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There are many myths told about the Irish: that they’re fighters, they’re stupid, they’re belligerent, or that they never forget. Nonsense. The truth about the Irish is much harder to pin, and much more elusive than they’re given credit for. Even the great Sigmund Freud himself thought it pointless. “This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever,” he wrote.
So how can you tell the reality from all the myths? Well you can start here, with IrishCentral's top ten myths about the Irish.
1. The Irish are always friendly
Many Irish people will happily give you the shirt off their back, but others would much prefer sue you for it (especially if there’s a disputed family will in the mix somewhere). Usually the Irish are genuinely friendly, but like anywhere a lot depends on who you are, where you are and what you are.
Quibbling aside, the land of a hundred, thousand welcomes deserves its reputation because the truth is that most Irish people can be so kind and considerate it will take your breath away. But like anywhere, a few nettles sprout among all the roses, so tread carefully betimes.
2. The Irish are religious
Even avowed Irish atheists will call upon all the angles and saints when there’s a crisis or they’re in danger. But that doesn’t mean they’re deeply religious, it’s just a reflex hardwired into them from birth. You trip, you sprain your ankle, you’ll call the Lord’s name (and many others).
The truth is most Irish people are much closer in spirit to Father Ted than to Rome, and they always have been. James Joyce, as always, put it best: “O Ireland, my first, my only love/Where Christ and Caesar are hand in glove.” If you can reconcile those two opposing forces and learn to live with them without giving it another thought, you’re well on your way to being Irish yourself.
3. The Irish can sing
Two words: Ronan Keating. Make those three words: Chris De Burgh. Let’s face it, even housewives favorite Daniel O’Donnell is no threat to Luciano Pavarotti - and he’s dead. Not every Irish man can sing a rousing rebel song on request, despite what you see every time in the movies.
Irish people can however reduce you to heaving sobs with their songs about lost love, lost land and faded hopes. Be warned: otherwise perfect social evenings can be brought to a standstill by the power of just one Irish ballad competently sung. Your guests may weep copiously or begin to think about snow falling faintly, and faintly falling, and if it does happen just go with it, it’s the Irish way.
4. The Irish are stupid
Pull the other one. You’re in the native land of the scholar (the saints, like the snakes, were evicted long ago). Trust me, all those Paddy the Irishman jokes you heard growing up (about the guy who always gets it wrong) are an expression of anxiety, not contempt. People have been calling the Irish thick for centuries. They’re fools.
Take Edmund Spenser, the Elizabethan poet, for example. He tried to denigrate the Irish in his genocidal pamphlet “A View of the Present State of Ireland,” written in the early 1590’s. Spenser’s propaganda pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally pacified by the English until its language and customs had been completely destroyed, if necessary by violence. (Irish rebels, possibly acting on his own advice, later drove him from his County Cork home).
For many contemporary scholars Ireland’s James Joyce is the true heir to William Shakespeare simply in terms of his influence and cultural impact.
5. The Irish are charming
Anyone who has ever ordered a cheese sandwich from the joyless drudges who staff the Bus Aras canteen in County Monaghan knows this is not true. The Irish are not always charming. In fact some Irish people have perfected a stare of such hostility and perfect contempt that the memory of it will never leave you.
6. The Irish have red hair and freckles
Just as not all Irish women are tempestuous redheads crying out to be tamed by an avuncular John Wayne stand-in, not all redheaded Irish men are leading donkeys carrying turf bags to the fair.
There are quite a few blonds (bottle and natural) knocking about the old sod; black hair and brown or blue eyes are a common feature too (think of Cillian Murphy or Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Nowadays Ireland has become a much more intercultural place, so it may be time to update your image of it.
7. The Irish are happy to start a fight
Whilst it’s fair to say the Irish are a passionate lot, it’s wrong to assume they’re always spoiling for a knockdown fight. In fact when someone makes a fool of himself by acting belligerently in public most Irish people will cringe and designate him a fool – and when an Irish person comes to that conclusion about you, you’ll be considered a fool all your days.
