Post by Maolsheachlann on Jul 13, 2017 12:24:55 GMT
OK, this thread is close to my heart, and I'm going to pin it-- because I get to do that. If anyone has a problem with that, please send a letter of complaint to Complaints Department, Irish Conservatives Forum, P.O. Box Go Jump in a Lake.
I've always wanted to compile an attemptedly exhaustive list of Irish traditions and customs-- including both the obvious ones, and the ones that we never think about. I mean, trying to get really fine-grained and forensic about it.
It's extraordinary how we don't think of a lot of our traditions and customs, when it comes to listing them. When I was getting married, my American wife was very interested to know about Irish wedding customs, and I get kept saying: "I can't really think of any. I've only ever been to one wedding and I was a kid." One day, we were in a shop, and the shop assistant fumbled (or, more likely, I fumbled) the change and it fell everywhere. "Grushi!", someone said. "What's grushi?", my wife asked. "Oh, it's an Irish wedding tradition", I said. (Probably everyone knows this, but it means throwing coins at a wedding.)
A few years ago, I heard the card game twenty-five was Ireland's national card game. I'd never heard this. It's little things like that fly under the radar.
Someone on another thread mentioned the Irish tendency to ignore celebrities who are out in public, which seems distinctively Irish (though doubtless it's not uniquely Irish). This is the kind of tradition or custom we never think of when it comes to these lists. So I wanted to see can I make a really exhaustive list which could be added to by others, over time. They can be quirks of language, quirks of personality...anything which makes Ireland distinctive (again, doesn't have to be unique).
Please add posts and I will integrate them into the main lists.
So I am going to kick off with all the most obvious ones:
Sport
Gaelic Football
Hurling
The Munster Hurling Final
Rounders
Road bowling
Rugby, especially in Limerick
Boxing
Horse racing and horse breeding
Supporting English soccer teams
The John 3:7 placard that sports fan carries to games
Swimming in the forty-foot.
I'm not that much of a sports person, I prefer soccer to Gaelic games. Maybe some people can tell me traditions within those sports, such as making mad speeches when awarded the All-Ireland trophy.
Music and Dance
Irish traditional music
Sean-nós singing
Irish folk ballads
Tin whistle
Uileann pipes
Ceilidhs
Set dancing
Lúibíní, whatever the hell they are
Country music, in some areas. (I hear it is a way of life in some towns. Is that true?)
Language
The Irish language
Shelta
The various dialects
Yola and Old Fingalian (well, these are more memories than traditions, but I'll put them in anyway).
Hiberno-English, which deserves a section all of its own
South Armagh slang: 'Deadly' means cool or impressive, and the archtypical 'Go on ya good thing' and the famous South Armagh 'shout'. 'Beur' for a girl, 'fien or fiend' for a boy, 'yoke' for a car.
Sculpture
Giving rhyming names to Dublin statues (the Floozy in the Jacuzzi, the pr---- with the sick, the hags with the bags, the tart with the cart, etc.) No name for the Millennium Spire ever stuck, despite many efforts. Also used for at least one monument in BElfast
Visual arts
Celtic knotwork
Pre-Celtic spirals
Hiberno-Romanesque architecture
John Hinde postcards
Literature
The Irish literary tradition in general.
Short-story writing (Sean O'Faolain, Mary Lavin, and others.)
Winning the Nobel Prize for literature (four times)
Food and drink
Corned beef, cabbage and potatoes (puke puke)
A full Irish breakfast (which is...?)
Colcannon on Halloween
Red, white and orange ice-cream and jelly on St. Patrick's Day
Barmbrack
Tea. Strong tea, especially in rural areas. Lyons and Barry's.
Irish whiskey.
Red lemonade.
Cadet Orange.
Cavan Cola. (I understand this is no longer produced but there are campaigns to revive it, so I will keep it in.)
Guinness.
Irish stew.
Dublin coddle.
Friend breakfast at Bewley's.
Dulsk (chewable seaweed).
Poteen.
Politics
Catch-all parties.
Clientelism and parish pump politics.
The two-and-a-half party system.
Small, breakaway parties that are successful for a while and then disappear.
Splits. ("The first item on the agenda of every Irish organization is the split.")
Political dynasties and family politics: People generally vote the way their extended family votes with divisions usually not talked about within the family and the tendency for people of the same families being elected generation after generation. Neither of these are unique to Irish politics, but they are VERY noticeable in our political discourse.
Broadcasting
The Late-Late Toy Show
The Late Late Show itself
The dawn chorus on Mooney Goes Wild
Dustin the turkey
Shows in the format of Scrap Saturday
Events
Bloomsday
The Rose of Tralee
The Galway Races
The Ploughing Championships
The Young Scientist Awards
Halloween
St. Patrick's Day
Nollaig na mBan/Little Christmas
St. Brigit's Day
The summer solstice in Newgrange
The Twelfth of July
Reek Sunday
Halloween (and Irish tradition itself)
Mummery - the tradition of playing practical jokes and pranks for the sake of personal honour among young men. May just be an Ulsterian or Co.Louth variation, as I Mummery is the name of another, entirely different practice elsewhere in Ireland involving people stuffing straw up their shirts.
