Yes I had some middle Englnd fella come up to me and say do you play any of that bog trotter music, he drew a blank stare when I said sure give me an example then ?
I really wanted to tip a pint of black stout over his shiny bald head
I cracked a bunch of jokes at a gig once and a woman of Irish descent -- a real Irish wannabe -- later complimented me for me "Irish wit." Of course, unless my mama lied to me and my dad all these years, I don't have even a trace of Irish ancestry...
As an Australian of Irish descent living in Scotland I can be whatever stereotype you want, time and a half at weekends and double time for public holdiays.
I drew the line at one bloke back home who mis-heard my slightly-scottish accent and called me a "pom" though!
I'm from Far East. A couple of years ago, I sneaked into a Scottish session in Edinburgh. After I finished a set of reels from Shetland, Cape Breton, and Scottish mainland, an American couple approached and said to me, "your piccolo playing definitely has a distinctly oriental feel."
In a republican Bar in Leitrim, back in the early 80's I was mistaken for a soldier cause I had a Scottish accent & said Zero instead of naught!
You may laugh, & I can now but, surrounded by Republican Up the IRA, Posters, & numerous grim, unknown faces staring out at me through the smog from the dark corners of this place, I felt just a teeny bit 'sh*t scared'.
Course, I was guilty myself of puttin' a stereotype number on the bar.
For all I knew, big Ian Paisley may well have been one of their best weekend customers!
Mind you, soon as I whipped me Banjo out, they didn't give a sh*t!
In a session in Dingle, the resident Guitarist insisted on calling me, and a fellow Englishman who happened to come into the pub with me, 'George'. The guitarist himself was from Liverpool and obviously had a complex about being English-born, which he chose to take out on those more English than himself (I didn't consider it worth pointing out that I have about as much Anglo-Saxon blood as a stuffed Siberian tiger, my ancestors, as far back as they have been traced, being from Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czech, Lithuania, Ukraine...).
...Then again, on occasion, having been heard to play Irish music, people have told me I have a typical Irish face. I've even been compared to a leprechaun (perhaps a reference to a somewhat ginger-ish beard). I then have to disappoint them by telling them that I'm as Irish as Woody Allen..
Sometimes people show surprise when they find out I am Protestant--there is an unconcious assumption among many in my neck of the woods that if you play this music, go to ceilidhes, etc, that you are Catholic. But then again, that is a fairly safe bet to make around here, since Catholics make up the majority in the tiny state of RI by a wide margin.
I'm often told by a close friend i'm ' the most catholic-looking person' he knows. I don't know what that entails! Stereotypes can be humorous as long as their innocent though.
Well, the first time in Eire, having ponytail, beard, glasses, and baseball cap, I was assumed to be american. On the other hand, in the Shannon Motel, somewhere in Pennsylvania or somewhere, an acneed teenage receptionis barely off the boat called my SO, ( a New Yorker I hasten to add ), a Limey, because she has British bank and credit cards, despite her accent. Heads very nearly rolled !
Sunday at mass just before Patrick's Day in Canada, and the priest said in his sermon: "Even though we tend to look down on the Irish, we have to remember they've done a lot of good throughout the world ..."
Aw that is class! Brilliant! I wish the sermons were like that in my mass. I can't stop laughing at that :D, what a way to grab someones attention on a sunday morn'. hehehe. As Tommy Tiernan said, the irish never invaded places, they infested.
St. Patrick's Day is the worst for me... People see me, a red headed irish looking girl, and immediately ask me to dance a jig for them. It doesn't help that I can.
I've been in Donegal and had strangers start to talk to me in Irish. I always think that it's just a really strong accent, and then I listen for about 15 minutes until they figure out I don't have any irish. It's weird...
I was busking with some friends in Stuttgart in 1978. I remember this well because it was the day the Pope (was his name John Paul I?) died. We were playiing across the street from the Catholic Church and suddenly, the bells began to peel. We kept playing Irish tunes, though. At some point, a fellow approached us and said he was giving a lecture on street music in Germany that night and would we like to come and demonstrate for him. Well, of course, we said we would.
