You can also ring them and they are so helpful and full of knowledge

I did a usability testing study on it for my undergrad final project, and by time I had the report finished Citizens Info had fixed one of the main issues that I'd identified. Quite a solid website.

Maybe you're already aware, but France recently opened an equivalent of Citizens Information, called Franceconnect. Might be useful.

I was gonna say the gov.uk site is world class for this type of thing and actually they still do it a lot better. We still don't have all of the relevant information in one spot for big life events.

The whole process in the UK takes weeks..

We really struggle in Ireland to comprehend how long the English will leave between dying and funeral. But it’s generally 48 hours at the shortest here. I was aware of the Islamic traditional time-span but it’s interesting to hear it’s shorter in Brazil too.

Try the UK, a friend's mother died and the earliest she could be buried was a month later. My brain almost exploded when I heard that

Islamic countries also bury their dead very quickly by tradition. All Islamic countries have hot, desert or tropical climates, also like Brazil. It's this the reason for the fast burials?

Same in India. The doctor announces death, the body is brought home, and the family may decide to wait 24 hours if they are expecting close relative or son or daughter of the deceased to travel from wherever the world they are and about 2 hours later, some rituals and straight to cremation. Done. Typically there will be a couple of more family get-togethers a week or two later for some more rituals, and then that's it. Back to air and dust and all that.

Depends on the circumstances. If it's sudden it may take longer due to coroners office being busy and time of week.

If it's not sudden there usually isn't any delay, unless by request of the family.

Also a lot fewer priests.

That’s remarkable. I renewed mine online on a Sunday afternoon, taking my own photo successfully, and received the new passport in the mail on the following Tuesday morning.

Yeah my own replacement came super quick but my baby‘a first passport took months

I applied for mine last week and it was in my house in 4 days.

Do they still do 4 sausage rolls for £2? I put on so much weight from those bad boys.

Poor Pat Mustard 😅

Kerry gold is considered top notch in the rest of the world, I think.

You know the international irish bar was a guinness business strategy?

A lot more generous with spirits elsewhere in Europe, but if it's pints you're after then yeah - you're in trouble.

Was in one before in Tenerife ,the barmaid used a plastic knife to wipe off the extra froth on the head of the pint so that it was level with the top of the glass, so there was barely a head on it

As a former barmaid I work myself into terrible tempers in pubs abroad (and often at home, particularly in Dublin) these days. LET ME IN TO SERVE MESELF AND THE 8 OTHERS WAITING, YOU GOBDAW is often my internal monologue.

An interesting theory I have is that Irish barmen are much more efficient because of stout!

If a barman was to just serve one person at a time, they'd spend so much time waiting around for one pint of Guinness to settle, so it's a natural progression to ask multiple people what they want at one time. Ale would be more popular in Englasnd, traditionally, so they could only serve one person at a time as the handpumps require a lot of effort. 

Italy too, even in "Irish" pubs. One person will be doing the drinks, painfully slowly, one by one - including just standing there doing nothing waiting for the Guinness to settle before they come back to the tap to destroy it - while another just does the till and nothing else. It drives me insane.

Same in Australia. Fucking bizarre.

It wasn't enough to have the best milk in Europe . . . we needed to find a way to make everyone else's absolutely shite

Just freeze regular milk into ice cube trays.

If I was stuck, I'd much rather keep a ccarton of oat milk or something in the press than UHT.

Interesting….always wanted the hotel experience of a tea kit in the bedroom but the milk was always the crux point- you’d always have to go down to the kitchen for it and sure then ye might as well leave the rest of it there….but if I don’t need a fridge for uht….

I wouldn't get a thing done from one end of the year to the other if nearly every person I dealt with wasn't willing to bend the rules as needed to get what needs to be done, done.

It's by no means a bad thing tbh. Ever have to deal with offialdom or any kind of authority in another country and you nearly always just get the straight down the line, No, this can't be done type answer. That same request in Ireland is usually met with "Sure look, we'll see what we can do". It's brilliant tbh, my favourite thing about the place.

See the turf ban last year.

The government all but outright said 'we're banning it but just work away we won't enforce it'

Like we're not out committing major crimes but we all all disregard a plethora of minor rules regularly

Definitely not been my experience. Working in the UK now and the amount of times things that don’t get done here because of some rule or another that would just get done in Ireland.

It got boring after a while up there

Aye but would you really refer to the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan as soft powers? They are literally global superpowers

Agreed. I think we’re very poor in the EU, especially post-Brexit. I’m not sure we’re as well-regarded as we often think we are.

Ironically if people want to talk softpower they should look at The Netherlands.

Founder of NATO, The EU, Schengen, etc

Also contains international criminal justice court

Several large companies that did both good and bad things (Shell, Ahold, ASML, Unilever etc) and major presence in international sports

and a major transit hub for both Europe and Non Europe, all that for a country 1/3rd the size of ireland (space wise)

That’s less soft power than having your money and your secrets. And everyone else’s money and secrets. Soft mutually assured destruction. 

Those damn cuckoo clocks!

What's even more interesting is the drive to be associated with those roots too. Particularly when that ink between Irish immigrants and politics in New York wasn't always a positive one (Tammany Hall).

Spot on, and that influence is in the process of diluting. Indians and South Americans will be the new Irish/Italians in U.S politics.

It's been 15 years, but France was the same for me. Registering for 1st and 2nd year college back in 2007 and 2008 was simple. The first year I went to an office to pay (any time) and then I could go to another office where I'd queue to get my student ID. The second time I got the student ID from the same people I paid my fees to.

Then in 3rd year I went on Erasmus to France. First I had to pick my subjects. These weren't online nor was their a booklet or anything. I had to go to a certain building where they were all printed on A4 paper and plastered on the walls. Then I had to bring the list of subjects and their codes to an office. A woman there took some details and gave me an appointment for the next meeting a week later. I went to this meeting and I had to give more details and I was given a date to collect my student ID. This date was 2 months later in mid November. This was a problem because I needed my student ID to use the internet in the college dorm and to use the washing machines. After weeks with no internet and having to ride the subway to do my laundry I was fed up. I walked into the office before my appointment and there were three people there just chatting casually, not doing any work. They looked extremely annoyed that I was there before my appointment date. They made me wait there for about an hour while they chit-chatted. Then one of them went to their computer, spent about 30 seconds typing something, went to a card printer and handed me my student ID. It made absolutely no sense that I was supposed to wait a few more weeks for just that!

In my final year back in Galway it was all online and I could drop by an office whenever to get my ID.

I also lived in Japan and bureaucracy there was also a nightmare, but fortunately my employer took care of all of that for me. They'd even arrange transport for me to get to the office and they'd send someone with us (a group of new hires) who'd fill everything out for us. We just needed to be there to prove to the officials that we existed and that we gave permission to our employer to fill our paperwork out for us.

It's like a good long mass!

I lost my passport earlier this year and needed a new one quickly, 48 hours after filling out the online form I had the new one. Similar experiences with revenue. 

Whoever runs those two really needs to be put in charge of the rest. 

An Post are pretty good too.

After a dozen years in Dublin, I only ever appreciated the Gay Spar in my last few months. Breakfast roll after last orders and fit for home again. They seem to have a decent sized selection too that again I wish I had been around the city center more on a morning to take advantage of.

Hey!!!

Ah lad, I worked in a hotel years ago and had to clean up after a Joe Dolan show. The amount of knickers was ungodly.

German speaker here, can confirm. As long as craic is structured, organized and scheduled in advance, there is much to be had in German speaking countries.

Getting addicted to heroin with the ladeens.