Posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:14 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
Ireland, like most members of the European Union, uses the euro. The United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland and Scotland, kept the pound as its currency instead. This is not particularly complicated, but it is apparently quite confusing to Joe Kernen, co-host of CNBC's "Squawk Box."
The show hosted Martin Shanahan, the head of IDA Ireland, an Irish government agency responsible for promoting foreign investment in the country. When Kernen's co-host Rebecca Quick asked Shanahan how the weaker euro affected tourism to Ireland, Kernen erupted in utter bafflement, as you can see in the above video.
Specifically, Kernen appears unable to grasp that Ireland and the UK are separate countries:
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
I can totally understand the confusion about England/Great Britain/Scotland/Wales/etc. It has always confused me also. I have always thought that a “country” was the largest political division in the world until recently when I began to understand that the United Kingdom is composed of many countries. From Wikipedia:
The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.[12] The latter three have devolved administrations,[13] each with varying powers,[14][15] based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.[16] The UK has fourteen Overseas Territories,[17] including the disputed Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, and Indian Ocean Territory.
Now the above description doesn’t even mention Canada and Australia, which seem to be somewhat under their queen or something, which is way too much for me to keep track of. So if a News reporter is confused, I can believe it.
It’s late for both of us I think.
Well this thread is getting to be a comedy of errors. My #20 was meant to you not to myself.
Sometimes I should just keep quiet.
“If a commentator is so ignorant that he doesn’t know that the Republic of Ireland gained independence from the UK almost a century ago I would suggest he give up his job.”
I think most American commentators would have to give up their job using this standard.
I don’t think it’s a scandal or very embarrassing for an American to not know this.
Yes, and The United Kingdom is not the same thing as Great Britain. One includes Northern Ireland and the other does not.
I understand the UK’s basic make up might be slightly confusing, although not really that complicated any more than the United States is made up of 50 different states but is one nation, but this guy is a well-paid financial expert, who had just returned from the UK and had visited Scotland and was unable to understand where he was.
Plus the point is this is not really about the UK at all, it’s about Ireland, the guy’s name is Irish, has he never read any Irish history at all? Did grandma not tell him any stories about the fight for independence in the oul’ country?
We’re not talking about the difference between Upper Basutuland and Lower Basutuland, this is Britain and Ireland we’re talking about, two nations that we might expect any basically educated American to know a bit about.
I think that you are as confused as I am.
“I think most American commentators would have to give up their job using this standard.
I don’t think it’s a scandal or very embarrassing for an American to not know this.”
Really? You think a man who puts himself forward as a knowledgeable expert on politics and finance shouldn’t be embarrassed that he appears not to have a clue about the basic history and geography of two nations that form an integral part of the founding of the United States and whose peoples are intertwined over centuries and whose culture and history are part and parcel of American culture and history.
As I say above, we’re not talking Upper/Lower Basutuland here, it’s Britain and Ireland we’re talking about, if he knows nothing about those two places then what the heck does he know about?
Well to make things even more complicated, Highland Scotland was settled by an Irish tribe called the Scots. There were already a Celtic people in Scotland. The Picts remained mostly in the lowlands.
Then a bunch of lowland Scots were settled in Northern Ireland. So much of Scotland was settled by Irish and Northern Ireland was settled by Scots who became known as Scotch Irish.
I forgot to add that the Isle of Mann was settled by Manx Cats.
B’fhéidir theip air tíreolaíocht agus stair i scoil.
Oh man, now you’re stirring the pot. Don’t forget that most of the people in the US who call themselves Irish-American are in fact descended from the Scotch-Irish, ie the protestant settlers to Ulster from Scotland whose descendants today vehemently reject the notion they are Irish, whooosh, it gets ever-more compliacted.
The UK is a country-—it includes England,Scotland,Wales,and Northern Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland stands alone,but is part of The British Isles.
.
On one of my business trips to NI, a fellow employee was being quizzed at customs @ Gatwick. He was asked how long he was going to be in the UK and he replied... “About another hour, then I’ll be landing in Derry”.
She replied...”Since when is Londonderry not a part of the UK?”
LMAO!
His last name Henderson!
I have done a little bit of research on my genealogy. Among the geographical places that my ancestors came from include England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland (I believe- my grandmother said that she was Scots-Irish-I understand that to mean Northern Ireland). There is a large amount of erroneous information in the US Census data regarding Irish versus Scots-Irish Immigrants- they are mostly all called “Irish”.
Ireland is in Africa and the UK is in Central America. What’s so confusing? /s
what problem? its the place with the harps.
They play the flute in Northern Ireland.
Ireland is Green and Northern Ireland is Orange. They had a big fight and the Orange whipped the Green. That is about all I remember.
Oh, I forgot. The Orange are protestant and the Green are Catholic.
The entirety of Ireland used to be ruled and quite brutally so by Britain but after hundreds of years of British rule and periodic revolts the predominantly Roman Catholic and rural southern counties in the 1920's gained provisional and then total independence as the Republic of Ireland.
Even before they adopted the Euro they had their own currency, the "Punt". Now they use the Euro and are a member country of the PIIGS group, embarrassingly the only one without the excuse of being in a warm Mediterranean climate where people might have some excuse for being lazy and inefficient. And it is a very sharp reversal from twenty years ago when the Republic was prosperous, had low unemployment, the best educated work force in Europe, and enjoyed the nickname "The Celtic Tiger". Shows what socialist government and having access to the EU milk bar teat can do to a decent country.
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