We showed up at the venue and were introduced as "Irish" musicians (two of us American and one French). We played on the stage for a bit, then suggested that we demonstrate "busking". We went to the lobby of the lecture hall and began to play with an open fiddle case in front of us. The people attending the lecture did exactly what all buskers hope people will do -- dropped money into the open case. What an incredible haul that was -- paper and silver. We made enough in those few minutes to buy beer for many days.
I didn't regret being stereotyped as an "Irish" musician that night.
yes Leitrim is a scary place in those smokey mountain and village taverns the first thing I say to the bar person in my soldieresque cockney accent is Im looking for my cousin des foley luv do you know where i may find him ? cheers darlin' that usually breaks the ice and its drinks all round.
However if you have a german accent they love ya to bits and cant show you enough affection, And there was me thinking WWII was over
Hmmm, I usually fall victim to American stereotypes in Ireland. I'm a Californian fiddler, with Dutch/English/Czech/German heritage, living in Limerick.
I too have suffered Irish stereotypes in England despite being English born and bred. I am a bit of a plastic paddy, but that's just down to my love of the music. In return I have been stereotyped in Ireland as an English George.
I wish I had a dollar every time someone asked if I was Irish when I say I play "Irish bagpipes." I'd be able to afford a whole new set of them.
Then when I tell people that I am really not Irish as far as I know, I wish I had another dollar when they answered, "Oh, well why are you interested in the music?"
Yeah, Spear; I forgot the inevitable followup question.
I've mulled over saying, "Because I hate polka music." (No one likes it, but it has to be trotted out at every German-American festival thingie because it's traditional.) What I've actually taken to saying with a smile is, "Why, do I have to be?"
I AM the local stereo-type. Sam Elliot would give you a pretty good idea of how I talk. Once after a show at Log Cabin village in FT Worth. I was followed around for awhile by a couple of women (with no discenable accent ) trying to get me to "break character " and talk in my "real voice". So I finally did my best Sean Connery and told them I was Czech. They believed that.
As a Scotsman who plays in a folk band I tend to cover lots of Irish music, as well as Scottish, some English one Welsh adn a few bits of country and rock'n' roll. Lets just say it can be eclectic but fun. I had the sheer joy one year of playing Paddy's day in New York, now forgive my impression of Americans, I know many who I think are wonderful but I really didn't expect what happened in the bar we were playing in. During a break my firend and I were watching the small TV up behind the bar when this guy (I think of southern origin) asked us if we had TV back home yet...... my friend and I looked at each other (band telepathy.... you know we all do it !)
"Sorry, do we have what ?"
"TV"
"Watts a TEEEE VEEEE ?"
"em it a em well you see that box with the moving pictures on it ?"
"watt the magic lantern show ?"
I kid you not this went on for the whole 20 min break and I don't think he was that drunk. I don't often come accross the stereotype and when I do I tend to play up to it, it lets me take the mental moral high ground !
you do have to wonder at the intelligence of people sometimes, not so long ago I was trying to explain to this idiot woman that a 10 litre solution does not concentrate when you pour some of the solution into a jar. She just couldnt get it. I now call her the blonde attachment behind her back. You know, stupid, blonde, rich and married to a man twice her age. Unfortunately the stereotypical blonde attachment is this woman right down to the last earring. She makes a stoned Anna Nicole Smith look like intelligent.
This is a funny thread. I'm Canadian so I get the "Are you from the States?" question 24-7 the minute I open my mouth 'cause most ppl can't tell the two accents apart. Mistaking a Cdn for an American is not a good idea most of the time but I'm used to it now. The only times I've ever taken offense is when some smart-a** makes a crack about the two countries being the same...THAT is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
On top of that, I'm half black and look it so I'm always getting the "Do you have any Irish in you?" question (answer is no, my dad's English) and then after that the strange looks come, which may or may not be followed by "How is it you're playing this music then?" questions. Most of the time this is good natured stuff (I've never experienced any racism or anything like that) and genuine curiosity so I'm patient with it but sometimes it gets tiresome yeah.
