Go Ireland

It's official folks. Ireland is the friendliest country in the world according to Lonely Planet's 2008 Bluelist guide. Now, if only we could relay that message onto the customer service people who work in the local Spars, Centras, Londis', Tescos etc. It's just not right when the self service check out machines, despite their limited vocabulary, gives you more conversation and social interaction than the check-out people actually do in some of those places. I'm not looking for a smile or anything drastic like that. I'm a simple man with simple needs. All I want is for the person to stop talking to their friend beside them for 2 seconds in order to properly acknowledge my existence. Sticking your hand out for the money while in mid conversation with your friend/fellow co-worker is not acknowledgment people!

Come to think of it, this week has been a pretty good week for Ireland (and its still only Wednesday). As well as being named the friendliest country in the world we've so far also had:
- an Irish author, Anne Enright, win this year's Man Booker prize
- an Irish firm, Wavebob, be one of a few companies around the world to successfully generate power from using the sea.
- Oscar Wilde named... erhem... "UK's" greatest wit.

On that last point, before people start jumping down my throat with things like :

"We didn't suffer through 800 years of oppression to be still considered part of the UK."

Yes, I do realise that Ireland is not part of the UK. Now, if only we could tell the people who conducted the "UK's greatest wit" survey that. Well, I suppose considering that Oscar Wilde lived between 1854 to 1900 when Ireland was still under British rule I guess technically speaking you could get away with calling him the "UK's greatest wit".

Coincidentally, this is not the first time this week that I've had Ireland referred to as still being part of the UK by the English. During the Lindy Hop Festival that I attended in London over the weekend my nationality was put down as being "British" on my registration/welcome card despite me clearly putting down "Irish" when first registering. Then, when I went to buy the festival dvd and put down my shipping address the girl behind the counter said to me after seeing me put down "Ireland" as the destination country, and I quote : "Ireland, that's still the UK isn't it?". It was at this point that I looked up at her and gave her my best "800 feckin years of oppression" face. It was an honest mistake. I suppose I should have been more specific and wrote down "REPUBLIC OF IRELAND WHICH IS NOT PART OF THE UK". This little incident made me wonder; do a lot of English people still consider Ireland as being part of the UK?