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Thu 25 Oct, 2012 12:12 pm
Getting bored with the recent Presidential Candidate Debate on foreign policy, I changed the channel to a PBS channel and watched an episode of the BBC's Ballykissangel. It suddently occurred to me that these Irish actors were not like many of the Irish-Americans I've known in NYC. Many of the actors, in my opinion, had lesser brogues than what I've heard in NYC, compared to when an Irish-American might put on a brogue to affect ethinicity, and the actors seemed to have brown eyes and dark brown hair more often than the Irish-Americans I've seen in NYC?
Did mostly blue-eyed and blonde Irish come to NYC?
Also, these actors seemed to often talk in a low voice, so I had to put on the closed captioning, to follow the script. The low voice, in my opinion, correlates to a fairly event temperament as a portrayal of Irish in Ireland. So, where did the phrase, that I've heard more than once, "Don't get my Irish up!" come from?
I'm only guessing, but I suspect that being Irish in Ireland gives one a totally different experience in one's life, aside from the culture. In other words, does living in a heterogenous society add stressors, sometimes, that can change a people's collective persona?
@Foofie,
all the irish women i've met have had dark hair dark eyes, the men were about evenly split between light and dark
@djjd62,
maybe, much like britain sent convicts to australia, the irish sent the gingers to america
@djjd62,
Haven't ye ere heard o the "dark Irish"? (dark hair and eyes)
Blame the Spainards.
@djjd62,
A woman's hair carries no genetic significants at all.
When I met Lash, I happened to mention that I had expected her to be blonde, for no particular reason. She said, almost apologetically "I've been blonde".
@Foofie,
Foofie, you realize tv is fantasy right? And directors hire a cast right?The irish have every hair and eye colour imaginable. As for a 'low voice' .. that too is the director's direction. It's called 'mood'. "cause belive me, the irish can be loud, quiet, boisterous, reverent... just like every culture on earth.
The Irish, as a 'collective' have always been fighters, thus the phrase 'get your Irish up'. But show me a group who isn't.
Of course growing up in Ireland is different than growing up in Jersey, or Anaheim or Seattle... or Beirut, or Bangladesh, or Inavut.
But if your suggestion is that Ireland is completely homogenous, then you are completely off your rocker.
@Ceili,
Ceili wrote:
Foofie, you realize tv is fantasy right? And directors hire a cast right?The irish have every hair and eye colour imaginable. As for a 'low voice' .. that too is the director's direction. It's called 'mood'. "cause belive me, the irish can be loud, quiet, boisterous, reverent... just like every culture on earth.
The Irish, as a 'collective' have always been fighters, thus the phrase 'get your Irish up'. But show me a group who isn't.
Of course growing up in Ireland is different than growing up in Jersey, or Anaheim or Seattle... or Beirut, or Bangladesh, or Inavut.
But if your suggestion is that Ireland is completely homogenous, then you are completely off your rocker.
Ta my way of tinkin', if I'm tinkin' at all, tis a grand thing you've said, me lass.
[Foofie was trilling the "r" in "grand," to affect an authentic brogue.]
Doncha just hate it when stereotypes don't stand up to scrutiny?
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