Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]

Heavens to Betsy! You've been suspended, now how did that happen?


It's a quote attributed to Churchill. An overly zealous young assistant (probably much like yourself) altered the text of a speech that Churchill had written because one of the sentences ended with a preposition. Churchill made a note in the margin 'this is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put'. Churchill was thus demonstrating to the minion that he was well aware of the rules of grammar and that he would write as he chose and scatter his prepositions wherever he wanted them to be and that one altered his words at one's peril. Stalin on the other hand, wouldn't have said anything, he would have just sent him to Siberia for fifty years.


In what respect does it commemorate a sad event? From what I can see, having looked it up, it's a slow, gentle dance in the nature of a lullaby, not a lament. I've never heard of a folk dance that's in the form of a lament, though there's plenty of 'sad' dances in more formal dance forms, such as ballet. Perhaps Ziemowit could enlighten us as he's very well versed in cultural matters relating to Poland.


Well sadly as it turns out, none at all, as I most unaccountably confused Wilde with George Bernard Shaw. This is a constant problem when one has a plethora of illustrious countrymen. It refers to a quote regarding dancing which has been attributed to Wilde, Robert Frost (but he doesn't count because he's American) and Shaw, but Shaw is the most likely source.


Well, he didn't wear dresses so in what way did he dress like a girl? If you mean the long hair, floppy bow round his neck and his cloak, that was standard dress for Bohemian types at the time, artists, poets, musicians, many of whom were very much heterosexual with a string of ladies in tow. It was part of what was known as the Dress Reform movement, a reaction against the stiff, uncomfortable, restrictive and often unhealthy clothing of the Victorians. For ladies it meant soft, flowing dresses worn without corsets, for men loose suits with soft collars instead of the startched things around their necks.


If I were Ziemo.......if you're going to go around correcting the English of native speakers your own must be above reproach. The alternative is to hand in your trolling badge at the Kremlin customer service desk, relax and find another way to engage with people.


I think you're confusing him with Polly (Polonius). I'm constantly scolding him for the good of his soul whilst I get along famously with Ziemowit apart from the odd mild and very civilised difference of opinion.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


We don't have time..........


I see you've been influenced by my illustrious countryman Oscar Wilde. Now tell me to which of Oscar's epithets I refer.


Can you tell me of a few such Polish dances?


Now that is the sort of silliness up with which I will not put - Winston Churchill.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


To be truthful it's more a tendency to neurosis. Poles are very neurotic and rather obsessive, just look at the hypochondria and constant worrying about their livers. Also Poles treat things like folk dance with a sort of reverence which strips it of its original function as a form of celebration and expression of joy.


Ok then Citizen Troll.


He did indeed, fair play to him. Good man Ziemusz. Sadly, CT you can't understand that Irish people love that kind of thing and it only endears Ziemusz to me even further. As for the pic he posted, I thought it might be a kind of new wave in folk dance, you know the younger people trying to do some fusion thing, make the costumes a bit funky (in the Riverdance style) etc.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Now that's a very good question. For some reason I always imagined it referred to a tuft of grass but I've just checked and apparently it can be either a tuft or clump of something (such as grass?) or a low footstool, so we're none the wiser as to what she was actually sitting on!


Yes, in the context of the sentence we would. We've seen enough of those old cowboy movies in our part of the world :)

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Well the four provinces do have differences but they are less marked and not quite so obvious than it might be in other countries. Also with the country being so small and the tradition of itinerant musicians and poets travelling around from place to place, I suppose songs, dances, stories etc spread around the country in that way. Then again we didn't have the ethnic diversity that old Poland had, one people, one culture I suppose.


