Hi, how are you?

For the Irish this is just an add-on to saying hello. Don’t make the mistake of answering this question by telling your whole life story or asking them the question back! I promise you, it will save you from some embarrassment to not respond to a cashier in the supermarket to this question with “I’m good and how are you?” Just say “Hi”

Cleanliness, what’s that?

Why should you leave your shoes at the door? Maybe because there is a 90-99% transfer rate of germs from shoe to floor? Well that doesn’t matter to the Irish apparently. You are not required to take your shoes off here upon entering a house and most weirdly the Irish take their shoes and jackets to their room and keep them there. Well, maybe shoe racks are just really expensive here.

Getting off the bus

As typical you are asked to press the stop button if you wish to get off at the next stop. However, handling this in a normal way just stops right after that: People do not use the centre door to exit, but would move to the front door to leave the bus.

Potatoes

They are everywhere, in the form of chips, crisps, soups etc. And apart from ketchup and mayo, Irish put vinegar on their chips! Yep, vinegar, what we usually put on salads in Austria! However, most surprisingly people even put crisps in their sandwiches!

Irish exit

Imagine your Irish friend takes you to a house party and then he just leaves without telling you. Then you are there on your own, stuck with all of his friends that you just met and don’t know. That’s what you call an Irish exit, just escape without saying goodbye. That’s very much opposed to the British exit, where you loudly announce that you’re leaving and then stay on for another hour … or years.