i'm Irish, despite being born and bred in London, and when younger i was an English buck to some older Irish heads and the mad Irish one to my English (and other) mates
American.
Irish-American
Well, Irish-North American.
Actually, to put a finer point on it, I live in the USA.
In fact, I really reside in New Hampshire.
All of this is really not the point, as I am merely visiting, studying your planet's culture on a galactic grant.
This is an interesting thread, just in terms of how people construct national identity or at least whether or not they determine questions thereof need a wiseass response.
The reason I ask is that I have been asked to settle a bet with some friends regarding the number of people who were NOT born and bred in Ireland - yet, call themselves Irish, for some reason.
Five of us were playing at our Monday session at an Irish pub in South London (Fiddles, Uillean Pipes, Whistles, Drum). A friendly chap sits at the next table and engages us in conversation, asks us questions about the music and our instruments. Seems to know a bit about whistle playing. From his accent I guess he might be Australian. Asks us where we're from. Suddenly realise - we're all English. (Does this matter?)
>............Australian. Asks us where we're from. Suddenly realise - we're all English.
Why should you be surprised? If you went to a session in Glasgow would you be surprised to find all or most of the players were born in Scotland?
--"If you went to a session in Glasgow would you be surprised to find all or most of the players were born in Scotland?"--
If it was a session in an "Irish pub" in Glasgow, and they were all playing "Irish music", and you were a foreigner, then, yes, you might be surprised to find they were all Scottish.
Especially when you thought you were in a country with a robust musical tradition of its own
"The reason I ask is that I have been asked to settle a bet with some friends regarding the number of people who were NOT born and bred in Ireland - yet, call themselves Irish, for some reason"
Well I am from Scotland, not Ireland - but I consider myself Scottish and not Irish so I am not sure how this thread will settle your bet.
Just because I am not Irish doesn't mean I can't appreciate Irish music, just as someone from Ireland may have an appreciation for Scottish music.
Sure there are plenty of folk who will consider themselves Irish even if they and their parents (and possibly their grandparents) were all born in Brooklyn or Glasgow or Dublin but your question did not ask that.
Topic's been done to death but it is actually pretty interesting, considering the assorted meanings a lot of people invest in nationality, identity, and folk music. Being American, living in Scotland, and playing the Irish pipes, I regularly confuse tourists (especially other Americans for some reason) and have to deal with lots of questions on this front. The more interesting question is, why do people find this so bewildering that I could afford a full set if everyone who asked me about identity gave me a pound.
There must be a lot eedjits and racists out there, which there are obviously are. But still doesn't answer the question of why it's so bloody common to be asked you play Irish music if you're not Irish, or why there are so many threads on that topic on the website.
I dunno, I find it pretty interesting what the Irish players in Ireland say about the music and the scene generally e.g. but not exclusively, the Comhaltas controversies.
After all it is the music of that country originally, and it's interesting to hear what people there say about it. I would like to see them given a bit more space to do so though. They seem fairly sparse here, or maybe reluctant to say more.
I certainly wouldn't call myself Irish, despite being called it many times in my life, and mostly abusively, and occasionally with a nice little death-threat attached (thank you Scotland), simply by folk who didn't like my name
But I think the smugness and derisiveness of some present-day Irish-born toward those Americans, Australians etc who call themselves "Irish" after several generations after immigration is misplaced.
At the time of the great migrations to the "New World", there was no independent Irish nation. Wars, devastating famines and the bitter fallout from several failed rebellions had convinced many that there would be no home for free Irishmen and women in ireland, and they must make a home for themselves in America or Australia where they could practise their religion and culture freel from British dominance.
This experiment at assertive "multi-culturalism" within other nations attracted its share of abuse and mistrust, and the Irish community was clearly identified as such by others, and in turn identified itself as such over many generations. The battle for equality and respect in the New World was not won overnight and you can hardly expect their descendants to drop any claims to Irishness on first contact with a native Irish-born person whose parents may have simply moved there and bought a cheap house in Galway for all we know.
I can see how it looks annoying, gauche, fake-romantic and all the rest, but if you consider the reality that by the late 1800s more Irish were living outside Ireland than in, you may want to ask who really is the more ignorant of history?
So how do you get treated as an Australian then!? I, like millions of others have the same background, and am proud of it, but I don't call myself Irish, I was born and raised in a different culture and place, Australia in my case, and it just doesn't seem to "go" to say that. I've got an Irish surname though, so for anyone who is in any way interested, the max I would get is "that's a good Irish name isn't it" or something like that. There's still some around who wouldn't appreciate it, I'm sure, but they appear to be dying out. My own name is pretty much regarded as Australian in Australia, most people wouldn't have any idea that it is Irish. Times change eh.
Hey Bren
> If it was a session in an "Irish pub" in Glasgow, and they were all playing "Irish music", and you were a foreigner, then, yes, you might be surprised to find they were all Scottish.
I'm surprised to hear that Bren. Maybe I'm a bit out of date, but in the past when I've joined in Irish sessions in Irish pubs (does, or did the Vicky Bar count as Irish?) in Glasgow, most participants (except the odd American tourist) had Scottish accents, even if they did have names like Benny McHugh. But as I say, maybe that was back then.
Thistle- I was just trying to explain how a foreign visitor might feel surprised
Like if you went up to those Andean pan-pipe buskers and found they were Geordies
At a session inLondon, old geezer comes over to talk to us...
"God, aren't ye great at the music! And where are ye from lads?"
Mando player: Dublin
Old Geezer: ah yeah
Me: Carlow
Old Geezer: Carlow yeah, I know Carlow
Guitarist : Galway
Old Geezer: Fair play Galway
Fiddler (easily the best musician there) : Croydon
Old Geezer: Ah well, can't have it every way.
I also have an Irish-ish surname but seem to get more of an enthusiastic response than Duijera. People, if they hear it, are often like, "Oh, you must be Irish."
Thistle,
Offhand I can only think of one muso in Glasgow who is actually from Ireland. Everyone else I regularly play with is Scottish, English, with a few scattered Americans and French.
I think the further you are removed from Europe, Silver, over considerable time, community memories of national differences in surnames gradually disappear. The most recent generations in Australia, for the most part, I'd hazard to say, would not know any difference between an Irish, English or Scottish surname - those would largely just be thought of as Australian names, if they were categorised at all. With my gaelic Irish name, it'd be regarded probably as an "Old Australian" one!
Looking at some of the reactions people apparently get to their names or nationalities in some countries, from a distant perspective it can make you feel a bit sad that those sorts of considerations are still there and acting maybe as a brake on progress to some extent.
I can tell you're new to here, you havn't tried to get round the swear filter.
But eedjit and tw at are merely pejorative, they are not absolutes. I think that anybody who is interested in national identity is an eedjit. And I will treat them as such
But is it something you can really get around, Michael? I mean, if I dropped in on a strange session, as you do, and someone asked me where I was from (common ice-breaker question) and I answered Scotland or nowhere or Mars or even better, said I don't define myself by where I happen to live or where my parents are from, I bet they would hear my accent and think I was an eedjit. Let be pragmatic here. There are some pretty powerful social norms operating here and for the sake of just getting on with it, it is far less hassle to go along with them, even of you personally believe that "national identity" is a constructed load of rubbish,
If someone asked me the question as a common ice-breaker I'd have no problems with it. They are not really interested in it, it's just an excuse to chat. That's a lot different to asking a whole bunch of strangers on the internet. Especially when there is the ulterior motive of the whole plastic paddy can of worms
You don't know me or anything about me so you don't really have any business insinuating that I had any ulterior motives, or that I am an "eedjit".
I asked a simple question in order to settle a friendly bet.
I'm sorry if it rubbed anybody, yourself included, up the wrong way.
My question was not meant to cause any offense or harm.
Why is there a crisis of identity? If Scotland play Ireland in the rugby I would support Scotland as I'm Scottish. If Ireland were to play England then I would of course be entirely neutral! (aye right!)
This support obviously comes with the recognition that whereever they are from they are still rugby players and therefore more than likely t wa t s themselves.
Nationality issues passports. Science has proven there is no such thing as "race" - our collective human ancestry is far too spider-webbed together to give that out dated notion any further credence. What we are really talking about is culture - and culture for the most part is a choice. That's why a kid in Galway can choose to wear cowboy hats and listen to nothing but Garth Brooks records - and conversely - a kid in Phoenix can wear a tam and listen to nothing but old Bothy band records.
Therefore, I fully embrace my eejitness and if needs be, my twitiness. What can I say Llig - I find "roots" discussions interesting.
Personally I do not have a problem discussing identity or Nationality. I would be an odd Nationalist if I did. I do find culture, politics and identity interesting in defining us as individuals.
