British people who moved to Ireland (and vice versa), did you experience culture shock and if so, what?
Posted by Bottom-Bherp3912@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 360 comments
Basically this \^
On the surface both countries look similar but of course deep down there are differences. If you're a Briton who's moved to Ireland or Irish and moved to the UK, what's your experience been like and did you have culture shock?
Pixeko@reddit
Brit who moved to rural Ireland: The biggest shock was the definition of knowing someone. In the UK, you can live next to someone for ten years and barely know their name. In my village in Ireland, if you don't know someone's second cousin's dog's name, you're considered a complete stranger.
GooseyDuckDuck@reddit
That’s village life vs a town though isn’t it?
fridakahl0@reddit
Not necessarily, some English villages are pretty insular. You might know a few families, landlord/regulars at pub but it’s not like you know everyone. In my experience of middle class/upper people in the villages many don’t seem to actually want to live in community. Think this probably varies by what part of the country you’re in, I’m talking East Mids
Funny-Strawberry1351@reddit
that definitely has not been my experience in the west midlands. english villages are full of SAHMs who do nothing but gossip and drink wine
Confident_Drop8326@reddit
Lots the ones near me do picnics midweek. Nothing in common
hymenopteron@reddit
Yeah those people want all the trappings of a country village without actually contributing to the community.
They'll even proudly call their house something like "The old schoolhouse", or "The old forge", or "Crofters Cottage" or something like that. These are the people they've replaced, whose grandkids can't afford to buy in the area anymore.
Psittacula2@reddit
That is not it, you’re just crapping on people without thinking it through.
English Villages mostly DIED as communities with the advent of Industrialisation and Transportation so you lost out on old cottage economies and local economies as circular -
* Which meant higher density of businesses and livelihoods
* Interconnection of relationships by proximity, shared local history and ancestry and business/livelihood dependence
* Way back the wheat in the field harvested by the farmers and labourers would go to the mill then to the baker then to the villagers bread including the people who sorted out the horse’s shoes who ploughed the fields or the carpenter who fixed the fences or gates and so on depending on the farmer.
* This sort of way of life still dribbled on a bit with the old baker, butcher, grocer and so on until post war increase in supermarkets.
Finally what replaced the above on modern times:
Young people go to cities to get salaried jobs and work and find a mate
Move to suburbs with children for more space and schools
Retire from work when kids leave and pension is near to villages or coastal retirement centers and care homes
Just look at the people on Escape To The Country and all those shows which spring up around this.
The basic way of life is all like a conveyor belt in England. It is going that way in Ireland a bit more now especially the attack on farmers also going on there as they have remained more agrarian for longer with small population.
So with that you still have the rural community and not a lot else to do out in the sticks more than England. You can find patches in England more towards the remote regions but the population pressure is massive so even that is resceding.
Also the Irish being more Celtic are also different in character and culture and temperament to the majority of English in South, Midlands and Northern Ckites majority of Anglo-Saxon, Norman and International Multiethnic these days also.
Basically villages in England are usually:
Dormitory Villages if in commuter belts
Retirement Villages if prices are high (care homes and nursing jobs mostly)
Themepark Villages for tourists if in National Parks or AOONB with building regulations eg Grade II Listed
Villages along roads and housing pressure due to population and County targets for LEGO land closes for social housing.
Rare traditional village hanging on with aging population and youth all leaving. Usually more remote.
Note Ireland probably sustains rural communities in part due to the above factors and also due to the abysmal climate of wind, rain, cloud and dark!
hymenopteron@reddit
I'm not 'crapping' on anyone, youve spelt out my point for me.
Those people aren't the cause, they're the symptom of an already collapsed rural way of life. The modern version of a village is just an aesthetic, it has nothing in common with the traditional way it was. Wealthy people now live in the same old buildings that used to be vital to the community. Now though there's no community and few people know eachother (maybe outside of the pub or the rotary club).
I am talking about the home counties here more than further afar. I have small experience of rural Ireland but id imagine there's less of a pressure driving locals out given the low national population.
Psittacula2@reddit
My mistake and apologies, I misinterpreted your concise reply on this trend.
Thanks for the extra detail and agree. Yes economics has hollowed it out into aesthetic only and England has a sort of weird social treadmill instead now eg retirees vs young.
GBrunt@reddit
Ireland doesn't have the same level of building restrictions so you end up with the 'bungalow blitz' where rural communities can actually be quite large but spread out and encompass all sorts of professional and trades people on top of farmers and farming.
rumade@reddit
That sounds like a better situation tbh. English planning rules are way too tight.
Hame_Impala@reddit
And then they'll wonder why there are no younger residents around.
360Saturn@reddit
A woman in the road my grandmother lives in in a village recently died, leaving no family and a four bed house unoccupied.
My mother and grandmother are both excited that 'some young family will move in' and I haven't the heart to tell them the chance of an average young family being able to afford to buy a four bed house in the south of England is pretty close to zero unless they happen to be passing millionaires!
merryman1@reddit
My home village in South Yorkshire. Lovely quaint place, great community, loved it growing up.
Not one single person from my age cohort, literally not a single person I knew growing up, has been able to find a career/afford to stay in the village. Everyone has left. So now the place is just our ageing parents and grandparents wondering why the few people with kids still in the village are all from London. House prices are 30% above the county average though so winner winner.
Fast_Explanation_802@reddit
Eyup cock!
Hame_Impala@reddit
In Scotland the prospect of staying in much of the Highlands/islands is just a bit of a non-starter for lots of professionals. Insanely expensive too. And you inevitably end up with worker shortages.
Confident_Drop8326@reddit
Guilty as charged! Although tbf, I am trying to speak with the mums in the area but we have nothing in common. They can't meet up at the weekends and I can't do picnic on a Wednesday lunchtime because I work FT.
I'm not into pubs, never have been. I do shop from the local village shop and go to the local gym. There just isn't a lot going on in the area to get involved in
hymenopteron@reddit
We can only hope someone starts a yoga class in the church rooms lol (I'm only messing :)
Specialist-Mud-6650@reddit
There's loads more than that.
Lots of these villages used to be based around farm work and the people who worked said farms. But as farming has increasingly mechanised, the amount of farm workers has shrunk dramatically.
Used to be you'd have a bunch of families working the same farms in the same villages, which made it tight-knit. Living with the people you work with does that.
Ok_Economist7901@reddit
Was in N Yorks the other day at a NT property. Every single volunteer was a woman of a certain age with a southern accent and tbh not that friendly. Wandered around Helmsley and heard very few local accents in the shops/pubs. Got a picture framed somewhere else and another local was pontificating at length to the shop owner, both were older well spoken affluent southerners.
These places are just becoming enclaves of retired people who’ve headed north for the cheap converted barn and quieter pace of life. I wonder what will happen in later years when the poorer local locals are pushed to the shite places and the chocolate box picture perfect villages are just sterile, naice retirement homes for Londoners and Home Counties. I say that as a northerner already pushed out of my own home town because of prices. ironically when I grew up there it was a bit of a dump.
bluejeansseltzer@reddit
Can't speak generally but all of the villages I've lived in in the last 10 years have been extremely insular
fartingbeagle@reddit
Believe me, Irish country life can be like that as well.
bluejeansseltzer@reddit
I don't doubt it at all. I was just commenting on the village-town dynamic more than the specifically British/Irish village-town dynamic.
Sburns85@reddit
More area life than town vs village life.
Amnsia@reddit
It is, I know more people in my cousins small UK village than my town.
AnyOlUsername@reddit
I’d say it’s very similar to that here.
I’m in west wales and people just seem to know each other. And I say that as someone who is considered a ‘recluse’, I still know more people’s business than I’d like.
General-Bumblebee180@reddit
I live in rural Wales and we know almost everyone on our road. We made a very concerted effort to actually stop and introduce ourselves to everyone we met though when we first moved here. I see more people to say hello to here then I ever did living in middle of town. Always something happening round and about.
Sburns85@reddit
Should also say. Scottish life is different from English life. Out towns and villages are just different compared to England
neo4025@reddit
Can’t speak for your experience in Ireland. But I just moved from rural France, back to the UK. A rural area. And I feel like I know my neighbour’s here, better than I did in rural France. Must just be your personal experience?
summerDom@reddit
This is true of every answer to the question but it's what people are looking for, not actual data sampling but real human stories
Glass-Operation8618@reddit
I live in a city in Yorkshire and I knew all my neighbours within about 2-3 months of renting my current house. I've always known my neighbours growing up too. Know all their dogs names too lmao 😆
jaymatthewbee@reddit
My experience of rural life in the UK would be the same, everyone know everyone in our village.
CaterpillarThink8933@reddit
Irish that moved to England here.
I am continually shocked at how few people are aware that Ireland is not part of the UK.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
Where did you move to in England? I live near London and everyone I met understands Ireland is not part of the UK… it’s definitely common knowledge.
hopium_od@reddit
I'm Irish in England. He's definitely over-stating it. I have met plenty of people that don't understand Ireland is not of the UK, but these are people that don't know shit about shit and exist in every country.
The majority of people's first question like 80% of the time, is "are you from the north/south" indicating they fully understand the geographical situation.
The 20% can be a bit grating but like I said, every country has people that don't know their head form their arse.
jamesc1071@reddit
I think most people in the UK don't know what the UK is or was. It is just two letters. So, any conversation with a person in England about the UK is liable to result in a misunderstanding.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
That honestly is completely wrong, most people know what the UK is. I question where you are in the UK if you have that impression
jamesc1071@reddit
What is it, then?
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
A political union between four or three countries depending on what you see Northern Ireland as.
Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Full name United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
England is directly controlled by the UK government with no devolved power.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have devolved governments.
It’s not hard, most people in the UK know this or have been taught it at some point in their lives.
jamesc1071@reddit
Well done for copying and pasting.
jamesc1071@reddit
What is your evidence for your claim that most people know what the UK is?
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
It’s something that’s all around us, we were taught it at school, and at some point it’s completely normal for people to wonder what country they are in and how it works, usually this happens as children as we start learning about the world, see a globe for the first time etc And of course the people around me and online.
