he commentary was typical yank style, imagine a lot of them still think Ireland is the same today.

Last year I took pity on lost Yank who had stopped in the village shop for directions. He was looking for a local landmark but couldn't seem to read a map. After talking to him, I figured out he'd confused two landmarks, and one was a minute walk up the road.

I said come'ere and I'd walk with him to it (I was going that way regardless). He wanted to use the giant black 4x4 he had with him, I said come on and enjoy the country air and the fact it was a rare sunny day. We walked the 75 meters and he was literally out of breathe when we got there.

I then gave him the brief history of the area and answered whatever questions he had. He was shocked discovered we had Sky (cable) and Broadband in the area (we actually have fibre now, God I wish I could have said that at the time). He asked about our houses and I said most were new, but mentioned my grandmother's was older one, built in the 50s.

"The 1850s?" he asked excitedly

"...The 1950s" I replied

The economy and immigration also came up, and he seemed to think the country had never recovered economically from the famine. I had to explain that other than a recession caused by the Global recession started in his country, Ireland's economy had grown consistently for the 30 or more years (he had no idea what the Celtic Tiger was)

The man was a teacher from Chicago.