Irish Thoughts on Britain and the British and vice versa

TONY BLAIR has made great inroads to 'devolving wales, scotland & N. Ireland' from the old established great britain.

This is advantageous to all areas concerned. as in a growing EU community, this allows big decisions to made in respect to local government levels in the above mentioned.

Tony Blair my arse ! He didnt want devolution but had to go for it because the Scottish Labour MPs were worried that without it Scotland would go for full independance.

I have lived in England, now I am in Scotland. I have met lots of Irish, Scots,English, etc. and have to say, there is a big rivalry between the English and the rest . The Irish, Scottish and Welsh get on "like a house on fire"

I would be interested to hear what cultural differences you have noticed. I assume you are originally from Poland ?

yup I do come frome Poland. As for the differences:Scots and Irish are more chilled out, the busses in Scotland are irregular, the drivers know you by the name...The Scots have buckfast and neds,the English have chavs :). But seriously- I have English, Irish and Scottish friends and get on well with all of them.It depens on the person really, not on the nationality.

Thanks, always interesting to hear other peoples perspectives on your own culture.

I'll tell you something-been to an English, a Scottish and an Irish wedding, no one can drink whisky like the Scots!

Yeah, you can't beat a traditional wedding. I think the merits of whisky was discussed on another thread - stay away from the white stuff !

And what about your private feelings? Do you want to see your country independent?

Yes I would. I can forsee many benefits on many different levels.

So what do you think about Irish thoughts about independent Ireland or rather not?

As you know, there is an independant Republic of Ireland so I am presuming you mean Northern Ireland joining the south ?
I will not comment as I do not have strong feelings either way but I think everyone is glad the killing has stopped.
As with most things it is the violent minority that get the headlines and the peaceful majority that truly suffer.

We have independance so i will also presume you are talking baout the north.

the north would have had troubles no matter what way it went because the north has a large loyalist and nationalist population. so there would have been trouble in the 70's regardless.

If the north was not under Brittish rule in WW2 - the allies would not have been able to maintain suppies from the west. Churchill is on record as saying, if it was not for the north - the brits would hav had to go back into ireland.

it would have been nice to be aunified island as infrastructrully it would have made things easier to plan also greater tax generation to fund schools, health - BUT there would have been

troubles with terrorism regardless jus the brits starting it instead of the irish.

look at rugby - we have an all Ireland team. GAA (irish native sports) is an all island sport too. The people of the north and south call themselves Irish.

It is a dead issue these days compared to 5 yrs, 30 yrs ago, We are not looking back at the past. we are moving forward and upward.

Ermm, would 600 years be OK? :) (thinking here about Silesians)

OK, didn't wanted to interrupt. Quite interesting topic.

Thats the reason why there was no simply answer, the 'Brits' as you call them were really a different country from the English, Welsh and Scots. They have been there for so long they they have their own separate identity. Mainland UK public really did and does not want to keep N.Ireland - it has no purpose, financial or patriotic and a lot of downsides. It could be said that the Northern Ireland conflict was a Irish Civil war based on religion. The British Government tried giving the country away, but the Loyalists (that is Loyal to the British) wouldn't have it. Crazy and impossible.

exactly. so we have moved on (finally) from this :)

Why keep dragging these things up, the English and the Irish get on just fine, we even like them when the slaughter us at the rugby :)

And as for the independence of Ireland, you need to speak to the entire population of Ireland because you will get different answers every time.


I couldnt agree more, there has been too much bloodshed on all sides.

If it wasn't for our British taxes via the EU, the Irish would still be walking to school in bare feet with a pig under the arm, and no I don't want my drive tarmacking (I don't mean it but you bloody micks did stuff us at the rugby, you fecking bearsterds):)

Father Ted: nuff respect!

you've a welsh flag and your worried about the english beating at croke park? (43 : 13 oh yea!)

the British taxes, the germans, french...but lets be honest hwntw. face the facts.

The BULK of EU funding over the last 30 years HAS been german. you can check that out

AND britain has also benefit from EU funding on major infrastrucural and agricultural areas (the CAP is of HUGE benefit to the UK, Ire, France, etc)

I was talking about the Irish victory at the MS, and do you think I'm being serious about the taxes? I'm Welsh FFS!! ye deft fekker:)

we already had some Welsh people posting here and what strucked me more than anything else was the fact that there were quite defensive. Why is that?

Defensive? Most people consider me and my kind to be rude and offensive and I wouldn't have it any other way, how does that strucked you?

No comment! :)