Stereotpyes and prejudices about the Irish

Ireland is a an island whose citizens, probably due to the remoteness of its location, have developed characteristics that might strike the unbiased visitor as peculiar.

Let’s look at some of the most common prejudices about the Irish and see if they are true:

1.) The Irish are alcoholics:

If you google “Irish alcoholics” you get over 400,000 hits.

A report of a Steering Group on National Substance Misuse Strategy, however, revealed that the average Irish adult consumed 11.9 litres of pure alcohol in 2010, corresponding to 482 pints of lager, 125 bottles of wine or 45 bottles of vodka per year. So this equals  approxiamately one and a half beer a day, or one bottle of vodka per week. Of 40 tested nations the Irish came in 10th. Statistically, there is no indication that the Irish have a stronger propensity to floss than any other nation.

2.) The Irish have a chip on their shoulder

Years of civil war might suggest that you could have point here. Still, the same was going on in Ex-Yugoslavia and in lot of different other countries. I think we don’t have to get started on the Middle East. The myth of the Celtic Warrior might have died with young Siegfried of the Nibelungs Saga. Although examples like John Patrick Mc Enroe (an American with Irish roots) could make it hard not to believe that the Irish do have a bit of a temper.

3.) The Irish are hard-headed

Americans of Irish descent call themselves donkeys because of the tenacious characteristics of said animal. It is very hard to measure obstinacy and I could find no statistical evidence that opted in favor or against Irish stubbornness.

In general, sometimes the Irish have to blame themselves a little for being judged according to the aforementioned stereotypes. In my experience, often times, they pride themselves in having all these bad characteristics and to try meet prejudices as some sort of preemptive argument, though in reality they’re like everybody else.