Patriotism and being Irish

S

shnaek

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A lot of people are talking about Patriotism, sovereignty and being Irish. So I wanted to ask people here - what does it mean to be Irish? What makes you Irish? Is it simply that you were born on this territorial soil, or is there more to it than that? Is it love of 'The Craic', owning a shillelagh, a taste for the spuds? Share yer thoughts!
 
Being skint and feeling subservient to people from "out foreign" with all their riches and finery.

Ah, the good old days are back.
 
shnaek said:
what does it mean to be Irish?
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For me, very little. It's my nationality and where I live, that's all.

I hate patriotism as it always leads to something at best emarassing and at worst dangerous. Patriotism for patriotism's sake is just ridiculous.

Having said that, I'm certainly not ashamed to be Irish and I could have been saddled with a lot more, shall we say, inconvenient or unloved of nationalities.
 
I never really paid it much attention to being Irish until I lived in England for 10 years. Despite the fact that I loved London, had a great time and they gave me a job for 10 years when Ireland couldn't, I was always conscious that I was some bit of an outsider and that it was not and would never be home.

Being Irish is a lot of things, a state of mind, it's the accent, the turn of phrase, Taytos, hurling, pride in the parish and county, green fields, saluting strangers on a country road, Crossaire, family, the Irish Mammy, the first question you ask an Irish person abroad is "where are you from" and then finding some connection to that place, a pint, local papers, getting sunburnt in 5 minutes, writers, music, and deep down, knowing that whatever we think of this crazy little island in the middle of the ocean and where-ever we go in the world, "home" means one thing.
 
Caveat said:
I'm certainly not ashamed to be Irish and I could have been saddled with a lot more, shall we say, inconvenient or unloved of nationalities.
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give it time! not sure we are that much loved anymore anyway. we just think we are.
 
small nations seem obsessed of what others think of them, NZ is apparently another example. Their national pride is wrapped up with the All Blacks, ours now seems to be with our economy.

As with everything else in life, no-one gives a hang except ourselves.

Proud to be Irish, always will, I dont check the GDP figures but I come to that view. We must strive to be better but lets get over ourselves, stop beating ourselves up, we'll come out of this no more than any other crisis.
 
AS FAR AS I'm concerned, politicians have stolen the word 'patriotism' formt eh ordinary, decent folk of this island. Being patriotic is not about gettign elected and lining your pockets. If they were patriotic they would forego their pensions until aged 60 and go out and work for a living while waiting.
to me, being patriotic is being communtity-spirited, contributiong in time or money to your nation ans uniting, standing up for the people of the state when necessary.
 

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But how likely is it that any of that is going to happen we certainly can't look to those politicians who should be there to give guidance ?!?!?!
 
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