What’s your evidence for YOUR claim that most people don’t know what the UK is??
jamesc1071@reddit
Yes, you were taught it as a child because, presumably, it was part of the National Curriculum (introduced in 1988) when you were at school.
The median age in the UK is 40, and 25% is over 60. I would guess a large part of the older age group were not taught it at school.
I would also guess that a large part of the group that were taught it at school don't remember it or never understood it properly in the first place.The median GCSE is grade 4, for reference.
As for evidence, a simple search of is GB the UK, will throw up lots of evidence.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
I wasn’t in school in 1988, 20 years and more before I was in school but whatever.
The older age group tend to more interested in history and would learn it from their younger generation then.
If your main complaint is the older generation 60 plus years old don’t know the UK, that’s not the majority of Brits now is it?
Why do you guess that? What is your evidence?
Most of us learn facts like the earth goes around the sun, the moon goes around the earth, etc and that is considered common knowledge and people would look at you oddly if you didn’t know that. Knowledge like this is still there. Even though we don’t need to know this.
Why in your view would the majority of Brits forget basic facts about their country?
Also simple search of? Not sure how that proves anything. You don’t know the majority of Brits age that are searching this nor do you know if it’s Brits?
But asking is GB the UK. Is not the same as asking what is the UK and people not know what the UK is??
jamesc1071@reddit
I wonder why you talk about 'most of us' and what 'most of us' have learned. Maybe you have worked as a teacher - I am guessing that you haven't.
Someone who asks whether GB is the UK clearly does not know what they are,which was my original point.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
I have already explained my reasons as to why I think that and I disagree with your reasons.
I completely disagree.
You can know what the UK is and be unsure if GB means the same thing or not.
Or visa versa, though I’d argue that it’s more likely to know what the UK is and be unsure how GB fits into it.
I think the confusion comes from seeing GB and UK being used the same but not understanding that GB mainly means the geographical land mass, not the political union.
You can very much know what the UK is and understand it but not understand Great Britain terminology.
jamesc1071@reddit
Well, this is where we differ.
The term UK is, short for United Kingdom, which is in turn a contraction of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
It is not possible, in any meaningful sense to 'know' what the UK is, without understanding this is what it means.
And that depends on knowing what Great Britain means.
So, it follows that anyone who asks whether the UK and GB are the same, does not know what the UK is.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
Um yes…there is,
You can understand what the UK is, a political union between the countries of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales without understanding where Great Britain fits into it all.
jamesc1071@reddit
I see: having previously told me that everyone knows what the UK means, you now say that a person can understand it without knowing what it means. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
Honestly don’t understand what You are getting at.
Majority of people know what the UK is and what it means, end of.
You seem to be looking for some strange technicality to prove you are right.
To me your first comment implied that majority of Brits don’t understand what the UK is.
I disagree. Due to reasons I gave beforehand.
jamesc1071@reddit
https://share.google/aimode/22MD6HYMoHswhY0YI
hopium_od@reddit
Where is your evidence that they dont? You made thelat initial claim out of nowhere as a reply to me.
hopium_od@reddit
Where is your evidence that they dont?
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
I didn’t copy and paste, THIS IS what the UK and what I’ve been taught
hopium_od@reddit
This sounds like something someone that doesn't speak to people would say.
jamesc1071@reddit
If you say so, my friend. You have managed to make several basic grammatical errors in one sentence, but well done.
NotAProperAccount3@reddit
I'm from Northern Ireland and the amount of people in GB who do not understand it is part of the UK and most things about day to day life are remarkably similar, our schooling/university is exactly the same, our currency and taxes are the same etc. is shocking.
Like maybe congratulations on not hanging out with morons, but trust me when I say the ignorance might only bubble to the surface when they're actually confronted with someone from the place!
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
I think perhaps because you are looking for this type of thing
MeatGayzer69@reddit
Isn't a big difference you can have handguns in Northern Ireland
NotAProperAccount3@reddit
Well there are devolved laws, there are guns, but they're similarly locked down like in the rest of the UK. The only real difference when it comes to guns is that our police force is the only one in the UK where the day to day non specialist officers are armed.
reditcyclist@reddit
You must be hanging out with morons Shirely?
Rob_Cake@reddit
Everyone knows Great Briton is in the EU, but only the UK is in Europe.
Read a book dude.
hodzibaer@reddit
Um… no that’s not correct.
The island that consists of England, Scotland and Wales is called Great Britain. Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or UK for short).
A great Briton is a person (“Declan Rice is a great Briton”).
Rob_Cake@reddit
I refer to it as Briton have you not seen us working class sticking the flag up everywhere lately ?
Unlucky_Flow8785@reddit
Think he may have been joking there mate
hodzibaer@reddit
One can only hope
hurricane_97@reddit
Don’t call him Shirley
saccerzd@reddit
Or Shirely
Agreeable-Bluejay235@reddit
theyre not wrong abt the irish history part. I was never taught abt irish history at my school in england.
Rob_Cake@reddit
That's cause we don't care
tennereachway@reddit
Not knowing where your own fucking country begins and ends is ludicrous.
Rob_Cake@reddit
The UK isn't a country retard
SameOldSong4Ever@reddit
Why?
Unless you're some sort of extreme nationalist, it's not a big deal to most people.
GooseyDuckDuck@reddit
Calling bullshit on this one
tennereachway@reddit
Defo not bullshit (as an Irish who lived in the UK). I've encountered loads of Brits under the impression that either all of Ireland is part of the UK or none of it is. Not the majority of course, but not exactly a miniscule minority either.
Total_Rules@reddit
Yeah my mum only recently “learnt” that Ireland is not part of the UK. My dad is from Ireland and they’ve been married for 40 years 🙄
Lots of people are ignorant about things that don’t concern them and thus never think about.
Away-Ad4393@reddit
Aren’t you and you mum interested in your dad’s country though?
Total_Rules@reddit
Why do you assume I’m not?
As for my mum she’s been to Ireland plenty of times but thought it was a constituent country like England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since there’s no border and British and Irish citizens aren’t considered foreign in each others countries.
My dad also has a British passport but he’s not a British citizen which likely adds to the confusion…
Northern Ireland (particular the name of it) seems to conflate this misconception for people as well.
My wife isn’t from the UK and she also thought Ireland was part of the UK so it’s not only English people that aren’t aware.
unseemly_turbidity@reddit
Didn't she wonder why she had to use a different currency there?!
Total_Rules@reddit
I don’t know but last time we were in Ireland together they used the Irish Pound and it’s not unusual for British territories to use a different currency.
CoffeeTableReads@reddit
It's really not. The amount of times I've been labelled as a British citizen by recruiters, employers, even speaking to the HMRC (why don't you have a NI number since birth?)
Hame_Impala@reddit
I'd expect it to be incredibly rare but I have some otherwise intelligent friends who are utterly horrendous when it comes to geography. Some people really just don't know the world around them at all which is wild to me.
442blue@reddit
I wouldn't call total bullshit on it, I am Irish too. Vast majority of Brits know the difference but you come across a surprisingly vocal minority (albeit very small in my case) who don't
WhiteKnightAlpha@reddit
I was taught some UK/Ireland history at school, so "nothing" is a bit of an overstatement.
An issue with history lessons in the UK is that they are not strongly defined by the curriculum. A school on one side of a road might teach different history topics to a school on the other side, which are both different to the topics taught in a school at the other end of town, and so on. Given that there's about 5,000 of recorded world history and about 2,000 years of recorded British history, there's a lot to choose from. That is then all crammed into only a few hundred hours of lesson time over an average child's entire education.
isn't really possible to state what is or isn't taught in schools based purely on anecdotal experience.
It
One-Jackfruit4254@reddit
The only part of Ireland that is part of the UK is Northern Ireland, the rest is its own separate country. How can people not know this. Mind you talking to some foreign friends about the IRA threat until the good Friday peace agreement, they couldnt believe the kind of threats parts of England dealt with or the damage and devastation that was caused. They had no idea at all.
ferocious_bandana@reddit
You'll be amazed if you learn the whole history and discover the police were responsible for the first killings, including machine gunning a child, and that the people responsible for starting the terrorism support the British government
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
I think this is common knowledge for people living in and visiting London a lot, at least since we all at some point looked up and researched into, why is there no bins around us!!
Chance-Bread-315@reddit
I dunno, as someone who was born not long after the 1996 bombing in Manchester I spent my entire childhood knowing that there was a bombing (and that's why there are no bins in the arndale centre) and that it was the IRA, but I'm not sure I knew what the IRA were actually all about/why they were setting off bombs until I was in my teens - and even then had the skewed English perspective.
AssumptionBudget279@reddit
Well when I first researched it, my first logical question was why where they bombing us in the first place and I would have thought a lot of people wondered that who also researched it?
NotAProperAccount3@reddit
Tbf I'm 35 from NI, so I remember the good Friday agreement and various other incidents. But if you're younger than about 30 you wouldn't so much, and if you're younger than that age and not in NI I can appreciate how it might pass you by.
5x0uf5o@reddit
I just heard a BBC Radio presenter say how a Dublin band are "telling the story of what it's like to be a young person in the UK these days" or some bollocks like that.
nothingtoseehere____@reddit
To Ireland, the actions of the English/British state in Ireland is your history.
To the UK, it's just one of many bits of colonialism and domestic politics. You'd also be shocked at how many British people know nothing of how Scotland joined the UK or Scottish history either.
Inappropriateout@reddit
You’d be surprised how many people from Scotland base their own knowledge of history on Braveheart……
RibEyeSequential@reddit
A lot of English genuinely think or won't admit the empire was horrible to Ireland as a colony. Even my generation. Like they never saw the news back in the 80s/90s
tennereachway@reddit
I expect some downvotes for this but a big culture shock I've encountered living in the UK compared to Ireland is that Brits (especially English) in general seem more like Americans in their worldview and outlook, by which I mean they're generally more insular and ignorant of everything beyond their borders and have no interest in broadening their horizons.
Common-Spend5000@reddit
I think in Europe it's a big vs small country thing.
If the place has 45m plus people they are more like England in this regard eg. Spain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy. I think what clouds our view (if you only speak English), is that those who speak English and we interact with from those countries will be the subsection more internationally aware than the average.
But countries closer to around around our size in population like Norway, Denmark, Slovakia, Portugal tend to be better.
I think part of it being smaller means less happens objectively day to day, meaning there's more international coverage to fill the news. Also more news makes it to the national level that would only be local or regional in bigger countries, which can shape how communities perceive certain issues differently on the societal level.
Main_Masterpiece8414@reddit
Not true. I am Italian and I have the same impression as u/tennereachway .
I mean, Italy, Spain, France and the Holy Roman Empire alone had so many exchanges and that really it is reflected in our subsequent history, not to mention how linguistic and ethnic minorities favour continuity between countries and cultures (i.e. Occitanian culture spans from Catalunya to Western Piedmont and Liguria, the Italian province of South Tyrol is German-speaking, then you have Friuli which is a mix of Italy and Slovenia etc.).
Phoenix_Kerman@reddit
throughout history the vast majority of english people were treated more like the irish than as the rest of the elites
escapingfromelba@reddit
As it was to the people here. The issue with the history is it's far more complex than grievance mongers claim. The Normans who took Ireland themselves became separate over time to those in England etc etc.
durkbot@reddit
I grew up in a town with a statue of Oliver Cromwell in the town centre, my Irish grandfather almost had a heart attack when he saw it. We learned about Cromwell as Lord Protector, not once about his exploits in Ireland
MinimumSilver5814@reddit
This has more than a little "I'm the main character" energy.
theotherquantumjim@reddit
I was at school in Manchester in the nineties. Ireland and its history with the UK was definitely taught to us at GCSE
Temporary_Ebb9486@reddit
I find this so embarrassing.
gash_dits_wafu@reddit
I'm surprised by the not knowing the UK thing, but I definitely know what you mean about the history of UK/Ireland. That never came up once when I was at school. When I got to uni and made friends with a guy from NI, I realised just how lacking my knowledge of it all was, so had to do a bunch of reading myself.
AceOfSpades532@reddit
I don’t believe that, are you only talking about it with idiots or something?
The_39th_Step@reddit
I see this said a lot. The vast majority of people know. It’s the few that don’t that are standing out to you,
Easy_Effort7985@reddit
Not moved but lived and worked in Ireland for 4 months. They’re odd.
Wgh555@reddit
In what way
Easy_Effort7985@reddit
I know it seems like an odd criticism, but there's this false positivity around EVERYTHING, which makes it really hard to get people's actual honest opinion on things when you need it. Everything is GREAT! An example off the top of my head would be going to dinner with my friend there, he'd complained to me a couple of times throughout the meal about the food. When the waitress came, he told her it was "absolutely lovely". Poor example I know, but when you're dealing with that daily, especially concerning things at work, it can become exasperating.
NoFewSatan@reddit
That incident plays out in the UK daily. On the positivity, I would have to disagree with you there, it's essentially the opposite in Ireland.
Easy_Effort7985@reddit
It was something both myself and the one other English guy I was there with noticed. Working alongside plenty of Irish each day.
Funny to get so downvoted on my original comment 😆which was definitely tongue in cheek.
I do like the Irish. The funny thing is, they have a definite and tangible chip on their shoulder about the English.
NoFewSatan@reddit
Probably because you're brandishing a whole country of people as odd
Easy_Effort7985@reddit
On a thread about cultural differences...How unbelievable 😱 get a sense of humour
Ozmorty@reddit
Username checks out.
Rob_Cake@reddit
Lol
MainCartographer4022@reddit
I am English and have been living in Ireland for nearly 4 years now. I wouldn't say there was a culture shock as there is so much that feels familiar (e.g., I can do my shopping in Tesco, buy Marmite, speak English everywhere, watch BBC One etc.) I've lived in other countries where the shock felt much bigger because there was little to no familiarity, and a language barrier.
BUT I will say that British people and especially sadly the English are incredibly ignorant not only of the cultural differences but the historical backdrop.
So many English presume 'we're the same' and the fact is, we aren't. There are so many facets to Irish culture beyond Guinness that we are unaware of (the deeply ingrained love for GAA, the rich musical traditions, the folklore, the continued and yet diminished role of the Catholic Church in society and education, an entire language that is a minority language because of us, to name but a few.) I also think that the English education system largely avoids teaching us about the historical relationship between the UK and Ireland - and that history is everywhere you go here. I'm talking about the English occupation of Ireland, the Great Famine, the battle for independence, the aftermath of that independence, the Troubles, the aftermath of the Good Friday agreement. I did history to A Level and didn't learn a single thing about Ireland. So for me the biggest 'shock' I suppose was moving here and realising that the scars of that complex history still run deep and that I was largely ignorant of it all. I have neighbours who tell me their late parents hated the English and would be turning in their graves at the idea of a grandchild playing 'soccer', whilst being very warm and accepting of me!
I know our view on the darker parts of history are 'it's in the past' but that's not true for a lot of Irish people in my experience, so jokes about them 'loving potatoes' are taken with a dim view because it shows again that we don't understand - or respect - their history and our role in it.
I suppose to bottom line it, one of the biggest cultural differences between the Brits / English and the Irish is that they are really proud of their country and its traditions without being extreme about it, whereas I think we have a divided opinion and a bit of confusion about our own identity perhaps.
Physical_Memory_6644@reddit
Love the self-awareness of this post and how much effort you’ve clearly put into understanding our perspective. Hope you’re enjoying life in Ireland!
MainCartographer4022@reddit
Ah thanks - loving life here and the amazing community around me, can't see myself leaving to be honest!
Anathemachiavellian@reddit
I do wonder if it was my English school specifically or during a certain time period, but I was very much taught a lot about the history of Ireland in regards to British occupation (including the potato famine) as well as the Troubles. This was in about year 9 as I didn’t continue on to a history GCSE.
MainCartographer4022@reddit
Interestingly a friend of mine who is the same age of me did learn a bit about Irish history at school, so it must vary from school to school.
Anathemachiavellian@reddit
I’m not sure how much say teachers get on the curriculum before GCSE, but my teacher was Northern Irish (and I presume Catholic by her surname).
MainCartographer4022@reddit
According to Google they have near total autonomy over it pre GCSE, so I'm sure she is the reason you covered it (and that is also why many others don't!)
Anathemachiavellian@reddit
Ah that’s probably it then. Assumed the main subjects were fairly fixed. My family are also Irish so I had the home education on the matter too!
JohnCaner@reddit
I went to English Martyrs RC primary in the 70s. I won't say where in England. Many teachers, and the priest were Irish. Ditto for my Catholic Secondary. In RE we were taught an alternate history of England, with much emphasis on the evil Tudors Henry and Liz, and their oppression of Catholics.
I had home education too. But certain views could not be expressed in front of my very English mother. Deep in his cups my dad might expound on the evil of Churchill, or the greatness of Gerry Adams...
Phoenix_Kerman@reddit
mad that you put all that history on the english despite the scottish being some of the biggest drivers of it and many if not the majority of english people outside london having seen a history more like the irish than the other
MainCartographer4022@reddit
I can only speak from my own perspective as someone from England and educated in the English system - I don't want to presume that the Scottish education system skirts this part of history because I have no idea if it does or not, and Northern Ireland is obviously different again. Also in my own experience living in Ireland, I'm viewed as English, not British. Scottish people seem to be separated from me in the Irish point of view.
Phoenix_Kerman@reddit
the scottish thinking on this is often worse than just skirting parts of history but attempts to redefine it. scotland joined the union largely out of wanting to profit from colonialism and did massively, it was an equal part in the empires brutality when many parts of england saw the same face of the empire the irish did
yet there are many scots today that believe scotland was a victim of colonialism. i'm aware a lot of irish people mean english by saying british, but that means there's a lot of misplaced contempt when actually looking at the history
the thing is the english system doesn't really skirt anything as such. it's just the history of ireland is depressingly not that unique, as the face of empire london and scotland brutalised and sucked the wealth and life out of many places whether that was working class england and wales or ireland and india
da_meek@reddit
Comparing how various imperial British Governments treated working class English to the Irish or India is absolutely wild lol. Ireland’s population still hasn’t recovered from the Great famine, a situation massively exacerbated by deliberate policy from Westminster.
LevDavidovicLandau@reddit
I don’t mean to judge, but I didn’t grow up in the UK (nor am I Irish) and I know about all the history you’re talking about (Cromwell, the Plantations, the Jacobite wars, the Famine, Daniel O’Connell, Easter Rising, the Troubles, etc.) through reading. Is information about these things censored in the UK, like the Chinese internet when it comes to the Tiananmen Square Massacre?
MattGSJ@reddit
Churchill said “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”. The UK / Britain / England has a lot of history so there’s only so much that can be taught in GCSE / A level and not much of it is around the theme of ‘look at the atrocious things we did in this period that we’d all be mortified to learn about’.
I didn’t know about the famine or events like the Boston Tea Party until long after I did GCSE and A level History because we weren’t taught much in the way of past abhorrent actions or failures.
LevDavidovicLandau@reddit
On the one hand it’s interesting that you mention that particular quote of Churchill’s because I’m almost 100% sure it’s in reference to his history of WWII (for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature), so he quite literally wrote history there.
On the other hand, given that I’m an Indian-born Australian up here in the UK, it’s hilarious that you bring up Churchill because while I think his actions towards India are pretty infamous by now, what not many Britons know is that he is not exactly loved in Australia either because he is perceived there as having first sold the ANZACs up the river at Gallipoli in 1915 (that campaign, which he devised, was a disaster) and then again in 1942 when Singapore fell and thousands were captured as POWs by the Japanese.
escapingfromelba@reddit
That point about Gallipoli isn't even historically accurate, it's a folk memory version.
LevDavidovicLandau@reddit
Can you tell me more, or point me towards a reliable reference? I’d be happy to acknowledge that I’m wrong if I am indeed wrong here.
MattGSJ@reddit
Bringing up Churchill was 100% intentional. The ‘saviour of WWII’ undoubtedly, and given a state funeral accordingly. But he had a catalogue of decisions such as the Bengal Famine, Gallipoli and his decision to deploy the Black and Tans in Ireland that don’t have massive coverage.
escapingfromelba@reddit
People misunderstand school teaching too. History isn't taught to self flagellate or to indoctrinate kids (although activists constantly demand it), they pick topics to support the teaching of the method i.e the topic isn't the point, it's a means to test theory of primary and secondary sources, evidence and so on.
So they might do the cold war or medieval medicine rather than lectures as if we were China.
unclear_warfare@reddit
It's not censored, not at all, but it's just not taught in most schools (if any). It is a bit strange because various other aspects of British colonialism do crop up in the syllabus, and don't always show Britain in the best light (eg the slave trade, Indian mutiny)
jack853846@reddit
"Through books and the internet" is doing some heavy lifting there.
It's kind of the point, you've taught yourself this (and fair play for doing so). British schools do not teach anything to do with Ireland. The closest I can think is that we're taught Ireland took a neutral stance in WWII, but there will probably be one sentence, a factual statement, regarding that, with no discussion of why that happened.
drivingagermanwhip@reddit
It's not censored but I'd say it's not taught either. I'm 36 and this may have changed since I was in school, but a huge proportion of British people just are not aware of the atrocities commited by Britain in the past.
There was a concerted effort by our government to destroy evidence of our wrongdoing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Legacy) so it was very much intentional in the 20th century. However the net result of things being actively hidden in the 50s and 60s is that older people will assume rectifying this is 'revisionism' and teachers didn't learn about the Empire properly at school either so they don't know what they don't know.
alex21dragons@reddit
You can get all that information. I think what they mean is that it isn't covered in school history lessons until at least 16+ as an optional course. Most people aren't that interested in studying history on their own, in my experience, beyond a few exciting stories.
Patch86UK@reddit
I think it's fair to say that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who read Wikipedia pages about history for fun, and those that don't.
For an awful lot of people, the beginning and end of their history education is school; if it's not taught as part of the curriculum, they won't know about it. And the various darker aspects of British imperialism are not on the curriculum.
(Also: there are a lot of dark aspects of British imperialism. Even if we taught school kids about Ireland, we'd still have lots of stuff about India/South Asia, Africa, China, Australia, the Americas etc. uncovered. The British Empire being shitty to people is a fairly big subject...)
LevDavidovicLandau@reddit
That is fair… and guilty as charged. I’m currently learning about the Stasi.
MainCartographer4022@reddit
It's fine to judge, I'm judging it myself. Everything I know about those topics comes from things I've read and documentaries I've seen too and I will be fully transparent and admit that most of what I've learned has been in the past 4 years since I came here. Before that my knowledge of Irish history was limited to the Troubles and even that was from what I've seen growing up on the news. For context, I'm a well educated 40 year old with a degree in European languages and history!
There's only ever going to be a % of the population that engage with those topics after formal education ends. The other comment here is right that we can only fit so much into the education system, but it's a shame that something so closely related to the island we sit alongside (and rightly or wrongly, still have a stake in) is neglected so completely. And back in my day, what we did learn about the British Empire was very biased reflecting back on it, and it didn't touch Ireland at all.
360Saturn@reddit
It isn't censored, but if it never comes up in your schooling even when you are being taught broadly about the history of your country and its immediate neighbours, I can understand how the average non-paranoid school student would come to the conclusion that it didn't happen a certain way (because logically if it had it would have been mentioned by the teacher who presents themself as an authority on history), instead of being suspicious that the teacher or the history books are leaving things out.
unclear_warfare@reddit
If I was in charge it's the first thing I'd change. Ireland is our only land neighbour and our histories are so intertwined, yet we learn basically nothing about it at school. I remember being at uni and being astonished to read about the troubles on Wikipedia
TranslatorFluffy@reddit
This really chimes with my experience spending time in Ireland and from my interactions with Irish family and friends.
The point about Irish patriotism is really accurate. Irish people wear their pride in their country more easily than the English do. We’re many years post -Empire but the English haven’t worked out how to tell their national story.
I’d add that there are subtle differences in social norms and customs. Ireland is much more communitarian, less individualist.
You will be gently mocked for having ‘notions.’ I haven’t quite worked out what notions are, they can range from having an eccentric fashion style (or perhaps just wearing a brightly coloured hat) to disagreeing with the general consensus in conversations.
I’ve learnt that if someone asks ‘will you have a cup of tea?’ That the cup of tea is NOT optional. You will have the tea.
There’s a stark asymmetry in how well the Irish understand the UK and vice versa. Irish people will follow the premier league, they’ll know what’s popular on TV (even if RTE is more widely watched than BBC), what the latest political scandal is. They know our culture and our history in detail. Even educated Brits struggle to name the Taoiseach and Irish history is barely taught or discussed despite how deeply entwined it is and how profoundly it affects current events.
Specialist-Mud-6650@reddit
I don't think anyone thinks the Irish as the same as us. I think people think the Irish are more similar than, say, the French or Americans.
z_3ntropy@reddit
>an entire language that is a minority language because of us
you make it sound as if we all had something to do with that, fuck you on about
WHERES_MY_SWORD@reddit
Think you've hit the nail on the head, partner is Irish so spent a lot of time there, rural Ireland and non-touristy towns, and it feels culturally distinct to me.
KnightsOfCidona@reddit
Being Irish, I do kind find it amusing when Brits found out about some odd bit of Irish culture, considering we know so much about theirs. The obsession with death is a great one (the fact we have websites that you can see who has died on and old people obsess over it)
JohnCaner@reddit
Open caskets! Not in England, that's a private goodbye at funeral parlour for those so inclined. The older Irish understand life can be harsh and brutal; the English will always choose to look away.
MainCartographer4022@reddit
And therein lies the problem!!!!!
MainCartographer4022@reddit
Yes definitely, once you're out of the Dublin bubble you can really feel it, and especially in the gaeltacht
ItAintNoUse@reddit
I really appreciate this perspective. I'm half-Irish but from England myself and I think people both undermine the differences between the English/Brits and the Irish and also know very little about Irish history. A lot of my elderly relatives on that side still despise the English (a tad awkward for me, but I digress 😅).
The loss of the Irish language is heartbreaking. My grandfather was from Clare and the majority of his ancestry was there and Galway, areas where the Irish language survived a little longer. His family spoke Irish into the early 20th century.
Common-Spend5000@reddit
I'd add as well that although you can do those things in Ireland such as watch BBC (in many places even if not quite everywhere), buy marmite, go to Tesco etc., in all of those examples they are not a default cultural touchstone like they are in the UK but rather an additional secondary option from the irish view eg. Marmite available but much rarer and thought of as foreign, Tesco (plus Aldi and Lidl) all existing as foreign supermarkets with some reasonable market consumer share but not at Supervalu or Centra level, and the BBC outside the North being much less relevant than RTÉ or Virgin Media (TV3 in old money).
MainCartographer4022@reddit
Yep agreed and it's a good point. Funnily enough I actually don't shop in Tesco but it seems they're springing up like leaks around where we live at the moment! I do buy Marmite though😅
setokaiba22@reddit
I mean I don’t think any sane person would make a joke about potatoes to an Irish person to begin with only an idiot
MainCartographer4022@reddit
You'd be surprised!
Historical_Dig2587@reddit
As a person of colour, the subtle racism in Ireland (outside Dublin) is much higher compared to the UK.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Are you sick of hearing 'lovely teeth' yet?
meltymcface@reddit
Jesus fucking christ - what??
FreeKey247@reddit
I didn't think much of it before but now am noticing it does seem to be a thing that black people in Ireland often receive compliments for having very white teeth
General-Bumblebee180@reddit
My black friend went on holiday with an Irish guy back to his home village in the west of Ireland, in the very early 1990s. Apparently the old ladies would come up and rub his arm or face 'for luck'.
OrganicLoveCyborg@reddit
There's subtle racism there's also naiive racial prejudice. Naiive racial prejudice would be very easy to overcome if it wasn't for the coexistence of actual racism
Fun-Yam2210@reddit
I wonder if you’re comparing the countryside to a capital city in general? I’m in the Kent countryside and it’s 70s racist round here. Complete culture shock after moving out of London. It’s hard to believe the Irish countryside is any worse.
MentalGoesB00m@reddit
I’m deep in the kent countryside, grew up and schooled in a small village in kent too… and I disagree tbh, I’m yet to have a racial experience or feel like I’m being treated differently.
I’ve walked into several pubs and not had people bat an eye lid. Perhaps it’s because I’m with my Dog? I’m Unapologetically Black too and never got the 70s vibe at all.
CentralSaltServices@reddit
Genuine question - Can you be apologetically black?
MentalGoesB00m@reddit
lol you’d be surprised, terms like “Uncle tom” exist for a reason.
GBrunt@reddit
Accent can be a factor too. I've been in the UK 20-odd years and been called an Irish c**t to my face more than once. Also experienced pronounced institutional racism from the Home Office and had one very hairy experience with the police for no reason whatsoever. I'm white.
EducationalWeek885@reddit
Where in the Kent countryside? Kent is a big place.
MentalGoesB00m@reddit
Specifically south east going towards Swale / Thanet region.
Fun-Yam2210@reddit
Both Swale and Thanet and North Kent.
Pizzagoessplat@reddit
I've had a lot of arguments with irish taxi drivers over this. Just because I'm white they think I share their views.
Puzzleheaded_Can_287@reddit
I hear you're a racist now
Common-Spend5000@reddit
Where in the UK are you comparing to though in terms of like for like?
I get urban UK and even suburban UK being less bad on subtle racism compared to Ireland outside of Dublin (and maybe add Cork and Galway too to that), but compared with rural and small town UK they seem quite comparable to me eg. Co. Mayo with Powys, or Co. Kerry with Northumberland and so on.
Or even in rural Britain do you notice it being better?
drumcondradragon@reddit
That seems strange given the level of explicit in your face racism on display in the UK
MentalGoesB00m@reddit
England in my experience is a lot more progressive tbh. L
Mission_Yesterday_96@reddit
Oh, really. Sorry you experienced that. Do you mind sharing more detail?
SkengmanFy@reddit
Idk, depends where you're from in the UK as to whether its worse or not, I think
WW3In321@reddit
Irish in Britain, mainly words and phrases that I thought were just normal ways of talking (Brits would never call a messy place a 'kip', for example).
My British husband spends time in Ireland for work, his big one was funeral announcements on the radio. But he is a big fan of deli counters at petrol stations.
Sapiopath@reddit
Brits would absolutely call a messy place a skip... So probably a cognate?
PoxbottleD24@reddit
Apparently the origins are the Danish word Kippe, meaning a shitty alehouse or a hovel, cognate with the word cove.
In Dublin it became a slang term for a brothel, but by the time we exported the word over to Britain, it meant something more like lodging house, or a bed within one. In Britain the noun eventually became a verb meaning to sleep, but in Ireland it only really changed back to mean hovel or somewhere that's a shithole.
Skip on the other hand, comes from middle English via the old Norse skeppa, meaning a basket or bushel.
Sapiopath@reddit
I appreciate your random act of etymology
PoxbottleD24@reddit
It wasn't random, it was prompted! 😁
Ignatiussancho1729@reddit
Interesting, a kip is a sleep in Yorkshire
LadyBeanBag@reddit
Same here in Hampshire.
PetroleumJelly82@reddit
They don't have delis in petrol stations? I thought they were supposed to be a civilised country!
OverlordOfTheBeans@reddit
I'm not surprised at the confusion tbh, a kip (at least here in the West Mids) means to take a nap.
LighteningBolt66@reddit
Motorway services have a serious lack of a deli counter.
The only thing that comes remotely close to a proper deli counter is the Morrisons salad bar.
Common-Spend5000@reddit
Damn, I use kip all the time. Because I moved to the UK young there are a number of words where every now and again I discover most brits don't use them, and consider them to be Irish, but I never realised this because it's in my normal vocabulary.
This is another one to add to that list, where I go "oh yeah, now I think about it, everyone I know who says it is also Irish".
D-Angle@reddit
Irish person living in the UK, the number of people who think it's the height of comedy to just repeat back anything you say in a stupid exaggerated Irish accent is is far too high. Think the "Oh, you IRISH!!!"" guy from that theatre episode of the IT Crowd, it's very much a thing. I believe Scots have to suffer this one as well.
The_Nunnster@reddit
Not me but I can recount some rather negative experiences of people I know that have been there.
My dad’s ex girlfriend (before he met my mum) is Irish. Her family is from a village or town near Galway. My dad absolutely hated going over. This was 25+ years ago but to him a lot of it felt, to use the term he used, ‘backward’, and he generally felt uncomfortable being English there. His ex knows Irish Gaelic, and when asked if locals in the pub were slagging him for being English, she apparently said it had been brought up once or twice.
This said Irish ex is now engaged to a friend of the family, and they keep floating the idea of moving back over there. He says he’s sure that his car keeps getting spat on for the GB number plate, and recounted a rather distasteful incident of saying good morning to a chap while he was on one of his morning walks, only for the bloke to ignore him and instead spit on the path. Despite these experiences, he still loves Ireland.
Finally, my dad’s boss is from a big Irish family. He himself is English, born and raised, but all of his family are proper Irish, so he frequently goes over there. For weddings and funerals especially, where he’s expected to represent the family. He remembers being young and naive and wanting to go on a morning jog wearing a Team GB Olympic shirt, but being warned against it by his father in law because he risked getting a slap. As well, he married an Irish lass, and to this day her grandmother has never spoken to him because he’s English. He recalls the grandmother saying to her on the wedding day, “You know what these people did to us?” She is also from the Galway area, roughly. He also views many aspects of Irish culture, especially religious and family culture, as quite peculiar.
If I were to go it’d be Dublin or Belfast, but these anecdotes tell me to stay the fuck away from Galway, lmao. Oh, and avoid it over Easter - an Irish bloke I know reckons that everything shuts over Good Friday and Easter Sunday, like they used to over here way back when. People that fancy a drink have to stock up from shops on the Thursday.
NoFewSatan@reddit
This is completely false.
KnightsOfCidona@reddit
Yeah the days of this are over. Pubs open up on Good Friday now for the last 10 years or so
360Saturn@reddit
It used to be the case that things were closed on different days than in the UK over Easter. Maybe that has relaxed nowadays.
ancapailldorcha@reddit
I'm Irish and I've lived in England for just over 15 years.
From the start, I noticed that this country is much more individualistic than Ireland. The fact that it's more diverse and secular was a bit of a shock. I first moved to Oxford and was taken aback slightly by the absence of Christmas decorations in a lot of houses. Obvious in hindight but it was a shock at the time.
Also, the ignorance of history is really something here. People seem to know nothing about how their Parliamentary democracy evolved over time or even of things like the history of liberalism, Sir Isaac Newton, the Wars of the Roses, etc...
Finally, pub gambling machines. They're hideous. I don't get the appeal at all.
Not paying to see a GP is nice though. It's pricey back home.
wizaway@reddit
I moved to small place in county Mayo called Castletown. Met a few nice lads who like a bit of drinking and a bit of shmoking. Met a few dickheads, once was very reptilian in his movements. They all add 'hey' to the end of random sentences and I learned the Shligo boys are not to be messed with.
KnightsOfCidona@reddit
To break character here - I think a major reason Hardy Bucks is such a good deconstruction of a rural Irish town is because it was made by two lads who moved from England to Ireland as kids (Chris Tordoff, i.e the Viper was born in Leeds, Martin Moloney who plays Eddie was born in Liverpool albeit to Irish parents) and able to notice odd and eccentric things in the area that would pass locals by because it was normal to them.
Suspicious_Air_6082@reddit
The liver or the craic. You can only serve one master. You love drinking man, you’re a legend down the pub. Tell you what, let’s go out, throw a bit of weight behind a few pints, and just lush it out. It’s not rocket science, man.
Comfortable-Title720@reddit
Dja know Francis?
No_Ring_3348@reddit
GET THAT CHILE OUT THAT TRUCK!
StonLenslow@reddit
I’ve heard bad things about that place. Hoping to take the Mrs next year for the 2027 Mitzi Turbo Cup though. I think I’m in with a chance of winning cheekiest face, though my 5-skinner skills are lacking in this modern era of big rizlas.
Think I’ll have to give the 12 pubs of Christmas a miss this year though.
Think_Raspberry_2232@reddit
I have more of a culture shock moving around the uk than I ever have moving around Ireland. But it took me an age to work out where the press was.
summerDom@reddit
As in the newspapers?
Ok-Context-9838@reddit
Press = cupboard
summerDom@reddit
Mind actually blown I've never heard that phrase before
Ok-Context-9838@reddit
The one I've struggled with the most is "giving out", we say that to mean "telling off" or talking shit about someone/something. I've had British people ask me "giving out what??" lol, it's a hard one to translate
PoxbottleD24@reddit
This is one of those Hiberno-English phrases that comes from the Irish language: ag tabhairt amach literally translates as "giving out", and could be used to mean "to scold".
InvidiousPlay@reddit
I've never understood why this one is so difficult to translate. Giving out is telling off is chastising is reprimanding. It's not like "telling off" is any more intuitive. Tell what off of what??
Ok-Context-9838@reddit
But I feel like "telling off" only applies when you are telling someone off. You can "give out" to someone, or you can "give out" about something or someone. You can't "tell off" about something. What would be a good alternative comparison because my mind is totally blank!
360Saturn@reddit
"vent" maybe, though it's not an exact one to one
InvidiousPlay@reddit
I had forgotten that use... Well, you're basically telling off the universe for the way things have gone, aren't you?
Think_Raspberry_2232@reddit
Dunno, always said it round our way, but it is full of Irishmen who can swim.
r_keel_esq@reddit
Used in the Scottish Highlands too - anglicisation of the Gàidhlig and Gaeilge words
Pizzagoessplat@reddit
How sensitive the irish are.
The smallest of disagreement turns into a full blown argument. They expect you to agree with them no matter what their comments are about.
The irish sub is the only sub on reddit thats banned me from reddit. I'm half expecting this to be posted on an Irish sub instead of reflecting and trying to understand my point if view.
Being in polite and being inconsiderate is sugar coated with a smile.
Very, VERY racist taxi drivers and I'm white! I never had that in Northern England.
The inability to have a deadline and stick to it especially when money is involved.
Surprisingly a lack of communication when things need to get done.
How big the Premier league is and then every time England play they boo their own players?
Urinating in the streets is a national sport here. Out hotel night porter cleans an average of two or three human poos a year from the streets. They blame it on lack if toilets rather than the 12 pints in the pub thats just closed.
djferris123@reddit
As someone who moved from England to Northern Ireland you get a culture shock too, perhaps even more so. The police stations arent just buildings like in England, they're fortresses with 3 or 4m high fences here, the subtle ways people try and find out whether you're nationalist or unionist, the school system is another one, the school sizes can be tiny as they have multiple schools in most towns for each side, the casual racism, everything being so Belfast centric (although England can be London centric it at least has Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool etc to counter balance it)
Jg0jg0@reddit
The North is an outlier to most other places, even to the majortity of Southerns. It is a reciprocated thing though across the board. Up North our schools are a dead give away of what we are classed as in job applications, even though it explicity asks for your religious and political affiliations on job applications. Nationalist areas at Easter with flags, Unionist areas in basically all of summer with flags. Its a great place now, but it is honestly exhausting at times.
5x0uf5o@reddit
I would think Northern Ireland is even more alien to someone from the South than it is for someone from England.