The only way to get this kind of practice going again is for schools to organise it and get the kids out there doing it. The only problem I can see with that is that the Polish tendencey for perfectionism might take the fun out of it and turn the kids completely off. But the kids won't learn it at home so school has to take over the role of promoting these things and revitalise the customs. There's something very wrong when a Polish kid is clamouring for Irish dancing lessons (and they do you know) because they've seen Riverdance but they know nothing of their own folk traditions.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]

Oh you are evil! I did say their costumes were influenced by Riverdance though! Yes, now what you've shown us there is the form of Irish dancing costume that became very popular in the 1960s, the costumes became every more elaborae and the false hair pieces were introduced at some point. I have seen kids dressed in this gear but it's becoming less popular now, thank God. However there are unfortunate mothers who spent hundreds of euros on these costumes and are determined to get use out of them so we'll see them being handed on for a while I'd say! I think it was an attempt to create a 'dancing costume' as worn by the European nations such as Poland.

We didn't have such fancy costumes again I suppose because of poverty. In Wicklow where I lived for a time, the old people would talk about how as recently as the 1950s many poorer children went barefoot and kept their shoes for schooldays. There was a woman with ten children and the kids stored their shoes amongst some rocks a couple of miles down the road from their cottage, carried their stockings with them and changed into the shoes and stockings when they were nearer to school, in order to save wear and tear. Shocking really isn't it?

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]

Up until about the 1950s the Irish would meet at the crossroads of the neighbouring villages and towns to dance every Saturday night. They'd often dance all night and go straight to mass on the Sunday morning. The Dancehall Act of the 1960s brought the dancing indoors but recently the custom has been revived. The great thing is that as it's an informal outdoor party, there's no age restrictions so the very young children can take part and all generations get together which is the natural way for people to live, not boxed off in age groups.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ0LUZUtziM

Ooh Ziemusz that's fun, guess the dance! I know what the Polonaise looks like so it's definitely not that. It looks pretty boisterous so I'm guessing oberek?? Their costumes look as if they've been heavily influenced by Riverdance, I doubt that decorous Polish maidens ever wore their skirts that short! And thank you very much for the information regarding the distinction between folk and national.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]

That's very interesting Ziemowit. It's almost like two sides of the same coin. Ireland lost its language but retained its musical traditions, Poland vice versa. I was reading a bit about it and the conclusion was the wartime death toll and shifting of ethnic groups within Poland severely disrupted the continuity of folk traditions. The Communists endorsed folk music as a wholesome expression of national identity but controlled it in the form of 'official' folk troupes who gave (and still give) highly polished but somewhat stagey versions of the original. It said that 'for the most part the real stuff withered away as the image of folk music became tarnished by the bland official ensembles'.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


You are :) As Roz pointed out Fitz simply means 'son'. It derives from the French 'fils'. And as she says Fitzroy is a name for a royal bastard son, the 'roy' deriving from the French 'roi' meaning king. Irish names are quite complicated really, especially the feminine forms.

For unmarried women, the Irish patronym Mc (Irish word for son is 'mac') also has a feminine form 'Nic' (daughter)which is rarely used nowadays but you do come across it from time to time. Most women simply use the Mc form though some Irish speakers prefer to use the traditional feminine form. Then there's Ní also meaning daughter of. It's a corruption of Iníon Uí meaning daughter of.

It was the custom in the Irish education system to use the Irish forms of names and we always addressed our unmarried teachers as Iníon Uí......... for example Miss Ryan would be addressed as Iníon Uí Rian. Married women are Bean (pronounced ban) literally meaning 'woman of '. Some of the older teaches still like to use the Irish forms, especially the ones who are very keen Irish speakers.

The childrens' names also are written in their Irish form in the school registers and the roll is called in the mornings using the Irish forms. Although I have a very old Saxon surname (there's not many of us in Ireland despite what Sussexguy thinks!) it was ruthlessly Gaelicized, a Ní was stuck in front of it and the actual name was altered to try to make it sound more Irish! I remember the dilemma we had when the 'new Irish' as we now call them began arriving from Poland amongst other places as there was simply no way to give an Irish form to the surnames so they went into the register in their original forms.


Succesive governments have tried very hard to promote the Irish language and it is the official language of the country. However at this stage Irish will never be our first language again and to be honest it was a good thing for us that we adopted English.It was having English as our first language that allowed Irish emigrants to prosper to the extent that they did in places like America and Australia. It's what allows us to operate globally in business and so on.

