I've lost faith in Ireland.

There are two other Irish people in my course over here in college.

One of them is a Manchester United supporter. He got into an argument with my flat mate (who is actually from Manchester, and supports City) about how United were the better club, because they were somehow Irish. Needless to say, she was of a contrary opinion, so he ended the argument by saying she wouldn't understand, as she probably was a protestant!

This fella is from Killarney, so I asked him why he followed an English club instead of Tralee Dynamos. His answer? "F%^$ off, I'm not from Tralee". Not a hint of irony in his voice.

The other lad is from Limerick. His dad was chairman of the football club. He supports Manchester United as well.

What the hell is wrong with us as a country?!

the thing i dont understand is, if your a gaelic supporter, you support your team, the whole county does (i hate gaelic btw), but if your a football fan, they support an english team and dont care about their local LOI side

The Irish are a horrible group of people.

Cowardly, money-grabbing, would sell their own grandmother for a few more pints, back stabbing atrocious group of individuals. Not as funny as they think they are, and in general have to rely on them and others being drunk for their personalities to come out. Usually that personality is rubbish as well. In fact I'd credit this lack of personality and national character as to why the Irish in general will jump on whatever bandwagon is rolling along and pretend that that's what makes them Irish and lovable.

You see it with the support of British football
You see it in Munster rugby
You see it in nonsense like Arthur's Day
You see it every day walking the street
You see it on election days

Truly the Irish are Europe's shame

That's what's wrong with the Irish. Also Churchill was right, the Irish can't govern themselves

You think thats bad, I heard a group of lads in Ireland jerseys singing a United song on the way to Croker the other night, I decided on the spot that this would be the last Ireland game i ever to go

Jesus Jebus steady on there:p

I agree with some of your post.......I dont think we are the worst............but we are def not the cleverest ticket in town.....................

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Jesus Jebus steady on there:p

I agree with some of your post.......I dont think we are the worst............but we are def not the cleverest ticket in town.....................

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I agree with this.

We're like a junkie or a manic depressive coming down off a high.

Everything was fupping brilliant for 10 years, we were gold-plated, indestructable masters of our universe. The world bowed to our unique combination of financial genius, easygoing, life-and-soul-of-the-party, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends party culture and unrivalled sense of humour. We were taking over the world with a pint in one hand and a bookies docket in the other.

Now we're like a bear with a hangover. With an extra dose of the shakes and "the fear" that strikes you after a particularly bad bender. We're full of self-loathing and "never again" regrets.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle, but the catharsis is good.

Where to begin on what's wrong with the Irish.....! :eek:

The fact that we're all having this conversation in the English language, and most of us would be incapable of doing it in our native tongue 88yrs after most of the country became 'independent', says it all really.

The Irish are only Irish when it suits them. And usually that amounts to using their nationality solely to show that they're not English.

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Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

The fact that we're all having this conversation in the English language, and most of us would be incapable of doing it in our native tongue 88yrs after most of the country became 'independent', says it all really.

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I grew up speaking this language. It's mine now as much as it's an American's or a New Zealander's. The fact that my mother's grandfather spoke only broken English doesn't make Irish my tongue any more than her maiden name being Power makes me French.

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The Irish are only Irish when it suits them. And usually that amounts to using their nationality solely to show that they're not English.

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We are Irish. Most of us are just uncomfortable with the idea that that's actually pretty similar to English in the grand scheme of things.

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Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Where to begin on what's wrong with the Irish.....! :eek:

The fact that we're all having this conversation in the English language, and most of us would be incapable of doing it in our native tongue 88yrs after most of the country became 'independent', says it all really.

The Irish are only Irish when it suits them. And usually that amounts to using their nationality solely to show that they're not English.

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There's a hell of a lot more to being Irish than speaking a language that, for all intents and purposes, died out a hundred years ago. In fact, the state/official obsession with this dead language to the detriment of other aspects of Irish culture is one of the great frustrations and irritations of Irish life. One thing the Irish language certainly is NOT is 'our native tongue'. Our native tongue - by definition the language we all grow up speaking naturally - is, whether you like it or not (and you seemingly don't), English.

It's very hard to seperate Irishness and Englishness, especially because Dublin was an English (British) city, with Georgian architecture, and even our literature has a strongly Englishness about it (Dubliners for example) so if Dubliners want to be English, and Irish people aspire to living in Dublin, then they're just buying into a diluted Englishness...

I had a point at the start of this...

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Originally Posted by jebus

The Irish are a horrible group of people.

Cowardly, money-grabbing, would sell their own grandmother for a few more pints, back stabbing atrocious group of individuals. Not as funny as they think they are, and in general have to rely on them and others being drunk for their personalities to come out. Usually that personality is rubbish as well. In fact I'd credit this lack of personality and national character as to why the Irish in general will jump on whatever bandwagon is rolling along and pretend that that's what makes them Irish and lovable.