Jg0jg0@reddit
I wouldn't know about that, A lot of people from the south are in the North daily for work or traveling through the boarder county roads that take you in and out of NI/IE every 2 minutes. So, Alien may be stronger word than i would use. Culturally the differences arise with NI/England, societal/economical is where the issues are from North & South, in my opinion as some from Belfast. Given i'm neither English or from the republic, I couldn't say what a clear answer is.
DoctorOctagonapus@reddit
I went to just outside Belfast on business last year and thought actually it doesn't look as different as I expected. Some of the streets I went down could have been in parts of the UK. The biggest shock I saw was the shops and supermarkets I saw were brands I'd never heard of.
Smooth-Eggs@reddit
How strange that a city in the UK looked like it could have been in the UK
Fellsy8@reddit
Did you mean to say England? Belfast is in the UK
yourefunny@reddit
Mum is Irish. Have spent a lot of time over there in my 37 years. She moved to England back in the 70s. had no real issues. She was a nurse and was loved by her patients. She definetly got a lot of love and a bit of dislike for her bluntness and lack of a filter on her thoughts and words. This was VERY interesting at school. She made many lovely friends and really enjoyed her time in the UK.
She moved back to look after her sick Mum about 15 years ago and stayed. My Dad split his time between here there and everywhere. Eventually retiring 6 or so years ago. They inherited my Gran's place, where my Mum grew up in the 50-60s. A very small and tightknit village about 20misn outside of Limerick on the Shannon.
Dad is a very sociable fella. Very much loves the Irish and has been fully accepted by the people in the village. Loved in the pub and has made some great friends over there.
The area nearby has some real republican views and are wary of the English, but whenever he has his friends with him he is vouched for etc.
I have found that the people in Ireland are far friendlier and way more hospitable. They really look after each other. Many many stories of how neighbours and friends have done things for my parents and others in times of need. Something I have personally not really experienced much in the south of England.
JensonInterceptor@reddit
"The area nearby has some real republican views and are wary of the English, but whenever he has his friends with him he is vouched for etc."
Doesn't shout as very friendly. Glad he had his friends with him so he didnt get lynched or something?
KnightsOfCidona@reddit
On this point - lot of families who fled the North at beginning of Troubles (many of whom had been burned out of the houses) were rehoused in Shannon and the surrounding area (was a new town at the time)
AskUK-ModTeam@reddit
This topic has been discussed either too often over time or recently.
Please search the sub or Google instead.
ember_szn@reddit
Moved to small town Ireland, regretting it tbh. Outside of the big cities, people are rude and insular. If you didn’t go to school/grow up with people, they want nothing to do with you. The racism was an eye opener too, didn’t expect it to be so blatant here. If you look or sound different then you will know about it. The ‘driving’ is brutal too.
justthrowa2@reddit
It's interesting how both comments point to a deeper, unspoken social contract that's totally different. The UK’s polite distance feels like respect, while Ireland’s intense familiarity can feel intrusive or, as noted, expose a more insular mindset. I’ve heard that in Irish villages, the community knows your business before you've even unpacked, which is either heartwarming or suffocating depending on your personality. It makes you realise that "similar on paper" doesn't account for the massive differences in daily social friction.
360Saturn@reddit
That's what I tried to get at in my comment too. Though the cultures have a lot of similar history and touchstones the big differences are around expectation of how people behave to each other and that reflects how each one perceives the other.
As someone of Irish origin in the UK I am consistently perceived as unusually talkative and generally easygoing whereas among Irish people I am perfectly average.
404pbnotfound@reddit
I have started going more frequently for work and my culture shock was just how similar it felt to home.
If I’m honest I rarely thought about Ireland before I needed to go. I had an awareness of the complicated history and I expected to feel very unwelcome and for it to feel very foreign.
The culture, aesthetic, flora and fauna, architectural vernacular, brands, way of life, all of it felt so deeply similar to the U.K. it was really no more alien to me as Scotland or Wales as an Englishman.
I mean this only with respect, I liked it a lot. I wish the awful history of oppression from the English and Scots didn’t exist as it sours a relationship that should be incredibly strong and positive. I hope things continue on their current path.
ImpossibleLoss1148@reddit
Irish in UK, I remember talking to a Northern Irish woman in a shop and I'm kinda Dublin. Someone asked if we were from the same place, that's like an Irish person mixing up a London and a Glasgow accent. They have no concept of Irishness beyond generic views.
all_die_laughing@reddit
I haven't moved to England but I have been over there quite a few times and I always felt a bigger culture shock being in London as opposed to being in Manchester or Liverpool. It's difficult to explain why exactly.
Least-Might8845@reddit
Mil moved from Omagh to Staffordshire. She's a talker. We went over ten years not knowing most of the neighbours on our road. Mother in law invites them from her old road to stop over night at her house if they are passing to go to alton towers! She's been over here years but you literally knew everyone, then everyone's next generations!
HumoursOfDonnybrook@reddit
A lot of very serious posts so I’ll offer something light - First time I went to the cinema after moving to London and ordered popcorn, your man asked me if I wanted “sweet or salty” and I replied “just popcorn mate, I don’t want sweets” and there was mass confusion.
Anyway, turns out you brilliant crazy bastards have sweet popcorn in the cinema. Half and half is my go to cinema order now. It’s savage.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Id learn to never say "On the surface both countries look similar" to either one. For starters.
Or by lumping UK as one big similar place.
No_Factor_1269@reddit
If you think britain and ireland arent similar then you really need to travel more
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Been to Ireland (donegaly/Glenties/Dublin) many times and enjoy going once a year (aunt has an empty flat in Glenties)
It's very different to me from Scotland. Guess I just see thing more and look up rather than pretend to know what I'm talking about.
No_Factor_1269@reddit
Thats exactly what im saying lmao. Go to japan or kenya or even greece and then come back and tell me britain and ireland arent relatively similar.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
That's like saying "all white people look the same" just throwing some stereotypical views of a place due to location. Wild.
Been to Malawi if that helps. I'll not list every country I've been to as it feels a waste of time with you.
No_Factor_1269@reddit
Ireland is the most similar place to britain in the world, and it has nothing to do with race, nor do i find that a useful analogy.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Britain or UK?
No_Factor_1269@reddit
Its all fairly similar pal. I should probably take this opportunity to remind you that similar doesnt actually mean ‘literally exactly the same in every way’. If looking on a global scale, it would be fair to say america and canada are similar, australia and nz are similar, uruguay and argentina are similar, spain and portugal are similar, britain and ireland are similar.
steve290591@reddit
I will absolutely agree with you, as some who’s Irish and has only ever lived here.
The differences between us pale in comparison to the similarities between us, and the same is true of the geography.
There has also never really been a restriction of movement between the two islands in their entire history; as the years have went by, the lines between what is British and what is Irish have become so blurred.
Global-Fox7764@reddit
"The differences between us pale in comparison to the similarities between us, and the same is true of the geography"
No truer statement has ever been said.
steve290591@reddit
Well since the UK includes part of Ireland, I’d wager he’s referring to the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.
Tim-Sanchez@reddit
I've travelled to many places, and Ireland is obviously very similar to the UK. Similar culture, weather, same language, etc.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Irish is the recognised first and national language of Ireland.
Also, I wouldn't even say Oxford is anywhere near similar to Highlands and they are both UK
NoFewSatan@reddit
How are you not understanding "on the surface"? I'm Irish, it's quite clear that we're very similar on the surface.
Tim-Sanchez@reddit
The majority of people in Ireland can't even speak Irish.
In the grand scheme of things obviously Oxford is extremely similar to the Highlands, but if that's your barometer then I can understand why you think Ireland and the UK are different.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Oxford is extremely similar to Highlands?
Tim-Sanchez@reddit
Clearly yes, they're literally in the same country. In the same way I'd say Naples is similar to Rome.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
How about St Petersburg and Naukan?
Dear-Volume2928@reddit
Once youve backpacked through India you realise that the average Scot or Irishman are basically culturally identical and that really a typical Scot is relatively speaking culturally very similar to a Spaniard or German ie sharing 90% of the same values and beliefs. Irish might be the de jure national language but English is the de facto language of Ireland.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
How many Scots and Irish did you meet in India?
Dear-Volume2928@reddit
Well I'm from Ireland and live in Scotland. I went backpacking in my youth which made realise that I am far more of a "European" or dare I say a "westerner" than Irish or British (I come from NI and therefore have dual nationality). I would say you have a pretty parochial view if you think Irish and British people are substantially different. Culturally very similar and I would argue the differences between England and Ireland for example are not much more if at all from England and scotland/wales.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
This the backpacking story Joey (friends) tells women to sleep with them? Or make them sleep?
Dear-Volume2928@reddit
Ah there you go, a western cultural reference showing just how similar we all are. Thanks.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
You have a chakra tattoo, dont you?
Dear-Volume2928@reddit
I dont no. Is everything ok mate?
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
You either have comprehension issues or you're being deliberately obtuse and contrarian. Either way, you're a time vacuum
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
The key bit is "on the surface". Thats your own words.
As the other persons said, spend some time in Asia and you'll see just how much UK/IE have in common.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Not my words. OPs.
Just because another place is vastly different, doesn't make these two twins.
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
Again. "On the surface"
Is English not your first language or something? This isn't a difficult concept.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Oh look, both have green grass and blue sky. Samesies.
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
The architecture is similar. The humour is similar. The landscape is similar. There are many similarities.
They are not the same but they share many similarities as well as many differences.
Believe me, I'm not the idiot here.
escapingfromelba@reddit
Ignore them, I've spent a lot of gimevin both countries and they're just being contrarian to be a pain. I'd suggest the two countries are like very close cousins who often pretend otherwise
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
Lol me too.
I'm pretty sure he's a Scottish nationalists who probably also cosplays as Irish. There are many of them of them in Scotland and this kind of behaviour gives them some sense of identity.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
The humour isnt even similar between Manchester and Birmingham.
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
Lol yes famously no comedians go on nationwide tours
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Nationwide or UK?
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
I can tell you're a bitter nationalist so it will give me great pleasure to tell you that nationwide and UK wide are the same thing.
