Gathering 2013 expected to attract over 300,000 visitors to Ireland - VIDEO

During the past week IC has featured articles on the Famine and also this article on the Gathering. These articles are so connected as they speak to the core of IC’s commenter’s, those who are presently in Ireland and those very similar to today’s emigrants who were forced to leave Ireland for economic survival. I go back and forth and was once asked by a cab driver enroute to Shannon “do you consider yourself Irish or American” I thought for a moment, then answered that I felt I had one foot in Ireland and one in America. The majority of Irish that have left, left because they had to, not because they wanted to. I think that why so many Irish in the states used the term Irish American. They always wanted to keep that connection as if leaving the door open to return.

eamonn, the cheek of you! You asked me to bite you! I did as you asked! Eamo, The globalisation of the world by the US is its biggest problem and yet george there blames Poland and the Poles for doing what his relatives did along with the relatives of every American on this site. The hypocrisy stinks and they cant even see that they are being hypocrites! How can you expect ireland, a nation who have travelled the length and breadth of this planet, that they now must ban emigration? Should we tell those people who want to migrate that they cant? Shoud i tell me bro and cousins that they must leave NZ and Australia and mve home cos an American reckons it would be the best thing for everyone?? get up the yard! Howareye, I have American cousins and mates who I adore and have no issue with at all, like the majority i have met. The Americans my mates and I tend to avoid, are those middle aged groups of Americans who come over to Ireland cos they 'wanna speak to real Irish people'. Even my American mates were morto by other americans when they were over here in march. Groups of them, overweight in baseball caps and fanny packs on Nassau st made them cringe as did the groups we met in Galway who said they were disapointed by Galway because they wanted it to be quaint. Seriously?? Cop on lads! its not a theme park and we are not here for your amusement. Every other country in the developed world has populations from all over the world working and living there, why shouldnt we? Why on earth would be shut our borders to migrants when our people migrated?

Thank you, Eamonn! But for your posts, these comment sections would get depressing! Ciara...I'm sure you are a very nice person, but I can't understand why you hate all Americans so much (as reflected in your comments) And George, why you bash Ireland so much. We have great people (as well as a few a...holes thrown in) in both countries. Can we all just get along?

George! Don't mind Ciara - between you, me and the wall, I think she's a little bit bonkers. She's on new tablets, so I'm hoping they work. She tried to bite me last night. Scary!! Best Wishes, Éamonn. (Ciara, if you are reading this, this is a different Ciara I'm talking to George about).

Ciara, darling! Are we going to have our first argument since our engagement (ooops! Sorry, I forgot - I haven't asked you yet. Forget that last bit). But, baby, you really will have to cease this aggressive tone. You are upsetting the visitors. If it were not for the United States, Western civilization would be in serious jeopardy - if not already doomed. (We're all doomed - DOOMED I tell you!) I like Americans, very much, and you upset me when you go on about them negatively. I hope that, notwithstanding this diversity of views, you and I can work this through, because I am seriously considering a surprise proposal in the immediate future. Now, I am going to apologise to George (apologies, George, no harm intended by Ciara, she's just a bit starry-eyed at the moment because I'm in town), so, Ciara, I want you to withdraw into the background a little, at least until the new tablets begin to work. I still love you very much, but my feelings have been hurt by association. Talk soon, Éamonn. (This is getting scary!!)

Most people I know go out of their way to avoid Americans here. Americans are great in the US but here they just become patronising, overbearing, insincere and offensive. I know a family who run a B&B in Doolin. They have some local staff but do you think their staff want to work as =room cleaners and breakfast servers for the rest of their lives? No, they have ambition and want to go to uni and travel. Cleaning up after Americans is not the dream for Irish people that Americans wish it was. Ireland is not here to serve Americans or your whims. If you want to visit a theme park, go to 6 Flags.

Eamonn, as much as I love you '' - I took from it that he is simply saying that one of the main reasons visitors come to Ireland is to meet the Irish people.'' There are plenty of Irish people who do not want to meet Americans! Its not a theme park here!

George, maybe the Irish dont want to work with fat loud patronising yanks? Maybe the ones with qualifications have good jobs or went travelling or have emigrated? Those Poles and Latvians did what your family did years ago, emigrated for a better life so were the Irish who emigrated in your families day so much better than these people who have moved here?

Eamonn, Dukmarshal: Here's the problem in a nutshell. I regularly stay in the Dublin Airport Hilton (for business reasons I am almost forced to choose the Hilton, and actually it's not a bad hotel). This Dublin Airport Hotel is situated right on the fringes of an area of massive unemployment in Dublin. Probably 25% of the young people out of work, though maybe less now because they've emigrated. But guess how many Irish people are working in that hotel? On my last two stays--ZERO. All hotel staff I came in contact with, from the vey courteous Polish shuttle bus driver to the very inefficient, surly and not very clean Latvian waitress, they were all NON_IRISH. WHY? Are the Irish too stupid to work a hotel check-in, drive the shuttle or serve a few drinks in the bar? Ciaradexy, herself a fool, seems to think so.

Is the projected figure for the island as a whole or for the 26 county state only? Perhaps any discrepancy is due to a debilitating dualism. As far as I'm aware, Tourism Ireland is organised as a joint effort with 6 county Ulster/Northern Ireland state and the rest of Ireland.

"Dukmarshal@AOL.com" - The non-Irish would be mostly in the hotel and restaurant businesses in Dublin. The B&Bs "down the country" (in the provinces, outside Dublin) are still mainly run by Irish families and have mainly local Irish staff. As you say, the non-Irish are indeed polite - very often enormously so - but the "experience" is different in the B&B for the reason given earlier by "GeorgeDillon", in that one of the main reasons tourists come to Ireland is to meet Irish people. I hope you will visit our shores soon and that you enjoy the experience as much as I do when I visit the good ole USA! Céad Míle Fáilte! Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.

Are all these foreign workers in the hospitality sector throughout the land or mostly in Dublin? When I was there in '08 every B&B were run by the most hospitable Irish men and women. However when staying in Dublin at a larger hotel, there were mostly foreign workers, and though polite not the same as the B&B experience.

And it.s about 6% of Ireland's total tourist numbers your point is meaningless. I quoted the 2010 Irish tourism figures as released by the Irish government moron.Latest figures from the CENTRAL STATISTIC OFFICE in Dublin s 6.2 million for 2011 check you facts byandby.

"Bythebay" - Why do you apparently say that GeorgeDillon has "bigoted views of our residents" in Ireland? I can't say how near the mark George's 85% figure is, but it seems a reasonable approximation to me. His point is not at all "bigoted" - I took from it that he is simply saying that one of the main reasons visitors come to Ireland is to meet the Irish people. Much of that "meeting" opportunity used to occur within our hospitality sector, but nowadays the vast majority of that sector is non-Irish. Fact. Now, what is bigoted about that? I fear you just like to see the bad side of all comments, so you can have a grouse. If I were you, I'd ask the doctor to up the prescription. Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.

For those in the US with bigoted views of our residents both in and outside the hospitality sector, you can keep your bigoted views right there in the US. As for those in the US so myopic as to be unaware, eg. ignorant, of the worldwide diaspora, look online for details and countries involved. We don't have to do that for you, you should be computer literate enough to do it yourse.