The problem lies with they way Irish is taught within the education system. You know how hard it is to become fluent in a second language and that's basically what Irish is for Irish people. If the teaching methods are bad, then people don't learn effectively. At primary school level the Irish teaching is very good and the children really love Irish but once they reach secondary, it falls into the trap of way too much written work, formal grammar, boring texts to read etc. The kids simply lose interest and as the language becomes more advanced, it's more difficult, they're not making progress, they stop trying, you know what I mean. The summer colleges run in the Gaeltacht (native Irish speaking parts of Ireland)do a brilliant job of total immersion and the kids love it. Did you watch that clip of Coláiste Lurgan? It helps of course that the Irish are musical people so they can learn to sing this way in two weeks. I think it's great the way they take dance music or whatever, translate the lyrics to Irish and incorporate the Irish instruments like the fiddle and 'box' the melodeon. The video of 'Wake Me Up' sung in Irish is great stuff.

irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/irish-college-teens-amazing-talent-cups-song-and-avicii-video-222995071-237775231.html

I know that Poland has much more culture than just 'folk' culture but to me there's two problems, one is that Polish folk culture is very regional. It belongs to the people of those regions but I don't think the nation as a whole really 'feel's that culture. It's something separate, to be observed or watched as a spectacle. For example Polish folk dancing is beautiful and so colourful with the magnificent costumes and you know you're watching living history, but, these dances are 'performed' if you get my meaning and you're not going to walk into a pub or a house and see people in their t-shirt and jeans get up and do those dances. Whereas in many parts of Ireland (where my own sister lives for example) this kind of thing still goes on regularly in people's homes. And it's cross generational. A child of seven will be playing the fiddle alongside a neighbour who's in his seventies. Now I'm sure that's how it was in Poland a hundred years ago, or perhaps not? Did people only dance and sing at festival times, dressed in their special costumes? Or did they dance every Saturday night as they did in Ireland? Could someone answer that question maybe?


Irish cuisine as such isn't the most exciting although it has improved greatly in the last twenty or thirty years. Certain traditional Irish dishes are delicious but the range is limited, nothing like the variety of Poland. The main reason for this again is historical. As a small island, we didn't have the influence of the bordering countries to east and west that formed Polish cuisine, as an English colonly our cuisine was influenced greatly by England but for the majority of people it was influenced more by extreme poverty. To give you an example Jonathan Swift wrote in 1720 about 'the miserable dress and diet and dwelling of the people' and how they were charged such enormous rents by their English landlords, that they were reduced to 'living in filth and nastiness, on a diet of buttermilk and potatoes without a shoe or stocking to their feet or a house so convenient as an English hog-sty to receive them'. Jonathan was of course an Anglo-Irish man and one of many such who saw the evils done by his own people and sought to draw attention to them and to right those wrongs. Indeed, after the departure of the last great Gaelic chieftains into exile, it was ironically, the Anglo-Irish middle classes who championed the cause of the poorest native Irish and led the fight for Irish freedom.

Anyway having said that, Ireland despite being so tiny, is one of the main producers of beef in the world, ranks in the top five. As for quality, as I said the cattle are fed entirely on natural pastures. They are hardly ever brought indoors because the climate is so mild and for the few weeks of the year that they are brought in, they're fed on natural silage harvested by the farmer from his own pastures. They are not given hormones in their feed or antibiotics. Every piece of beef you buy in Ireland is traceable (it's written on the pack you buy) back to the farm and the herd that it came from. Ireland has one of the best food safety records in the world. Our dairy products too are exported worldwide, even to China, because the quality is so high.

I've actually lived on a sheep farm (was renting a cottage there) so I've seen how the animals are kept and how well they're treated. I've seen the lambs in spring, I've seen the sheep being shorn outdoors in the fields in the summer. Three generations of the farmer's family would be there, really lovely to watch. Also there were cows in pasture across the road. They basically have a stress-free existence, fresh air, green grass, lots of space. Totally organic lifestyle, not crowded into sheds and pens.

