Visiting friends at dinnertime

If their dinner was ready then so was mine, so I'd head home for it. We were rural (culchie? Really?) and I've never heard a scenario like you gave. An odd time you might stay and they'd give you dinner. Never had to leave the room.

Usually would have been asked was I hungry or going home. If the latter, a plate would be on the table for me, otherwise I’d head home for my own family’s dinner. Worked both ways with friends. Sometimes depended on the game we’d have been playing or if it was summertime.

I don't know how you turned this into another woke culture war thing. Is everything different now woke to you?

Anyway, when I was growing up, if a friend was over before dinner had been started to be made, then they'd be offered a seat at the table. If they arrived not long before it was being served then they wouldn't. Probably because we had a big family and small budget.

A typical scenario down our way was more likely to be the mother asking the question "Have ya had yer dinner?"

Not really wait for a response, get an extra plate and put it on the dinner table. "You'll have this".

Ahh the good auld days.

Dublin here, we’d have had “unwritten” rules like not calling into someone between 6-7pm or before 9am on the weekend, unless it was for sports reasons.

If you happened to be in someone’s house before dinner you’d, more than likely, be asked if you wanted any.

Another one, when we got older, was not to call a house telephone after 10pm, you might push it to 10:30pm

It is trending as a woke culture war talking point on the internet and that poster just pointed it out.

OP. Were you a hideously fat, or very ugly, child that perhaps would just have put them off eating their dinner to have you visible in the room?

Nobody wants to have the enjoyment taken out of eating that hard-worked dinner by having the sight of Fatty McBlubber sitting in the corner putting them off their meal

What the hell has having dinner at a mate's got to do with racism? This country's gone mad.

If there's kids with my kids in the house or garden they get fed.

Anyone that refuses to feed kids in a situation like that is a dose.

How is this still up? Are we allowing insults now

I was Dublin too and my mother was a bit weird about this sort of thing. She probably called it 'ettiquette'. If I was in someone's house and they were eating, she expected me to come home - and vice versa. This was the neighbouring kids. I live rurally now and I will always ask whoever is there do they want eat with us - I ask early if I know I won't have enough! Generally, I'd only have the few fillets etc defrosted.