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DoChara's Ireland Blog
Random Writings about Ireland and the Irish
Wednesday
June 22 2005
Don't make us hate you!
We get lots of tourists in Ireland, almost 3.5 million of them in 2004. Every May it's like a flock of migratory birds return, taking up residence in our towns and cities, filling the streets, hotels and pubs until mid-September when they fly away again for Winter, leaving a silence behind that is at first almost eerie.
We genuinely welcome each and every one, and most Irish people feel it is some small way their personal task to make sure that any visitor they have contact with sees the country at its best and has a good time while doing so.
And mostly tourists make that job easy, behaving in a friendly, courteous and respectful manner, taking a real interest in our little country and its culture and cheerfully putting up with its many and varied shortcomings.
But there are just a few who make it very hard. Here are some of the habits of the annoying tourist that most irritate, in no particular order.
- Booking a single room in a hotel and sneaking in an extra person. Or a family room and filling it with an entire football team. Not nice, not fair.
- Sitting in a pub with your three travelling companions for two hours over one glass of Guinness. Between all four of you! Heh - real customers need those seats and your mere presence is no compensation for the pub owner.
- Moaning about the weather and all the rain. (Those of us who live here are allowed to complain, but you choose to visit) How did you think Ireland got so green?
- Trying to speak like an Irish person by sprinkling your conversation with things like 'begorrah' or 'top of the morning' or 'may the road rise to meet you'. Nobody Irish, and I mean nobody, ever says those things.
- Coming over for one night from the 'mainland' for a stag party and expecting everyone to be thrilled with your loud boorish behaviour and highly amused by the naked groom tied to the lamppost. We are not, we saw it all last weekend, and the one before that and the one before that and... Just pipe down ok?
- Visiting a great restaurant serving the best of fresh local produce and ordering a lettuce leaf and an egg white omelette. The former does not count as food and the latter is an abomination.
- Driving along happily at 30 Km/hr with a line of 50 cars behind you, then screeching to a halt because you see a castle. We have hundreds of castles, there will be a convenient stopping place beside any that are of interest.
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