But our public transport system is abysmal. That'll bring you some comfort I'm sure!

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Now, now, to jest bardzo nie ładne to call a lady 'rubbish'.


Ireland was an English colony for 800 years. The first wave of colonists were the Olde English as we call them, the Normans. They were Catholics of course and it was their practice to adopt the language and customs of the lands they colonised and to intermarry. The Irish surnames which begin with Fitz such as Fitzpatrick are Norman in origin,the Fitz deriving from the French 'fils' son, thus Fitzpatrick the son of Patrick etc. So although there was great resistance to the Normans we got on better with them than the later wave of English settlers who began to arrive in the 16th century. T

he final straw was Cromwell in the 17th century. These settlers persecuted the native Irish to an extent almost beyond belief. We stuck to our customs, language and culture despite their efforts to forcibly Anglicize us but the Famine of the 1840s took its toll on the language with around a quarter of the population dying or emigrating. The language went into decline and a period of revival began in the 1880s but by then English was firmly established. We had been bilingual for centuries before that but that was the end of Irish as a language in daily use to a large extent. That's one of the reasons why our Gaelic culture is so important to us because we managed to hang on to it through centuries of colonization by the British. Our language is probably actually the only thing that we lost and even at that, people like myself at least still have some knowledge of it.


Yes, and we don't have that problem in Ireland. Despite being not only a Catholic country, but one that Christianised much of Europe, the old pagan traditions survived alongside the Catholic ones. As for Hallowe'en (Samhain to give it its proper name) that dates back to Neolithic times.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Eh, they had guitars back in the 1950s and they were played in rock and roll back then.
I think when you talk about rock and roll, you're talking about the development of rock music since the 1960s?


Now why doesn't that surprise me? I'm afraid it doesn't count as music though.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


The Scots of the Highlands would refer to the English as 'Sasanachs' but that just derives from the Gaelic Sasanaigh meaning Saxon. Mind you it was said with a certain contemptuous tone. Very subtle. The Irish word for England is Sasana. I never heard the English called anything other than 'the English' or maybe Brits. We only insult our own!

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


I'm just teasing Polly same as when you make those comments about the Irish 'whiskey soaked Micks' etc. Now what was the topic of this thread again - oh yes, smells in Poland. Can't say I've noticed it. You come across the odd whiffy person everywhere in the world.

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


As I said previously. I know you Americans don't understand the metric system but......... :D

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]

Well she had that very special sartorial style favoured by American tourists! Also I heard her husband speaking to her, he was standing by waiting for her to finish......of course you're right, that doesn't mean she was American but it might be fairly assumed that she was. Anyway her American husband allowed her to commit this act so guilty as charged!

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


A little girl whom I was teaching, who had only recently arrived in Ireland, proceeded to go to the toilet in the school yard, though in fairness she squatted over what we call a 'shore', the drain thing under the water pipe on the outside of the building. Obviously she was from a poor family who had been unaccustomed to indoor sanitary arrangements.

At the same time during the summer I saw an American tourist squat on the pavement outside Park Łazienkowski within not more than 20 metres of a public toilet facility and proceed to her business, with her rear end facing the traffic! Now I'm sure she wouldn't do that in New York or Washington. Why does she think it's ok in Poland? Unfortunately it was one of those occasions when there wasn't a policeman in sight.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


You're right that internet translators are generally rubbish. It's impossible to fake a knowledge of Irish through such a thing because it translates literally and Irish for the most part can't be translated literally from English for many reasons.

Just for the craic I took a simple phrase 'put on your coat' which in Irish is 'chuir ort do chóta' and put it through Google translate and what did I get? A chur ar do chóta - never heard anyone say that in Irish! Another very basic example would be 'she is happy' In Irish this would be 'Tá áthas uirthi' (which literally means happiness is on her, emotions are always 'on' a person in the Irish language). Google Translate will give you 'bhfuil sí sásta' which is completely meaningless. However you could have 'AN bhfuil sí sásta?' which means 'is she pleased?'. Sásta means satisfied or pleased with, as in 'Tá sí sásta leis.........' she is pleased with something or other. If you want to ask if she's happy however, you'd say 'An bhfuil áthas uirthi? So yes, I do know more than 'a bit' of Irish. Tá níos mó ná beagán Gaeilge agam which translates as 'I have more than a little Irish' although of course poor old Google can't cope with that either! There you go now, ceacht a h-aon in our lovely language for you :)

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


I forgot about the meat!

