Impatient Irish have lost that loving feeling for others

Finally: GeorgeDillon/WoundedKnee lecturing people about good manners? “I don’t believe it!”

I do like a good British comedy, do you? The funny thing is (again, in this context the word funny means odd/peculiar) I actually believe you knew who Victor Meldrew was! Yep, you see I think you were just waiting for someone to say: ‘Oh he’s a character in a British television program’, then you could jump in with your oh so predictable rant about Irish people watching British television programs… and thereby attempt to change the course of the conversation away from your hypocrisy. Well, am I correct? I think we both know that I am. Furthermore, if you are the one saying that you’ve never heard of Victor Meldrew, how does that make me monocultural? Perhaps it is you who should ‘widen your horizons’ beyond the ‘universal’. You are making yourself look foolish again; as we might say: Ná cuir thú féin i mbéal an phobail. I wonder if you will describe that as ‘Klingon’ or ‘garbage’, just as you have previously described Irish that you couldn’t find in your book or on google translator? If, in your arrogant ignorance, you insult the language in that way, then what does that say about your claim to love Irish? Perhaps you just say that, but in truth your ear does not love the language.

Kinvara, George/WoundedKnee is posting on the Indo website under the name Kev408 with more of the same sh1t.

No, the word ‘funny‘, in this context means strange or peculiar. We know you claim to be an Irish citizen (I use the word ‘claim’ because you’re a known liar) however, you believe that Irish citizenship is given too easily, and you don’t accept that citizenship makes a foreigner Irish, so why should it be different for you? Using your own logic, you are still a foreigner. That being the case, I must ask again, why do you think it is wrong for a Polish woman (who could have Irish citizenship; could be married to an Irishman; could have a child born here etc., etc.) to call for good manners from customers where she works -because she is a foreigner; yet, incredibly laudable and correct, when you, also a foreigner, approach a teenager in her home town and remonstrate with her about her dog…This seems to be another example of the hypocrisy you are famed for.

I watched that film 'Detachment' during the week. Maaan those American school kids are rude! And the language out of their mouths and it was based on a true story! Kids of yours Georgie foreigner??

George has an irish passport? So have 50,000 African migrants! The difference is, they live here.

Thank you, Schon. Kinvara--your reference to Meldrew indicates you spend your time watching British situation comedies. But you make a stupid mistake in thinking that they provide a universal cultural discourse. Don't be so monocultural. Learn a language, travel. Widen your horizons.

kinvara--If you think that's funny you're easily amused. Pretty sad, actually. By the way, I have said this elsewhere on this site, but since you're especially obtuse, here's a little secret. I'm an Irish citizen. Are you? Don't bother answering, I really don't care.

WoundedKnee, Victor Meldrew refers to the main character in a series on British TV, called One Foot in the Grave, about a grouchy English man around retirement age. He is sarcastic and abusive to people but is unable to understand why they return his sarcasm and abuse.

WK/George Dillon, you could've gotten that same response from a girl/boy in the U.S. as you did from the girl in Ireland. Rudeness, inconsideration for others, abusive vulgar language knows no boundaries. Have you ever stood outside a Middle Sch. or h.s. in the U.S.? Just ask teachers what they put up with on a daily basis. Just try to correct some mouthy teen here. Then there's the people who have to deal with the public.... When adults have no manners and model this despicable behavior, it's not surprising that their kids act the same way.

@WoundedKnee/GeorgeDillon: I think it’s funny that on the one hand, you think it is rude and wrong for a Polish woman to call for good manners from customers where she works -because she is a foreigner; yet, incredibly laudable and correct, when you, also a foreigner, approach a teenager in her home town and remonstrate with her about her dog.

If any reader was able to make sense of kinvara7's post maybe they could translate it into English for us. To start with, who's Victor Meldrew?

@Robert: Do you not understand that the basic refrain of your article: ‘oh, people today… why in my time…’ has been spoken by the old in every part of the world, through every generation since time immemorial! You sound like Victor Meldrew. Who knows why someone blew their car horn at you (as if that didn’t happen prior to the Celtic Tiger -people skipping queues, ditto) The parents might have been enjoying a moment of peace before a stranger decided to encourage their child to make noise again etc., etc… who knows. I think your article exhibits a lack of understanding, patience and hope, and then presumes to berate and accuse an entire nation of lacking those very same things.

eiriamach that's what religion is, or maybe, was for. To encourage people to be good and suffer in this life... their reward will come in the afterlife. A good way to control the masses. That's what the older people have accepted and lived through only to see young people with impossible expectations cut up stroppy because they are not going to have the easy life they expected. And the older people will suffer too since it's going to hit them in their pensions. For the old there may be little chance of redemption while younger people, with a bit of hard work and application, might recover a better life.

It's self-serving for older generations to blame the young, or immigrants, and it's almost always wrong! Mr. Sullivan complains about "a whole generation trapped in a culture of entitlement" but lacks compassion for their suffering. He writes nothing at all about the need of young people to believe that working at an expensive university degree or a low-paying job will lead to a better situation in the future. They need to believe that they have real choices and that there will be rewards for the sacrifices they're making now. Sullivan thinks the solution to a national problem is personal, something like improved etiquette: "We can recover on a personal level, while accepting we’re deep in this quagmire of a failed economy entity." Why should the young accept it? They should place responsibility where it belongs-- on the corporate execs and the politicians who protected them. Work together to demand responsiveness from elected officials. It's a shared problem? Then the way out lies in collective action, not individual repentance. It's also the way to understand others' suffering and develop compassion for them--something Sullivan seems to lack for anyone under 50.