.

donkey balls

Despite cliches about beer-guzzling hordes descending on Mediterranean resorts each summer, Britons came a surprise second for their overall behaviour, politeness, quietness and even elegance -- second for dress sense only to the Italians.

piont taken i didnt mean to tar them all with the same brush i should have mentioned when i told that guy to f**k off another lad from the england said to me fare play to yeah as the guy was being a knob

Fratton Fred

I must be too PC. I get embarassed calling someone Paddy even when their name is Paddy. Mainly due to the fact it is used all too often as a put down by Brits.

WIZE

PinkTulips wrote: »

no, not on boards, on a british site and the origional thread got deleted as it got fairly arsey.... sadly mostly due to an irish poster getting a bit too riled up (not me i hasten to add!)

personally i found her tone more so than the word annoyed me but don't seem to have been able to get that point across, there is a spin off thread but without the origional post that sparked it's a bit pointless really as almost every post referances things said in the first thread :rolleyes:

for me the tone of the post and the use of the word 'paddy' to say 'irish' seemed to go hand in hand with the whole 'diddly ireland' mentality that britain and america so often have.... that ireland is this amusingly quaint but slightly backward country.

Blame Discover Ireland for that http://www.discoverireland.com/gb/webisode/jsp/

Joey the lips

Just because my name is paddy and i am irish does not mean i am offensive to anyone.

My mother did not find it offensive when she gave me the name.

What i do think is very funny is the fact that my uncle an irish man worked on the sites in england for years. He is a jonathan.Every person irish on the sites was called Paddy. Like every arab was called mohammed. His son peter who also worked on the sites and is english born but with an irish passport than had a grandson for jonathan. What did peter name his son...... Paddy! Not Pat / Patrick but Paddy

Know that was funny!

kittenkiller

Only if it's said with some sort of malice. But day to day, not at all.

ejmaztec

Fozzie Bear wrote: »

Paddy does not bother me to be honest unless as others have said its meant to offend and has a swear preceeding it. We got a taxi in Leeds a few years ago going to the airport. Some paki type driver greeted us with "howya Paddy where ya headed" to which he got back "the airport Mohammed and try not to blow us up on the way". Was all in good spirits and we actually had a great laugh with him.

Something that did get on my t!ts though was an English dude who was over here giving a presentation at work years ago. His company was trying to win a contract to install some equipment which was worth several hundread thousand quid. The twat kept referring to England as "the mainland". We were all looking at each other in WTF shock as he kept using the term. "When I get back to the mainland I'll e-mail the specs to you" or "Chris in the mainland office can answer that". Eventually one of our guys asked him where he thought he was? The Shetland islands or Outer Hebrides and where was this "the mainland" located? Needless to say they did not get the contract because of the dippy twat.

That's ironic.

deadhead13

The only time I ever really heard "paddy" used in london was by the Irish taking the piss out of 2nd generation Irish - "plastic paddies"

rubadub

People keep saying "if a brit calls me it..."
So what if it is an Irish person calling you Paddy? esp. those who would take offence to foreign people using Paddy in a light-hearted way.

Seems some might be a bit hypocritical, they are offended by apparent racist remark but you are racist themselves since only select people saying it upsets them.

Just like the N word in the US, many would get upset if another black lad called them it, some would only get upset if a non-black guy said it.

wudangclan

i was in london one time,just outside victoria station ,and i'm chatting to a homeless guy who keeps referring to me throughout the conversation as paddy ,"alright paddy?","nice evening,innit paddy?" and so on
so eventually i say something along the lines of " i really wish you'd stop refering to me as paddy.i find it a highly denigrating and derogatory term,a real put down,with roots in your imperial conquest of my nation and your perceived superiority....."
homeless guy "oh,i'm really sorry mate.i did'nt mean it like that.what do i call you then? real sorry,mate"
me "ah,that's ok.you can call me mick"

Slidey

It all depends on the context really.

If they know you and are having the craic it wouldnt really bother me but if it was in anyways meant to be derogatory they would end up being told to cease and desist in my least polite terms.

My old pair both moved to London as kids and were reared there. They claim that paddy to them is not half as offensive as being called 'Mick'.

zGeek

only posh english peps (mebbe irish and scottish*) get offended by 'paddy'


*I don't think there is any posh irish or scottish people in existence now

Fratton Fred

zGeek wrote: »

only posh english peps (mebbe irish and scottish*) get offended by 'paddy'


*I don't think there is any posh irish or scottish people in existence now

ever been to Dalkey?

Latchy

deadhead13 wrote: »

The only time I ever really heard "paddy" used in london was by the Irish taking the piss out of 2nd generation Irish - "plastic paddies"

Yes and some of these same Irish might at one time have being angry at others calling tham Paddy . How Ironic .