To be interested in nationality does not automatically make you a racist. It depends entirely on your motivations.
Let's see what behavioural epigenetics throws up in 10-20 years time. How culture, as defined by geographical location, impinges on the epigenetic determinants of behaviour.
Sticky problem there, Jusa. How much of a choice is culture? Is it a collection beliefs, knowledge, and habits that you can embrace or reject as much or as little as you want, or is it a more complex array of conscious and unconscious mannerisms, worldviews, etc. etc. that is a lot harder to consciously pick and choose, or more likely a combination of those things. Could an expat ever become so integrated into a different culture that no one, not even the locals, would ever guess that they were not a local? I know there are a fair few expats from various places on this board so surely they must have a few thoughts.
I don't think listening to Garth Brooks makes you any more American than listening to the Bothy Band makes you Irish. Your choices in music, etc. can be very much informed and influenced by culture but I think where we are from affects behaviour at a far deeper level.
I'm not a "Nationalist" like NCFA but I agree that the concept of a nation or nationhood is not the same as that of "race".
After all, in Scotland, for instance, we have several different races and people from different countries resident here who would now ..quite rightly..consider themselves to be Scottish.
I'm by no means a Proclaimers fan.... However, this song sums everything up for me completely.
It's an amiable way to p*ss about over a mug of coffee.
I exist in the form I do because an infant ancestress was saved just in time from the jaws of a hungry pig. This confers upon me the glamour of rural roots, I suppose.
I am English / British, or alternatively British / English, whichever takes my whim. I prefer the Union Jack to the cheap-tat red and white one, but I am quite uninterested in the symbolism etc. of either. Living in a city with a Monty Pythonesque history as an eccentric statelet run by dead saints, rum Prince Bishops and dragons, I have probably failed to see enough in common with those in other parts of England whose perspective has been formed by altogether different realities...
That is undoubtedly the best description of Durham I ever read. Why hasn't the uni hired you to write PR stuff for its prospective student publications?
To get back to the original question..............
..........British, but a proud Channel Islander ( ie NOT English ), with a dash of Scots and Irish, plus the Scots/Irish Granny was born in Barbados, which makes me also West Indian, ie entitled to represent the Indies in any sport in which I may excel ( probably draughts )( chequers to you ).
Meanwhile SO is a US citizen, whose ancestors came over from the Pale of Settlement 90 -100 years ago, so our children have Mongrel Vitality ! ( GET DOWN THERE ! ).
And now living in the Socialist Republic of East Finchley.
I would suggest that anyone who tries to find reasons for their character and behaviour by researching where their ancestors came from, is probably indulging in stereotypes as much as the next person.
No Cause:
>Why is there a crisis of identity? If Scotland play Ireland in the >rugby I would support Scotland as I'm Scottish. If Ireland >were to play England then I would of course be entirely >neutral! (aye right!)
>This support obviously comes with the recognition that
There isn't really, just an excuse for a joke.
Apart from the fact that I don't really care very much either way about the rugby (although I have started to quite enjoy occasionally watching it last couple of years) I pretty much fall into the same pattern as yourself.
Not really too bothered when Scotland get beaten (though it hurts more when it is by England). I seek my solace in inverted snobbery: who gives a feck about all those public scoolboys & farmers?
When the high ground is lost to you, there is always the unlovely swappy depression of the low ground to be taken & held. I am driven by base motives, but at least I know myself
Can someone start a thread asking why Klingons need to play Irish traditional music, as we seem to have at least two on thisthread? It seems so..... un-Klingon, especially in light of things like Klingon opera.
>Can someone start a thread asking why Klingons need to play Irish traditional music, as we seem to have at least two on thisthread?
The answer is obvious:
As they are so many light years away from their own culture, they need to Kling on to something................
100% Scottish by descent, but never having lived there feel I have to settle for British. Don't feel I can call myself Scottish, but I'm most definitely not English.
Race (biological)/ culture (religion/language/ name/ customs)/ nationality (political unit born in): three categories often mixed up but quite distinct.
And never confuse "Londoner" with "English".
I am a Londoner not English.
England starts where the M25 is thank you.
And how we laugh at the Amerikans who call them selves Irish or German or Albanian or wotteffah because one of their great grandfathers happened to have that nationality or culture (e.g. name). What about all the other great grand parents? Don't they count?
And remember what Ben Johnson said about that horrid thing called PATRIOTISM...
"Michael McGrory from West Donegal,
You came to Glasgow with nothing at all"
Just listened to that (never knew the Proclaimers wrote it, I know it from the singing of Tom Laurie) and suddenly sitting here in Glasgow some 80 years since my ancestors came over from County Derry I realised that I am living the better life that men I never met worked for.
My parents, my nanny, and a series of upstairs maids were united in their refusal to inform me of my nationality. My tutors were equally tight-lipped.
One morning when I was eight or nine years of age, on a long "nature-taking" excursion (which invariably skirted the less-maintained side of the south reservoir) I bribed the driver with a wax-sealed bottle of 1907 Armagnac, inquiring of him, "Please, Mr. Karlimse, what is this country we are in? What are the origins of my family?"
After his lengthy verification of both the knife-sharp bouquet and the conversely smooth finish of the nutty, ambrosial distillate, Mr. Karlimse pulled the Silver Shadow up beside the crumbling dike, nimbly exiting the vehicle. There, bare-waisted and in a sort of clumsy rapture, he began a dance meant to evoke the origins of his own damnable people.
He had either misunderstood my question or was perhaps being coy. I am 82 years old now and have never gotten my answer. I enjoy some reels, the odd jig, so perhaps I am Irish? Though certain curries bring pleasure as well. One would appreciate an answer.
what's wrong with England anyway? _ the general anti-english feel here reminds me of that monty python film 'life of brian' when someone asked ''what did the romans ever do for us?''
now Bren that's a great conversation-starter in my book even if one-sided, and i see the original questioner Dennis is the first to mention the golden double 'P' words which, incidentally, is exactly what i am
oh dear, now i've just opened the second can of worms or i'm deeper down the same one
Who knew that Queen Victoria was half-Irish and Prince Albert was half-Jewish?
Because of either the absence of certain hereditary diseases in their lives or the presence of new ones, or both, plus other tendentious evidence, historian A.N.Wilson has concluded that Queen Vic's dad was really an Irish soldier and courtier called Sir John Conroy, rather than the then Duke of Kent, and Albert's dad was a Jewish chamberlain, not whichever Saxe-Gotha prince it was supposed to have been.
I read this in the Waily Tail, so it must be true.
But it didn't say what sort of Irish Sir John Conroy was.
Lisanika, I'm not really anti-English. But they're our neighbours, our bigger neighbours. I hope they get scrubbed at football, rugby whatever, even cricket. That's how sports works.
If you think being a sports is about cheering on your neighbours and hoping they do well, then you've never been a sports fan. It is about gloating when they come a cropper, and not feeling offended when they reciprocate.
It isn't quite the same as wishing genuine meaningful ill will on your neighbours.
Or do you really believe the average glaswegian/dundonian/eninburger/londoner/liverpudlian likes seeing their nearest rival do well when their own team gets knocked out of a competition?
I don't understand spectator sports. I mean, I am sure I could come up with an answer from my psych major days but really, I don't get it. I don't get the banter of identifying with one team or other, usually based on politics or where you happen to live, and getting completely emotional about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of that team.
England IMO is OK except for the bloody weather. If only we had a nice climate we would not live in a state of surly psychopathic gloom throwing all manner of complete s*** into our systems just to be happy, and many problems would be resolved.
But in comparison, the awfulness of the Scottish and Welsh weather is right off the dial.
TheSilverSpear - are you confusing spectator sports and team sports there? Spectator sports are just those that have an audience, which might be football but it could also be snooker..... or chess!
I answered this post first, then read through most of the replies. I just wanted to post again to reassure you, Dennis Regan, as well as others who might be new to forum that llig is one of the sourest apples in the basket, so never-you-mind his crumpy, eternally-negative attitude.
I don't think wanting to know what nations are represented in this forum makes one an "eedjit or tw at" at all. I think it's fascinating to know that the love of Irish/Celtic music has spread so far and wide around the world!
Ohhh... Nationality! I'm a a citizen of The United States of America. AKA "Pork Farmer." Pork is now exceeding a trillion dollars in value.... But on ST Patrick's Day I'm 100 percent Arsh.. never have been there to Arlin, but after a few green beers, I can smell the hint of turf and see the goats grazing in the Pakistani fields that produced my Bod-ran....
"I'm bod-ran boy and the Pipes the Pipes are a pipin'
And drowning out, me thumpin' little drum... dumpity dum---
The whiskeez gone and so is me Katy, dum dum
She dissapeared betwixt my kilt and drum bum bum"
Thank you very much... I'll be here all week....