You see it with the support of British football
You see it in Munster rugby
You see it in nonsense like Arthur's Day
You see it every day walking the street
You see it on election days

Truly the Irish are Europe's shame

That's what's wrong with the Irish. Also Churchill was right, the Irish can't govern themselves

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Oh dear I agree with most if not all of this. Now I'm really worried!

Ha! Ha! If it takes a few lads singing Utd songs or you not being comfortable with Gaeilge to make you lose faith in Ireland then this is a reflection on your own character not the failings of others. There is and never will be any definition of the label 'Irishness'. All anyone can do is make an effort to shine their own corner and hope it glints brighter than all the muck around them.

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Originally Posted by peadar1987

There are two other Irish people in my course over here in college.

One of them is a Manchester United supporter. He got into an argument with my flat mate (who is actually from Manchester, and supports City) about how United were the better club, because they were somehow Irish. Needless to say, she was of a contrary opinion, so he ended the argument by saying she wouldn't understand, as she probably was a protestant!

This fella is from Killarney, so I asked him why he followed an English club instead of Tralee Dynamos. His answer? "F%^$ off, I'm not from Tralee". Not a hint of irony in his voice.

The other lad is from Limerick. His dad was chairman of the football club. He supports Manchester United as well.

What the hell is wrong with us as a country?!

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i hope this lads tongue was in his cheek somewhere..

2 issues- he was arguing with a lady and sounds like he was trying to be the tough fella

also - being from tralee myself I'm not surprised he wasn't interested. Remind him politely about killarney celtic. a lot of tralee guys I know who are big football fans didn't even know TD were in the a champs.

I wouldn't worry about it. just enjoy the feeling of superiority of knowing these guys are missing out.

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Originally Posted by twoenz

It's very hard to seperate Irishness and Englishness, especially because Dublin was an English (British) city, with Georgian architecture, and even our literature has a strongly Englishness about it (Dubliners for example) so if Dubliners want to be English, and Irish people aspire to living in Dublin, then they're just buying into a diluted Englishness...

I had a point at the start of this...

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are you suggesting dublin is really a part of england and if you live there you're not irish?

I think you need to try a little harder there..

I'm from kerry, lived in dublin for many years, I suggest you're being a bit one-sided on your views.

dubin may have been build and designed by landed gentry but it since union it has really been inhabited by the locals. what ever may have gone befoe has been utterly replaced by a strong irish city. lack of familiarity may influence your views, in which case I invite you enjoy the southern capital a bit more

however I recognise your post wasn't meant to be politically challenging and I respect that. I merely disagree. completely.

I posted something similar on the old eircomleague.net site back in the day about how i had lost faith in Irish people.The Irish supporting British teams was just the tip of the ice-berg.Yet for some reason i cling on to a hope that it will all come good one day.
-That'll there'll be more in Terryland then down the local watching "their team".
-that we wont be afraid to hang a tri-colour out the window on match days(the "going green" thing last Saturday was a disaster in Galway City).
-that we wont be afraid to use our Cupla Focail in everyday life
-that we will be an efficently run country where people are held accountable.
-that if somebody we know comes to visit Ireland we will take them on a drive to see the countryside we are blessed with instead of spending a day in a pub because its supposedly Irish.
Ive been waiting 10+ years now for it to turn around but it keeps getting worse.

How did the "going green on November 14" thing go in your area??

I don't know if this might be regarded as an Irish thing or not but the current trend to pronounce the HSE as the Átch S E on RTE is enough to make me want to throw the TV or radio out the window. For all my life in Ireland they used the Hat or Hatch sound for this letter but now are seeking to Anglisize this. This to me is a current threat that should be shot down. The Irish way of speaking English is a recognised system and should not be altered too much in my opinion.

Although this annoys me I still keep faith in Ireland.

This might not be too popular an opinion in here, but I'll go for it anyway. Englishness seems to be a disease of the Irish that has infected pretty much every Irish person in the country. From going to League of Ireland matches for years I've always been amused at the Ultra's supporters at clubs who seem to chant in an English accent all the time. The individual club chants, or the 'Who ahh ya's?' are always sung by a group of people who could be Orient or Hammer fans if you didn't know what was being sung. Dublin fans being the worst offenders. Would this be because that the majority of club chants/songs are taken from our British neighbours?

Ya totally agree. Don't get me wrong I've no problem with anyone following foregin teams but the culture that exists is crazy and would take years to change. A fellow with a Liverpool jersey asked me before the Ireland game on Saturday who I supported and of course I said Limerick. He goes no really so to **** him off I said Valencia were my other team because I have seen them play in Spain a couple of times. His reply was, 'ha that's weird man, why do you support a Spainish team'. I just looked at him at laughed.

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Originally Posted by peadar1987

What the hell is wrong with us as a country?!

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Globalisation.

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Originally Posted by BohDiddley

Globalisation.

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Yea, element of that BD but suspect it is much easier and cheaper to sit in the pub watching SKY than to travel to a LOI game.

What always p**ses me off is the "WE" crap when talking about a club they will never visit in a town/city they could not point out on a map :confused: