10 Things… Irish People Do Abroad That They Don’t Do In Ireland

You have arrived at your new home, with the other seven Irish folk that travelled with you, but this is a different country and when in Rome... Irish people when they move abroad tend to act a little differently from when they are at home. Here are the ten things you might find them doing...

1. Speaking Irish

Oh, we all have the cupla focal, they're not great at the best of times mind you, but that's mainly because we NEVER speak Irish in Ireland unless this is forced on to us. But not when we get abroad! Oh no! Entire conversations must take place in the native tongue.

2. A fry whenever possible

When we are at home, we will settle for tea and toast but as soon as we leave the native shore there is an overwhelming need to have a fry whenever the opportunity presents itself. "Sure, you can't get a good Irish fry anywhere around here!" You never needed it before now.

3. Looking for Irish pubs

At home, they are just pubs but abroad they are meccas where all of the nation converges to meet for very important occasions... or to speak in Irish.

4. Irish food products

It didn't matter a tad in Ireland if you had tea bags that were Lyons, Barrys or that other brand from the cheap shop, but no, when you move abroad, you MUST find the tea that is Irish.

5. Find every Irish person in your general vicinity

Over the years you have made friends with people from Poland, Spain, England but this all gets thrown out the window when you leave Irish shores. You need to find as many Irish people as is humanly possible. If you don't band together, you never know what might happen.

6. Seek out Irish gigs

These trad sessions are often the ones that pack out local bars in your home town and that you tend to scoff at when passing, more often than not because of the American tourists squeezed into a bar you couldn't swing a cat in. This changes when you leave Ireland, not only must you find the bar that plays trad music, you need to bring your tin whistle and dance a jig.

7. Irish sport

You couldn't tell anyone the rules of hurling under severe torture but by God when your county is in the All Ireland final when you are abroad, you will be in the pub, with your fry, ready for the action.

8. Guinness

That's the stuff your Dad drinks, but you never put anywhere near your lips but when you move out of Ireland, that all changes. Pint of the black stuff please.

9. County Jerseys

Did we even own a county jersey when we left the country? Pretty sure we didn't but suddenly we now wear it most of the day Sunday. Gaillimh Abu!

10. St. Patrick's Day

People come to Ireland to celebrate our national festival but we are not the fondest of celebrating this special day at home. Well, we try not to but we usually end up in the pub. Not when we live abroad! You will inevitably leave your house dressed as either a pint of Guinness or the Irish flag and embark on the greatest pub crawl of your life, much to the dismay of the city you have adopted as your new home.