Quantity doesn't always mean quality you know. Have you heard of Smithfield a company very active in Poland and the disgraceful conditions their pigs were kept in? And of course they're not even Polish, they're American. See what I mean?? Bringing horrendous American large scale factory farming methods to Poland.

Then a couple of years ago there was the illegal antibiotics found in Polish poultry.

Irish meat is better Sussexguy because it's raised on small farms in near organic conditions and fed on the natural pastures which are incredibly lush. Ireland has a terrible climate for people but those damp, temperate conditions are ideal for farming. That's why the meat is better. It's just a fact.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


It's not neglected. First of all it's taught in school from the age of four and is compulsory for the whole fourteen years from primary through to secondary. Secondly there are many Gaelscoileanna which teach entirely through Irish and these are growing in number. Thirdly there are groups such as Conradh na nGaeilge where adults can meet to either acquire basic Irish if they have none (though that really is rare, Irish people always have a few words and it comes back to them from their schooldays when they become immersed in the language again) or to keep their fluency going and improve on it. Then you have the Irish colleges as they are known where children or adults can go for a two week course in one of the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) regions of Ireland. Here's a taste of how the language is being embraced by the young people of Ireland, these are some of the Gaeltacht students from one of the summer colleges. It's nice, you'll enjoy this:

youtube.com/watch?v=pX12ulRkqYI

As one of the comments says - feck an Béarla, is brea liom Éire !!!!!!

You also have to realise that the language has survived in other ways through our musical tradition and thanks to the thousands of songs that are still sung after hundreds of years and are added to all the time.


What do you mean 'even' you cheeky article, especially Irish people.


Yes, and what are you doing importing Hallowe'en from Ireland????That's our ancient tradition, not yours. Do you know where you're getting it from? America. It was brought there by the Irish and Scots who continued to observe it and now Poland is importing it as yet another piece of American cutlure. Hallowe'en has no cultural significance for Poles. It has for the Irish because Oíche Shamhna (the Eve of Samhain)is one of the four ancient Gaelic festivals. It's an unbroken tradition in Ireland right down to the lighting of the bonfires which are still lit all over the country on that night. For days beforehand you'll see the children of the inner cities out collecting pallets, any scrap wood they can find and wheeling it back to their blocks of flats in shopping trollies 'borrowed' from the local supermarkets :)

Anyway it's nice to see that you're capable of being less of a lummox - careful now! Down with that sort of thing :)

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


I can sing it myself. I learned it years ago. However, I don't hear my neighbours singing it very often :) I can also give you a fair rendering of Krakówiaczek Jeden miał koników siediem, po jechał na wojne, został mu się jeden..........for our school's International Day a few of the Polish children in the school did an absolutely beautiful dance to it, complete with fabulous costumes which their mothers ordered specially from Poland for the occasion. Everybody was absolutely charmed by the whole thing.

The comment I made to Comrade Troll was a throwaway remark simply to yank his chain, nothing more than that. However, if pressed, yes, I would say that Poland doesn't have a strong folk tradition outside a few rural communities and I'd be right. However, I did not say that folk culture is the only culture, nor do I think that.


I'm sure you learned a couple of songs in school, girl guides, or some youth group. I'm also sure that the pair of you probably hail from the more southerly part of Poland.


Of course you do. I'd be an ignorant lump if I thought otherwise.


