Anyone ever nasty to you for being Irish

Dudess

smash wrote: »

Hmmmm, I had a few run ins with English guys in Mallorca too.

Let's set up a Facebook page! :pac:

Gone Drinking

Something like this would annoy the **** out of me aswell, but life's too short. Don't lose any sleep dude!

Morlar

I think most Irish people who have lived and worked in britain have come across that at some point (maybe not so much london). What the op mentions is mild in my estimation. I think the Irish who went there in the 40's - 70's had it particularly bad compared to nowadays.

kfallon

Wibbs wrote: »

Oh sure bigotry for sure E, but not really racism as we're the same "race". If the same muppet had muttered "nígger" to a black fellow Englishman it would be racist.

But are we not all the 'Human Race' so racism doesn't exist at all?

philstar

dodderangler wrote: »

Don't start this **** sayin its racism who cares we slate the English all the time

irish are no angels either....had english relatives who were driven off the road back in the H-block days, they paid the price for having a GB sticker on their car

mikemac1

BO-JANGLES wrote: »

I'm a Dub and I've lived in many places world wide. Returned home and settled down in the country. Never felt like an outsider so much in my life. Still ablow in after seven years......

Only seven years?

The mammy moved to the village decades ago after getting married and the locals still refer to the county she is from

You're a blowin unless you're in a parish three generations and you own land it seems

Enkidu

Wibbs wrote: »

Oh sure bigotry for sure E, but not really racism as we're the same "race". If the same muppet had muttered "nígger" to a black fellow Englishman it would be racist.

Oh yeah, duh! Bit of a thick moment there for a second!:o

Funnily enough the only experience I've ever had of this kind of stuff was in Mexico when people used to threateningly laugh and push me while saying "gringo". Best way out I've found is to have pleasant smile on all the time and pretend you have no clue what is going on.

Dudess

Oh this "The Irish are no angels" talk on the basis of a minority of psychos had to start of course...

SunnyDub1

Was in the states last year for a short while, and was on one of them tour thingys.

These 4 Americans where in front of us stopping and looking at every possible things (extremely annoying) then one stops to take stuff out of her back, so me and Friend walked passed and skipped them then we hear

" ahh look at them skipping us, typical Irish tourists I bet"

mikemac1

How did they know you were Irish?

Pale skin with the farmers suntan? :pac:

inda_kenny

yes , by a scot while overseas , was sectarian in nature aswell but veiled and subtle , i was young at the time and to naieve to realise what it was but the penny eventually dropped and it was quite an unpleasant experience

ejmaztec

I've had a few run-ins with English people over the years, because they knew that my family was 100% Irish, and I've had a few run-ins since I've been living over here with some Irish people who don't know that my family's Irish.

I think this identity problem is the main reason for my having a warped sense of humour and a habit of constantly looking over my shoulder.

stovelid

Bit of lip in Belfast and Scotland.

Nothing major.

Ironically, they didn't realise that even though I have an Irish accent, I was. born in England.

These threads might have a satisfying political or cathartic motive but sometimes you just need to get over it. There are racists and sectarian types in all countries including this one.

Zillah

Never encountered anything blatant, and on the contrary I have gotten special treatment on at least a dozen occasions* for being Irish, but I have run into a very sneering sort of condescending attitude from some English people. If I hear one more bloody English person think it is hilarious to talk about Irish people pronouncing "thirty three and a third" I'll slap them. They're always disappointed though, South Dublin is not exactly the sort of accent they were expecting.


* My favourite was when myself, another Irish person and an English friend were booking a tour in Bolivia:
Tour Guide: Where are you from?
Me: Ireland.
Tour Guide: *faces lights up* Ooooh, very good! And you?
Irish Friend: Ireland too.
Tour Guide: Great! Great! And you?
English Friend: England.
Tour Guide: *face drops instantly - voice goes flat* Oh....

dlofnep

Can't think of anytime. I'm not sure what the English really think of us, but in all my dealings with them - they've been nothing but sound. I worked in a call center for 8 years, where the majority of our clients were English. I think over the course of the 8 years (40 calls a day, 5 days a week) - I probably got attacked for being Irish 2 or 3 times on the phone. Which is grand, compared to the other nonsense I went through.

