Americans that travelled to Ireland, what surprised you most, or was the country as expected?

It's the only place I've ever been that looked exactly how I expected, almost comically so. A lot of small things surprised me, things I remember in spurts if reminded but I'd struggle to make a list of right now. I guess how much makeup women wore (not a bad thing), how little people smoke weed, how much people seemed to have connections throughout the whole country are the things that come to mind right now.

Generally speaking Ireland was more progressive than I expected in some ways, but also more backwards. The mental health services, both in accessibility and content were abysmal, like in a way that confirmed every negative stereotype I'd been told about Ireland from family and acquaintances.

I expected religiosity to be pretty low, and it was, but there's a lot of norms and attitudes that were set by the Church that few people seem interested in challenging. That being said, the progress Ireland has made on LGBT issues and abortion is pretty cool and commendable. Both issues felt way less loaded than I expected.

I think I was also a bit surprised how normal the relationship to the UK and the English are. Most people seemed to view the English not as the 800 year long oppressor, but as the familiar counterpart in which there's a lot of cross-travel. I guess actively complaining about the English is a Reddit neckbeard thing.

/r/AskAnAmerican Thread