And as somebody mentioned lot of english people call their sons Patrick ,Liam and Sean to .

Slidey wrote: »

My old pair both moved to London as kids and were reared there. They claim that paddy to them is not half as offensive as being called 'Mick'.

Americans use Mick a lot to describe the Irish as in 'Micks '

raah!

I'd say there's a difference between someone named patrick being called paddy, and irish people being called paddies. Many people it seems don't draw a distinction between the two "my name is patrick, and I don't mind when people call me paddy".

I think it's kinda funny though, most irish people named patrick get to "paddy" fairly quickly, perhaps it's similar to how black people go about calling each other "nigga" etc.

Latchy

raah! wrote: »

I think it's kinda funny though, most irish people named patrick get to "paddy" fairly quickly, perhaps it's similar to how black people go about calling each other "nigga" etc.

I wouldn't say similar .It's just like somebody named Thomas being called Tom although if you put a John before the Thomas it takes on a different connotation alltogether

Fratton Fred

Latchy wrote: »

I wouldn't say similar .It's just like somebody named Thomas being called Tom although if you put a John before the Thomas it takes on a different connotation alltogether

a bit like Richard Head, apparantly he hates being called Dick

Latchy

Fratton Fred wrote: »

a bit like Richard Head, apparantly he hates being called Dick

Oh dear , alas poor Richard

Eoin

All depends on the context for me, just like pretty much any other slight you can think of.

Latchy wrote: »

The paragraph below is taken from a tourists survey Here

Despite cliches about beer-guzzling hordes descending on Mediterranean resorts each summer, Britons came a surprise second for their overall behaviour, politeness, quietness and even elegance -- second for dress sense only to the Italians.

If that's the same report I'm thinking of, that was in a worldwide study. They didn't fare as well in one that concentrated on European destinations. So it really just seemed to show a difference between the tourists who go to the likes of Magaluf and the ones that go further afield.

A7X

If its meant to be offensive when said, then ill take offense.

Otherwise I really couldn't give a shíte.

Latchy

eoin wrote: »

All depends on the context for me, just like pretty much any other slight you can think of.



If that's the same report I'm thinking of, that was in a worldwide study. They didn't fare as well in one that concentrated on European destinations. So it really just seemed to show a difference between the tourists who go to the likes of Magaluf and the ones that go further afield.

Suppose if you take any group of people from any nationality you wll always frind the generalisations about them will vary from place to place . I stayed in a hotel complex in the Canarys a few years ago with Scandinavians, British , some Irish ,a few Germans French and some Spanish .The Entertainment reps were all British but towards the end of the holiday it was the Scandinavians who put on a show of sorts as a thank you to the reps (and the other holiday makers ) for the entertainment .The Spanish were as miserable as expected ,the Germans cold and indifferent ,the french stuck up and Brits and Irish semed to enjoy getting pissed more then anybody .

Bob the Seducer

Every so often I put on my best posh English accent and fire a string of questions at a friend in a public place along the lines of:
"Paddy, Paddy, where abouts in Eire are you from Paddy?
Do you enjoy the potatoes/ceili music/speaking the gaelic in Eire Paddy? How much of your Irish Punts would that cost Paddy?"
before quickly going back to my normal one to avoid getting a smack!

super106

yes

Latchy

Why Bob what would ya wanna do that , were ya from Bob ...?

Fratton Fred

Latchy wrote: »

and Brits and Irish semed to enjoy getting pissed more then anybody .

what, you mean the Brits and the Irish get along ok and are actually quite similar?

FFS don't tell anyone:D

Latchy

Fratton Fred wrote: »

what, you mean the Brits and the Irish get along ok and are actually quite similar?

FFS dont tell anybody

indeed Getting along Speaking the same language helps

Jesus Juice

What makes this quicker then any other poll?

Fratton Fred

testicles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82awa_Walasiewicz

Ruu_Old

Not offended by it but the cafe in our library had a some coffee drink for St. Patrick's Day called a peppermint paddy. My supervisor thought that it was a bit offensive but I told her it didn't bother me anyway.

ART6

Many of my friends call themselves "Paddy". What's the big issue?

starwars

No!

Hagar

If you are in any doubt as to whether the word Paddy is offensive in a particular context simply substitute the word nigger in its place.
If it now sounds offensive it was offensive to begin with.


Offensive phrase used for illustrative purposes. No offence intended.

ctrl-alt-delete

I don't really mind it, a fella i used to work with always had a funny joke about it....

Car pulls up - "here Paddy, do you know which way it is to Cork?"

Irish Guy - " How did you know my name was Paddy?"

Car Driver - " I Guessed"

Irish Guy - " Well you can guess your fupping way to Cork too!"

Kev_ps3

Theres a simple answer to this question - if it is meant in an offensive way then it is offensive, if not then no......