8. The Irish are drunks
The Irish don’t drink more alcohol than any other western nation; they just have more conspicuous fun in the process.
9. The Irish are great storytellers
Well yes, and no. Whilst it’s true there are Irish people who can tell tales to delight or terrify you, they’re not all born with the gift. In fact the Irish have produced the woman that literary experts agree is the worst novelist who ever lived. Amanda McKittrick Ros was born in Ballynahinch, County Down in 1860 and according to The Oxford Companion to English Literature is “the greatest bad writer who ever lived.”
Amanda self-published her own series of novels in the late 1890’s and instantly won a devoted following, but the critics savaged her. McKittrick Ros faith in her own talent was undiminished however, and she replied by calling them variously: “bastard donkey-headed mites, clay-crabs of corruption, denunciating Arabs, evil-minded snapshots of spleen, talent-wipers of a wormy order.” Her revenge is that today we quote her, and not her detractors.
10. The Irish never forget
Not true. Ask Thierry Henry. After his handball at the qualifying France versus Ireland World Cup match, there are literally millions of Irish people desperately willing themselves to forget what he did. Their attempts to do so may be as insincere or short lived as Thierry’s apology, but give them some props for the effort.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.MaryMcCarty | Aug 13, 2012, 07:28 AM EDT
As it appears to be mostly true, only by personal experience, the willingness to forget and an abundance of storytelling to us all!
Dublinjas | Sep 12, 2010, 07:15 PM EDT
I once many years ago found myself on a very country road by today's standards it was dark and stormy a terrible rainy windy night my old car had just gone through its last spoonful of petrol (Cars use to do 500 miles to the gallon mostly pushed) in those days, Anyway there I was in the middle of nowhere out of gas, I spotted a dim light off the road at some distance and having negotiated some fences and fields I arrived at the door of a cottage where a young couple were laying a new wooden floor, Having told them of my dilemma I was sat down to a pot of tea and a plate of cookies while the young man took off in his car, 10 minutes later to my utter shock he arrived back with 2 gallons of petrol escorted me to my car poured it into my tank and no matter what I tried would NOT accept any remuneration of any sort, I have waited more than 40 years to publicly tell this story and let me tell you money was scarce enough back then, The Place where I broke down was near Ardee in Co Louth.
CitizenWhy | Sep 12, 2010, 12:00 PM EDT
"Christ and Caesar are hand in glove" refers to the corrupting intertwining of the Catholic Church and the Irish government, both dedicated to sneaky deals and cover-ups. It does not refer to the Irish "latitudinarianism" (cafeteria Catholicism) that indeed is an ancient irish tradition despite the fanatics. When the Norman chronicler asked an Irish chief why they did not persecute the Jews, the answer was "What a man believes in his mind is between him and God."... The Irish practiced a form of Santeria for many centuries, to everyone's comfort.
WoundedKnee | Sep 11, 2010, 02:17 PM EDT
JamesMurphy: Erin Go Bragh means "Ireland Forever". I'm surprised you don't know that. Is the Irish/Gaelic language totally dead over there now?
furlee1 | Sep 11, 2010, 05:35 AM EDT
I could not find a define for calin but odonnbhain s comment seemed to be from the fem side. if so please bring your cavegirl club and clobber me and drag me back to your cave. Redheads and sassy my fantysy christopher in sacramento calif o mahoney my moms maiden name
ODonnabhain | Sep 11, 2010, 01:33 AM EDT
I love this! As a red haired irish cailin, with a black haired Irish father (well it was once upon a time, when he had hair!), who is the most charming man on this earth, along with being probably one of the smartest! And not one of us can carry a tune in a bucket! However, my contemptuous looks may have been known to clear a room or two, especially when directed at a sibling or other relation (usually non-Irish who have married into the family). This is absolutely brilliant! lmao!
