Top ten most annoying things about Ireland

The European Union get out of it, and the United Nation. The EU will distroy your national idenity. You will be labeled racist if you try to maintain your Celtic Nature. Although the Muslims, and whatever will be able to be Muslim or what ever minority. In America (which is another version of the EU), it is OK to be Black, Bl;ack Pride is OK, organization for the advancement of Blacks OK. White Pride is racist. Organizations to promote Whites are racist. Stay in the EU, and you will see.

The only complaint I have is that none of the houses have screens on the windows to keep the bugs out. Can't figure out why.

#11- IC's running this article a second time!!!

All I can say is if ye don't like us don't come back. We are Irish not American.

@Dunkelly1 - you don't do irony do you? It seems like there is an over-supply of sensitivity here. As an Irish person living overseas for more than a few years I am inclined to agree with most of Simon's points - except #2 - I like the Poles and Lithuanians and others in the hotel industry; they are unfailingly polite and efficient. They aren't terribly friendly but I'm not there to make friends, only to get to my room. @ KatieMac - why don't you just apply for a job as Vatican spokesperson. Your bleats about the poor RCC get rather tiresome. If ANY nation has a reason to be upset with that organization it's the Irish.

Simon, from one yank to another, you're clueless!! I've lived abroad in Ireland for 10 years now and in fact, work in the hotel industry. If you want everything to be like at home, then STAY at home. Open up your mind and accept other countries for what they are instead of being like 50% of every other stupid American that comes over here and complains that it's not like at home. And do you want to know where the Irish are in the hotel business, long gone when the Celtic Tiger hit. Managing several hotels over my years here, I would rejoice if I got an application from an Irishman/woman but when the big old Celtic Tiger roared, few had the passion for the industry and didn't wanted to work in hotels, wanted the BIG MONEY and turned their nose at the hospitality industry. If it wasn't for those from Estonia, you wouldn't have had anyone to check you into your hotel bedroom where you struggled with more than one light switch at a time. So open up your mind and your horizons and start to enjoy travel for what it is, the experience!! AND if ya walked around Dublin (one of the smallest capital cities in Europe) like all the Irish instead of depending on the buses, maybe you wouldn't be sporting those elastic stretch wasteband pants like most yanks!

@Katiemac. Am I missing some subtle joke in your mad tirade? The "punt" (never called that in Ireland, incidentally) hasn't been the official currency of the country for close to a decade. Are you posting from the past?

As my mother always used to say "The problem with Ireland is that any Irishman that had any get-up-and-go, got up and went"!

My Uncle Marty said on a trip in 1984 about driving "If there is one thing one mic hates is another mic in front of him!" So true!

Goldenblade, what are your 20 statements on Americans not that I haven't seen some in action. I get asked if I really am an American because I don't act the stereotype. My dear late mother always said to treat people the way you want to be treated and I do.

Just because the waitstaff doesn't fall all over you their rude??! France has the Irish beat on that point and do you know how New York and Boston act to tourists? Any trip can have it's bad spots, but PLEASE don't compare them to what you expect. Discover who they are!

Last time I was there, I was amazed at the # of foreigners, British and East Europeans mostly from what I could tell. Yes the service in Ireland SUCKS, always has. Narrow roads and snooty bankers....right on. I agree with George Dillon on the having to listen to the Irish go on and on about how they disagree with American foreign policy......you know what, nobody cares what you think, you are a tiny island on the edge of Europe known for corruption and neutrality.

Dublin's Dart was the worst. No idea what to pay or how to pay. no directions.

@goldenblade I am objectively interested in your list.I spent a lot of time in Ireland between 1991-2002 to the point that I actually rented 2 flats the 1st across from Dublin Castle & later one in D4.I observed a lot of my fellow Americans exhibiting behavior that was both insulting to the Irish person on the recieving end & the good will generated by decades of Americans of Irish descent.Back in the States I was involved in several American-based organizations that were responsible for successfully lobbying Congress on everything from the Morrison Visa program to cash used to fund schemes in NI. Niall has given extensive coverage (through all his communications channels) to profiling the men & women behind these efforts and frankly I haven't met a "plastic paddy" in the bunch.So please give us your list I'm sure it will liven up the conversation here!

The strange thing is that a lot of Irish sneer at Americans, try to denigrate our country's achievements, and blame individual Americans for American foreign policy (I've opposed every war we've been involved in since I was a teenager, yet I have to listen to long boring whining sanctimoniousness from the Irish. Well, I actually don't listen--I tell them to shudda F* up). But, as I was saying, the strange thing is that the same people exhibit a cringe-inducing inferiority complex as regards Latvians, Lithaunians etc. They think these people from impoverished Eastern European countries are smarter than the Irish, more hard-working, more witty, better looking, better dancers, more honest, better in bed etc. etc. So they sneer at Americans, but bow down before Latvians. Any Irish care to SHORTLIST great cultural and scientific achievements of Latvians?