Besides the oh-so-often confusion that Irish people speak English and,
therefore, must be, for all intents and purposes, English, French people are
sometimes surprising ignorant of Ireland. I’m not saying that Ireland is an
equally important country, in economic terms, as France for the French, but,
hey, it’s a country, with a capital, and a distinct heritage that should be
universally acknowledged. That’s all I ask.
[If you’re an economist, or economically-minded, this will either help you
with geography or completely confuse you! Either way, it’s interesting]
I mentioned this to a customer in my pub (there I go again saying ‘my’).
He didn’t know the capital of the Republic of Ireland. Quite offensive, you
must agree, if someone doesn’t know something very important about your
country. The capital city, after the name of the country and where it is
located, is pretty important. Turns out he didn’t know many European capitals -
I was no longer offended.
The smaller the country, the more its people concern themselves with other
countries and the rest of the world. The bigger the country, the less they have
to. I think we are all familiar with the great Australian clip where the
stunning worldly ignorance of many US citizens is proven – and then, to counter
this attack, in hilariously ironic, yet stereotypical fashion, some US citizens
travel to Britain to show the English (whoops, not the Australians!) how
ignorant they can be.
The strength that is self-sufficiency has a weakness in self-dependency.