No, we have a such strong cultural identity in the first place and American influences have been absorbed very slowly over the last fifty or sixty years. Poland is a different story. It was messed with so badly over the last hundred years and then pitchforked into the western world that I think it's going through a bit of an identity crisis and is becoming increasingly Americanized. Even the work culture is changing. Poland didn't have her independence long enough between the Wars for her to really establish what it meant to be Polish in the twentieth century and then you lost a whole chunk of your elite, your intellectuals, your officer class, your gentry. I think that has seriously affected Polish society. When I've discussed this with Polish friends - who, believe it or not actually like me and are not offended by my views - I find that we are in broad agreement on these matters.


I hope I never find out. Spare me, spare me, bleedin' spare me, as they'd say in Dublin. I'm sure that would go down well in Praga on a Saturday night alright. Strangely enough when the youth of Warsaw assemble neath my window after a few beers, they don't recite passages of the Polish classics. Nor have I been subjected to it at any social gatherings I've attended, I'm happy to say.


No, I'm just nicer.


No, I distinctly remember citing the cakes of Blikle as superior. Magnificent confections, true works of the pastry chef's art and a legacy of the French influence on Poland. You see, your culture is a compound of many influences from East and West. Did you not know that?? Yes, I'm yanking your chain Paulina dear.


And Dolnosląsk. Very nice man. Shame he seems to have disappeared. I hope he's just on holiday and not unwell. I'm very fond of Ziemusz. He's intelligent, has a very dry sense of humour and is capable of discussing things in a calm manner without getting red faced and huffing and puffing all over the place.


Like your folk music :))

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


My tune is the same. I'm saying it's not a living tradition and it isn't. That's a fact.

Havent' time for anything else now but I'll get back to you. Cheers!

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Tell that to Sussexguy.

My comments weren't in any way directed at Polish people but at an ignorant troll who claims that Irish cutlure is identical to English, which it most certainly is not.


The point was about WWI. Here was my final post on that. Don't know if you read it:
https://polishforums.com/archives/2010-2019/history/poland-wwi-78374/2/

Unlike you I am gracious enough to put that behind me:



Polish culture exists of course but what do you mean by culture? If you're talking about folk culture then it is not a living tradition for Poles in the way that the ancient customs, music, dances, sports etc of Ireland have surived not only in obscure rural communities but in every town and village in every part of the country. Now in Poland certain very beautiful and colourful traditions survive in some parts of the country but it is not as pervasive as it is throughout society in Ireland and that's just a fact.

The thousands of songs and tunes which the Irish have in our culture are part of the Bardic tradition which doesn't exist in Poland. We have a tradition of expressing ourselves through music and song which is why there is such a vast catalogue of songs. Every person and every event of significance in our history is commemorated in song and music and even in dance with sets like the Walls of Limerick and the Siege of Ennis. So yes, you may have sung a few light hearted ditties around the campfire but that's not quite the same thing.

Many other Polish traditions and customs have their roots in Catholicism and as the Church diminishes in importance in people's lives so those customs are in danger of disappearing or becoming a mere tourist attraction.

It's certainly not true to say that the culture of Poland is exclusively MacDonalds and KFC but it's heading that way. Poles are very much enamoured of all things American. Even look at the way the Bazars are being demolished left, right and centre and replaced by steel and plate glass shopping centres.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Where are the other Irish members apart from Smurf and me? If there are any others who are silently observing, let's hear you - táim cinnte go bhfuil cúpla focal agaibh.


So now you're also an expert on the Irish language even though you haven't a word of it.


Can you really be that much of a dimwit? Rock and roll if you're talking about the 1950s stuff came from America and was copied by the Brits, never by the Irish. (Nowadays sometimes we use the term rock and roll to encompass all modern music). Tell me Sussyguy who exactly were the 1950s rock and roll pioneers from Ireland, name them.


That's an American 'thang'. Means nothing to the Irish.


Oh now really? Irish beef, probably the best in the world, ditto Irish lamb, all far superior to Polish produce, due to our rich pasture lands and farming methods.


