Do you correct people if they call you British?

Luxie

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

People in other countries really don't give a **** about the mess we're in. For example, do you care about the mess that Iceland or Latvia are in right now?


I had it once in Oslo- on my booking form, under 'nationality' it said 'British' so I swiftly crossed that out!
Got it in England aswell when one of the girls I was working with asked me how the new (British) coalition government has affected me :mad:

Did she not merely assumed you lived in England and would be affected?

Luxie

Course it's entirely possible that folk who don't 'get it', even after being told are simply on the windup.

Just a thought, like.

fakearms123

Can happen when I'm abroad and I would quickly correct them, often happens with Americans. I remember an "Irish" American asked if I was British because of my accent, when I corrected him he said he was Irish too :rolleyes:, he told me he has lots of family from Ireland... ****ing twat!

dizzywizlw

I wish just once they'd correctly ask me if I'm West British

Cú Giobach

fakearms123 wrote: »

Can happen when I'm abroad and I would quickly correct them, often happens with Americans. I remember an "Irish" American asked if I was British because of my accent, when I corrected him he said he was Irish too :rolleyes:, he told me he has lots of family from Ireland... ****ing twat!

That business of claiming a nationality based on ones ancestor's homeland instead of ones own, is indeed quite silly.
My mother is from Belfast so even though I am born, reared and living in Cork I can claim to be an Ulsterman :rolleyes: or maybe I'm actually a Kerryman (from my fathers side).
One thing I do know is I'm not British and would correct anyone if they assumed such a thing.

davrho

KeithAFC wrote: »

Its because i am proud of my culture, i am proud of the country i live in. Obviously the majority on here won't agree with it or my culture and country but im proud of it.

See this ulster/scots culture I have a question. How come you don't see these flags up on peoples houses in Scotland?

sensibleken

Cú Giobach wrote: »

That business of claiming a nationality based on ones ancestor's homeland instead of ones own, is indeed quite silly.
My mother is from Belfast so even though I am born, reared and living in Cork I can claim to be an Ulsterman :rolleyes: or maybe I'm actually a Kerryman (from my fathers side).
One thing I do know is I'm not British and would correct anyone if they assumed such a thing.

Found out my great great grandmother was an American who moved here in the 1860's. I wonder if i can play for the USA soccer team

Cú Giobach

sensibleken wrote: »

Found out my great great grandmother was an American who moved here in the 1860's. I wonder if i can play for the USA soccer team

Probabally not, but I bet they would let you go and kill a few Ayrabs in Iraqistan.

MajorMax

feelingstressed wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's called the Union flag

It's only the Union Jack when it's on a ship like the Royal Navy

Hope this clears it up

"Whether to use "Union Flag" or "Union Jack" is a matter of debate.

The Flag Institute, the vexillological organisation for the United Kingdom, stated that the term Union Flag is a "relatively recent idea". Jack was a word previously used to denote any flag. It also noted that "From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially. In 1908 a government minister stated, in response to a Parliamentary question, that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag" ."
-Wikipedia

LondonIrish90

I often have to correct people (family members) when they refer to me as Irish nowadays. Have Irish parents, yet was born and brought up in England and would regard myself as very much English. I'm proud of, and interested in my heritage but wouldn't ever regard myself as being anything other than English. Cousins back in Ireland see this as some sort of treason :pac:

A Dub in Glasgo

LondonIrish90 wrote: »

but wouldn't ever regard myself as being anything other than English.

Apart from your username then

LondonIrish90

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Apart from your username then

My rugby team signed up to this site initially because of the excellent range of sports forums on offer.

KeithAFC

davrho wrote: »

See this ulster/scots culture I have a question. How come you don't see these flags up on peoples houses in Scotland?

They would not be Ulster Scots would they?

Cú Giobach

Cú Giobach wrote: »

That business of claiming a nationality based on ones ancestor's homeland instead of ones own, is indeed quite silly.
My mother is from Belfast so even though I am born, reared and living in Cork I can claim to be an Ulsterman :rolleyes: or maybe I'm actually a Kerryman (from my fathers side).
One thing I do know is I'm not British and would correct anyone if they assumed such a thing.

