Impressions of Ireland

Weather

The winds are usually quite strong and are mostly from the Atlantic. This makes the clouds pass by very fast. If you see a dark cloud at the horizon you need to seek shelter immediately. Swedes are used to wait an hour or two. We got the advice "If it starts to rain, go to the pub and when you leave the pub the rain has stopped." This advice works very often.

By swedish standards Dublin has very dirty air. But thanks to the strong winds the pollution is blown away quickly. A high pressure system can put a lid over the fumes and make the air difficult to breathe.

Nature

The Celtic Tiger

Traffic

It is not difficult to cycle in the rush hours, if the cars are stuck in jams. The car drivers seem to know that the bicycles can catch up and don't dare to be mean. But it is difficult sometimes in some areas where cars are parked along the road (halfway up the footpath) and makes the road so narrow that two cars barely can meet each other. Meeting gets very tricky when it is a bus or a lorry that you meet.

When the rush hours are gone the situation is completely different. No care for cyclists as they cannot get their revenge any more and full speed to use the powers of the new fine car.

Minor roads outside towns can be really awful. Full of pot holes and dirt that has been splashed onto the roads by the rains. There are seldom any ditches along the roads to keep the water away. This is surprising in a country with so much rain. This results in large and sometimes very deep pools of water.

The irish have a relaxed relationship to rules. "Rules are something that the english introduced and we don't like the english." Speed limits only exists on road signs. Cars are parked everywhere even though some care is taken not to block entrances and not on bus stops if there is a free space within sight. (Not further than 20 meters.) Double yellow lines are very good places to park the car as it is a good reminder of where the car is parked. Red traffic lights is only respected if there is no visible crossing traffic and the "go" period (marked by green traffic light) is extended until it just is not possible to get out. This makes it impossible to stop at the stopping line and leaving the pedestrian crossing clear. Where there are no traffic lights the cars stop as close to the crossing road as possible and slowly rolling forward so that the passing cars have to watch out. After a while and some small steps forward a big enough car cannot make evasive manoeuvres and have to stop and let the car out. A wave with the hand and no one is offended.

Dublin's authorities are beginning to see the traffic problems and try to introduce actions. The police have started to tow away cars that have parked too badly and wheel clamping has been introduced for minor offences.

A taxi driver told us that a car had parked at a taxi rank. The taxi driver told her that she could not park there and that her car would be clamped or towed away. But the lady told him kindly that she was only going to be in the shop quickly and asked him to tell this to the police if one showed up.

At another occasion his car was blocked by a double parking car. When the taxi driver came back and saw that his car was blocked he asked a nearby policeman to do something. The policeman realized the seriousness of the situation and walked quickly from shop to shop and asked if the double parking driver was there and possibly could hurry up with the business and move the car.

Housing

The floors get very cold in the draught so most houses have thick carpets. Carpets are used everywhere in the house, even in the kitchen and bathroom. Another way of keeping the feet warm is to keep the outdoor shoes on even indoors. Naturally the carpets get very dirty from the mud that is brought in by the shoes. And because the carpets are dirty you just don't feel like taking off the shoes even though the carpets are very nice and look warm. It is very embarrassing for an irish host when a swede follows his instinct and starts to remove his shoes.

With all the dirt on the carpets and the humid weather mould would grow very well and cause allergies. But thanks to the draughty houses mould never get a chance to settle.

An open fireplace is seen as something genuine and cosy. Of course the fire should use coal or peat. This is very enjoyable during cold wet evenings. Then you move your sofa closer to the fire and curl up in a corner and enjoy the heat. One strangeness with the open fire places in Ireland is that there are no dampers to control the airflow in the chimney. Most of the heat goes directly out through the chimney. And there is also a very cold draught from the chimney when there is no fire.

Central heating is not a certainty in all houses. But the effect of central heating is not what a swede expects. The heating is not enough to keep the house warm on cold and windy days. And it doesn't get better when the radiators are not placed near the windows where the cold comes from. "You cannot have the radiators under the windows. Then the get cold from the draught from the window and no heat goes into the room!"

Water taps that mix warm and cold water are taboo. "You will get cross contamination!" is the reply. Instead there are one tap at each side of the hand basin. In the kitchen there are sometimes something that seems to mix the warm and cold water. But at closer inspection there are two holes at the end of the tap, one for warm and one for cold water. These holes are mounted so that the two rays of water meet just below the tap and mix.

