I can't help it. After being married to an Irishman and interacting with Irish culture in a plethora of every-day-casual-and-formal situations, this is how things work. There is a very different culture to kindness in Ireland. Kindness and deference and pardoning one's self is such a pervasive part of how people interact with each other. It's easy for an American to view it as insincere or passive aggressive (and maybe a small amount of the time it is...). For the most part, there is a lot of sincere giving-people-the-benefit-of-the-doubt going on and Olympic-strength-conflict-avoidance. (Yes, even when conflict might resolve the situation cleaner or more quickly!).
Did someone do something rude to you? You apologize to them. Did someone jump in front of you in the queue? By all means, after you sir. No sarcasm to be heard anywhere in any of those situations or the reactions to them. This American has laughed more than once at that practice. So who am I to think that conception would be any different...? Maybe I just figured out why this whole having-a-baby-thing is taking so long after all.... no, no, after YOU... :)
On a different note entirely, there is also a small part of me that thought the cartoon title made it sound like I would be posting an alcoholic drink recipe. How to make an Irish Gentleman. It really does sound like a recipe intro, doesn't it? If you visited this link thinking you were getting cocktail recipes and drink advice, let's fix that right now. And let's call it the Irish Gentleman Cocktail.
Combine the following, shake vigorously with ice,and serve chilled over ice in a highball:
Irish Gentleman Cocktail
1 oz Vanilla Vodka1 oz Bailey's Irish Cream
1 oz Chocolate Liqueur
Drink it quickly and take your progesterone shots... :P
P.S. If you were waiting on bated breath for the announcement of the winners of the 2015 Sheenazing Awards... you can find them over @
A Knotted Life. Lots of awesome Catholic blogs to read in her list. We're grateful to have received an honorable mention this year!
I did JYA at UCC and saw some of the same cultural differences. I was in the choir one semester, and all the Americans were singing out, projecting the way they had been taught, while the Irish students were singing oh so quietly. After a while we figured out how to perform as a group, but it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you got to study abroad. I wish, wish I had been able to do that myself. I can only imagine how "interesting" it was to perform in an American and Irish mixed choir! LOL. I bet that was a fun experience. So many cultural differences...and yet no one in America hardly thinks there is...because the language is "English". Which I also find hysterical since I only understand half of what some people say.
DeleteThis also describes very well the mountain culture of Appalachia (where I live), which of course, has its origins in Ireland. It all makes sense now! Very fascinating. And congrats on the Sheenazing...great to see a few IF blogs on the list!
ReplyDeleteOh goodness - what a great point! Having spent a lot of time traveling in the Appalachian Mountains and in the valleys nearby... that makes perfect sense. You are so right about the cultural differences and how they are similar to Ireland! Thank you for the sweet words about the Sheenazing mention. I was gobsmacked to see my name on any list with that awesome group of women. Hate to draw the distinction of moms vs. IF sometimes, but you are right that there are so few IF blogs noticed. I'm humbled this little Catholic one was of all the many there are out there! <3 They all gave me the hope to begin writing, so this blog doesn't exist without them anyway.
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