The "irish" american business annoys me too. So does the african stuff. "I'm african" "are you from africa" "no" "are your parents or grandparents from africa" "no" so wtf are you going around saying you're african for?

DoesNotCompute

bluewolf wrote: »

The "irish" american business annoys me too. So does the african stuff. "I'm african" "are you from africa" "no" "are your parents or grandparents from africa" "no" so wtf are you going around saying you're african for?

Because they're proud of their heritage.

Xivilai

Leave the Irish Americans alone. The more outsiders that assoicate with Ireland, the better for Ireland

As long as they aren't ignorant about the place (IRA funding springs to mind) then surely it can only be good for us?

df1985

KeithAFC wrote: »

Yes i know. I fly the Union Flag from my house, the Ulster Banner, Ulster Scots banner. My culture and background is not Irish. Don't know what else to tell you.

Nothing to be proud of, and Im not just saying that because you fly unionist flags, Id say the same if you were flying tricolours. That kind of stuff is what keeps communites divided and the North stuck in the past.

And it makes your area look like a complete ****hole too for anyone passing FYI.

GizAGoOfYerGee

In Spain, they call British and Irish people 'Ingleses' and both islands 'Inglaterra'. As far as they're concerned, we are all Anglo. Some are puzzled when you correct them. You get used to it.

keano_afc

Ulster Scots never fails to make me laugh. They take a dialect and call it a language. Its like calling the 12th of July Orangefest to make it sound like someting it isn't.

KeithAFC

df1985 wrote: »

Nothing to be proud of, and Im not just saying that because you fly unionist flags, Id say the same if you were flying tricolours. That kind of stuff is what keeps communites divided and the North stuck in the past.

And it makes your area look like a complete ****hole too for anyone passing FYI.

Its a glorious sight when going near it. Doesn't dived the community at all. I live next to Catholics and we get on fine. They respect my culture.

Duckworth_Luas

bluewolf wrote: »

The "irish" american business annoys me too.

You guys really don't seem to get the whole Irish-American thing. They do not see their nationality as Irish, the are very much citizens of the USA. However, they are Americans with an Irish heritage and are seen as such by others.

Take JFK, probably the most famous Irish-American. He had a very privileged upbringing, was the son of the US ambassador, went to Harvard and spoke like any other upper class New England Yankee. However, he could not escape that he was of Irish heritage and other Americans always referred to him being Irish. To his credit, even though it made him less electable, Kennedy embraced his Irish-American background.

Unlike some contributors to this forum, Irish-Americans often happen to be proud of their heritage. I've met Americans who speak fluent Irish, play Irish traditional music professionally, teach Irish history at a community college and even one who runs a GAA club in the States.

It seems that some "real" Irish people will only be happy when the traditional aspects of Irish life, those that make us unique in an increasingly homogeneous world, are consigned to some cultural dustbin.

KeithAFC

keano_afc wrote: »

Ulster Scots never fails to make me laugh. They take a dialect and call it a language. Its like calling the 12th of July Orangefest to make it sound like someting it isn't.

Ulster Scots isn't a language, its a people.

DoesNotCompute

GizAGoOfYerGee wrote: »

In Spain, they call British and Irish people 'Ingleses' and both islands 'Inglaterra'. As far as they're concerned, we are all Anglo. Some are puzzled when you correct them. You get used to it.

If they get puzzled, you could always use the Basque/Spanish anology to set them straight

Cú Giobach

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

You guys really don't seem to get the whole Irish-American thing. They do not see their nationality as Irish, the are very much citizens of the USA. However, they are Americans with an Irish heritage and are seen as such by others.

The thing that annoys some people is people referring to themselves as "Irish" instead of "Irish American", there is a huge difference between the two.

Duckworth_Luas

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Unlike some contributors to this forum, Irish-Americans often happen to be proud of their heritage. I've met Americans who speak fluent Irish, play Irish traditional music professionally, teach Irish history at a community college and even one who runs a GAA club in the States.

It seems that some "real" Irish people will only be happy when the traditional aspects of Irish life, those that make us unique in an increasingly homogeneous world, are consigned to some cultural dustbin.