One explanation for not having modern one hand taps is that the water pressure is too low. The pipes in the houses are thin and the joints are to weak for higher pressure. A house may only have two direct taps. One tap is usually in the kitchen and the other fills a basin in the attic that in turn feeds all the other taps, toilets and shower. If much water is used this basin can run out of water. On the other hand this basin is useful when the main water pipe is cut off for maintenance or when they burst.

The irish want to own their houses. One of the reasons is historical. They don't want to depend on a landlord who can evict their guest for any reason. They also have bad experiences of this from english landlords in the nineteenth century. Another reason is that pensions are very lousy. Instead you buy your house early and pay your mortgage until retirement. Then you can live cheap and manage on the pension. A big house is useful to house all the children and when the children have moved out it is possible to earn some extra money by renting out the empty rooms to students or set up a Bed&Breakfast.

To show that you own your own house you have to have your own door, even if you live in a apartment block. In older houses the doors have been renovated many times and got its own colour and pattern. There are seldom two similar doors close to each other. Many houses are two, three or even four stories high. Because everyone want their own door and preferably in the ground floor you don't share the door with other apartments in the same house. This makes houses narrow and high with narrow stairways inside instead of making apartments on top of each other.

Socializing

Food

There are lots of small shops with their own specialities. There are butchers, vegetable shops etc. These shop owners depend on the quality of their goods to keep the customers happy so they don't go for the lower prices in the supermarkets (like in sweden were no small food shops exist anymore). These small shops also have a very good contact with their customers.

As a swede you miss some swedish special foods like the creamed caviar, cultured milk and real cheese, the kind of cheese with holes in it. Natural yoghurt will do as a substitute for the cultured milk. Cheese exist but almost only cheddar, lots of different kinds of cheddar. All of these cheddars are sold squared plastic wrappings, doesn't really look like cheese. Luckily there are a few kinds of cheddars with some taste and wrapped in paper. These will do as substitute for "real" cheese and can be used in food. But don't use this cheese on top of gratins as this most cheddars only creates a hard cover on top of the gratin.

Language

To a foreigner the language is very confusing and the spelling gives very little help on how words are pronounced. Foreigners travelling in the west cost can get confused when road signs are in irish only.

Dogs

One sad thing with the free dogs is that they leave their marks here and there, not only on lawns.

People

The irish are happy and care free. They don't worry much about tomorrow or if it is going to rain soon. You don't see many irish with rain proof clothes even though it rains a lot. All rains come as complete surprises. The exception is cyclists who are more exposed and have a luggage rack for the rain gear.

People are very open. It is easy to get contact and people want to help if you have a problem. People are also very tolerant to people who cannot behave. If someone is smoking in a bus or in a cinema, no one will try to make him stop. Maybe people are cowards...

The irish are relaxed and takes it easy. This is positive when you are dealing with authorities, paper works is a lot smoother. If an important paper is missing you may get a way with: "Write this down on a paper and sign it." But as a swede you can get frustrated when you want some precision, for example by craftsmen. If a craftsman says he will come in the morning this does not mean that he will come between 9 am and noon. It doesn't even have to mean that he will come that day or that he has brought all the necessary tools. And when the job is done it can be crooked and ugly. If you dare to comment this he thinks you are picky and responds "It works, doesn't it?"

There is much criminality. People don't like it. If they see a tourist with his wallet too accessible they stop the tourist and warn for pick-pockets. If you ask for directions they tell you carefully how to get there and which areas to avoid.

The irish drink lots of alcohol, mostly Guinness. As described above they meet at the pubs and at pubs you have a beer, or a couple, or more.

There is a big alcohol problem in Ireland. Many have difficulties to manage and get stuck in the trap. We have met many who don't drink and listened to their stories. They don't like the pub culture of Ireland. The alcohol problem is not visible on the streets.

In the time of the Celtic Tiger there are many homeless people. Many of these are young children who have been thrown out by their family. And since the family bonds are so strong in Ireland these kids lose much of their identity.

Public Service

There are many policemen on the streets. Often they do jobs that private guard companies do in Sweden such as guarding money transports and rush out burglar alarms alarm.

Garbage collection is free. But you have to help by putting the garbage in front of the house. This looks dirty when it is collection day and every house have put their garbage bins or sacks on the footpath.