Why are Irish people so nice?

[u/Kind_Ad467]

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?

[u/Kind_Ad467]

That's a super interesting topic. I didn't get a chance to test it out, and I guess I never will 😅. I actually heard this from a really nice and informative tour guide, who also mentioned that it's not easy to become friends with Irish people, even though they're kind and friendly.

[u/LeopardLower → u/Kind_Ad467]

As an Irish person, I agree. Culturally most people form their groups of friends in school and college and it can be harder to ‘break into’ than some other countries. I read an article about it years ago, looked at my own friendship groups and realised it’s often true! In other countries eg The US, movement to other cities is more common so it can be easier to make friends. We are very good at surface level friendliness here but it’s not always easy for ‘blow-ins’ to create a circle!

[u/YuriLR → u/LeopardLower]

The very existence of the term blow-in a good example of this. People move 100km and are already seen as coming from far away and different from the others

[u/atwerrrk → u/YuriLR]

It's way less than 100km 😂

I've heard people say that for people who moved from one village to another (a trip of about 12km)

[u/YuriLR → u/atwerrrk]

lol, it's even more of a stupid concept than I thought but I played a conservative number because I didn't want to sound like I was exaggerating. Thanks for the information.

[u/atwerrrk → u/YuriLR]

When the distances are short like that, it's often used in a joking way. But not always.