Remember an Indian lad abusing me on the phone for being 'British'. I told him I was Irish, he asked what the difference was. I said, about the same difference as being from India and from Pakistan, and that if he hated the British so much - why bother living there? Needless to say - he wasn't very happy and hung up.

I'd say I risked my job a few times on the phone, responding to comments from complete and utter prats. The only thing that I remember that routinely came in from English people was "Aw, you're from Southern Ireland?".. It never really bothered me all that much though, because I know that there was no malice intended.

I'd say most of the shíte I got, was from either northern Loyalists, or people from Dublin living in London. Irish manners on the phone are dreadful.

paddyandy

Never in all my years over in London but leftie nationalists love to harp on the 'no irish need apply ' idea ....their fuel for hate .They Bond with their 'mates' on it .I was well treated by the english over there and both my grandfathers were fir gunnai in the troubles many years ago .My fellow countrymen were often considered bad employers in 60s london .The English are far better employers .

mikemac1

Worked in Belfast
I like to think I got on with everyone
Went for drinks after work, nights out in Holylands, went to lunch with different groups, had weekend chats with some of them over the phone
Never had one cross word with a colleague.


Someone got my folder and wrote BNP all over it when I was off
It was my boss who discovered it

To this day I've no idea who did it, not a clue
If someone had an issue with me I would prefer if they come say it to my face

Dudess

Aw... bless paddyandy above with the inferiority complex. Cute.

Yeah dlofnep, I got sectarianism on the phone from some loyalist **** once all right (the big hard man left it 'til the end of the conversation and hung up immediately though) and a South African guy made an anti Irish comment another time, to which I responded "If you continue to make prejudiced generalisations I will disconnect the call" which I was allowed to do. Fair enough, it's right not to let knuckle-draggers bother you but if you're an employee you don't have to put up with abuse either.

Other than that, stupid nonsense re being from Cork (not jokes but mentally challenged people actually being serious, bless them ).

Morlar

paddyandy wrote: »

Never in all my years over in London but leftie nationalists love to harp on the 'no irish need apply ' idea ....their fuel for hate .They Bond with their 'mates' on it .

I think you might be projecting a bit there.

Unless you are right though and we are all making it up as part of some leftwing nationalist bonding exercise.

stovelid

Morlar wrote: »

I think you might be projecting a bit there.

Unless you are right though and we are all making it up as part of some leftwing nationalist bonding exercise.

While you're right that we should never get into the mindset of straighforward denial that anti-Irish sentiment and racism exists, there is more than a kernel of truth in the fact that as a nation - perhaps like all nations - the Irish do love to endlessly rake over the coals of real and imagined greivance about the English while being outraged at any suggestion that we have our own minority of highly intolerant people here, like anywhere.

donegal_road

mikemac1 wrote: »

Someone got my folder and wrote BNP all over it when I was off
It was my boss who discovered it

BNP as in the British National Party? thats a bit odd?

Anyways, I have never had any problems in NI, and I have many friends there, worked there and went to college there (I am from Donegal)

The place where I did encounter anti Irish sentiment, directed at me, was in Canada by 1st and 2nd generation Scots. And it was not friendly either..

smash

Dudess wrote: »

Other than that, stupid nonsense re being from Cork (not jokes but mentally challenged people actually being serious, bless them ).

When mentally challenged people start slagging you about being from Cork then you know it's bad :pac:

Morlar

stovelid wrote: »

...- the Irish do love to endlessly rake over the coals of real and imagined greivance about the English .....

Replace 'Irish' in the above scenarios with 'Jewish' or 'Nigerian' and see if that sounds like the expected reactions to those scenarios. In my experience Irish people are infinitely more likely to shrug it off than probably any other race of people that I can think of.