On the other hand, I came into this music like some others from the pipe band scene where I DID encounter some bigotry from time to time...most of it subtle but on one occasion where it was overt I "took care of business" because for some people, that's the only language they understand. In my experience, the Irish music scene is lacking in that seedy stuff and that's great.
The stereotype
The stereotype
Just wondering if anyone has ever fell victim to the 'Paddy' stereotype abroad, or even at home? I always love hearing stories of the sort
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by TyroneMick
Re: The stereotype
Yes I had some middle Englnd fella come up to me and say do you play any of that bog trotter music, he drew a blank stare when I said sure give me an example then ?
I really wanted to tip a pint of black stout over his shiny bald head
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Ripthecalico
Re: The stereotype
Red haired female flute player from Ireland...............
Dont even get me started about stereotypes!
You dont have that much time, believe me!!!
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by blas
Re: The stereotype
No, but I fell victim to the English Stereotype while visiting Ireland one time.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Martin Milner
Re: The stereotype
I cracked a bunch of jokes at a gig once and a woman of Irish descent -- a real Irish wannabe -- later complimented me for me "Irish wit." Of course, unless my mama lied to me and my dad all these years, I don't have even a trace of Irish ancestry...
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: The stereotype
As an Australian of Irish descent living in Scotland I can be whatever stereotype you want, time and a half at weekends and double time for public holdiays.
I drew the line at one bloke back home who mis-heard my slightly-scottish accent and called me a "pom" though!
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Bren
Re: The stereotype
I'm from Far East. A couple of years ago, I sneaked into a Scottish session in Edinburgh. After I finished a set of reels from Shetland, Cape Breton, and Scottish mainland, an American couple approached and said to me, "your piccolo playing definitely has a distinctly oriental feel."
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by slainte
Re: The stereotype
In a republican Bar in Leitrim, back in the early 80's I was mistaken for a soldier cause I had a Scottish accent & said Zero instead of naught!
You may laugh, & I can now but, surrounded by Republican Up the IRA, Posters, & numerous grim, unknown faces staring out at me through the smog from the dark corners of this place, I felt just a teeny bit 'sh*t scared'.
Course, I was guilty myself of puttin' a stereotype number on the bar.
For all I knew, big Ian Paisley may well have been one of their best weekend customers!
Mind you, soon as I whipped me Banjo out, they didn't give a sh*t!
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: The stereotype
In a session in Dingle, the resident Guitarist insisted on calling me, and a fellow Englishman who happened to come into the pub with me, 'George'. The guitarist himself was from Liverpool and obviously had a complex about being English-born, which he chose to take out on those more English than himself (I didn't consider it worth pointing out that I have about as much Anglo-Saxon blood as a stuffed Siberian tiger, my ancestors, as far back as they have been traced, being from Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czech, Lithuania, Ukraine...).
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by ragaman
Re: The stereotype
...Then again, on occasion, having been heard to play Irish music, people have told me I have a typical Irish face. I've even been compared to a leprechaun (perhaps a reference to a somewhat ginger-ish beard). I then have to disappoint them by telling them that I'm as Irish as Woody Allen..
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by ragaman
Re: The stereotype
Sometimes people show surprise when they find out I am Protestant--there is an unconcious assumption among many in my neck of the woods that if you play this music, go to ceilidhes, etc, that you are Catholic. But then again, that is a fairly safe bet to make around here, since Catholics make up the majority in the tiny state of RI by a wide margin.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by AlBrown
Re: The stereotype
It's very safe to be a Buddhist.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by slainte
Re: The stereotype
Yeah, but a catholic buddhist or a protestant buddhist ?
Come on, Slainte, you can´t sit on the fence - you might do yourself an injury
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by murfbox
Re: The stereotype
What is the sound of one hand playing the fiddle? Now, there I go stereotyping all Buddhists as Zen Buddhists.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Bob himself
Re: The stereotype
I'm often told by a close friend i'm ' the most catholic-looking person' he knows. I don't know what that entails! Stereotypes can be humorous as long as their innocent though.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by TyroneMick
Re: The stereotype
I've often fallen victim to the Taffy stereotype.
