What the Irish people taught me about life in just four short days

People in rural Ireland are often insular, back-stabbing, two-faced, poorly educated, cunning, racists.

Glad you enjoyed your stay in our country and the company of the Irish. You are welcome to return anytime, but next time visit places outside of Dublin, to understand more of the warmth of the Irish character.

This uplifting story by Mr Branham i can relate to and makes a nice change from a lot of depressing comments on IC,its clear he is an out going person and enjoyed meeting with the locals, and i would guess that he was the instigator in many of the contacts with people he met,Thanks

Thank you for looking past the football game and the silly Irishness that is the "fighting Irish". Quite wonderfully said.

Really nice article. Im delighted you had a great time and you were treated great.

The guy writes a nice article, and still people complaining!! Unbelieveable!!

I agree with the author as we have spent a great deal of time in Ireland and were amazed at their friendliness and interest in other countries and people. They also have a great sense of humor. The kindnesses individually displayed on so many occasions are too numberous too mention. Regarding the number of athletes and celebraties, there is on thing so many people seem to forget or do not know about. The Irish population hovers around 4 million people. You could fit them into the Bronx in NYC. Figures from a few years ago show England - 55 million, Germany - 90 million, Italy and Spain - 50 million and so on. They are the most remarkable people given their size and population which so few people seem to realize. Can't wait to return there.

Don't forget, there's an eastern (Leinster) and western (Connacht) Ireland too! Most homeless people on the streets in Dublin/Ireland are either professional begging families from Romania. Or career beggers from the Travelling community. Or drug addicts who are banned from hostels for anti-social behaviour. WoundedKnee (WK)! The Columbia he mentioned could be the United States Ship (USS) [space shuttle] of the same name. As a professional traveller, he could be outer space? Street sinage is perfectly adequate for the non-dyslectic travellers. KO!

I suppose in his defense we should commend this guy for meeting some Irish people. It is perfectly possible to spend four days in Ireland and have no interaction with any Irish person. That's because of the truly extraordinary rate of Mass Immigration to the country--foreign migrants dominate vast sectors of the economy, especially the tourist industry.

He obviously did not meet anybody with a mortgage or unemployed,the only people having the "crack" in Ireland today are the tourists looking for the illusion what he actually saw was Ireland through pint's of Guinness

people are its export, something not right about that.

Is this the Ireland of 2012 or of yesteryear? I feel this commentary rings much more true of pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland than the present. The Ireland of today is a far cry from the wit, hospitality and craic of previous generations.

The only craic I've ever seen in Ireland was the kind hanging out the back of somebody's jeans!

Even recognizing the national game of putting one in his place, some of the criticism of Mr.Branham verged on the misanthropic. I wish him well in the future and hope he can return to Ireland as I am sure that he will be in touch with everyone he met through social media.

thank you Jeremy, with so many critics of Ireland on this site you really got what the Irish people are all about.