Mfcx6sp4@reddit
Is your name competitive test because you test people.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
8/10
Heathcliff511@reddit
They are, though. On a global scale, the UK and Ireland's day-to-day lived experience and are practically the same sans some inconsistensies like metric and Euro. Just because Ireland doesn't like the fact doesn't mean it isn't true.
FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit
There's the minor difference that the British (both before the Union of England and Scotland and after) invaded Ireland several times and colonised it in various ways.
That leads to a ... different cultural heritage... in Ireland and Britain. To put it mildly.
No-Art-898@reddit
Ireland also invaded Britain in the 5th Century, as the Scoti originated in Ireland. Pictland is now Scotland. Irish Language placenames show where they exterminated the Picts. During the same period the Irish also invaded what is now Wales. The gravestone of Brittonic (Welsh) Chieftains were inscribed in Irish, and Irish was widely spoken in what is now West Wales. The Afon Usk (Uisce- Water) flows thru the city of Newport in Gwent. As a child I attended a Catholic Primary school. Irish Priest and Nuns taught us that Irish pirates trafficked St Patrick from their base on the banks of the Usk (Uisce).
tennereachway@reddit
Hardly comparable though is it?
You're talking about history from 1500+ years ago whereas the British government was committing atrocities in Ireland as recently as the 1990s.
No-Art-898@reddit
I was answering FelisCantabrigiensi who stated that Britain invaded Ireland several times prior to 1707. If FelisCantabrigiensi can mention ancient history, then why can't I. Obviously it spoils your obvious victim narrative. I'm glad my Irish ancestors survived the Irish Shoah of 1845 to 1850, I just wish that they had emmigrated to somewhere warmer and less wet.
Heathcliff511@reddit
That doesn't contradict anything I said. As I said, just because the Irish might not like it, it doesn't mean that if an American or some other outsider lived in both places their lived experience would not be practically the same, especially compared to other nations in Europe or the Anglosphere.
Bottom-Bherp3912@reddit (OP)
If you compare the UK to virtually any other country in the world (except perhaps Australia and New Zealand), Ireland does look similar objectively.
Again, I said on the surface. Both countries have green countryside, rainy weather, similar looking towns and cities, a lot of similar shops, English is spoken. Without nitpicking, they're about as close as you can get while still being different countries (except again, Australia vs New Zealand perhaps)
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
Australia isn't even geographically similar to NZ. Ones dry outback over multiple time zones and weather patterns.
NZ is way more green, mountainous and even has glaciers.
Bottom-Bherp3912@reddit (OP)
But the urban areas are very similar
I_will_never_reply@reddit
My major impression of visiting Ireland is that it was like the UK but in the 80's
CupCakesNFlatWhite@reddit
It is in culture though. Just not officially.
EntrepreneurNo3933@reddit
No council tax,no water charge (for renters) .. and you still get all the services. Higher taxes in ireland, no ISA like instrument , investing is discouraged , wash sale tax on holding ETF, Roads are much better , speed limit is 120km/h >113 in uk, there is no yellow box fine , there are no speed camera (you only get caught if a garda takes a live speed gun and records you on a highway),no parking enforcement people roaming in streets waiting for you to make a mistake, (did I mention no yellow box fines.. yes you will be honked at)
Culturally : No school ratings (officially) , Private schooling/Day boarding is not a thing there are a few mostly in Dublin, Public transport although non existential but where available it is astronomically cheaper than UK, Shops are not branded as Halal/Non Halal (which seems like every shop in UK does),you rarely have to make reservations for brunch/dinner and may I say barber (in London where I am based barbers need reservation and they are shit at the job)
..sorry wrote in 1 go so pardon my grammar/spelling
NoFewSatan@reddit
Some of these, like no speed cameras, are just untrue.
EntrepreneurNo3933@reddit
I mean yeah there are a few scattered around but nowhere close to the kind of enforcement like London for example where you can practically assume every traffic light is also a 4k camera
SheffDus@reddit
I’ve not done this, but have an Irish mate who swears blind they don’t do roast dinners at home in Ireland, and don’t do Yorkshire puds. That really surprised me - I thought the Irish were just like Brits, but Catholic.
Edwardwinehands@reddit
They do roast dinners but Yorkshire puds isn't a thing at all maybe it's shifting now
Global-Fox7764@reddit
Yorkshire puds have been a thing all my 35 years of life, born and raised in Ireland.
biscuitsandbooks@reddit
Yorkshire puds are British. It’s hardly surprising they aren’t really a thing in Ireland.
Edwardwinehands@reddit
No way? As I said I think attitudes are changing now and you can commonly get them in supermarkets
biscuitsandbooks@reddit
I meant it more like they are a British thing rather than it being an anti British thing. Breakfast rolls would be an Irish thing, but aren’t really a thing in Britain. Vice versa for Yorkshire puds
Haunting_Being@reddit
The roast dinner part is surprising. The whole point of the Sunday Roast originally was that they could just be left in the oven while the family went to Church.
In Catholic Mass they used to be obligated to fast for 12(?) Hours before receiving Communion, so it was super important to have something substantial ready for when they get home.
Occamsfacecloth@reddit
The roast dinner thing is nonsense. Though I wouldn't ever call it a "Sunday roast" because it isn't relegated to a Sunday. It's the main meal most days of the week. It's cost effective and straightforward for big families to cook a load of spuds and veg and put a chicken or whatever in the oven. The Yorkshire pudding thing is true though, we don't have them and they're shite anyway. Waste of room on the plate. Yeah I'd love to have a burnt yet somehow soggy pancake with my dinner. Can you make it the size of my head please?
NoFewSatan@reddit
Jesus Christ.
Appropriate_Trader@reddit
Ohbejeezus is the preferred way of pronouncing it.
NoFewSatan@reddit
Nope.
Gribbler42@reddit
holyJAYSUS is the one I heard a lot growing up
ARobertNotABob@reddit
Jakers
SheffDus@reddit
At least I’m honest. I still can’t work out the differences. It seems to me the difference between Hampshire and South Yorks is just as big as between England and Ireland.
NoFewSatan@reddit
It should be embarrassing to be that ignorant.
Secure-Highway886@reddit
Bullshit.
SheffDus@reddit
I will pass that on to Ken from Galway then.
PanNationalistFront@reddit
Nonsense, roast dinners are absolutely a thing. Yorkshire puddings not so much.
Gribbler42@reddit
Yeah this is just not true. Main difference between Britain and Ireland with regards to roasts is you'll almost always walk away with an absolute mountain of food in Ireland.
SheffDus@reddit
Why on earth I got downvoted is beyond me. My mate’s mum was probably lazy.
Long live Irish roast dinners.
ARobertNotABob@reddit
This. Is. ~~Sparta~~ Reddit !
Physical_Memory_6644@reddit
We absolutely do roast dinners at home every weekend, the person who told you this is unhinged. Yorkshire puds are sadly less common though.
Jaded_Telephone8938@reddit
Scottish here - my step dad was English, I had never had a "Sunday roast" till he was on the scene and when he left, I never had it again. I don't think it's big in Scotland either. Seems a very England thing to do
Professional-Test239@reddit
Welsh person here. We love a Sunday dinner
Mfcx6sp4@reddit
Welsh here, next you’ll be telling me you don’t have a full English
GooseyDuckDuck@reddit
That’s just you I’m afraid, Sunday roasts are extremely common here (Scotland).
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
Scottish here. Grew up eating Sunday roasts.
TemporaryLucky3637@reddit
There are British Catholics btw it’s like 10% of the population 😅
SheffDus@reddit
Yeah, I’m one of them
MacViller@reddit
I had an Irish person the other day telling me about how they have roast dinners on a Sunday
Terrible_Biscotti_16@reddit
I am Irish and lived in the UK for 4 years.
The biggest cultural shock was how little British people know about Ireland. Some didn’t even understand that Irish was a completely different country and were shocked to find out we use the Euro, have a separate Olympics team, and don’t have the same Post Office, etc, etc.
Good luck with being able to find people who know much about Irish culture such as the GAA or even who is the Irish Taoiseach.
People slag Americas for being very geographically unaware but I was surprised to see how little the average British person knew about Ireland.
kestrelita@reddit
My friend moved to Dublin about a decade ago, she messaged me recently that she'd had a shit day and was getting a spice bag. I was a little surprised at first but once we'd established that it was a takeaway, I was mostly envious.
Global-Fox7764@reddit
Haven't had a spice bag in ages, deffo getting one later.
E-Step@reddit
Moved to Dublin as a kid, the biggest shock was lemonade was red and seeing horses around urban housing estates
KnightsOfCidona@reddit
Went to college in Limerick and it always found it hilarious how international students saw sulkies as something quaint and lovely and something cultural, when the Irish people saw it as the complete opposite!
E-Step@reddit
Oh yeah quaint is definitely not the first word I'd pick there 😂
jimicus@reddit
Brit who moved to Ireland here.
It’s the small things. We’re used to most basic UK things being fairly well organised and straightforward.
I’ll give you an example. Most people have two bank accounts - not because they’re all doing clever things with their finances but because you basically need one with a traditional high street bank and one with someone like Revolut because for day to day purposes, the high street banks still think the Internet is a fad. One of them doesn’t even have an app, FFS!
escapingfromelba@reddit
I had to sort out an estate after a death so there were Irish solicitors and English ones. Much tearing out of hair in the office here as Ireland is so casual with names on legal documents vs here where they are overly fixated on precision meaning weeks and weeks of faff. The Irish side seemed convinced that knowing someone was good enough.
jimicus@reddit
Oh god this.
I got married in Ireland. And as part of the process, we had to put down the name of the parish priest who’d be conducting the service.
Turns out a good percentage of parish priests go by one name but are officially registered as something else entirely.
WearingMarcus@reddit
often visit Ireland.
Big culture shocks are communions are a big event in Ireland.
Guinness is much nicer in Ireland bar alot of hotels
Much more rural, like I feel the mode of people in Ireland do not live in cities, where as in the UK most people are from major towns or cities
Wedings go on later and for days in irleand.
Why in the Uk we cut weddings just when they get going is bizarre....we're often saying "one more song" at fking 11pm...