Why is it funny?? English is our first language. Irish on the other hand is our native language. Plenty of people sing in it, the music of our people that has been handed down through generation after generation,unlike Poland where sadly you'd be hard pressed to find anybody you'd pass in the street who could sing a verse of a Polish folk song. Are there any well known songs about the Polish struggles of yore, or of your past glories, or songs of lost love? Never heard anyone singing them and do you know why? Because they don't know them. The culture in Poland now is MacDonalds, KFC and TK Maxx. What a shame.

Woops! I was forgetting of course you're not Polish. Back to the Kremlin Trolling Academy now, you still have a lot to learn and tell them their textbooks are out of date - just like their military hardware used to be in those wonderful May Day parades.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


On and on embarrassing yourself. Yes.


theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/28/origins-of-the-irish-down-to-mass-migration-ancient-dna-confirms

By the way British doesn't mean anything in a DNA context, you have to be either English, Welsh or Scottish.



Ach bhí mise agus Smurf ag caint as Gaeilge an tseachtain seo caite, ar an 'forum' seo. Cá raibh tusa?? Tá brón orm nach raibh tú ann.


As I have a few minutes to spare.........just in case you escape from captivity again and show up here:

What on God's green earth are you talking about? Have you heard of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Little Richard? Do you know what R&B is? That's the roots of rock and roll. Google them. I know Wikipedia is your BFF but it hasn't served you very well thus far, so show a bit more imagination this time and you might actually learn something.

The Irish were never pioneers of rock and roll. Back then we had what were called showbands who played the ballrooms. The first Irish act of any international significance was Rory Gallagher (RIP, Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam) in the early 1970s.

youtube.com/watch?v=Lxw51M7wAGk

That'll do for now. I'll correct your other howlers another time.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Stop pretending to be cross with me Johnny :))

I know very little about American jails but I would expect you to have a high crime rate because it's such a huge country and I think to be honest that it's amazing that America is as normal as it is, considering the size of it and how difficult it is to manage such a vast place with its many and varied people.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Not sure how easy that is to implement in practise. And even if they were 'normal' there are so many awful, macho types in Poland. Just look at the way they drive and then imagine them with access to a gun.......

Law / Allegro.pl shipping costs and methods - what's the best [12]

Many sellers on Allegro won't deliver outside Poland. I took a quick look at the link you provided and I didn't see anything mentioned about overseas delivery. The costs shown are for local delivery within Poland. Usually the only sensible choice is Kurier (courier). If you choose Poczta Polska, it will take forever and may not turn up at all.

The best thing you can do is to click the link 'Pytanie do sprzedającego' (ask the seller a question) on the right hand side of the page and enquire about costs and methods for delivery to Taiwan. Sellers on Allegro are a very mixed bunch, some will respond courteously to your message, some will ignore you and some will actually be rude to you! Bear in mind that unless you message them in Polish they will not be likely to respond as few of them speak enough English and any answer you do receive will be in Polish. Sometimes even when they answer you, they don't really give the information you need and you have to get back to them a couple of times to clarify things.

Would you not consider buying from Ebay or Amazon, they are much easier to use.

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]


Interesting point but I think you could be starting another Papal schism if you carry on down this route!

God may not accept resignations but the Church does so that's that.

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]


Introduced in 1870.

Incidentally his comments re the present crisis in Europe don't constitute a doctrine of the Church so yes, he can be wrong, even within the definition of Papal infallibility.

UK, Ireland / Ireland and Poland - ways of struggling for independence [43]


Totally agree with that Ziemowit. There's always an element of luck. In the case of Ireland, Britain was suffering the aftermath of the First World War and I think they had very little appetite for any further conflict. Public opinion would have been very much in the nature of 'oh just let the Irish have their silly old country back, we've had enough wars'. Public opinion had some influence in Britain, with it being broadly a democracy, even back then. Also the whole of Europe was changing, empires disappearing, monarchies falling. It was a time of great change and it was Ireland's moment.

I do think though that even so, what sets Ireland apart, was that even after more than seven hundred years of continuous occupation and a number of wars and uprisings, the will to be 'a nation once again' was still so strong in the ordinary people, that they could be motivated to fight in that way, that there was still the spirit and belief that it was possible to be free.