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by dafydd
Re: The stereotype
Well, the first time in Eire, having ponytail, beard, glasses, and baseball cap, I was assumed to be american. On the other hand, in the Shannon Motel, somewhere in Pennsylvania or somewhere, an acneed teenage receptionis barely off the boat called my SO, ( a New Yorker I hasten to add ), a Limey, because she has British bank and credit cards, despite her accent. Heads very nearly rolled !
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: The stereotype
I’ve often been mistaken for an American, when, in fact, I grew up in Alabama.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by Bob himself
Re: The stereotype
As a biker, I get upset when those not in the know call me a motorcyclist.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by Wurzel
Re: The stereotype
Sunday at mass just before Patrick's Day in Canada, and the priest said in his sermon: "Even though we tend to look down on the Irish, we have to remember they've done a lot of good throughout the world ..."
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by grego
Re: The stereotype
Aw that is class! Brilliant! I wish the sermons were like that in my mass. I can't stop laughing at that :D, what a way to grab someones attention on a sunday morn'. hehehe. As Tommy Tiernan said, the irish never invaded places, they infested.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by TyroneMick
Re: The stereotype
I do know a Welshman who often gets mistaken for a Maori. I also know a Galway Irish family that all look greek- until they speak.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by Joze
Re: The stereotype
St. Patrick's Day is the worst for me... People see me, a red headed irish looking girl, and immediately ask me to dance a jig for them. It doesn't help that I can.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by m
Re: The stereotype
I've been in Donegal and had strangers start to talk to me in Irish. I always think that it's just a really strong accent, and then I listen for about 15 minutes until they figure out I don't have any irish. It's weird...
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by m
Re: The stereotype
"What is the sound of one hand playing the fiddle?"
A left-hand pizzicato exercise.
Um, sorry Bob! A bit off-topic...
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by lazyhound
Re: The stereotype
I was busking with some friends in Stuttgart in 1978. I remember this well because it was the day the Pope (was his name John Paul I?) died. We were playiing across the street from the Catholic Church and suddenly, the bells began to peel. We kept playing Irish tunes, though. At some point, a fellow approached us and said he was giving a lecture on street music in Germany that night and would we like to come and demonstrate for him. Well, of course, we said we would.
We showed up at the venue and were introduced as "Irish" musicians (two of us American and one French). We played on the stage for a bit, then suggested that we demonstrate "busking". We went to the lobby of the lecture hall and began to play with an open fiddle case in front of us. The people attending the lecture did exactly what all buskers hope people will do -- dropped money into the open case. What an incredible haul that was -- paper and silver. We made enough in those few minutes to buy beer for many days.
I didn't regret being stereotyped as an "Irish" musician that night.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by John Culhane
Re: The stereotype
yes Leitrim is a scary place in those smokey mountain and village taverns the first thing I say to the bar person in my soldieresque cockney accent is Im looking for my cousin des foley luv do you know where i may find him ? cheers darlin' that usually breaks the ice and its drinks all round.
However if you have a german accent they love ya to bits and cant show you enough affection, And there was me thinking WWII was over
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by Ripthecalico
Re: The stereotype
Hmmm, I usually fall victim to American stereotypes in Ireland. I'm a Californian fiddler, with Dutch/English/Czech/German heritage, living in Limerick.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by errik
Re: The stereotype
I too have suffered Irish stereotypes in England despite being English born and bred. I am a bit of a plastic paddy, but that's just down to my love of the music. In return I have been stereotyped in Ireland as an English George.
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by Aberandy
Re: The stereotype
Greetings:
Not exactly a stereotype, but...
I don't understand why, when being told I play Celtic fiddle, the initial next question is, "Oh, is that your family backgound?"
I'm as Celtic as Horst Koehler, but why should that limit me?