InvidiousPlay@reddit
It's actually a serious infrastructural problem. Everyone wants to build a house on family farmland because it's cheaper and they're near family, but it results in all the services being more expensive to provide and maintain. There are planning regulations making it harder but people fight them tooth and nail.
Altruistic_Alpine12@reddit
I went to a wedding recently and I think it started at 10am and ended around 1am. I left early around 10pm but it’s a crazy long day.
5x0uf5o@reddit
Went to a wedding in England once. Started at 11am and served TWO meals. Finished around 11pm. Ridiculous carry on.
Ok-Context-9838@reddit
Ah stop the music wouldn't even be done by 1am usually! Band plays til 12, then DJ til 2am, then guests have a sing song in the residents bar. God we love a sing song.
Any_Preference_4147@reddit
Most weddings I've been to have run into the early morning, I'm in Wales though, can't speak for the rest of the UK obviously.
Dry-Bluebird-4613@reddit
Moved from somewhat Rural ireland (Galway) to Cambridge and didnt really have any culture shock, Found it to be a good stepping stone to move to bigger cities. Guess it helped that the city itself was in a bit of a bubble from a UK cultural perspective. Got more of a shock when I visited places like Nottingham/Birmingham and found those places rough as fuck. Compared to your suffolk/Norwich places
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
Haven’t lived in Ireland but I’m from an Irish family on my Mum’s side…
Pockets of England are quite culturally similar to Ireland because of the diaspora, but it doesn’t quite work that way when applied the other way around, so any sense of shock will be more apparent for a British person moving to Ireland, on the whole…
Ireland is a bit like if England was a little bit more like Spain and Italy… Discount your visions of the Mediterranean and never ending sunshine for a moment and focus on the higher observations of cultural Christianity and the generally more tight-knit family units…
With that all said, the UK and Ireland are very regionally variable as a whole, particularly when you consider the relatively small landmass…
AggressiveEstate3757@reddit
My lawyer studies in Spain.
Says the culture, apart from the language, is very very similar.
iTAMEi@reddit
Right so Spain with crap weather
fartingbeagle@reddit
Ay yi yi yi !
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
No, not as such…
Also, Spain is a big place with an Atlantic coast and “crap weather”…
Ultimately, you either get the comparison or you don’t, but my point stays the same 👍
Common-Spend5000@reddit
Yeh I live in Galicia for 18 months and loved it, largely because it felt just like living in Ireland but speaking a different language (and with better food).
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
Yes, I didn’t live in Galicia, I lived in Andalusia, but a family friend was Galician and I got the chance to visit with her a few times. Lovely.
Very much “Celtic Spain” as opposed to the Mediterranean. Amazing food and culture… “Relatable weather” yes 😂
Back to my original point though, there is a certain cultural connection to those countries shared with Ireland I feel, where it is not so much the case for England…
Bits of England can feel a bit like Ireland but bits of Ireland don’t really feel like England… It very much works one way around.
Ok-Ruin197@reddit
Yes, I forget that us Irish are very casual and forget who we are talking to from time to time.. not in a bad way just different lol
CongealedBeanKingdom@reddit
I'm considered a Brit at home and Irish in Britain. No one in NIre has ever called me an Irish cunt or told me to go back to my own country. Stupid fucks.
One of the first things I noticed when I moved to England is that the shops, pubs and restaurants are mostly chains/franchises. There are more locally owned businesses in NIre (I'm sure the south is the same)
People earn A LOT more in England than they do in NIre, although the Rep.Ire has proper wages compared to England's. However, everything is much more expensive so you don't really notice any difference.
No one gives a shit if I'm a protestant athiest or a Catholic one and no one in England has beat my fuck in for being a 'devil worshipper', which used to happen to me as a teen girl.
I'll add more as I remember them
DeirdreBarstool@reddit
I moved from England to Northern Ireland in the early 00s. It was definitely a culture shock to a young person who had very little knowledge of the Troubles. It took 8 years for my work friend to trust me enough to tell me her Dad was a police officer. Bomb scares, flags everywhere, peace walls, shops paying protection money, meat wagons.. these were all something I’d never experienced before.
I noticed a huge shift in the 20 or so years from when I moved there to when I left both in terms of regeneration and how I was reacted to as someone with an English accent - all for the better of course.
The biggest adjustment though was not having Greggs (I believe they do now!).
drumcondradragon@reddit
Weirdest thing about the UK for me is how even people who seem normal to you and who you might have known or been friends with for years eventually betray their deep seated classism. Especially odd that people who should want to overthrow the system buy into it.
Space_Hunzo@reddit
Im Irish and I moved to Wales about 15 years ago. The lack of deli counters in every shop was a huge blow that I dont think I've ever emotionally recovered from.
A lot of food stuff is different; irish food prices are higher but the quality is miles above the UK. Milk and bread are especially nice back home, and every irish person ive known to live in Britain for any period going back to the 1940s has the same comment.
Specific to Wales, but rugby union being the most popular sport caught me by surprise. I'm from North Dublin so GAA and Soccer were the mainstays for me. Whilst rugby was around it was definitely a game for Doctors and lawyers sons rather than something my brothers would have picked up. In Wales, Rugby is the de facto game across most walks of life. Cardiff also has an ice hockey team so I started following that, too.
Some political stuff surprised me too, like my very moderate, uncontroversial belief that we'll probably have a united Ireland by the consent of the majority prompted an older colleague of mine to call me a shinner. Same person assumed i supported Hamas because Ireland is (generally) more sympathetic to Palestine.
PanNationalistFront@reddit
My brother moved to the Wigan area. His children are born there. They got bullied at school for their Irish names. My niece was constantly asked if she was an IRA supporter.
My niece and nephew are now 22 and 25 respectively. When their grandmother died a few years ago so they had to tell their boss/Uni tutors that they needed time away for their Grandmothers funeral in Ireland. Permission was obviously granted and were told to let them when know when the funeral is to be held. My niece and nephew had to explain that they’re leaving NOW. The Wake and Funeral basically starts a few hours after death and the person buried around 2 days later.
Ok-Context-9838@reddit
Yeah I was shocked when I heard about friends in England having to wait 6 weeks to bury their father! Would never happen here, I don't know if it's just because we have a lower population or what but like you said, a person is normally buried or cremated within 3-4 days.
PanNationalistFront@reddit
You appreciate how healing wakes are when a friend dies suddenly and they’re not from a tradition that does wakes. I felt like I was just staring at a wall for a few days .
PatserGrey@reddit
15 years in Essex from Dublin. Post on a Saturday was the biggest thing initially. The lack of deli counters also became very apparent. Silly fruit machines in pubs and that craic of only taking one order at a time at the bar, thats arrestable back home. The biggest thing really was the sheer size of London and how much I'm not necessarily a fan of it. Large portions of the people are very similar, sense of humour included. I've never experienced any anti-irish sentiment here but funnily enough I have had some anti-dub abuse from an inebriated eh, I dont want to say "culchie" but the shoe defo fit that guy.
Conscious_Ring_9855@reddit
I think a big part of the answer is that there are many different cultures and subcultures in Britain (and Ireland). As in it’s perfectly possible to have culture shock moving around within one country.
Busy-Doughnut6180@reddit
That's true. I definitely experienced a culture shock when I moved from London to a small town in Surrey for two years, and then experienced another little one when I came back, funnily enough.
360Saturn@reddit
(Especially southern) English people are generally incredibly standoffish compared to Irish people and tend to perceive Irish attempts at friendliness and getting to know you as fake, meaning it can be really hard to establish friendships unless you already have an 'in'.
There isn't the same culture of 'having a coffee' (which actually means having any kind of stop off in a cafe for tea/cake/a blether) after being out for the day in England. You would go to a cafe if you specifically wanted to go to a cafe or you might stop off in one after doing something else but it wouldn't be guaranteed, whereas in Ireland it would be almost always guaranteed unless you had a very busy day on.
People don't offer things as much in England. In Ireland it's common for people to offer and pitch in at any possible opportunity and seen as rude for someone to not. Again I think this is broadly perceived as an untrue offer in England and so avoided.
DoctorOctagonapus@reddit
Never lived in Ireland, but I visit from time to time. Last time I was over I was in Cork with some friends and we hired a car for the day to drive out and sightsee. People in Cork CANNOT drive! We were sat in heavy traffic for nearly two hours because people had no concept of right of way. The worst one was the box junctions, which were an alien concept to everyone.
blazeofg@reddit
There is a more defined class system in England, a lot more snobbery on display. I found that the politeness was sometimes used to attempt to mask passive agressive behaviour. I experienced some prejudice in England due to my Irishness, I eventually moved to Scotland where my Irishness has never been an issue. Scotland is much more culturally similar to Ireland than Ireland is to England. Music, language, attitudes, communitarianism, craic, sport for example. I have English friends who I love dearly.
KahSeven@reddit
Dublin to London for me, they are overall fairly similar culturally. It's shoking how much language is Irish though, I'm still (after 8 years) finding new uniquely irish turns of phrase. I've also found London more formal, people are in general more guarded and more prone to beating around the bush, swearing is also less of a casual thing. I suspect northern england/scotland/wales would be culturally more similar though.
jeanclaudecardboarde@reddit
Moved from UK to very rural Ireland. I was shocked to find that, after successfully importing my vehicle, that I was unable to drive it on a normal car licence and then doubly shocked to find that I couldn't just remove seats to be legally able to drive it as I could in the UK without incurring a massive €15K Vehicle Registration Tax on a vehicle that is not even worth that amount.
opopkl@reddit
People in Ireland love to talk. They're similar to the Welsh in that way.
Remote-Pool7787@reddit
Buying chicken and potato wedges at the petrol station
Anandya@reddit
Someone dragged me to a combined Indian and Italian restaurant. You could get a chicken tikka on spaghetti.
undercovergloss@reddit
I was seeing a guy who lived a small Ireland village. He came over to London for his career and he had a massive shock. The fact that there was so much going on and so many opportunities- he was overwhelmed
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