They can be proud all they want, but replying to someone born in Ireland with "yeah I'm Irish too" is just a little irritating. They can do whatever traditional aspects they want, nobody said they couldn't :rolleyes:

KeithAFC

Cú Giobach wrote: »

The thing that annoys some people is people referring to themselves as "Irish" instead of "Irish American", there is a huge difference between the two.

There is Americans who call themselves Irish when they are actually Ulster Scots and not Irish. They need educated.

Duckworth_Luas

GizAGoOfYerGee wrote: »

In Spain, they call British and Irish people 'Ingleses' and both islands 'Inglaterra'. As far as they're concerned, we are all Anglo. Some are puzzled when you correct them. You get used to it.

It tends to be only some Castellians who make that kind of ignorant mistake. In my experience Basques, Catalans and Galicians tend to fully recognise the difference between Ireland and Britain as well as the difference in Britain between Wales, Scotland and England.

Franco tried to force the Spanish peoples into thinking that there was no cultural difference between themselves. Only the Castellians bought into this and is reflected in the minority of them that refuse to see the difference between Ireland and Britain, separatism makes them uncomfortable.

GizAGoOfYerGee

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

If they get puzzled, you could always use the Basque/Spanish anology to set them straight

It's not a good comparision as it gives the impression that all of Ireland is part of the UK, just has much of Basque is part of Spain.

Candian / American or Australian / Kiwi are better examples.

Noffles

With the Ireland in the shocking state that it's in, I would of thought you wouldn't mind too much being mistaken as a Brit...

Tchaikovsky

Gibraltaranians and Spain, maybe. Or Falklanders and Argentina!

Tchaikovsky

Noffles wrote: »

With the Ireland in the shocking state that it's in, I would of thought you wouldn't mind too much being mistaken as a Brit...

Britain's in a shocking state too.

GizAGoOfYerGee

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

It tends to be only some Castellians who make that kind of ignorant mistake. In my experience Basques, Catalans and Galicians tend to fully recognise the difference between Ireland and Britain as well as the difference in Britain between Wales, Scotland and England.

I've been here 3 years in various parts of Spain, and I have to say that vast majority are misinformed about the political make up of Ireland and Britain.

I was on a plane back to Dublin last summer and got chatting to a guy who was moving there to learn English. I went for a pint and a chat with him in town and it transpired that he thought Dublin was in the UK! I mean, come on! Do a bit of research about the country before moving there :rolleyes::p

Noffles

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Britain's in a shocking state too.

It has a bigger population (more tax) , better infrastructure and nothing like the bank failure or the bailout... it'll be fine... unlike here.

Cú Giobach

KeithAFC wrote: »

There is Americans who call themselves Irish when they are actually Ulster Scots and not Irish. They need educated.

Maybe they are so far (emotionally and physically) from the bigotry and intolerance of NI they don't mind calling themselves Irish.

HavingCrack

KeithAFC wrote: »

There is Americans who call themselves Irish when they are actually Ulster Scots and not Irish. They need educated.

But Keith they're entitled to consider themselves of Irish descent if they wish, I thought that's your whole lookout on nationality. Presumably their ancestors emigrated from Ulster which is a part of the island of Ireland, hence they consider themselves of Irish descent. If they want to be Ulster Scots fine, but its not your position to tell people what they are and are not. From all your other posts I would think you'd be the first to recognise this.

Duckworth_Luas

bluewolf wrote: »

They can be proud all they want, but replying to someone born in Ireland with "yeah I'm Irish too" is just a little irritating. They can do whatever traditional aspects they want, nobody said they couldn't :rolleyes:

Why let it irritate you? If you're in America then get used to American ways.

In Chicago, for example, there are still Irish, Italian, Polish etc neighbourhoods. Immigrants from Ireland still move directly into the Irish-American neighbourhoods. Poles, Italians etc don't really make a distinction between those born in Ireland and those born in the USA, they're all seen as Irish from an Irish neighbourhood.

Irish-Americans do make a huge distinction though. He would have actually seen you as a turkey and expected you to call him a narrowback. To this guy you were nothing special he probably knows loads of people born in Ireland.

There is one thing that pisses off Irish born people that live in Irish-American neighbourhoods though. It's ignorant visitors from Ireland who think they are something special.