Ruralyoke

It's funny, but IME (lived in England for a few years) the English whilst not particularly tolerant in general, were FAR more tolerant of the Irish than any other group.

Tricolours flying from Irish clubs, Irish nights in pubs etc, Paddys day mayhem - nobody seemed to bat an eyelid.

Heard/experienced plenty of negativity towards others though - blacks, asians, muslims etc etc

stovelid

Morlar wrote: »

Replace 'Irish' in the above scenarios with 'Jewish' or 'Nigerian' and see if that sounds like the expected reactions to those scenarios. In my experience Irish people are infinitely more likely to shrug it off than probably any other race of people that I can think of.

In my experience, I've found that some Irish I know seem almost disappointed if they don't encounter prejudice in England.

ejmaztec

Prejudice from someone with half a braincell is to be expected, but in the OP's case the one dishing it out was a history teacher, and I wonder how he refers to Irish people if any part of Irish history is on his syllabus.

inda_kenny

stovelid wrote: »

Bit of lip in Belfast and Scotland.

Nothing major.

Ironically, they didn't realise that even though I have an Irish accent, I was. born in England.

These threads might have a satisfying political or cathartic motive but sometimes you just need to get over it. There are racists and sectarian types in all countries including this one.

racists in this country , for sure

sectarian bigots , less so , anti protestant bigotry is much more rare throughout the globe than vice versa , catholicism is denounced from the pulpit in many protestant denominations , this has been the case for centurys , you get it in places like scotland , south africa , northern ireland and of course the southern states of the usa , its the cornerstone of many reformed churches main narative

Apolloyon

I lived in the UK in the late 80's and early 90's. In my experience, I met two types of people. The first were totally sound and made up of the majority of the people there. They were very curious and interested about Ireland and the Irish. The second group viewed Irish people quite negatively. Most through pure ignorance and lack of understanding. Although there were always a few who had a deep rooted hatred of the Irish. Justified or not.

From the second group, every negative stereotype about the Irish was trotted out. We were stupid. We were constantly drunk. We were lazy and devious. We beat women. And of course, the cherry on top: we were all terrorists. Harsh words. But these were different times and the generation before me in the 40's and 50's had it worse.

But just to be clear. Yes, there was negativity. But overall, my experiences in the UK were profoundly positive. In fact, if you asked me to write all my positive experiences, I'd have written three times as much or more! So I hope that puts things into perspective.

Dudess

Morlar wrote: »

In my experience Irish people are infinitely more likely to shrug it off than probably any other race of people that I can think of.

Nah I disagree. While paddyandy's comment is gas (along with most of his comments) there is definitely a significant amount of "Look what the ENGLISH said about us!" prevalent, which is just the other side of the inferiority complex, self loathing, self flagellating coin. And then all the thick "800 years", "west Brit" stuff.

El Siglo

Not a whole lot, was in Cumbria last March and some old man made a comment about the Irish beating their wives, to which I responded: "You can bait (beat) the wife but you can't beat the controversy!" I wouldn't get upset by what anyone says to you about being Irish, usually it's some dick with problems anyway. I've found the English to be fairly sound but every nationality has dickheads.

inda_kenny

stovelid wrote: »

While you're right that we should never get into the mindset of straighforward denial that anti-Irish sentiment and racism exists, there is more than a kernel of truth in the fact that as a nation - perhaps like all nations - the Irish do love to endlessly rake over the coals of real and imagined greivance about the English while being outraged at any suggestion that we have our own minority of highly intolerant people here, like anywhere.

i dont agree with that , irish people have been seen as fair game to be made the butt of jokes ( however gentle ) for centurys , so much so that we ourselves have become almost immune and expectant of it , even the paddy hazing is a form of patronising the lesser , its often been said that anti catholicism is the only remaining respectable form of prejudice , while not the same thing , their is a tollerance for disrespecting the irish which simply doesnt happen with most other nationalitys in europe or the west

all in all i think us irish are a very tollerant people and we give ourselves undue criticism for being racists when by an objective analysis , we are not or never have been an overtly racist people , its just not in us , we are not harsh enough , nor have we enough of a superiority complex

inda_kenny

donegal_road wrote: »

BNP as in the British National Party? thats a bit odd?

