Top ten surprises for Irish arriving to New York City - eccentrics, portions and the luck of the Irish

@metajag: That would be spelled "ENYTING," I tink.

I'd say what most surprises the young Irish--if they stayed sober long enough to think about it--would be the fact that even in New York people curse far less than do the Irish.

Im surprised to metajag, a visit to Dublin can be crazy at times, everything goes. As for fashion, anything goes in Dublin for men and women. Stylish city. Number 4 on the list above would do my nut in, i would never visit a cinema again. You can keep that one.

I'm a NYer but spent a few years in Co Longford and I'm a bit surprised at the surprise on several counts, just a few nitpicks in the spirit of fun of course. I'll use your numbers. 1. Crazies. I saw my share of them over there, but perhaps that's more the bigger towns. 2. Fashion. Are ya jokin'? You'd see ANYTHING (I'm tempted to write ENYTHING but my Irish wife would smack me) in the small towns of Ireland, and less clothes on the ladies than in Manhattan for sure. 7. Gullible? Well maybe I hang with the Irish too much, but most New Yorkers are more suspicious if anything, however naive young things are everywhere I suppose. 8. Portions. True enough, but regular platters have grown huge in the other country as well. Plus three styles of potato on your plate, which was always my surprise. 9. Bartending. Just an aside but I'd make friends over there for my hard-to-relinquish-up habit of tipping, and that's the difference.