What's the strangest or most remote place you've met an Irish person?

La_Gordy

I was working in a university in the northern Caucasus, Rostov on Don, Russia. There were rarely any Europeans there, only the odd few from the Baltic states, so when my colleagues met an Irish guy that was over for on an EU/Tuning trip they made a point of escorting him down to meet me. It was the first time I'd met an Irish person in a year!

Spudman_20000

Not really "meeting an Irish person in a remote place", but funny all the same.

Was in Grand Cayman in the Caribbean a few years back, visiting an accountant friend. Some friends of hers met me at the airport and took me to a sports field, where a full on GAA blitz was in full swing. No joke, the whole population of the island seemed to be either playing football or hurling.

Then there was an announcement over the intercom for a person whose name I recognised. Turned out to be my brother's brother-in-law, spotted him strolling off the pitch.

Small world.

Was in New York a few years back, staying with a friend from Cavan out in Queens. We planned a night out in the city itself with military precision. We'd get off at a certain subway station, find a bar close by, and stay in the vicinity so we could get home again without getting lost.

So we get off the subway, and walk for at least an hour without seeing a bar, all high-end retail stores. "City that never sleeps, me hole" we say. Finally, we see a neon bar sign, up a sort of staircase.

Up we go, and it’s a tiny bar. Of course it's a Cavan guy who owns it, from the same village as my friend. Even has a copy of the local paper behind the bar. He explained how rents in this section of the city meant only high-end retail stores were around, and pointed us in the direction of the nightlife.

Red Kev

I spent about 8 years living in West Africa, very few Irish there. Came across a rough car accident in Senegal, the driver was still trapped. He was Irish, he also recognised me as I went out with a housemate of his in college for a while. I initially didn't recognise him as he'd changed a lot.

Met three lads in a Leitrim registered Merc in Morocco, they had broken down and had been there for a day, they were getting slightly panicky as it's a little travelled track.

Met another Irish guy in Vladivostok in 1997 who had moved there to be with a local woman. Odd chap.

And met an Irish nun cycling on a jungle road in Equatorial Guinea. The road was that overgrown that it rubbed along both sides of the Land Rover. This was in 1997, she hadnt been to Europe in 25 years and hadn't met an Irish person in 15 years. Seriously interesting woman all the same, went as a missionary but dropped a lot of Catholic ideology after a few years and was a big promoter of contraception.

Met two Scottish and one Irish mercenaries in Bosnia in 1994. Ex British army who had been rejected by the Foreign Legion. Irish fella was very paranoid, suffered a lot from PTSD.

Boom_Bap

Was walking down a street in Sydney, there was one shop opened on the street, walked passed the door and was looking in to see what it was. It was an internet cafe.
Locked eyes with the lad behind reception and immediately recognised him. I roared out a big 'Ah jaysus how are ye X'
He responded saying that he was X's identical twin brother and the two of us laughed. Then X popped his head out from behind a monitor and says howya to me.

RobertKK

Many years ago my brother in law and I were on this bus in the middle of Ohio in the US, we were returning from Indianapolis back to New York.
There was this couple from Armagh we met and we chatted as they too were returning to New York from the F1 race.
The journey took about 18 hours, I was unable to sleep on the bus. My companion did sleep, when I got back to NY I went to bed, and my brother in law went out for the night.
Next day he tells me that he met the couple from Armagh when out, it had not been organised and we didn't know what part of the city they lived in, just a strange coincidence.

dwayneshintzy

Not "strangest place", but very strange coincidence.....

Started a new job as a teacher here in Hong Kong last August. At our induction day, I heard one of the senior teachers/mentors and recognised his accent (I'm from Letterkenny). Walked over to talk to him;

"Where are you from? - Ireland
Whereabouts? - Donegal
Where in Donegal? - Ah **** off, you're not from Letterkenny are you?!?!"

Got chatting to him, he's been out here nearly 20 years. I told him I'd be doing PE teaching out here as well as English, he told me he'd some GAA kit (balls, cones, etc) and could give it to me if I wanted it. Arranged to meet him out in a pub a couple weeks later.

Brought my girlfriend with me (a HK local) when I was going to get the balls. They both recognised each other; asked where he taught/where she went to school. Turns out he was her English teacher in secondary school about a decade ago.

So this girl I'm going out with, in Hong Kong, had a teacher from Letterkenny in school, and is now going out with a guy from Letterkenny.

Badly Drunk Boy

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Was walking down a street in Sydney, there was one shop opened on the street, walked passed the door and was looking in to see what it was. It was an internet cafe.
Locked eyes with the lad behind reception and immediately recognised him. I roared out a big 'Ah jaysus how are ye X'
He responded saying that he was X's identical twin brother and the two of us laughed. Then X popped his head out from behind a monitor and says howya to me.

If they were male/female twins, they could have been called X and Y. But they wouldn't have been identical.



Sorry!

Conor Bourke

dwayneshintzy wrote: »

Not "strangest place", but very strange coincidence.....