For my next selection, for the arsh amongst us, will of course be a country wetsern song....
"Hello Bod-ran, nice to see you... it's been a long time...." -Conroy McTwitty
A long line of maiden aunts paddled past my shore
So I pulled on my wading pants in hopes of seeing more
Blessedly the stream of aunts continued through the day
I waded out just far enough to hear the last one bray:
Arr ye Oirish then? O, arr ye Oirish?
If ye arr we'll float a balsa note yer way
Arr ye Oirish? O, arr ye Oirish?
We wish your charmin' head of hair fair play
Hear hear, this really shook 'em out of the woodwork. I'm off to have a nice Nationally/Culturally/Ethnically correct plate of spaghetti and praties with a cheeseburger on the side.
If ye's knew the slightest bit about how little nationality means nowadays....it's not like the brits fightin the gerries fightin the tallies fightin the yanks fightin the japs...or even fightin charlie............it's all peanuts.
>I don't understand spectator sports. I mean, I am sure I could >come up with an answer from my psych major days but >really, I don't get it. I don't get the banter of identifying with one >team or other, usually based on politics or where you happen >to live, and getting completely emotional about the trials, >tribulations, and triumphs of that team.
Ah Silver, you're are making the naive mistake there of thinking the football match ids that thing played out on the pitch.
In case anyone doesn't know the meaning of "naive", it is Evian spelt backwards. Think about it the next time you pat £2.50 for something that comes free out of the tap.
Thinking about what ramblingpitchfork just said about sport and nationality and being naive..... As an English person I am regularly reminded how naive I am. I naturally support English, Irish, Welsh, Scots teams. This doesn't seem to be reciprocated by our fellow Brits. The attitude seems to be "Don't care who wins as long as the English get a good kicking". Yes I know I am very naive but I'm not about to change. Love you all.
Yes, you're right calico. It's some kind of conditioning. It's only in the past few years I have overcome my own taboo and started occasionally supporting England when they are the only one of us left in a competition . That said I'd still support Scotland, then Ireland, Northern Ireland or Wales (more or less in that order) first (I'm a Scot). It must be because of England's imperialist history, or that they are the biggest of all these "home" nations, I suppose.
Ireland (Eire and NI)
Scotland
England
Wales
USA
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
I've also noticed contributions from members from these countries:
France
Belgium
Germany
Italy
Holland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Russia
Japan
S. Africa
(Sorry if I've missed any)
What about
Breton, Basque, Alsace, Cornish
If France occupies England tomorrow are the inhabitants there automatically French?
I think a lot of English people have been surprised that this support isn't generally reciprocated. I've had a number of friends down the years who were quite taken aback by this.
I thought it had changed to a certain extent in recent years as the English public became aware that most of Scotland didn't really want England to win the world cup.
Again I'll make a comparisson to sports fans in general. I'm a lapsed-partick thistle supporter. Now it is very common for supporters of two other better known (but distictly lesser) glasgow teams to "have a soft spot for thistle". This generally doesn't work the other way. Don't know any genuine thistle fan who doesn't like watching just about anyone else stuff either side of the old firm.
I'd guess there would be a similar dynamic at play e.g. in Liverpool with Tranmere Rovers.
You can always afford to be magnanimous and patronise (in the non-pejorative sense) your smaller neighbours. Things always look different to those smaller neighbours.
That's not so say that the feelings of those neighbours are particularly elevated or even rational. Tis just the way of the world to be bitter and twisted Like in the the song that thistle fans drag out whenever they play either side of the old firm (to the tune of "the red flag"/"christmas tree") :
"Hello, hello, how do you do,
we hate the boys in royal blue,
and we hate the boys in emerald green,
so f... the pope and f... the queen."
BTW it is absolutely acceptible for someone english to have a good gloat whenever scotland gets beaten. There is nothing more pathetic than to hear someone scottish wanting england to lose, but whining when an england fan says something similar about scotland.
What a lot of baloney. I am not saying whether the European plans are good or not but:
1. It is hardly making a European superstate.
2. They have not named England on the map.... or Scotland or Wales, etc. They have classed it as "The United Kingdom" which is what the European member state is anyway - for now!
3. The Channel has always been called "La Manche" by the French. This is just the french for "The Channel". It is only the English that have seen the need on insisting that the stretch of water is theirs!
4. The artticle harks back to Saint George! He wasn't even bl**dy English!!!
In short the article is a bunch of xenophoebic nonsense!
Small point of information - The French call the channel "La Manche" because it looks like a sleeve (of a garment). The English call it The Channel and I've never heard anyone here claim that it's English! You are absolutely right about the news article though. It's typical paranoid anti-Europe stuff that gets trotted out daily in our press.
You've reminded me about a, possibly apochryphal, story about a headline in an English newspaper probably shortly after the second world war. The south of England, the Channel (ok... "La Manche") and north of France were affected by serious fog. The headline was along the lines of "Serious Fog - Continent Cut Off" !
Ok you got me - the French that I once learned has long since escaped me! I would dread to think how I would get on ordering a drink or some food or asking for directions in Frnace these days!
As far as the newspaper story about the fog - I have heard that one too. I don't think it is apochryphal.
Thanks for the link. I've just checked it out. I wish I could have used it because it took me a lot of typing and retyping to get "apochryphal" down right. Sad to say the information and story are straight out of my memory. Seems to say it all about the English mindset of the era.
Norwegian. Born in Norway, and my passport nationality is Norwegian (however my musical soul seems to be Irish). And just to confuse things, I've an American accent (to the point where I always get asked "where are you from in the States?"...), and I live in Ireland. And whatever slang I've picked up over here comes out in an Irish accent.
Heard a guy in a session recently describe himself as a "tourist on the planet". I would count myself as one of those as well.
It seems odd to me that some folk will get specific about the provenance of a tune or playing style with trainspotterish avidity yet retreat into humorous evasions or lofty "I am a child of the universe (and you're a thwat for asking)" when asked about their own.
We can't help what we are but it's all part of a great big interesting story so why fret about it?
Nonetheless, No Cause For Alarm, there may well be some cause for alarm.
An office had already been been set up to administer "Manche". And guess what - manned by non-elected representatives
And yes. I know what "La Manche" means - but did anyone from England have any say in this name?
Of course, we do have elected respresentatives - MEPs - and they cost the taxpayer around £1 million per MEP per year to maintain. Has a MEP ever done anything for you?
And as for those Eurocrats is Brussels, they're costing us taxpayers a fortune as well, and as I hear that their accounts wouldn't even pass audit. And what's the latest? We'll all going to have to drive around with headlamps on in the daytime - using more fuel in the process, of course.
I'm certainly not Xenophobic. France is a great country, with great food and wine. I can speak the language and I have French friends.
Unfortunately, the French legal system derives from the Napoleonic code. Basically, you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise. Totally contrary to the long-established principle under English law whereby you are innocent unless proven guilty.
But that principle has been eroded in recent years - largely down to EU influences....
Mix - are you saying you now want to elect all the administrators too? That seems overkill to me!
Anyway, why do you care that the office is staffed by unelected individuals? It is based in France anyway!
Anyway I don't live in La Manche so I am not bothered about how that region works. If it turns the residents into "garlic wearing, cheese eating, surrender monkeys" then that might even be an improvement.
We have been living in the middle of the EU for some time - and survived it.
Just because we have a name for the channel: "Der Ärmelkanal (-sleeve channel)" doesn't mean we pretend to own it.
No, No Cause - not elect them - just get rid of them. Throw the lot in "La Manche" - then we'll all pay less tax.
But as you say, you don't live there. But what about this for a new EU region - Southern Scotland + Northern England. We could call it Borderland, if you like....
ok fauxcelt.....you now have put me in a quandary.
I was born in Blue Island, about 1600 feet out of Chicago, But have lived my life in Chicago...even though I am told I don't have the Chicago 'brogue'- must be the suburban influence in the first four days of my life.
Of course, those of us here in GB are all Europeans now, except for my wife, because I married an alien. All these local differences are supposed to melt away, except, hopefully, for the music.
A significant number of pageviews (such as those auto-collected by Quarkbase and similar agencies) are not "human" visits to the site at all, but are generated by web-bots and the like.
This could well explain why the percentage reported from the USA is much higher than you might expect it to be.
Pageviews would include:
Auto-visits generated by software
Visits from non-members
Visits from passive members
Visits from active members
There are around 50k members, but the number of active members could probably be reckoned only in hundreds.
I suspect that if you compiled statistics directly from thesession.org (based on who had actually contributed tunes, threads, comments etc.) you would probably get quite a different picture.