Halloween bonfires.
Halloween costumes.
Pumpkin carving (originally turip carving.)
Death
The Irish wake.
"I'm sorry for your troubles".
Education
The "debs"
The colours debate between Trinity and UCD
Social Life
Pretending not to see famous people.
"You're very good" expression.
The Irish mammy-- matriarch in working class areas (at least she used to be).
St. Patrick's Day parade
St. Patrick's Day shamrock
Wren boys
Irish names such as Sinéad, Cormac, etc.
Going to the Gaeltacht
Religion
Standing at the back of church at Mass.
Taking the straw from the Christmas crib.
The Irish monastic tradition.
First Communion madness.
St. Brigid's Cross.
St. Patrick's Day being a "break" from Lent.
Calling the day after Christmas St. Stephen's Day (not Boxing Day, as in Commonwealth countries).
Lough Derg pilgrimage
Croagh Patrick pilgrimage
Sitting on the backmost kneelers during the 'sitting down' portions of Mass, then standing and kneeling at the appropriate parts, since its wrong to sit on the floor and it doesn't 'make sense' to be standing all the time when there's a perfectly good seat right there.
Superstitions:
Burning the Jack of a newly bought/opened pack of cards because its bad luck
Not killing spiders because they are 'lucky' in the sense that they 'prevent' bad luck by killing pests such as flies and other lesser insects. I think this might just be an Ulsterian superstition.
Not picking up a comb left lying on the ground, as it may belong to a banshee.
Folk cures, including holy wells.
Travelling to the house of a person with a healing prayer, for ailments such as a wart, having their hands raised over you and a prayer said by them, then being directed to a well to apply some of the well water. Certainly in Wicklow, possibly Cavan and Leitrim.
Clothes and jewellery
Aran sweaters
Cloth caps
Tara brooch replicas
Claddagh ring
I would put the Irish language fáinne, but does anyone wear it any more? I can't think of the last time I saw one.
Pioneer pins.
Trench coats.
Folklore
Banshees (did other members hear banshee stories told as true stories in their childhoods?)
Fairy forts and the Shee in general.
Tir na nÓg.
The Hell Fire Club.
The Ulster Cycle.
The Fae.
The Children of Lir.
The Book of Invasions.
The Otherwold, including Tir Na n-Óg
Nomenclature
Nicknaming people named Christopher "Git".
Transport
Aer Lingus vs. Ryanair
The Morris Minor
Miscelleanous
Carroll's cigarettes (still made?)
Bórd na Mona peat briquettes
President's cheque to centenarians
Begrudgery
The Irish weather, and talking about the weather
The Irish diaspora
Red hair
Blue eyes
Sunburn
Freckles.
I've always wanted to compile an attemptedly exhaustive list of Irish traditions and customs-- including both the obvious ones, and the ones that we never think about. I mean, trying to get really fine-grained and forensic about it.
It's extraordinary how we don't think of a lot of our traditions and customs, when it comes to listing them. When I was getting married, my American wife was very interested to know about Irish wedding customs, and I get kept saying: "I can't really think of any. I've only ever been to one wedding and I was a kid." One day, we were in a shop, and the shop assistant fumbled (or, more likely, I fumbled) the change and it fell everywhere. "Grushi!", someone said. "What's grushi?", my wife asked. "Oh, it's an Irish wedding tradition", I said. (Probably everyone knows this, but it means throwing coins at a wedding.)
A few years ago, I heard the card game twenty-five was Ireland's national card game. I'd never heard this. It's little things like that fly under the radar.
Someone on another thread mentioned the Irish tendency to ignore celebrities who are out in public, which seems distinctively Irish (though doubtless it's not uniquely Irish). This is the kind of tradition or custom we never think of when it comes to these lists. So I wanted to see can I make a really exhaustive list which could be added to by others, over time. They can be quirks of language, quirks of personality...anything which makes Ireland distinctive (again, doesn't have to be unique).
Please add posts and I will integrate them into the main lists.
So I am going to kick off with all the most obvious ones:
Sport
Gaelic Football
Hurling
The Munster Hurling Final
Rounders
Road bowling
Rugby, especially in Limerick
Boxing
Horse racing and horse breeding
Supporting English soccer teams
The John 3:7 placard that sports fan carries to games
Swimming in the forty-foot.
I'm not that much of a sports person, I prefer soccer to Gaelic games. Maybe some people can tell me traditions within those sports, such as making mad speeches when awarded the All-Ireland trophy.
Music and Dance
Irish traditional music
Sean-nós singing
Irish folk ballads
Tin whistle
Uileann pipes
Ceilidhs
Set dancing
Lúibíní, whatever the hell they are
Country music, in some areas. (I hear it is a way of life in some towns. Is that true?)
Language
The Irish language
Shelta
The various dialects
Yola and Old Fingalian (well, these are more memories than traditions, but I'll put them in anyway).
Hiberno-English, which deserves a section all of its own
South Armagh slang: 'Deadly' means cool or impressive, and the archtypical 'Go on ya good thing' and the famous South Armagh 'shout'. 'Beur' for a girl, 'fien or fiend' for a boy, 'yoke' for a car.