IRISHKNIGHT110 | Sep 10, 2010, 06:43 PM EDT
as an Irishmen I know how true it is. good article. people have some concepts like this of others no matter where they come from.
duchessofbones | Sep 10, 2010, 06:23 PM EDT
Well. I'd argue with you on each and every one o' those points, but that might be a little stupid. Besides, I'm late for me lessons for choir in my church, and a bit of a sip afterward. So... if ye want to argue, come join me at Paddy's, where we can fight or tell stories and if you like, I can fix you up with my red-haired sister. I won't forget, just be there. ;)
hollabackgurl | Sep 10, 2010, 03:21 PM EDT
This is priceless: "The Irish don’t drink more alcohol than any other western nation; they just have more conspicuous fun in the process."
killowen | Sep 10, 2010, 03:06 PM EDT
The Union Jack and her symbols are left as they are. And besides their Queen is coming to show UKers dominance. Nicely done, eh! what.
rickduff | Sep 10, 2010, 02:46 PM EDT
The Irish never forget someone who borrows a book and doesn't return it.
Ajreaper | Sep 10, 2010, 02:04 PM EDT
People are people regardless of where you go in the world- there are good and bad and everything in between.
LouGuyt | Sep 10, 2010, 12:25 PM EDT
If you'd like to know what the Irish were really like before Rome's taking over the church and England's brutalizing us and then writing their own "history," read Thomas Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization."
JimThompson | Sep 10, 2010, 12:13 PM EDT
Quite cute. Enhjoyed reading the article. The Irish are just like every other group; some good, some bad, and many somewhere between the two.
chesapeake | Sep 10, 2010, 11:26 AM EDT
But, do they got rhythm? Few individuals of any origin exhibit consistent behavior - Irish or not. Obviously, there are stupid, bellicose, red-haired Irish persons who drink too much and sing a lot; but, hell, no one is perfect!
Hummingbird | Sep 10, 2010, 11:00 AM EDT
I find the writers comments after the 'false' assertions to be just as near sided. I can vouch for several of these characteristics as being quite Irish and I wouldn't change a thing.
pounder | Sep 10, 2010, 10:56 AM EDT
The Irish are great politicians!
christywalsh | Sep 10, 2010, 10:50 AM EDT
STEPcoach I am Irish too and can vouch for quite a few who, not only, would steal the eye out of your head but come back to pee in the socket.
JamesMurphy | Sep 10, 2010, 10:24 AM EDT
We don't use "Begorrah," "Bedad," or other Hollywood-created exclamations. And where on earth did "Erin Go Bragh" come from? Utter it in Ireland and one might as well be speaking Russian.
Searlit | Sep 10, 2010, 10:21 AM EDT
I love #6, what's wrong with a red-haired Irish man carrying bags of turf on a donkey? Have ye not read "The Last of the Donkey Pilgrims"? Great book by Kevin O'Hara. #10 is so funny it makes me want to read McKittrick Ros's books, but I suppose they would be impossible to find, here in the US.
STEPcoach | Sep 10, 2010, 10:15 AM EDT
Granted, there are always variations, but stereotypes become stereotypes for one of two reasons: a germ of truth, or good PR. The (adjective deleted) british attempts to label us as unfit for breath and blood were just their desperation to justify their perversions. Otherwise, we are some of the kindest, most giving, and most welcoming folk on the planet; we do almost all have a penchant for storytelling; and we all have a song, in our hearts, if not in our throats! I'm proud to be Irish - known to be far more interesting than some others I've mentioned. (Oh, I believe that settles the one about itching for a fight, too!)
carrickcourt | Sep 10, 2010, 10:12 AM EDT
Hey Irish people are like other people in the world! Big surprise.
derrymarch | Sep 10, 2010, 09:59 AM EDT
Great fun!
killowen | Sep 10, 2010, 09:53 AM EDT
http://wwww.angelfire.com/ny/border/symbols.html what its really about. Next year their pope will visit - makes sense.