@lazyhound - the expiry date of thesession.org domain is not especially significant. Many domain names are issued for one or two year periods.
Every domain name owner has the option to renew at the expiry date. It only becomes significant if if you fail to renew. If you don't, someone else will usually buy it in the hope that you will pay them an extortionate price to get it back!
Green grow the goats in the fields of Pakistan
They make a ropey curry but they'll do for a bodhran
If I was one I wouldn't want to end up played by Croppies
I'd cross into Afghanistan and live on opium poppies
Nationality?
Nationality?
I'm just interested - whats the nationality of most of the membership here?
I'm Irish.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dennis Regan
Re: Nationality?
Klingon
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by RichardB
Re: Nationality?
Scottish
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dave_
Re: Nationality?
Wegian
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by snorre
Re: Nationality?
Highland
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by John J.
Re: Nationality?
japonés
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by slainte
Re: Nationality?
McAustralian
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by davydd
Re: Nationality?
Hammersmith hospitalish
i'm Irish, despite being born and bred in London, and when younger i was an English buck to some older Irish heads and the mad Irish one to my English (and other) mates
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Nationality?
Bhutan
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/5038/comments
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
Hebridean
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by bogman
Re: Nationality?
atheist
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
Born and Bread in London and Irish..How does that work? I dont understand?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by csparpd
Re: Nationality?
Boulderite.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
Quotidian
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by pipewatcher
Re: Nationality?
Aries
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: Nationality?
American.
Irish-American
Well, Irish-North American.
Actually, to put a finer point on it, I live in the USA.
In fact, I really reside in New Hampshire.
All of this is really not the point, as I am merely visiting, studying your planet's culture on a galactic grant.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Piece
Re: Nationality?
commie
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
"Born and Bread in London and Irish..How does that work? I dont understand?"
Is this an English tune?
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/4198
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Nationality?
....notice, he said 'bread', not 'bred'. Perhaps that's your answer, csparpd.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Nationality?
Umerikan wid a big mean Irish father who never hugged me or said he loved me...sob...sob...that's why I play banjo and struggle so with concertina...
I'd like to know what political parties everyone belongs to and the wasteline of your pants....
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by shanty
Re: Nationality?
American.
Dad- from Glasgow
Mom- from Lurgan
me-from New York
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Nationality?
Dennis - unless you get (sensible) replies from the entire membership (50k), I don't think you question is going to be answered!
But judging from the contributions to the discussions, tune db etc, I would say the following countries account for the bulk of the membership:
Ireland (Eire and NI)
Scotland
England
Wales
USA
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
I've also noticed contributions from members from these countries:
France
Belgium
Germany
Italy
Holland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Russia
Japan
S. Africa
(Sorry if I've missed any)
You don't tend to get members from countries that have music that doesn't use western diatonic scales.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
This is an interesting thread, just in terms of how people construct national identity or at least whether or not they determine questions thereof need a wiseass response.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
"My only country
is six feet high
and whether I love it or not
I'll die
for its independence"
Norman McCaig
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by SYcove
Re: Nationality?
"I've also noticed contributions from members from these countries:
France
Belgium
Germany
Italy
Holland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Russia
Japan
S. Africa
(Sorry if I've missed any)"
You'd better be, Mix'O, you'd better be.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Janek
Re: Nationality?
Australian living in Scotland
Which is in my member details and visible to all who care to look
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
This thread is way out of date but might give peope an idea of where most sessions are (or were in 2004) played:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/2807/comments
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
I'm from Scotland and am struggling to think up a witty and/or irreverent response.
*sigh*
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Jams_O'Donnell
Re: Nationality?
I'm glad to see this thread is recieving the disdain it deserves
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
"I'm glad to see this thread is recieving the disdain it deserves," writes our friend from... Curmudgea.
sorry Llig. I just couldn't resist!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by browndog
Re: Nationality?
tee he
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
Longo?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by gravelwalks
Re: Nationality?
My apologies, Janek. How could I have forgotten Poland?
BTW, I'm informed that English sea shanties are quite popular in Poland. Is that correct?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Curmudgea? A much nicer location that High Dudgeona, I'm sure ...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
I used to be a proud citizen of the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire. (Still got the badge somewhere)
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by kuec
Re: Nationality?
The reason I ask is that I have been asked to settle a bet with some friends regarding the number of people who were NOT born and bred in Ireland - yet, call themselves Irish, for some reason.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dennis Regan
Re: Nationality?
Yorkshire, kuec?
I'm familiar with your old country's motto:
Hear all, see all, say nowt -
Eat all, drink all, pay nowt -
And if thee can get owt for nowt,
Keep it to theeself.
Did you have it on that badge?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Badge shows a red flag with white letters saying the above. Actually found it. Nearly 30 years old now.
The verse you quoted goes:
.. and if tha doest owt for nowt do it for theesen'.
(Geoff, correct me if I'm wrong)
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by kuec
Re: Nationality?
Five of us were playing at our Monday session at an Irish pub in South London (Fiddles, Uillean Pipes, Whistles, Drum). A friendly chap sits at the next table and engages us in conversation, asks us questions about the music and our instruments. Seems to know a bit about whistle playing. From his accent I guess he might be Australian. Asks us where we're from. Suddenly realise - we're all English. (Does this matter?)
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
Trust me to not get it quite right, kuec ...
.. but then again, I don't hail from that haloed country ...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
So Dennis, a hidden agenda, eh!
But hasn't that topic alraedy been done to death?
For instance, q.v.
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/19803
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Right everybody, into the parlour.
C'mon hurry it up now.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
>............Australian. Asks us where we're from. Suddenly realise - we're all English.
Why should you be surprised? If you went to a session in Glasgow would you be surprised to find all or most of the players were born in Scotland?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
--"If you went to a session in Glasgow would you be surprised to find all or most of the players were born in Scotland?"--
If it was a session in an "Irish pub" in Glasgow, and they were all playing "Irish music", and you were a foreigner, then, yes, you might be surprised to find they were all Scottish.
Especially when you thought you were in a country with a robust musical tradition of its own
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
Cornish Lancastrian interloper with more than a dash of Guinness.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Steve Shaw
Re: Nationality?
.. and if you listen to how tunes somrtimes get mangled at sessions, you might infer that the musicians came from New Orleans ...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Italian, Irish, English, Scottish ...an American mongrel ...woof, woof
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by JTC111
Re: Nationality?
And here's a thought:
If you lived in one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, (technically) your nationality would be "British".
But you might prefer to say that you were Irish ....
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
"The reason I ask is that I have been asked to settle a bet with some friends regarding the number of people who were NOT born and bred in Ireland - yet, call themselves Irish, for some reason"
but your question did not ask that.
Well I am from Scotland, not Ireland - but I consider myself Scottish and not Irish so I am not sure how this thread will settle your bet.
Just because I am not Irish doesn't mean I can't appreciate Irish music, just as someone from Ireland may have an appreciation for Scottish music.
Sure there are plenty of folk who will consider themselves Irish even if they and their parents (and possibly their grandparents) were all born in Brooklyn or Glasgow or Dublin
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
There's also an old thread here... http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/15265
It was a good idea that didn't work too well...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Reverend
Re: Nationality?
Topic's been done to death but it is actually pretty interesting, considering the assorted meanings a lot of people invest in nationality, identity, and folk music. Being American, living in Scotland, and playing the Irish pipes, I regularly confuse tourists (especially other Americans for some reason) and have to deal with lots of questions on this front. The more interesting question is, why do people find this so bewildering that I could afford a full set if everyone who asked me about identity gave me a pound.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
Anyone who is even bothered about national identity is either an eedjit or a racist.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
I'm Québécois and I live in Canada
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Gabriel Bizeau
Re: Nationality?
"We're all Jock Tamson's Bairns"
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by John J.
Re: Nationality?
There must be a lot eedjits and racists out there, which there are obviously are. But still doesn't answer the question of why it's so bloody common to be asked you play Irish music if you're not Irish, or why there are so many threads on that topic on the website.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
I dunno, I find it pretty interesting what the Irish players in Ireland say about the music and the scene generally e.g. but not exclusively, the Comhaltas controversies.
After all it is the music of that country originally, and it's interesting to hear what people there say about it. I would like to see them given a bit more space to do so though. They seem fairly sparse here, or maybe reluctant to say more.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
I certainly wouldn't call myself Irish, despite being called it many times in my life, and mostly abusively, and occasionally with a nice little death-threat attached (thank you Scotland), simply by folk who didn't like my name
But I think the smugness and derisiveness of some present-day Irish-born toward those Americans, Australians etc who call themselves "Irish" after several generations after immigration is misplaced.
