About 4,000 years ago I visited New York City on a J1 visa. Early on, I made an attempt to secure a job in a field I knew something about. It transpired I had to first talk to the union that represented the relevant workforce. It would not be overstating it to say the lady I encountered could hardly have been more helpful if I had revealed myself as a long-lost grandson. “You came all this way without a job?” she breathed. “Let’s see what we can do.”
After half an hour of general advice, pointers to alternative employment and the passing on of endless useful phone numbers, she sat back and gave me a warm look. “Now, don’t let anyone tell you New Yorkers are rude,” she said. The thought had not yet crossed my mind. To that point, I had found those good burghers occasionally brusque, but no less polite than the inhabitants of any other huge city. Few people there had time to drone on like the rural yokel. But who wants that?
Anyway, this experience came back to me when watching Jimmy Kimmel discuss his recent trip to Ireland. Yes, I’m afraid he did get a mention of leprechauns in early, but, for the most part, he was here to praise our decency, friendliness and political maturity. “We were there during their presidential election and no one seemed terrified,” the chatshow host, who had visited his ancestral home in Mayo, said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He then put up a photo of Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys shaking hands. “Two women, yes, that’s a big one,” said Kimmel. “But also they’re sharing a warm embrace.” He noted that Humphreys wished the victor well. He congratulated the wider nation on its sangfroid. “No caps, no whining about the election being rigged. Makes you wonder, what’s wrong with these people?” he said.
Wow, wow, wow! Let us back up here a bit, Jim. No whining about the election being rigged? The chorus of online bellyaching that followed Maria Steen’s failure to get on the ballot was surely cacophonous enough to be heard all the way across the Atlantic. For fear of irritating still-open wounds, we will say no more about a further squadron of circling controversies.
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Kimmel went on to note that, during his holiday, he had “not one bad experience with anyone” and told us about a stranger returning the purse his niece had left in a pub. “She seemed confused about the idea that my niece would even offer her money for it,” he said.
Do not get me wrong. I am not ungrateful that Kimmel, who has always seemed a decent fellow, left feeling so positive about the nation and its citizens. Nobody enjoys those moronic TikTok videos in which Americans, visiting a place called “Europe”, complain about the smallness of the bathrooms, the paucity of ice in drinks, light switches operating upside down and (a veritable obsession, this) the supposed lack of free water. If he had delivered that monologue then he really would be reaping a Celtic whirlwind this weekend.
The point is, rather, that Kimmel is, by implication, being a little too unkind about his own nation. Given his recent run-in with the broadcasting authorities, one can understand how he got there. Following controversial remarks concerning the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a week and sent the commentariat into spittle-flecked overdrive. For all that misreading of our often-bitter presidential race, Kimmel is surely right that the US is currently in a scarier place. But you don’t need to look too far back in Irish history to find literally murderous political antagonisms.
Nor are Irish people any more polite or generous than American folks. Indeed, you will struggle to find more welcoming hosts than those in the United States. Not only will your server call you “sir” (or ma’am), but other customers are likely to call their own server “sir” (or ma’am). Such polite formality is common in rural states. It is present more often in New York City than its own proudly bluff citizens like to pretend. Don’t read too much into the behaviour of Long Island golf fans at the recent Ryder Cup.
The unavoidable avalanche of unpleasantness on social media – and in wider online discourse – has blinded too many to the basic decency of their own citizens. It is too easy, living in the United States, to believe your fellow Americans are forever yelling abuse into their neighbours’ gardens. Many Irish voters were digitally apoplectic about supposed outrages during the recent election. But, in both nations, most people go about their business in a spirit of civilised fraternity. We are no better than anyone else. We are no worse, either.
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