Have we lost our Patriotism?

But the world has always changed. My grandmother didn't speak English till she was 16, only Irish. The country would go mental if we qualified for a world cup again. Not into GAA but i believe its more popular than ever. Accents change, the world is more globalised now. Embrace it, because it's never going back.

This is the thing that a lot of 'save our Irish culture!' people just don't seem to get.

They conflate the country they grew up in and the experience they had in a certain time of Ireland's existence and 'Irish Culture'.

You can be sure people a hundred years before that and a hundred years again before that had very different notions about Irish life and culture.

What you are experiencing now in Ireland is in fact 'Irish Culture' - It's Irish culture of the 21st Century.

'Irish Culture' of the mid to late 21st Century will be very different again and you'll probably have 'patriots' of that era calling for a return to 'Irish Culture' of the early 21st Century, and how that's being eroded.

The world changes for everyone. Trying to keep the country around you in some kind of static cultural limbo is nonsense.

I find it incredible how blind people can be to their own national traits. It's the age old thing where folks say 'Sure I don't have an accent' in a thick Irish accent.

Ireland is Irish even down to the way people speak to each other. The colloquialisms we all use. In fact, we turn a lot of things Irish with immigration - I was speaking to a Polish lady in work yesterday with the thickest Dublin lilt to her Polish accent you could imagine. Of course, she couldn't hear it at all.

There are so many things that are culturally Irish that you think, say and do on a daily basis that don't even occur to you.

keeping growing is not sustainable but it is what all politicians and nearly all voters want, more money more jobs better opportunities. so that wont be changing any time soon, no one is going to vote for degrowth.

irish culture is very clear, what is it then? you seem to be avoiding the question.

Here's patriotism for you:

Fair play to him, at least he is deciding where his money is going.

So you'd have more in common with an Irish man living out in the west 100 years ago, with no electricity, doesn't speak English, tilling the fields for a living than a moderate Muslim living today, working for a big tech multinational like Google, with a smart phone like you, living in an apartment in the city centre?

Oh wait, you mean those burka wearing Muslims who don't speak English and want us all to live under Sharia Law. Sorry I forgot they were all like that.

It a great example of this myth of affinity people have with their cultural ancestors over people actually living and breathing on the earth today.

In reality if you could time travel and put an average Irish man of today in a room with an average Irish man of 100 years ago they'd have nothing in common at all. Might have a bit of a rant about the British, the price of a pint and the weather but that's probably about it.

Ah now, ya don't want him to waste his money.

The extremist Muslim you have in mind as you write this would probably be closer to the Irish person of 100 years ago, than the average Irish person today is. The vast majority of muslims though don't conform with the stereotype that is often associated with the narrative that they are taking over. As others have pointed out, most muslims in Ireland are similar in many outwardly behaviours to most of people of similar age and background.

It always seems to me that people who complain most about Ireland losing its culture do least to maintain it and in fact hasten the end of the culture themselves with their own life choices. You never seem to see a fluent Irish speaker complaining about losing culture because of modern immigrants, in fact, I'd bet a lot of those who shout about losing it would also be in favour of not having to learn Irish in secondary school and spend a lot of their time complaining about native things like RTE and the shows it produces.

Irish people seek out foreign music, TV, food, sports of their own volition which of course means a loss of attention for traditional sources of such material. This is not because of any sort of takeover and blaming the comparatively small number of those who do come and stick to their own kind is exaggerating the impact that this has in my view.

What is Irish culture, define it. This is a country settled by pagans and celts plundered by the vikings, then the Normans, then the English, the Dutch, the Spanish tried and the English again.

We are mishmash of cultures and ideals, more conservative in west, more proud of our lands in the south, more liberal in the east and in the north of our island 50% think they are Irish (but not Irish like those southern traitor free-staters and the other 50% think they are British (even though nobody in Britain views them as anything but Irish).

You didn't talk to anyone from 100 years ago thats just silly.

Any person living in 2023 regardless of culture or religion has alot more in common with you or me than someone living in 1923. That's just common sense. Our world today would be completely alien to an Irish person in 1923.

Delete that comparison of immigration to slavery. Thats just ridiculous.

You really are insufferable lol

Our own government figures say so. That's why they reduced the pull factor this week, - about a year andva half late..

It's been posted and verified further up in this or the other thread. I can't remember which and I've more to do than that today.

You made a good post which I thanked and generally agree with. I disagree that all the Ukrainians should be just accepted without seeing where in Ukraine they left or indeed which other European country they were being accommodated in before they heard about how good they'd have it here.

Let's leave it at that.

we would be better off sending a number of "Irish" over to another country

This would tell you the answer is a resounding NO .....

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