Why are such annoying misconceptions and stereotypes abot Ireland?

Were you drunk in the pub when you wrote this? :-)

Every group of people gets stereotyped about and there are common misconceptions about all of them. (Irish drink a lot. Americans are arrogant. Black people are violent. White people are racists. Atheists are immoral. Swedes are blonde. Blondes are dumb...). You're not the only ones who have this problem, we all get our share of it.

Stereotypes suck. They are dumb generalizations and are never true for everyone in the group that is being stereotyped (in fact, most of the time they're only true for a tiny part of the group). It's just ignorance. What you can do is to avoid stereotyping and generalizing about other groups. The more people do that, the less we have to deal with such misconceptions.

They are the same way with Aussies.

We all say crikey and g'day....not often.

We all have kangaroos in our backyards....not bloody likely they are in the country.

We all know each other because there are only 20 odd million of us....Yeah like I know Hanna Smith from Sydney...I only live in Perth 3 thousand miles away.

We all dress in khaki army gear....umm...noooo.

We put another shrimp on the barbie....We dont have shrimp we have prawns....shrimp are tiny things we use in a salad or in sandwiches.

We eat at Outback Steakhouse....who by the way stole the blooming onion from us...we wouldnt be seen dead in that place.

We drink a lot....well ok we do that.

We all have blonde hair and blue eyes...not...Australia is very multicultural and proud of it.

We like it when American tv says that Bush is the leader of the free world....not OUR bloody free world mate...we didnt vote for the beggar.

I can think of a thousand more too

Hooroo (means seeya later)

Every nationality gets it. You only feel it because you are Irish.

People love to poke fun, even to the point of cruelty.

Stereotypes hurt everyone.

Mexicans, Blacks, Italians, Puerto Ricans etc.

We all have long lists of stereotypes.

One day you hear an Irish joke, the next day you hear about the British and their bad teeth, or the Black welfare mommies, or the Italian pasta eating gangster.

Don't let ignorance get you down.

I know Blink. It drives me crazy too and I'm English.

I think some of it may be envy. Who wouldn't want to live with such lovely folks as you?

This isn't a stereotype, but I've heard it said that the average Irish persons level of consciousness....including wit, generosity, sense of fun etc.........is 2 whiskeys ahead of the rest of us.

That's not a bad thing to have said about you.

Heck, I can add some. Just like you said, stereotypes! Lets see:

1) They are drunks. (like that is a bad thing)

2) They have really pale skin with freckles and have bad teeth.

3) Something about the little guy at the end of the rainbow. (sorry)

We are all stereotyped in one way or another.

Girl, don't fuss because there are stereotypes of everyone in the whole world. There are stereotypes about hyspanics, blacks, irish, english, french, chinese, you name it they have a stereotype for it. So just ignore it seriously cuz if you pay attention to everything they say about everyone you'll drive yourself insane. Point in Fact ("scream at the telly") so don't worry about it.

By the looks of it, you can't speak English either. Relax. There are stereotypes and misconceptions about every race, religion, nationality...

I HAVE MANY IRISH FRIENDS AND HAVE STUDIED THE IRISH CULTURE SINCE I LOVE CELTIC STUFF AND BEGORRAH IS A SLANG WORD, THE IRISH DO ALL DRINK, YES THEY STILL ARE RELIGOUS AND DAMN THEY EAT A LOT OF POTATOES!

I dont know a nationality who doesnt have stereo types.

All Canadians say eh

All Americans are fat

All Mexicans are lazy

I just accept it and move on

Thank you, you'v just given us all the things we believe to be true about Ireland. Why don't you tell us what Ireland is really like?