Stephen McBride ([email protected])
Sat, 16 Jan 1999 13:31:09 -0000
Oh, thank heavens!! I thought I was the only one who felt this!! the
best fun is to give them wrong directions. I remember many years
ago working in the NI Tourist Board as a student, having to deal
with copious American tourists to Belfast. ye gods, was that not
fun!
I noticed that Canadians always wore Maple leaves too, and asked
one old gent why this was. "My God, sonny," came his reply, "do
you think I want people thinkinhg I'm American?"
Then there was the ghastly woman from Boston, to whom I gave
one of our free maps of Belfast. Whilst perusing it, she noticed
that one of the districts was called Knock. "Oh, sonny," she
enquires, "is this where the shrine to Mary is?"
Now an of you who know Belfast will know that you simply do NOT
go up the Knock Road asking about the virgin Mary. Not if you
want to stay in one piece anyway! So, trying to be helpful, I tried
to expalin that,no, this was not where the shrine was, that it was in
fact in the Irish republic, and that in the interests of her own safety,
she shouldn't mention such things to loudly if she went to this area.
Now, chances are that if you're a tourist to Northern Ireland, and
you say something unintentionally that berays an ignorance of the
situation, you'll get a fools pardon, and people will laugh it off. but
there arealways some psychos, so i thought i was being kind.
But no! No, I ended up getting a tirade about we needed to rise
above our problems and that she was going to make a point of
going to this area and asking for the shrine. At which point I said,
"oh the shrine for Mary? Yes, it's right there!! Catch the number
44 bus, and you can't miss it!"
Wonder if she found it?
These are days I do not miss!
I could think of some U2 content, but since I've probaly offended
loads of people now, I may as well go the whole hog!
Stephen
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sat Jan 16 1999 - 05:33:42 PST