Sculpture
Giving rhyming names to Dublin statues (the Floozy in the Jacuzzi, the pr---- with the sick, the hags with the bags, the tart with the cart, etc.) No name for the Millennium Spire ever stuck, despite many efforts. Also used for at least one monument in BElfast
Visual arts
Celtic knotwork
Pre-Celtic spirals
Hiberno-Romanesque architecture
John Hinde postcards
Literature
The Irish literary tradition in general.
Short-story writing (Sean O'Faolain, Mary Lavin, and others.)
Winning the Nobel Prize for literature (four times)
Food and drink
Corned beef, cabbage and potatoes (puke puke)
A full Irish breakfast (which is...?)
Colcannon on Halloween
Red, white and orange ice-cream and jelly on St. Patrick's Day
Barmbrack
Tea. Strong tea, especially in rural areas. Lyons and Barry's.
Irish whiskey.
Red lemonade.
Cadet Orange.
Cavan Cola. (I understand this is no longer produced but there are campaigns to revive it, so I will keep it in.)
Guinness.
Irish stew.
Dublin coddle.
Friend breakfast at Bewley's.
Dulsk (chewable seaweed).
Poteen.
Politics
Catch-all parties.
Clientelism and parish pump politics.
The two-and-a-half party system.
Small, breakaway parties that are successful for a while and then disappear.
Splits. ("The first item on the agenda of every Irish organization is the split.")
Political dynasties and family politics: People generally vote the way their extended family votes with divisions usually not talked about within the family and the tendency for people of the same families being elected generation after generation. Neither of these are unique to Irish politics, but they are VERY noticeable in our political discourse.
Broadcasting
The Late-Late Toy Show
The Late Late Show itself
The dawn chorus on Mooney Goes Wild
Dustin the turkey
Shows in the format of Scrap Saturday
Events
Bloomsday
The Rose of Tralee
The Galway Races
The Ploughing Championships
The Young Scientist Awards
Halloween
St. Patrick's Day
Nollaig na mBan/Little Christmas
St. Brigit's Day
The summer solstice in Newgrange
The Twelfth of July
Reek Sunday
Halloween (and Irish tradition itself)
Mummery - the tradition of playing practical jokes and pranks for the sake of personal honour among young men. May just be an Ulsterian or Co.Louth variation, as I Mummery is the name of another, entirely different practice elsewhere in Ireland involving people stuffing straw up their shirts.
Halloween bonfires.
Halloween costumes.
Pumpkin carving (originally turip carving.)
Death
The Irish wake.
"I'm sorry for your troubles".
Education
The "debs"
The colours debate between Trinity and UCD
Social Life
Pretending not to see famous people.
"You're very good" expression.
The Irish mammy-- matriarch in working class areas (at least she used to be).
St. Patrick's Day parade
St. Patrick's Day shamrock
Wren boys
Irish names such as Sinéad, Cormac, etc.
Going to the Gaeltacht
Religion
Standing at the back of church at Mass.
Taking the straw from the Christmas crib.
The Irish monastic tradition.
First Communion madness.
St. Brigid's Cross.
St. Patrick's Day being a "break" from Lent.
Calling the day after Christmas St. Stephen's Day (not Boxing Day, as in Commonwealth countries).
Lough Derg pilgrimage
Croagh Patrick pilgrimage
Sitting on the backmost kneelers during the 'sitting down' portions of Mass, then standing and kneeling at the appropriate parts, since its wrong to sit on the floor and it doesn't 'make sense' to be standing all the time when there's a perfectly good seat right there.
Superstitions:
Burning the Jack of a newly bought/opened pack of cards because its bad luck
Not killing spiders because they are 'lucky' in the sense that they 'prevent' bad luck by killing pests such as flies and other lesser insects. I think this might just be an Ulsterian superstition.
Not picking up a comb left lying on the ground, as it may belong to a banshee.
Folk cures, including holy wells.
Travelling to the house of a person with a healing prayer, for ailments such as a wart, having their hands raised over you and a prayer said by them, then being directed to a well to apply some of the well water. Certainly in Wicklow, possibly Cavan and Leitrim.
Clothes and jewellery
Aran sweaters
Cloth caps
Tara brooch replicas
Claddagh ring
I would put the Irish language fáinne, but does anyone wear it any more? I can't think of the last time I saw one.
Pioneer pins.
Trench coats.
Folklore
Banshees (did other members hear banshee stories told as true stories in their childhoods?)
Fairy forts and the Shee in general.
Tir na nÓg.
The Hell Fire Club.
The Ulster Cycle.
The Fae.
The Children of Lir.
The Book of Invasions.
The Otherwold, including Tir Na n-Óg
Nomenclature
Nicknaming people named Christopher "Git".
Transport
Aer Lingus vs. Ryanair
The Morris Minor
Miscelleanous
Carroll's cigarettes (still made?)
Bórd na Mona peat briquettes
President's cheque to centenarians
Begrudgery
The Irish weather, and talking about the weather
The Irish diaspora
Red hair
Blue eyes
Sunburn
Freckles.