There was another guy travelling with me, a Dutch colleague who was working in the same building as me at the time.
When I arrived I checked in and then went to take the lift to my bedroom. At the lift waiting was another Irish guy. He was from the same company as me but from another division. We struck up a conversation and he seemed like a decent guy.
We went to our respective rooms, and later that evening I met my Dutch colleague and we walked to a nearby restaurant for something to eat.
As things turned out, the group of 40 or so was split into two separate classes so the other Irish guy was in the other class meaning I didn't see much of him.
Over the course of the week there was a fair bit of stereotyping of Irish people. I had numerous comments from people about how I must be gasping for a Guinness, how I must be going to go completely mad drinking once the evening comes and so forth. It's not me to be honest.
And I happen to think that the stereotype of all Irish people as complete unbearable drunks is so far wide of the mark that it barely justifies comment.
The week passed and these comments declined to be fair. Then on the last evening there we all went up to a local bar, a small little bar with room for maybe 30 people. The bar was completely packed when my Dutch colleague and I arrived, packed with people from the training programme.
There was a loud raucous noise when we arrived and there was a load of shouting and drunken singing. I mean really drunken singing. I remember the look on the face of the barmen and some local villagers as we came in. The barman was out from behind the bar with a little sweeping brush and pan, sweeping up broken glass from the floor where someone had dropped their drink. There were two older guys from the local village, kind of crouched down against the edge of the bar and looking very uneasy. They left very soon after.
I edged my way along the side of the throng and made it to the back of the bar. From there I could see the source of the noise. Standing on a high stool in the middle of the horde, screaming at full volume was this other Irish guy. He was completely plastered drunk. What's worse he was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of the company (my employer) emblazoned across the front so there was no doubt about who these people worked for. Classy.
Then it all kicked off. The people in the group started shouting at me "hey you're Irish too. Get up there and sing us a song". The idiot standing on the bar stool was now demanding that I belt out a few bars of "Limerick you're a lady" or some such.
Now I was a mean singer in the school choir but I am no barstool performer. I told him to forget it. But he wouldn't let it go. In front of all these other colleagues he started to berate me publicly, calling me all sort of stuff because I wouldn't humour his drunken demand. Remember I only met this guy 4 days previously.
The abuse was then directed at the Dutch guy, believing him to also be Irish.
About 10 minutes later we both got the hell out of there.
It bothered me for a time afterwards to be portrayed earlier in the week as a de-facto Irish drunk. It's simply not true. It's a gross and inaccurate stereotype perpetuated all around the globe it seems. But then all it takes is a few idiots to disgrace themselves and the stereotype is reinforced. Psychologists would call it "information-seeking bias" and it really is.
This week the BBC published an item in which the Irish are now declared to be the worst binge drinkers in the EU.
Following that stories are starting to surface about the possible problems with the annual Saint Patrick's day parade in Dublin, with young people being implored not to drink too much. Recent parades have resulted in terrible scenes of drunkenness and disorder in the capital city.
And so it goes that the window of the world shines light on the Irish and their love of the drink. Why is it that stereotypes like this are so hard to refute? And why does the myth of all Irish as drunks have to be reinforced by the actions of a few idiots.
It's a shame.
1 comment:
Hi Shuman,
Stereotypes suck, and they suck even more when you're the subject (unrightfully so). You handled it well, it sounds like, by leaving and not giving those idiots any ammo.
I've been the butt of some fun stereotypes as a relatively attractive (my mom said so) female in a male-dominated scientific field. Mostly people assume I'm a lot dumber than I am. I've learned to have fun refuting them, though. One of my favorite games is to play dumb until someone asks me what I do for a living. It gives me great pleasure to say, "I'm a Ph.D. in biochemistry and I do biochemistry research."
I know, bad. But it's so fun to make people question their assumptions, you know? Good for you for not bowing to the peer pressure. I wish I was as good as you at that!
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