At the time of the great migrations to the "New World", there was no independent Irish nation. Wars, devastating famines and the bitter fallout from several failed rebellions had convinced many that there would be no home for free Irishmen and women in ireland, and they must make a home for themselves in America or Australia where they could practise their religion and culture freel from British dominance.
This experiment at assertive "multi-culturalism" within other nations attracted its share of abuse and mistrust, and the Irish community was clearly identified as such by others, and in turn identified itself as such over many generations. The battle for equality and respect in the New World was not won overnight and you can hardly expect their descendants to drop any claims to Irishness on first contact with a native Irish-born person whose parents may have simply moved there and bought a cheap house in Galway for all we know.
I can see how it looks annoying, gauche, fake-romantic and all the rest, but if you consider the reality that by the late 1800s more Irish were living outside Ireland than in, you may want to ask who really is the more ignorant of history?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
Just checked out your "Sessioners Map", Rev.
Looking at the map, it seems to correspond quite closely with the countries that I listed above ...
... although another country that I omitted to mention was Spain.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
So how do you get treated as an Australian then!? I, like millions of others have the same background, and am proud of it, but I don't call myself Irish, I was born and raised in a different culture and place, Australia in my case, and it just doesn't seem to "go" to say that. I've got an Irish surname though, so for anyone who is in any way interested, the max I would get is "that's a good Irish name isn't it" or something like that. There's still some around who wouldn't appreciate it, I'm sure, but they appear to be dying out. My own name is pretty much regarded as Australian in Australia, most people wouldn't have any idea that it is Irish. Times change eh.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
Hey Bren
> If it was a session in an "Irish pub" in Glasgow, and they were all playing "Irish music", and you were a foreigner, then, yes, you might be surprised to find they were all Scottish.
I'm surprised to hear that Bren. Maybe I'm a bit out of date, but in the past when I've joined in Irish sessions in Irish pubs (does, or did the Vicky Bar count as Irish?) in Glasgow, most participants (except the odd American tourist) had Scottish accents, even if they did have names like Benny McHugh. But as I say, maybe that was back then.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
Thistle- I was just trying to explain how a foreign visitor might feel surprised
Like if you went up to those Andean pan-pipe buskers and found they were Geordies
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
At a session inLondon, old geezer comes over to talk to us...
"God, aren't ye great at the music! And where are ye from lads?"
Mando player: Dublin
Old Geezer: ah yeah
Me: Carlow
Old Geezer: Carlow yeah, I know Carlow
Guitarist : Galway
Old Geezer: Fair play Galway
Fiddler (easily the best musician there) : Croydon
Old Geezer: Ah well, can't have it every way.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by RockyRoader
Re: Nationality?
I also have an Irish-ish surname but seem to get more of an enthusiastic response than Duijera. People, if they hear it, are often like, "Oh, you must be Irish."
Thistle,
Offhand I can only think of one muso in Glasgow who is actually from Ireland. Everyone else I regularly play with is Scottish, English, with a few scattered Americans and French.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
I think the further you are removed from Europe, Silver, over considerable time, community memories of national differences in surnames gradually disappear. The most recent generations in Australia, for the most part, I'd hazard to say, would not know any difference between an Irish, English or Scottish surname - those would largely just be thought of as Australian names, if they were categorised at all. With my gaelic Irish name, it'd be regarded probably as an "Old Australian" one!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
That "Irish Pub" in Glasgow? Was it born in Ireland?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
"I'm Québécois and I live in Canada."
So you're CANADIAN.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Glass of Beer
Re: Nationality?
Polish by birth
American by Citizenship
Irish by Marriage and Neighborhood.
Given our baloney government in the last eight years until January in the States, I claimed to be a Citizen of the World.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Nationality?
Hizzoner, a Daley an Gilfoyle would be upset that I failed to mention being a resident of Chicago.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Nationality?
Being relatively new to the forum I didn't realise the topic had been dealt with before.
It certainly elicits a lot of debate. I wonder why that is?
I certainly don't think that anybody who is interested in national identity is either an "eedjit or a twit" - thats just plain ridiculous.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dennis Regan
Re: Nationality?
Looking at some of the reactions people apparently get to their names or nationalities in some countries, from a distant perspective it can make you feel a bit sad that those sorts of considerations are still there and acting maybe as a brake on progress to some extent.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
...I mean it sounds all a bit retro or something.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
I can tell you're new to here, you havn't tried to get round the swear filter.
But eedjit and tw at are merely pejorative, they are not absolutes. I think that anybody who is interested in national identity is an eedjit. And I will treat them as such
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
"I think that anybody who is interested in national identity is an eedjit."
Why? It can be interesting?
Are you a leftist, llig?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
But is it something you can really get around, Michael? I mean, if I dropped in on a strange session, as you do, and someone asked me where I was from (common ice-breaker question) and I answered Scotland or nowhere or Mars or even better, said I don't define myself by where I happen to live or where my parents are from, I bet they would hear my accent and think I was an eedjit. Let be pragmatic here. There are some pretty powerful social norms operating here and for the sake of just getting on with it, it is far less hassle to go along with them, even of you personally believe that "national identity" is a constructed load of rubbish,
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
It can only be interesting from an anthropological point of view.
ie. it's interesting why so many people are eedjits
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
If someone asked me the question as a common ice-breaker I'd have no problems with it. They are not really interested in it, it's just an excuse to chat. That's a lot different to asking a whole bunch of strangers on the internet. Especially when there is the ulterior motive of the whole plastic paddy can of worms
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
Swear filter???
Hands up who's from Seejithorpe?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
I'm Phila-Bostonian-Floridian-Irish-Italian-American, macka-fracka-shamma-lamma-ding-dong. That and 50 cents will get you a soda from the machine.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Nationality?
Sounds like you're a Philharmonian then sw?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Nationality?
Hands up who's from Seejithorpe?
Not me but I posted a session there:
http://www.thesession.org/sessions/display/1940
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
people do get caught up in a crisis of mixed identity.
e.g. during the six nations Scotland playing ireland at rugby. Who do you want to win?
Wales obviously, cos they're playing england ;-p
- chris
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
I learned to sing Danny Boy and bought a bod-ran to play for my local St Patrick's Day sessions. I don't think there's any doubt that I'm Irish.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by McCracken
Re: Nationality?
TO LLIG LEAHCIM:
You don't know me or anything about me so you don't really have any business insinuating that I had any ulterior motives, or that I am an "eedjit".
I asked a simple question in order to settle a friendly bet.
I'm sorry if it rubbed anybody, yourself included, up the wrong way.
My question was not meant to cause any offense or harm.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dennis Regan
Re: Nationality?
Indeed DD, and when I play it ends up being Music for a Found Philharmonian, of course.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Nationality?
Why is there a crisis of identity? If Scotland play Ireland in the rugby I would support Scotland as I'm Scottish. If Ireland were to play England then I would of course be entirely neutral! (aye right!)
This support obviously comes with the recognition that whereever they are from they are still rugby players and therefore more than likely t wa t s themselves.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
Nationality issues passports. Science has proven there is no such thing as "race" - our collective human ancestry is far too spider-webbed together to give that out dated notion any further credence. What we are really talking about is culture - and culture for the most part is a choice. That's why a kid in Galway can choose to wear cowboy hats and listen to nothing but Garth Brooks records - and conversely - a kid in Phoenix can wear a tam and listen to nothing but old Bothy band records.
Therefore, I fully embrace my eejitness and if needs be, my twitiness. What can I say Llig - I find "roots" discussions interesting.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Nationality?
Personally I do not have a problem discussing identity or Nationality. I would be an odd Nationalist if I did. I do find culture, politics and identity interesting in defining us as individuals.
To be interested in nationality does not automatically make you a racist. It depends entirely on your motivations.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
Oh sorry - I meant to say twitiness. I'm no twit.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Nationality?
Wow - that swear filter really works well!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Nationality?
Let's see what behavioural epigenetics throws up in 10-20 years time. How culture, as defined by geographical location, impinges on the epigenetic determinants of behaviour.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
For the importance of nationality, race and identity to an individual, read Barack Obama's 'Dreams From My Father'. He's not an eejit.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: Nationality?
Sticky problem there, Jusa. How much of a choice is culture? Is it a collection beliefs, knowledge, and habits that you can embrace or reject as much or as little as you want, or is it a more complex array of conscious and unconscious mannerisms, worldviews, etc. etc. that is a lot harder to consciously pick and choose, or more likely a combination of those things. Could an expat ever become so integrated into a different culture that no one, not even the locals, would ever guess that they were not a local? I know there are a fair few expats from various places on this board so surely they must have a few thoughts.
I don't think listening to Garth Brooks makes you any more American than listening to the Bothy Band makes you Irish. Your choices in music, etc. can be very much informed and influenced by culture but I think where we are from affects behaviour at a far deeper level.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
Jusa,
Just to be clear - my question was about the Nationality that issues passports . Not culture or "plastic paddys" or anything else.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dennis Regan
Re: Nationality?
I'm not a "Nationalist" like NCFA but I agree that the concept of a nation or nationhood is not the same as that of "race".
After all, in Scotland, for instance, we have several different races and people from different countries resident here who would now ..quite rightly..consider themselves to be Scottish.
I'm by no means a Proclaimers fan.... However, this song sums everything up for me completely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X3U77PtQS0&feature=related
Not too bad a version
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by John J.
Re: Nationality?
It's an amiable way to p*ss about over a mug of coffee.
I exist in the form I do because an infant ancestress was saved just in time from the jaws of a hungry pig. This confers upon me the glamour of rural roots, I suppose.
I am English / British, or alternatively British / English, whichever takes my whim. I prefer the Union Jack to the cheap-tat red and white one, but I am quite uninterested in the symbolism etc. of either. Living in a city with a Monty Pythonesque history as an eccentric statelet run by dead saints, rum Prince Bishops and dragons, I have probably failed to see enough in common with those in other parts of England whose perspective has been formed by altogether different realities...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Nationality?
That is undoubtedly the best description of Durham I ever read. Why hasn't the uni hired you to write PR stuff for its prospective student publications?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
By the way, I don't know who the eedjit playing the bass is. It was the first clip I could find..
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by John J.
Re: Nationality?
Silver Spear - I can manage the odd telling phrase, but I lack the work ethic!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Nationality?
To get back to the original question..............
..........British, but a proud Channel Islander ( ie NOT English ), with a dash of Scots and Irish, plus the Scots/Irish Granny was born in Barbados, which makes me also West Indian, ie entitled to represent the Indies in any sport in which I may excel ( probably draughts )( chequers to you ).
Meanwhile SO is a US citizen, whose ancestors came over from the Pale of Settlement 90 -100 years ago, so our children have Mongrel Vitality ! ( GET DOWN THERE ! ).
And now living in the Socialist Republic of East Finchley.
I would suggest that anyone who tries to find reasons for their character and behaviour by researching where their ancestors came from, is probably indulging in stereotypes as much as the next person.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Nationality?
O my name it is nothing,
my age it means less,
the country I come from,
is none of your biz-ness
Great conversation-stopper
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
No Cause:
>Why is there a crisis of identity? If Scotland play Ireland in the >rugby I would support Scotland as I'm Scottish. If Ireland >were to play England then I would of course be entirely >neutral! (aye right!)
>This support obviously comes with the recognition that
There isn't really, just an excuse for a joke.
Apart from the fact that I don't really care very much either way about the rugby (although I have started to quite enjoy occasionally watching it last couple of years) I pretty much fall into the same pattern as yourself.
Not really too bothered when Scotland get beaten (though it hurts more when it is by England). I seek my solace in inverted snobbery: who gives a feck about all those public scoolboys & farmers?
When the high ground is lost to you, there is always the unlovely swappy depression of the low ground to be taken & held. I am driven by base motives, but at least I know myself
- chris
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
I'm Klingon, but I have adapted the ways of the Earthlings.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Free Reed
Re: Nationality?
Can someone start a thread asking why Klingons need to play Irish traditional music, as we seem to have at least two on thisthread? It seems so..... un-Klingon, especially in light of things like Klingon opera.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
I thought Klingon was that stuff for wrapping food- amazing the things people cling on to when it comes to identity.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: Nationality?
>Can someone start a thread asking why Klingons need to play Irish traditional music, as we seem to have at least two on thisthread?
The answer is obvious:
As they are so many light years away from their own culture, they need to Kling on to something................
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
100% Scottish by descent, but never having lived there feel I have to settle for British. Don't feel I can call myself Scottish, but I'm most definitely not English.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by minijackpot
Re: Nationality?
Callipygean.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Nationality?
Race (biological)/ culture (religion/language/ name/ customs)/ nationality (political unit born in): three categories often mixed up but quite distinct.
And never confuse "Londoner" with "English".
I am a Londoner not English.
England starts where the M25 is thank you.
And how we laugh at the Amerikans who call them selves Irish or German or Albanian or wotteffah because one of their great grandfathers happened to have that nationality or culture (e.g. name). What about all the other great grand parents? Don't they count?
And remember what Ben Johnson said about that horrid thing called PATRIOTISM...
Shuk Ri Ah
Krick
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Krick Stahlschwanz
Re: Nationality?
"Michael McGrory from West Donegal,
You came to Glasgow with nothing at all"
Just listened to that (never knew the Proclaimers wrote it, I know it from the singing of Tom Laurie) and suddenly sitting here in Glasgow some 80 years since my ancestors came over from County Derry I realised that I am living the better life that men I never met worked for.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Jams_O'Donnell
Re: Nationality?
My parents, my nanny, and a series of upstairs maids were united in their refusal to inform me of my nationality. My tutors were equally tight-lipped.
One morning when I was eight or nine years of age, on a long "nature-taking" excursion (which invariably skirted the less-maintained side of the south reservoir) I bribed the driver with a wax-sealed bottle of 1907 Armagnac, inquiring of him, "Please, Mr. Karlimse, what is this country we are in? What are the origins of my family?"
After his lengthy verification of both the knife-sharp bouquet and the conversely smooth finish of the nutty, ambrosial distillate, Mr. Karlimse pulled the Silver Shadow up beside the crumbling dike, nimbly exiting the vehicle. There, bare-waisted and in a sort of clumsy rapture, he began a dance meant to evoke the origins of his own damnable people.
He had either misunderstood my question or was perhaps being coy. I am 82 years old now and have never gotten my answer. I enjoy some reels, the odd jig, so perhaps I am Irish? Though certain curries bring pleasure as well. One would appreciate an answer.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Nationality?
what's wrong with England anyway? _ the general anti-english feel here reminds me of that monty python film 'life of brian' when someone asked ''what did the romans ever do for us?''
now Bren that's a great conversation-starter in my book even if one-sided, and i see the original questioner Dennis is the first to mention the golden double 'P' words which, incidentally, is exactly what i am
oh dear, now i've just opened the second can of worms or i'm deeper down the same one
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Nationality?
Nothings wrong with England, if there is, then i should have moved. But English does not describe how I see myself; hence the compromise with British.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by minijackpot
Re: Nationality?
Foreigner. My father was a foreigner, too, and so were all my grandparents. It's in the blood, I guess.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by reedy grins
Re: Nationality?
An Irishman "through and through" finally won the heart of my prematurely-aged maiden aunt.
Tears at the ceremony, for a fascinating variety of reasons.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Nationality?
NEW Pure Drop, do you come from a long line of maiden aunts?
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Nationality?
Who knew that Queen Victoria was half-Irish and Prince Albert was half-Jewish?
Because of either the absence of certain hereditary diseases in their lives or the presence of new ones, or both, plus other tendentious evidence, historian A.N.Wilson has concluded that Queen Vic's dad was really an Irish soldier and courtier called Sir John Conroy, rather than the then Duke of Kent, and Albert's dad was a Jewish chamberlain, not whichever Saxe-Gotha prince it was supposed to have been.
I read this in the Waily Tail, so it must be true.
But it didn't say what sort of Irish Sir John Conroy was.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Nationality?
Lisanika, I'm not really anti-English. But they're our neighbours, our bigger neighbours. I hope they get scrubbed at football, rugby whatever, even cricket. That's how sports works.
If you think being a sports is about cheering on your neighbours and hoping they do well, then you've never been a sports fan. It is about gloating when they come a cropper, and not feeling offended when they reciprocate.
It isn't quite the same as wishing genuine meaningful ill will on your neighbours.
Or do you really believe the average glaswegian/dundonian/eninburger/londoner/liverpudlian likes seeing their nearest rival do well when their own team gets knocked out of a competition?
- chris
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
One of the St Johnstone (Perth) football songs is a simple little ditty along the lines of:
"We hate Dundee, oh we hate Dundee,
We hate their football team as well,
We hate Dundee, oh we hate Dundee,
We are the Dundee haters"
Simple and to the point!
I believe Dundee Utd sings (essentially) the same song about Dundee but without the implication of also hating the city.
Hibs fans still hate Celtic for stealing all their best players in 1885 (a practice we maintain to this day)
I have not seen any anti-English sentiment on this thread aside from the general sporting banter.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
Born American, legally Swedish. Moved to Sweden when I was 49 years old, so I have a double citizenship.
So, I'm technically an American /Swede with bit of Irish blood - hence the name Quarter Irish!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Quarter Irish
Re: Nationality?