KeithAFC

HavingCrack wrote: »

But Keith they're entitled to consider themselves of Irish descent if they wish, I thought that's your whole lookout on nationality. Presumably their ancestors emigrated from Ulster which is a part of the island of Ireland, hence they consider themselves of Irish descent. If they want to be Ulster Scots fine, but its not your position to tell people what they are and are not. From all your other posts I would think you'd be the first to recognise this.

They aren't using the proper term. Thankfully a BBC programme on BBC NI at the moment is getting that point across.

HavingCrack

KeithAFC wrote: »

They aren't using the proper term. Thankfully a BBC programme on BBC NI at the moment is getting that point across.

Keith, are you just refusing to consider that people from an Ulster Scots background in the US consider themselves Irish and not Ulster Scots?

Dozen Wicked Words

To answer OP. Yep, I correct them and say I'm English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoXLUXIeVhU

Hank Scorpio

Why has every thread I`ve read on AH lately involve KeithAFC telling people form the south how great Northern Ireland is

Luxie

GizAGoOfYerGee wrote: »

I've been here 3 years in various parts of Spain, and I have to say that vast majority are misinformed about the political make up of Ireland and Britain.

I was on a plane back to Dublin last summer and got chatting to a guy who was moving there to learn English. I went for a pint and a chat with him in town and it transpired that he thought Dublin was in the UK! I mean, come on! Do a bit of research about the country before moving there :rolleyes::p

Yeah, he could at least know what country he was moving too. Kinda helps.

ejmaztec

nuxxx wrote: »

Why has every thread I`ve read on AH lately involve KeithAFC telling people form the south how great Northern Ireland is

Perhaps you've accidentally got 99.99999% of Boardsies on "Ignore".:eek:

Hank Scorpio

ejmaztec wrote: »

Perhaps you've accidentally got 99.99999% of Boardsies on "Ignore".:eek:

I`ve only been reading the political ones lately since the rest of the threads come across as steaming ****e piles

Duckworth_Luas

KeithAFC wrote: »

They aren't using the proper term. Thankfully a BBC programme on BBC NI at the moment is getting that point across.

Ulster-Scot is a recent term though. The people you are talking about would have called themselves Irish at the time they emigrated. Look at any contemporaneous accounts. Later they began to refer to themselves as Scotch-Irish to make the difference with the more recently arrived Irish escaping the famine.

During the great famine many non-Catholic Irish from outside Ulster immigrated to the US as well. Are you saying they were not Irish? That would have come as news to them.

You can't force your modern, politically terminology on others.

KeithAFC

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Ulster-Scot is a recent term though. The people you are talking about would have called themselves Irish at the time they emigrated. Look at any contemporaneous accounts. Later they began to refer to themselves as Scotch-Irish to make the difference with the more recently arrived Irish escaping the famine.

During the great famine many non-Catholic Irish from outside Ulster immigrated to the US as well. Are you saying they were not Irish? That would have come as news to them.

You can't force your modern, politically terminology on others.

Check out We'r Fur Hame on BBC.

El Siglo

Anyone mistakes me for being British, I just quote Heaney;

"Be advised my passport’s green.
No glass of ours was ever raised
to toast the Queen."

Duckworth_Luas

KeithAFC wrote: »

Check out We'r Fur Hame on BBC.

I would love to watch it, I'm very interested in history etc. Unfortunately it's not available to watch outside Ulster-Scotland or whatever it's called these days.

sensibleken

El Siglo wrote: »

Anyone mistakes me for being British, I just quote Heaney;

"Be advised my passport’s green.
No glass of ours was ever raised
to toast the Queen."

Well you'd be wrong because your passport isn't green. Unless youve got a temporary one

El Siglo

sensibleken wrote: »

Well you'd be wrong because your passport isn't green. Unless youve got a temporary one

Heaney wrote it as an open letter back in 1983 with regards to being included in The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry. It's a nice way of saying "I'm Irish not British".

Duckworth_Luas

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Why let it irritate you? If you're in America then get used to American ways.

Because it just does. I'm not a perfect soul of peace and harmony 24/7.
And I'm not in America either.

There is one thing that pisses off Irish born people that live in Irish-American neighbourhoods though. It's ignorant visitors from Ireland who think they are something special.

Great, some attempt at a dig because I find something irritating :rolleyes: