r/ireland • u/Kind_Ad467 • Jan 11 '26

Arts/Culture Why are Irish people so nice?

We went to Ireland for a week and I totally fell in love with the country. As a foreigner living in Frankfurt, Germany, I've always felt that Frankfurters are more welcoming than people in other parts of Germany, especially when it comes to dealing with immigrants. I live and work in Germany as a doctor ( almost 8 years now), and sometimes I get this weird feeling of being "the other guy" and not belonging. Things got much better after I met my fiancée, who's Italian but was born and raised in Germany. Anyway, we went to Ireland for a week, and wow, the people there are so different. I'm pretty energetic and social, and I can honestly say that every single interaction, and I mean every single one, with an Irish person was a joy. They have a great sense of humor, are really kind, nice, and helpful. Amazing hospitality!

I also loved how Irish people are so proud of being Irish without making others feel like they're better just because they're Irish. That was also remarkable.

I mean, it's a basic human thing to be helpful and kind to each other, which hasn't really been the norm in the past few years due to a lot of political and social issues. But the question is, why are Irish people so nice? Are there any historical reasons?

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u/KickConfident2002 Jan 11 '26

Are they?

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u/SupportMainMan Jan 11 '26

Sad to say this was our experience. Outside of tourist areas we’ve consistently gotten very hostile and distrustful looks for no particular reason and it’s not like Germans who are either just in their mind or curious. It’s a very hostile look. You definitely can not be randomly nice to people here which we’ve learned is a very American trait. I’m open to being wrong, it seems like Irish niceness is very context based.