I don't understand spectator sports. I mean, I am sure I could come up with an answer from my psych major days but really, I don't get it. I don't get the banter of identifying with one team or other, usually based on politics or where you happen to live, and getting completely emotional about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of that team.
There, I said it.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Nationality?
England IMO is OK except for the bloody weather. If only we had a nice climate we would not live in a state of surly psychopathic gloom throwing all manner of complete s*** into our systems just to be happy, and many problems would be resolved.
But in comparison, the awfulness of the Scottish and Welsh weather is right off the dial.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Nationality?
Trailer Trash
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Dark Raven
Re: Nationality?
TheSilverSpear - are you confusing spectator sports and team sports there? Spectator sports are just those that have an audience, which might be football but it could also be snooker..... or chess!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
I answered this post first, then read through most of the replies. I just wanted to post again to reassure you, Dennis Regan, as well as others who might be new to forum that llig is one of the sourest apples in the basket, so never-you-mind his crumpy, eternally-negative attitude.
I don't think wanting to know what nations are represented in this forum makes one an "eedjit or tw at" at all. I think it's fascinating to know that the love of Irish/Celtic music has spread so far and wide around the world!
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Quarter Irish
Re: Nationality?
Hey llig - cach that last comment!
It seems that you are "one of the sourest apples in the basket".
I reckon that you need to tell 'em that crab apples make very very good jelly ...
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Steatopygea
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by airport
Re: Nationality?
Ohhh... Nationality! I'm a a citizen of The United States of America. AKA "Pork Farmer." Pork is now exceeding a trillion dollars in value.... But on ST Patrick's Day I'm 100 percent Arsh.. never have been there to Arlin, but after a few green beers, I can smell the hint of turf and see the goats grazing in the Pakistani fields that produced my Bod-ran....
"I'm bod-ran boy and the Pipes the Pipes are a pipin'
And drowning out, me thumpin' little drum... dumpity dum---
The whiskeez gone and so is me Katy, dum dum
She dissapeared betwixt my kilt and drum bum bum"
Thank you very much... I'll be here all week....
For my next selection, for the arsh amongst us, will of course be a country wetsern song....
"Hello Bod-ran, nice to see you... it's been a long time...." -Conroy McTwitty
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by McCracken
Re: Nationality?
Atahualpa Q—
A long line of maiden aunts paddled past my shore
So I pulled on my wading pants in hopes of seeing more
Blessedly the stream of aunts continued through the day
I waded out just far enough to hear the last one bray:
Arr ye Oirish then? O, arr ye Oirish?
If ye arr we'll float a balsa note yer way
Arr ye Oirish? O, arr ye Oirish?
We wish your charmin' head of hair fair play
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Nationality?
Steatopygians and Callipygians- bums, the lot of them.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: Nationality?
Whew... Must have been a real slow day posting.....
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Nationality?
Just another log-entry, at the close of another day at The Eddystone Light.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Nationality?
Hear hear, this really shook 'em out of the woodwork. I'm off to have a nice Nationally/Culturally/Ethnically correct plate of spaghetti and praties with a cheeseburger on the side.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Nationality?
European. *Not* a wiseass reply, though it might look like it.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Linsey Doyle
Re: Nationality?
Re: Nationality?
Anyone who is even bothered about national identity is either an eedjit.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by llig leahcim
Correct Mr Llig.
However I think the thread was simply asking "What country were you born in".
Me? Norn'Ireland.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by bodhran bliss
Re: Nationality?
Diatonic (bc)
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Martin_BC
Re: Nationality?
I'm a subject of the kingdom of Elemet.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by millionyears_bc
Re: Nationality?
Californian.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by GDub
Re: Nationality?
If ye's knew the slightest bit about how little nationality means nowadays....it's not like the brits fightin the gerries fightin the tallies fightin the yanks fightin the japs...or even fightin charlie............it's all peanuts.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
drunkard
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by mickm
Re: Nationality?
Filipino!
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by armandale
Re: Nationality?
Yorkshire, yorkshire
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by D.J.F.
Re: Nationality?
No-one has mentioned Lancashire yet ..[
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
Mr Bodhran Bliss:
Exhibit A: First post,
"Nationality?
I'm just interested - whats the nationality of most of the membership here?"
Exhibit B: BB's post,
"Me? Norn'Ireland."
That's a political statement if I ever heard one.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
Come off it Lli when has Bliss ever amde a political statement...
- chris
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
>I don't understand spectator sports. I mean, I am sure I could >come up with an answer from my psych major days but >really, I don't get it. I don't get the banter of identifying with one >team or other, usually based on politics or where you happen >to live, and getting completely emotional about the trials, >tribulations, and triumphs of that team.
Ah Silver, you're are making the naive mistake there of thinking the football match ids that thing played out on the pitch.
In case anyone doesn't know the meaning of "naive", it is Evian spelt backwards. Think about it the next time you pat £2.50 for something that comes free out of the tap.
- Chris
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
Thinking about what ramblingpitchfork just said about sport and nationality and being naive..... As an English person I am regularly reminded how naive I am. I naturally support English, Irish, Welsh, Scots teams. This doesn't seem to be reciprocated by our fellow Brits. The attitude seems to be "Don't care who wins as long as the English get a good kicking". Yes I know I am very naive but I'm not about to change. Love you all.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
Yes, you're right calico. It's some kind of conditioning. It's only in the past few years I have overcome my own taboo and started occasionally supporting England when they are the only one of us left in a competition . That said I'd still support Scotland, then Ireland, Northern Ireland or Wales (more or less in that order) first (I'm a Scot). It must be because of England's imperialist history, or that they are the biggest of all these "home" nations, I suppose.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Rudall the time
Re: Nationality?
Ireland (Eire and NI)
Scotland
England
Wales
USA
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
I've also noticed contributions from members from these countries:
France
Belgium
Germany
Italy
Holland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Russia
Japan
S. Africa
(Sorry if I've missed any)
What about
Breton, Basque, Alsace, Cornish
If France occupies England tomorrow are the inhabitants there automatically French?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by iwerzon
Re: Nationality?
Glasgow Rangers vs England
Who would you support?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by iwerzon
Re: Nationality?
Thistle Day - you've made my day
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
That's it Sashiko calico.
Like in the the song that thistle fans drag out whenever they play either side of the old firm (to the tune of "the red flag"/"christmas tree") :
I think a lot of English people have been surprised that this support isn't generally reciprocated. I've had a number of friends down the years who were quite taken aback by this.
I thought it had changed to a certain extent in recent years as the English public became aware that most of Scotland didn't really want England to win the world cup.
Again I'll make a comparisson to sports fans in general. I'm a lapsed-partick thistle supporter. Now it is very common for supporters of two other better known (but distictly lesser) glasgow teams to "have a soft spot for thistle". This generally doesn't work the other way. Don't know any genuine thistle fan who doesn't like watching just about anyone else stuff either side of the old firm.
I'd guess there would be a similar dynamic at play e.g. in Liverpool with Tranmere Rovers.
You can always afford to be magnanimous and patronise (in the non-pejorative sense) your smaller neighbours. Things always look different to those smaller neighbours.
That's not so say that the feelings of those neighbours are particularly elevated or even rational. Tis just the way of the world to be bitter and twisted
"Hello, hello, how do you do,
we hate the boys in royal blue,
and we hate the boys in emerald green,
so f... the pope and f... the queen."
BTW it is absolutely acceptible for someone english to have a good gloat whenever scotland gets beaten. There is nothing more pathetic than to hear someone scottish wanting england to lose, but whining when an england fan says something similar about scotland.
- chris
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
>If France occupies England tomorrow are the inhabitants >there automatically French?
fingers crossed
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
"Glasgow Rangers vs England
Who would you support?"
The Referee!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by markt123
Re: Nationality?
^ blatantly a Celtic fan
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by D.J.F.
Re: Nationality?
Hail Hail!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by markt123
Re: Nationality?
"If France occupies England tomorrow, Ramblingpitch?
Check out this link:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23479853-details/EU+wipes+England+off+the+map,+as+Gordon+Brown+flies+the+flag+of+St+George+over+Downing+Street/article.do
There won't "always be an England" if these plans go ahead:
... those living in southern England will presumably become "Mancheites"
B***dy Eurotrash!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
TEXAN!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by JosephC
Re: Nationality?
What a lot of baloney. I am not saying whether the European plans are good or not but:
1. It is hardly making a European superstate.
2. They have not named England on the map.... or Scotland or Wales, etc. They have classed it as "The United Kingdom" which is what the European member state is anyway - for now!
3. The Channel has always been called "La Manche" by the French. This is just the french for "The Channel". It is only the English that have seen the need on insisting that the stretch of water is theirs!
