Irish It Up – Seven Things That Make Us Tick

For such a small island with an even smaller population, we Irish have a LOT of unique quirks and unsurprisingly the majority focus on food and drink! From the weather to national pride, we 'Irish it Up' and take a look at some of our most famous national ticks, in association with 7UP Free.

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Ham sandwiches 

For many Irish people, if you gave them a sandwich without a bit of ham in it, sure it wouldn’t be a proper sandwich at all, at all. From funerals to All-Ireland finals, the humble ham sandwich is an Irish culinary staple that can cure all types of hunger and soothe upset stomachs. Purists tend to favor real butter and nothing else whereas more adventurous folk will feature a bit of salad cream, tomato and lettuce. 

Weather 

You’d nearly think we were a nation of optimists the way we go on about the weather. For a county that's weather dial is permanently set to sh*te, we watch the weather reports with bated breath every evening, are still shocked when it rains on a daily basis and start most conversations with “It’s freeeeezing, isn’t it?” 

Tea 

You can get tea in other countries – it doesn’t even grow here – but we don’t care what anyone says, there’s nothing like an Irish cup of tea and most Irish people will pack at least 20 tea bags if they're going on holidays. 

Spuds

Our love for the humble potato knows no bounds, and in some Irish households it's still not a real dinner if there isn't a spud included in some way. Pasta, rice, cous cous - you're all grand and all, but there's nothing like a spud when you want a real Irish Mammy Dinner.

It's never as bad as it could be

More proof that we're secretly all optimists... when it comes to everyone else's problems. 'I broke my leg!' 'Sure haven't you another one?' 'My car was stolen!' 'Could be worse, you have your health.' Most frequently comes from an Irish Mammy, but woe betide anyone who makes little of Mammy's current problem/cause for prayer...

 

Cleaning up curse words 

It’s not our most attractive quality, but Irish people love to curse. But we’re also consumed with guilt when we do, so as a nation, we’ve come up with some handy alternative curse words to clean up our act. From feck to sugar, we think that by replacing one or two letters we’ll get away with it. It’s genius really… 

Famous people who have a distant Irish connection

If there’s one thing we like more than a famous Irish person, it’s a famous person with a distant Irish connection. From JFK to Barak Obama, if you’ve a drop of Irish blood in you, sure you’re one of our own. And God help anyone who tries to tell us otherwise.

Obama might have a very distant relation but that's good enough for us!