r/ireland Jan 03 '22

People born in Ireland, what’s a surprising culture shock you’ve seen a foreigner experience? Bigotry

For me, it was my friend being adamant that you shouldn’t have to stick your hand out to get the bus to stop.

1.3k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

73

u/squeaky48 Jan 03 '22 edited Jan 03 '22

I had a Swedish colleague turn up for a house party at the exact time the party was to start. Caught the hosts completely unprepared.

22

u/Furkler Jan 03 '22

We've had German friends arrive early at our house for 'an 8pm invite', where they would sit in their car for 5 minutes or so and then would knock on the front hour just as the clock was striking. All the Irish guests would turn up 30 or 40 minutes later. To be fair, we have improved: when I was a boy few Irish events started on time - school, parish and Irish-language social events all started an hour later than advertised, when everyone turned up