Anyways, I have never had any problems in NI, and I have many friends there, worked there and went to college there (I am from Donegal)

The place where I did encounter anti Irish sentiment, directed at me, was in Canada by 1st and 2nd generation Scots. And it was not friendly either..

no where will you experience more visceral anti irish sentiment than from a certain percentage of scots and you do not need to be in scotland for it to happen either , its something the majority of irish people are unaware of but perhaps should be , the english might light on you for being a paddy but it will rarely be down to where you spend an hour on a sunday morning

ejmaztec

inda_kenny wrote: »

i dont agree with that , irish people have been seen as fair game to be made the butt of jokes ( however gentle ) for centurys , so much so that we ourselves have become almost immune and expectant of it , even the paddy hazing is a form of patronising the lesser , its often been said that anti catholicism is the only remaining respectable form of prejudice , while not the same thing , their is a tollerance for disrespecting the irish which simply doesnt happen with most other nationalitys in europe or the west

all in all i think us irish are a very tollerant people and we give ourselves undue criticism for being racists when by an objective analysis , we are not or never have been an overtly racist people , its just not in us , we are not harsh enough , nor have we enough of a superiority complex

The Poles get the treatment in the US, not to mention being stereo-typed by some Germans.

inda_kenny

Dudess wrote: »

Nah I disagree. While paddyandy's comment is gas (along with most of his comments) there is definitely a significant amount of "Look what the ENGLISH said about us!" prevalent, which is just the other side of the inferiority complex, self loathing, self flagellating coin. And then all the thick "800 years", "west Brit" stuff.

yeah , we should do like kevin bacon in animal house and meekly yell

thank you john bull , may i have another

previous user

keithclancy wrote: »

So,

Was at a wedding on the weekend in England, was never at a wedding in England before, live over in Holland so driving there wasn't to bad.

Was a good craic, mostly the same as an Irish wedding.

Late into the night we were in the bar and I was chatting to a guy, all very normal conversation. He seemed well educated, was a history teacher in a school apparently.

After a while myself and the missus said we were going to bed and headed off, while we were walking away the guy said 'Goodnight ya dumb paddy'

I sort of shrugged it off and went upstairs, after a while it was bugging the hell out of me so I went back downstairs.

Walked back over and told the guy in a very friendly way

"Hey look, you shouldn't say that sort of thing to people, its a bit racist"

Guy was all very apologetic, said sorry and then I walked off, I walked around the corner and then heard him saying "These f*cking Irish micks should piss off back to where they came from"

I just thought 'for f&ck sake' and went to bed.

Over here in Holland i've only ever experienced racism because people here can't really tell the difference between England and Ireland, hence you get the whole 'English wánker' thing shouted at you sometimes.

Anyone else ever had a similar experience ?

op where abouts in England was it?

inda_kenny

ejmaztec wrote: »

The Poles get the treatment in the US, not to mention being stereo-typed by some Germans.

you are correct about the poles getting stick in the US , btw , im my experience , the place where us irish get the most respect is in america bar the bible belt , the irish might be seen as lazy in the uk or even australia to a degree , in america and in particular in the north east , we are highly respected at every level and noted for our outstanding public service in areas like the police , the fire department and in local goverment , ive never met an american who did not openly appreciate my being irish

bwatson

NiallFH wrote: »

Never experienced it myself.

Although do occassionally get a bit of nastiness for being from the North when I'm down south.

