As an Irish person, what makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it?

Ireland is a country that is much-loved by nearly all other nations in the world.

After centuries of emigration there are people from all over that celebrate their Irish heritage.

However, with films and television often portraying false stereotypes about Ireland, there can often be inaccurate assumptions made by foreigners about Irish people and their culture.

Knowledge sharing website Quora posed the question to Irish people:

“As an Irish person, what makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it?”

We have read through the numerous responses that people have posted online. Many of them are very sensible and good reading for anyone planning to travel to Ireland, after all, you don’t want to come across as insulting or unintelligent to your hosts.

There was a sense that many Irish people were venting their frustrations through their responses, and some of it makes comical reading, but this is what they had to say.

“Meeting Americans and they say, my grandad was Irish, and blah blah, I’m 1/4 Irish and then a full story about them and how they are Irish.”

“Thinking that everybody that goes into an Irish pub is bound to see a fight.”

“You’re Irish? Say 33 and a third. Common English question.”

“People saying Don a gul. It’s Donegal, done e Gaul.”

“Americans saying higherland. It’s Ireland. I. R. land. Say it fast.”

“When people refer to the government as the Dublin government. It’s the Irish government. Ireland doesn’t consist of just one county.”

“Oh, you’re from that part of Dublin, do you know a guy by the name of James, has red hair and a patch on his eye, he moved there a few years ago. We don’t bloody know everybody.”

“Do you ever see leprechauns in Ireland?”

“Isn’t Ireland part of the UK?”

“Ireland is a poor country. No we are not.”

“Do you have electricity?”

“Why don’t you just rejoin the UK? It would be so much easier.”

“Irish people are all farmers. Some of the best educated people in the world come from Ireland because of our amazing education system and how we can get free education. One of the reasons google and apple are here, because we have an endless supply of qualified people leaving college every year.”

“People trying to speak with an Irish accent. Stop trying your pitiful Hollywood attempt at it.”

“People who think Ireland is at war with the UK and the IRA are still active and bombing everything.”

“‘But Oliver Cromwell…’ This absurd reference is almost guaranteed to come up in any discussion regarding Irish/British relations and/or nationalism. Some people genuinely hold modern day Brits personally accountable for Cromwell’s actions. FYI, he was born over 400 years ago. To put that into perspective, the US declared independence over 100 after his death. It’s quite exhausting to be honest.”

“Irish women are ugly. My wife is beautiful thank you very much.”

So there you have it. There were plenty of responses from Irish people, and people who have lived in Ireland and this is just a sample of some of the comments and behaviours from visitors that has them rolling their eyes. You have been warned.

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