4. The artticle harks back to Saint George! He wasn't even bl**dy English!!!
In short the article is a bunch of xenophoebic nonsense!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
Small point of information - The French call the channel "La Manche" because it looks like a sleeve (of a garment). The English call it The Channel and I've never heard anyone here claim that it's English! You are absolutely right about the news article though. It's typical paranoid anti-Europe stuff that gets trotted out daily in our press.
You've reminded me about a, possibly apochryphal, story about a headline in an English newspaper probably shortly after the second world war. The south of England, the Channel (ok... "La Manche") and north of France were affected by serious fog. The headline was along the lines of "Serious Fog - Continent Cut Off" !
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
Ok you got me - the French that I once learned has long since escaped me! I would dread to think how I would get on ordering a drink or some food or asking for directions in Frnace these days!
As far as the newspaper story about the fog - I have heard that one too. I don't think it is apochryphal.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe
My goodness - your wording of that and Wikipedia is very similar!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
No Cause For Alarm
Thanks for the link. I've just checked it out. I wish I could have used it because it took me a lot of typing and retyping to get "apochryphal" down right. Sad to say the information and story are straight out of my memory. Seems to say it all about the English mindset of the era.
And now I really should get back the dusting.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
Another reference I found to it said it was a newspaper from the 80s, another said it was some weather report.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
I use google to check spelling words like that.
My spelling has never been good, but has declined sharply since I joined the computer age.
- chris
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
Norwegian. Born in Norway, and my passport nationality is Norwegian (however my musical soul seems to be Irish). And just to confuse things, I've an American accent (to the point where I always get asked "where are you from in the States?"...), and I live in Ireland. And whatever slang I've picked up over here comes out in an Irish accent.
Heard a guy in a session recently describe himself as a "tourist on the planet". I would count myself as one of those as well.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ingridrt
Re: Nationality?
I've checked it again. I still can't spell "apocryphal"
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
It seems odd to me that some folk will get specific about the provenance of a tune or playing style with trainspotterish avidity yet retreat into humorous evasions or lofty "I am a child of the universe (and you're a thwat for asking)" when asked about their own.
We can't help what we are but it's all part of a great big interesting story so why fret about it?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
what a beautiful way of putting it ingridrt
'' . . . my musical soul seems to be irish.''
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Nationality?
Nonetheless, No Cause For Alarm, there may well be some cause for alarm.
An office had already been been set up to administer "Manche". And guess what - manned by non-elected representatives
And yes. I know what "La Manche" means - but did anyone from England have any say in this name?
Of course, we do have elected respresentatives - MEPs - and they cost the taxpayer around £1 million per MEP per year to maintain. Has a MEP ever done anything for you?
And as for those Eurocrats is Brussels, they're costing us taxpayers a fortune as well, and as I hear that their accounts wouldn't even pass audit. And what's the latest? We'll all going to have to drive around with headlamps on in the daytime - using more fuel in the process, of course.
I'm certainly not Xenophobic. France is a great country, with great food and wine. I can speak the language and I have French friends.
Unfortunately, the French legal system derives from the Napoleonic code. Basically, you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise. Totally contrary to the long-established principle under English law whereby you are innocent unless proven guilty.
But that principle has been eroded in recent years - largely down to EU influences....
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
and they make us have straight bananas
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Bren
Re: Nationality?
They certainly did Bren - but they did a U-turn on that one just recently.
... or should I say, a banana-skin turn?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
lisaniska -
maybe playing the music gives us Irish souls
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: Nationality?
Mix - are you saying you now want to elect all the administrators too? That seems overkill to me!
Anyway, why do you care that the office is staffed by unelected individuals? It is based in France anyway!
Anyway I don't live in La Manche so I am not bothered about how that region works. If it turns the residents into "garlic wearing, cheese eating, surrender monkeys" then that might even be an improvement.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Nationality?
We have been living in the middle of the EU for some time - and survived it.
Just because we have a name for the channel: "Der Ärmelkanal (-sleeve channel)" doesn't mean we pretend to own it.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by kuec
Re: Nationality?
No, No Cause - not elect them - just get rid of them. Throw the lot in "La Manche" - then we'll all pay less tax.
But as you say, you don't live there. But what about this for a new EU region - Southern Scotland + Northern England. We could call it Borderland, if you like....
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
We've also been living in the EU for "some time" and "survived it. But perhaps we might have have survived better had we not been in it?
On the official figures, we actually pay more into it than we get out of it.
If I had a bank that worked like that, I'd change it.
You can call that stretch of water the "German Channel" for all I care - I don't live iin it.
You might like to conduct a straw poll with the fish, though ...
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
OK everyone....there is a post about metrognomes two pages ahead....Let's all move
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Nationality?
Chicagoan as in native of "Chicagoland" (otherwise known as northeastern Illinois).
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Nationality?
ok fauxcelt.....you now have put me in a quandary.
I was born in Blue Island, about 1600 feet out of Chicago, But have lived my life in Chicago...even though I am told I don't have the Chicago 'brogue'- must be the suburban influence in the first four days of my life.
So am I a native of Chicagoland....or Chicago?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Nationality?
Stats below for this site from www.quarkbase.com but I thought India was high up last time I looked.
Country % User % Pageviews Rank in country
USA 36.1% 32.1% 82285
UK 21.5% 33.6% 19439
Italy 2.6% 9.2% 83299
Japan 3.8% 3.4% 165736
Ireland 5.7% 4.5% 9927
France 1.2% 0.8% 174189
Canada 3.2% 2.2% 89428
Australia 3.3% 0.9% 87926
Spain 1.1% 0.8% 160230
Other 13.5% 5.1% -1
Germany 5.3% 6.1% 172717
Belgium 1.7% 0.5% 60840
Estonia 1.1% 0.9% 7994
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by shakey
Re: Nationality?
Yes, eejit.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by shakey
Re: Nationality?
So The Session is only 5% Irish?
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Nationality?
http://www.quarkbase.com/show/thesession.org
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: Nationality?
Of course, those of us here in GB are all Europeans now, except for my wife, because I married an alien. All these local differences are supposed to melt away, except, hopefully, for the music.
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Nationality?
Arthedain (part of Eriador)
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Nationality?
Just had a look at the quarkbase link above, and noticed that TheSession.org domain expires 30-Apr-2009.
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Nationality?
"Me? Norn'Ireland."
That's a political statement if I ever heard one.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Nationality?
Come off it Lli when has Bliss ever amde a political statement...
- chris
Thank you Chris, took the very words out of my mouth.
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by bodhran bliss
Quarkbase Stats Misleading
A significant number of pageviews (such as those auto-collected by Quarkbase and similar agencies) are not "human" visits to the site at all, but are generated by web-bots and the like.
This could well explain why the percentage reported from the USA is much higher than you might expect it to be.
Pageviews would include:
Auto-visits generated by software
Visits from non-members
Visits from passive members
Visits from active members
There are around 50k members, but the number of active members could probably be reckoned only in hundreds.
I suspect that if you compiled statistics directly from thesession.org (based on who had actually contributed tunes, threads, comments etc.) you would probably get quite a different picture.
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
@lazyhound - the expiry date of thesession.org domain is not especially significant. Many domain names are issued for one or two year periods.
Every domain name owner has the option to renew at the expiry date. It only becomes significant if if you fail to renew. If you don't, someone else will usually buy it in the hope that you will pay them an extortionate price to get it back!
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Nationality?
So the nationality of bots is mainly American?
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by shakey
Re: Nationality?
>Thank you Chris, took the very words out of my mouth
Ah now that would explain the eccentric spelling
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Nationality?
Green grow the goats in the fields of Pakistan
They make a ropey curry but they'll do for a bodhran
If I was one I wouldn't want to end up played by Croppies
I'd cross into Afghanistan and live on opium poppies
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by nicholas
Activity stats
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/14741/comments#comment304007
Re: Yellow Board Roll Call
August 12th 2007 by Jeremy
# Posted on March 8th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: Nationality?
. . . what say ye now that it's Commonwealth Day?
'We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.'
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman and activist
# Posted on March 9th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Nationality?
**. . . what say ye now that it's Commonwealth Day?**
I say "Commonwealth Day? Really? How interesting. What's Commonwealth Day?"
# Posted on March 9th 2009 by Bren
God Save the Queen
http://westbromblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/shake-off-imperialist-hangover-lets.html
# Posted on March 9th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: Nationality?
Irish / English -
brought up by a Clare woman and a Monaghan man...great combination!
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by She moved through the fair
Re: Nationality?
I am Irish.
I live in the US.
# Posted on March 27th 2009 by beginner4567