Comments on: French fail to notice Irish independence

By: euan

euan — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:01:51 +0000

Anyone for International Rules?

By: rea

rea — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:32:54 +0000

“’Does anyone really pay attention to hurling anyway?’

“That’s the funny sport with the brooms and the ice, right?”

You’re thinking of curling, doug. Hurling is what the Irish do after drinking . . .

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:39:48 +0000

FWIW, I ordered a ticket online from the SNCF a couple of months ago. The list of choices after the question Andrew refers to—Quel est le pays de reception ou de retrait des billets?—does not include the United States. They want Americans to go through some third-party web service, “RailEurope” or some such, which just happens to charge much higher prices.

(In case you’re wondering, you can, in fact, order tickets on the SNCF website from the US, and retrieve them in France, as long as you have the credit card you used to place the order.)

By: Andrew Boucher

Andrew Boucher — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:20:03 +0000

I hate to spoil all the theorizing with a fact, but I’m just in the process of ordering a train ticket to the Alps. The last question from the SNCF is, “Quel est le pays de reception ou de retrait des billets?” In the pop-up menu, Irlande is listed.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:14:44 +0000

Mrs T, it is well known on the web that Americans (yep, all 300m of them) are incapable of taking the piss without the appropriate receptacle.

maurinsky, thank you, I was worried for a moment that the sport was related to imbibing too much tequila. Wiki set me straight.

By: goatchowder

goatchowder — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:30:44 +0000

Coulda been worse. They could have been Canadian and confused for Americans; they hate that.

Or, even worse than that, they could have been Texans and confused for Americans; that really pisses ‘em off.

By: paul

paul — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:02:30 +0000

FDI in Ireland decreased by 50% last year, the same year in which FDI outflows from the US reached an all-time high (Irish Times, subscription required : http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2005/0628/383964873BZFDI.html ).
Despite this, the Irish economy still hummed along merrily, probably helped by a property/construction boom, something we have in common with much of the Anglo-Saxon world.

By: yabonn

yabonn — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:40:42 +0000

I think maria is right : your average clueless french may call “british” all these english-speaking people living in the islands up there, but still know enough not to lump all these people together. As simple as looking who’s cheering when france beats england at rugby.

I just have to remember not (not!) to do the celtic soul thing next Irish i meet.

Not before a few pints, anyways.

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:00:51 +0000

Ah, Zola Budd. My favorite memory of her is Mary Decker in tears after spiking her in the foot.

By: maurinsky

maurinsky — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:38:59 +0000

Richard Harris used to say that when he was in the news for something bad, like drunkeness, he was called an Irish actor, and when he was in the news for something good, like being nominated for an award, he was called a British actor. And for you, Doug: hurling

By: Please

Please — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:24:13 +0000

Please stop picking on France. I live in Canada and try telling some people in the US that Canada exists. In fact, Europeans always think that we Canadians and the US are one country.

So, two instances of forgetting where Ireland is, doesn’t not an entire country of ignoramuses make.

Get over it!

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:12:09 +0000

I do hope you are joking, Doug.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:59:58 +0000

Does anyone really pay attention to hurling anyway?

That’s the funny sport with the brooms and the ice, right? Y’all are better than the Canadians?

By: otto

otto — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:45:15 +0000

Corporate France? This is SNCF. In the absence of evidence that Amazon.fr or the sellers of Beaujolais Nouveau do the same, I’d put it down to characteristic cluelessness of the state-owned enterprise.

Airmiles: “Last year, Ireland got more foreign direct investment from America than from China.” I think that last “from” should be dropped.

Good universities? Well, Dell seems to think so. But IIRC they suffer from all the lack of, and misallocation of, resources and dynamism of all European universities, not least because they are state enterprises (like SNCF). If you have the choice, try Princeton.

By: P ONeill

P ONeill — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:41:19 +0000

It’s an embarrassing column for SNCF. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too harsh and note that the perception that the Republic still uses pounds may only date from 1979 rather than 1922. Although, and this gets into another issue entirely, Martin is not helping enlighten les francais with his imprecise use of the term “Ireland” when he should be saying “Republic of Ireland.”

One other thing—our credentials as an independent nation would also be helped if our soi-disant republicans in power weren’t so obsequious towards the former power. There’s Bertie Ahern’s continual references to “Sir” Alex Ferguson, the trips that half the Cabinet take to “Royal” Ascot and their overall retail strategy for the country in which their developer friends fill ugly shopping centres with branches of British stores.