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by cathrynb
Re: The stereotype
I wish I had a dollar every time someone asked if I was Irish when I say I play "Irish bagpipes." I'd be able to afford a whole new set of them.
Then when I tell people that I am really not Irish as far as I know, I wish I had another dollar when they answered, "Oh, well why are you interested in the music?"
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by TheSilverSpear
Re: The stereotype
Greetings:
Yeah, Spear; I forgot the inevitable followup question.
I've mulled over saying, "Because I hate polka music." (No one likes it, but it has to be trotted out at every German-American festival thingie because it's traditional.) What I've actually taken to saying with a smile is, "Why, do I have to be?"
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by cathrynb
Re: The stereotype
I wish I had a $100,000 US T-Bill every time someone asked,
"Aren't you tall for a leprechaun" whenever I've asked, "Where's me lucky charms?".
# Posted on April 1st 2006 by joesmith
Re: The stereotype
Great Goddess, some people think they are SO funny.
# Posted on April 2nd 2006 by cathrynb
Re: The stereotype
I AM the local stereo-type. Sam Elliot would give you a pretty good idea of how I talk. Once after a show at Log Cabin village in FT Worth. I was followed around for awhile by a couple of women (with no discenable accent ) trying to get me to "break character " and talk in my "real voice". So I finally did my best Sean Connery and told them I was Czech. They believed that.
hmmmmn
# Posted on April 2nd 2006 by Owell Mabee
Re: The stereotype
As a Scotsman who plays in a folk band I tend to cover lots of Irish music, as well as Scottish, some English one Welsh adn a few bits of country and rock'n' roll. Lets just say it can be eclectic but fun. I had the sheer joy one year of playing Paddy's day in New York, now forgive my impression of Americans, I know many who I think are wonderful but I really didn't expect what happened in the bar we were playing in. During a break my firend and I were watching the small TV up behind the bar when this guy (I think of southern origin) asked us if we had TV back home yet...... my friend and I looked at each other (band telepathy.... you know we all do it !)
"Sorry, do we have what ?"
"TV"
"Watts a TEEEE VEEEE ?"
"em it a em well you see that box with the moving pictures on it ?"
"watt the magic lantern show ?"
I kid you not this went on for the whole 20 min break and I don't think he was that drunk. I don't often come accross the stereotype and when I do I tend to play up to it, it lets me take the mental moral high ground !
# Posted on April 3rd 2006 by bloodyfiddlers
Re: The stereotype
you do have to wonder at the intelligence of people sometimes, not so long ago I was trying to explain to this idiot woman that a 10 litre solution does not concentrate when you pour some of the solution into a jar. She just couldnt get it. I now call her the blonde attachment behind her back. You know, stupid, blonde, rich and married to a man twice her age. Unfortunately the stereotypical blonde attachment is this woman right down to the last earring. She makes a stoned Anna Nicole Smith look like intelligent.
# Posted on April 4th 2006 by Joze
Re: The stereotype
This is a funny thread. I'm Canadian so I get the "Are you from the States?" question 24-7 the minute I open my mouth 'cause most ppl can't tell the two accents apart. Mistaking a Cdn for an American is not a good idea most of the time but I'm used to it now. The only times I've ever taken offense is when some smart-a** makes a crack about the two countries being the same...THAT is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
On top of that, I'm half black and look it so I'm always getting the "Do you have any Irish in you?" question (answer is no, my dad's English) and then after that the strange looks come, which may or may not be followed by "How is it you're playing this music then?" questions. Most of the time this is good natured stuff (I've never experienced any racism or anything like that) and genuine curiosity so I'm patient with it but sometimes it gets tiresome yeah.
# Posted on April 16th 2006 by dtb
Re: The stereotype
On the other hand, I came into this music like some others from the pipe band scene where I DID encounter some bigotry from time to time...most of it subtle but on one occasion where it was overt I "took care of business" because for some people, that's the only language they understand. In my experience, the Irish music scene is lacking in that seedy stuff and that's great.
# Posted on April 16th 2006 by dtb