Started a new job as a teacher here in Hong Kong last August. At our induction day, I heard one of the senior teachers/mentors and recognised his accent (I'm from Letterkenny). Walked over to talk to him;

"Where are you from? - Ireland
Whereabouts? - Donegal
Where in Donegal? - Ah **** off, you're not from Letterkenny are you?!?!"

Got chatting to him, he's been out here nearly 20 years. I told him I'd be doing PE teaching out here as well as English, he told me he'd some GAA kit (balls, cones, etc) and could give it to me if I wanted it. Arranged to meet him out in a pub a couple weeks later.

Brought my girlfriend with me (a HK local) when I was going to get the balls. They both recognised each other; asked where he taught/where she went to school. Turns out he was her English teacher in secondary school about a decade ago.

So this girl I'm going out with, in Hong Kong, had a teacher from Letterkenny in school, and is now going out with a guy from Letterkenny.

I'm hitting up HK in May, I'll keep an eye/ear out for ye

Parachutes

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Not so much an Irish person, but I overheard two girls speaking Irish while in an ATM queue in Berlin during the summer.

Similar thing happened to me. Was in a cafe on the continent and heard two girls speaking Gaeilge to each other in a weird accent, not having two words of Irish but thinking I should say something went up and said "An bhfuill cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?"

After getting over the initial shock of some strange man asking them could he go toilet they casually explained they were learning Irish in university as part of some module or something and liked conversing in Irish for the sheer novelty of speaking a language nobody could understand.

lovable snowman

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

I love how meeting Irish people annoys Irish tourists who are trying to out-backpack everyone else by being unique in their experiences, like no one else has ever gone to these places.

Maybe I can explain why some Irish people do this. I've been living in America for almost 15 years and my wife is American. Anytime we meet an Irish person and they hear my wife's accent they immediately start rambling on about politics. We visited Ireland last year and when we got in the taxi at the airport the first question the taximan asked was "do you support Donald Trump? America has gone insane!" blah blah blah.

No other nationality does this but every Paddy has an opinion and you can bet that they'll let you know. Nowadays I try to hide my accent if I run into another Irishman. I don't want another tedious lecture about his personal political views.

razorblunt

lovable snowman wrote: »

Maybe I can explain why some Irish people do this. I've been living in America for almost 15 years and my wife is American. Anytime we meet an Irish person and they hear my wife's accent they immediately start rambling on about politics. We visited Ireland last year and when we got in the taxi at the airport the first question the taximan asked was "do you support Donald Trump? America has gone insane!" blah blah blah.

No other nationality does this but every Paddy has an opinion and you can bet that they'll let you know. Nowadays I try to hide my accent if I run into another Irishman. I don't want another tedious lecture about his personal political views.

You can't.

Winterlong

I was in beijing in the mid 90s. There were not many westerners there - to the extent that I got stopped by locals looking to take a picture of me.
So I am in the forbidden city wandering around and there is some fella with an 'opel' ireland top.
I nodded and wandered on.

dwayneshintzy

Winterlong wrote: »

I was in beijing in the mid 90s. There were not many westerners there - to the extent that I got stopped by locals looking to take a picture of me.

This will still happen, often.

robman60

Walking through Kata Tjuta National Park deep in the Australian Outback late last September.

As I near the end of a 2-3 hour hike, I spot a Mayo Jersey coming towards me. I stopped and talked as I couldn't believe I met a fellow Mayo man in such a place. He was from Castlebar, and thought he must be near the end after about half an hour, I gently let him down that he had another couple of hours in store in the now searing heat.

I told him I was heading onto Darwin and he told me that was where he lived and worked. Sure enough I met him again in the only Irish bar in Darwin as Mayo went on to lose another All Ireland replay at approximately 4am local time.

SeaFields

Was on a safari tour in Kenya and one evening went to a small bar for a local beer. A lad came in the door in a Kilkenny Jersey and sat down next to me. Had a bit of craic about "you can't go anywhere" etc.

As an aside on the same trip was stopped at traffic lights in Nairobi and there were lads selling newspapers to the cars in traffic. Guy that taps the window of our Jeep is wearing a Down jersey.

bodhrandude

In a Gulag in South Russia in 1986.

somefeen

I was in Sicily a while back. Not that remote or anything it was just the circumstance.

The mafia is still very active there especially around inner Palermo where I was hanging around. I dunno if its bull**** or not but I was told that you could actually tell the mafioso's around the place because they were the lads sitting having coffee in the middle of the night on a cordoned off bit of the street with no shops or **** all around the place.
It was bizzare but I was walking past them on a nightly basis for about a week through a fairly grimey part of the city (even by Palermo standards)

One night I seen this lad, big Irish head on him, saunter into their little enclave, and with a general Irish country accent inquire; "How's the form?"
One of the Sicilian lads looks up, and in a thick accent playfully goes; "Well-a Sean-a?"

Your man sits down and starts chatting away in what I presume was perfect Sicilian.

amtc

I worked with a girl who was fed up of her job and managed to get signed off sick for a month. During this time she went to Australia and was walking across the Great Barrier Reef ....when she met her boss who was there on holiday. As far as I know they still work in the same place