A small aside but relevant to this thread,
I remember a mocking slur once often used in Scotland against the supposed not real Irish of Scotland and their singing of A Soldiers Song at Celtic.
Along the lines of how people in Ireland would be deeply offended to hear their anthem sung in English!
When ever hearing or seeing that supposed mockery in print, I think that this person was really just a little bit more anti Irish than typical, one who has gone out their way to find and use a disguised form of racism by making an apparently credible point in favour of and merit for the supposed real Irish.
No doubt that some of these people who use such statements have a real problem with and just can't understand why anyone would want to like the Irish let alone be one!
For reference the anthem was originally penned in English and was sung in the GPO 1916 in English, the very same original REAL version as often heard at Celtic.
Of course there are some here in Ireland who would laugh along, typically they'd be raised dedicated heirloom haters of the 'mere Irish' or just regular half wits of the type seen across the world, in Ireland effectively educated and informed by the likes of the Irish sun and british tv news. irony at its finest.
Reality check!
There is no one Irish for anyone to fit into, never has been, the difference between someone from one part of Ireland to another, even from one field to another can be and often is obvious!
A North Side inner city Dub to a more rural part of Dublin
let alone another county typically means obvious differences inherited or acquired. Not so much maybe in the 21st Century where globalism makes us all a bit more alike, but Ireland and the Irish is still not one credible reality.
Irish is merely a self identifying basic claim to the land and people and cultures, and anyone who wants that, then no one can take it away from you and you no longer have to put up with the BNP like abuse your likeminded once had to.
No I don’t find it offensive at all. Sorry not to be a member of the easily offended club. Are you actually Irish? An Irish citizen? Or do you come from two Irish parents? I don’t I am a product of two Scottish parents, so if decided to act as if I was Irish then being called a plastic would be quite apt.
Because I’m not. Being more interested in Ireland than the country I was born raised educated in to me screams plastic.
Is there anti Irish bias, of course there is but calling someone plastic isn’t. Unless you are Irish or both your parents are, but many don’t meet that criteria but act as if they are. That’s my understanding of the term.
And even if I was an Irish citizen or my mum and dad were, I still wouldn’t bother my arse. There’s a lot more to be offended about in the world than someone questioning your Irish credentials. Well, there is to me. You obviously disagree and that’s cool. For you
You really should step back and think and then realize that the very fact you state that you are not Irish, only diminishes any remotely credible right to decide what is acceptable or not to someone who is Irish. You certainly you have zero credible right to tell others who they are!
Question for you, seen as someone else who also finds the BNP cliché plastic paddy as just fine to use, has conveniently ignored to answer.
Do you consider those in Ireland who refer to themselves as British, as plastic not really real, a lesser british? or do you just accept their claim to identity?