Have to laugh though at

1. An English person calling someone dumb

What do you mean by this? For a(nother) thread to share their experiences of how badly Irish people are treated all over the world (Britain) you make a very brash generalization like that?

Dudess

inda_kenny wrote: »

yeah , we should do like kevin bacon in animal house and meekly yell

thank you john bull , may i have another

I didn't remotely suggest that. I've no time for either the persecution complex OR the "Yes we Irish are inferior" stuff.

D1stant

Yeah

The Irish Government.

Catxscotch

Why do the Scots have a problem with us? In my experience the Scots loved us as they were hoping for freedom from British rule just as the Irish are.

later12

In my first job in London I got stick from my boss when he thought I was Canadian (French sounding name, and I guess the Irish accent can be similar?).

After a couple of minutes of bad Canadian jokes, I said 'actually, I'm from Ireland'; which was even more delicious fodder for his narrow minded provincialism.

My point is that what you encountered was probably not anti Irish 'racism' specifically OP. If you had been German, Arab, or Chinese I'm sure he would have found some other slur for you. Anything that sets you apart is usually enough of a spark for these people.

I only wish that we found this sort of prejudice as intolerable when done to others as when done unto our own 'clan'.

Ruralyoke

Catxscotch wrote: »

Why do the Scots have a problem with us? In my experience the Scots loved us as they were hoping for freedom from British rule just as the Irish are.

Plenty of Scottish unionism/loyalism about.

Loyalist paramilitaries have traditionally gotten considerable support from parts of Scotland.

keithclancy

previous user wrote: »

op where abouts in England was it?

Just a bit north of London near Steveage.

bwatson

Catxscotch wrote: »

Why do the Scots have a problem with us? In my experience the Scots loved us as they were hoping for freedom from British rule just as the Irish are.

What's it like back there in the 17th century?

Morlar

stovelid wrote: »

In my experience, I've found that some Irish I know seem almost disappointed if they don't encounter prejudice in England.

Well I've never met an Irish person who was dissappointed at not recieving abuse for being Irish.

Solair

I was working in an office in London and the most vicious abuse was directed towards "Northerners".

These posh gits would walk up to a colleague of mine going "Ey up!" and "go on .. say "Upper Street".

She ended up in tears one morning as she was just sick and tired of being mocked and went to HR who took it INCREDIBLY seriously.

There are a small % of narrow minded gits and people who never get beyond being the school yard bully. They usually walk themselves into serious problems when it backfires and results in disciplinary action at work or getting punched in the face somewhere.

shootermacg

I've found this in the past working in england, but if you give as good as you get you'll find a happy medium.
A lot of the guys who start with the paddy stuff turn out to be good guys who have probably a bit of a national inferiority complex going on.

Odysseus

I worked in the UK during the 90s, PTA cards at airports, combat 18 fools in certain workplaces though they where easy to deal with.

summerskin

Solair wrote: »

I was working in an office in London and the most vicious abuse was directed towards "Northerners".

These posh gits would walk up to a colleague of mine going "Ey up!" and "go on .. say "Upper Street".

She ended up in tears one morning as she was just sick and tired of being mocked and went to HR who took it INCREDIBLY seriously.

There are a small % of narrow minded gits and people who never get beyond being the school yard bully. They usually walk themselves into serious problems when it backfires and results in disciplinary action at work or getting punched in the face somewhere.

In my first job in London i was turned down for a promotion for being "too northern". Most people don't realise that England is like two different countries, north and south, with the midlands being the bit nobody wants...

Also over here in ireland i've been called an "english cunt" more than once and told to "fuck off back where you came from" twice, as has my wife who is actually born and bred irish.

Idiots everywhere.

Morlar

shootermacg wrote: »

I've found this in the past working in england, but if you give as good as you get you'll find a happy medium.
A lot of the guys who start with the paddy stuff turn out to be good guys who have probably a bit of a national inferiority complex going on.

I agree with this. I think sometimes British people are intimidated by the Irish and the masking of this manifests itself in abuse.