guidetoireland

[guidetoireland]

Do we tip in Ireland?

Tourists mightn't be sure about Ireland's views on tipping. I'll explain what I've noticed from other Irish people.

Unlike the USA, Ireland doesn't have a strict tipping culture where a customer is expected to tip the waiter every time, so that the waiter can earn a fair wage.

For some background, here in Ireland, we have a legal minimum wage rate that is enforced across the whole country. By law, employers cannot pay their employees less than €10.50 an hour (as of writing this, September 2022). While this isn't exactly a massive wage, it still means that people can't be paid less than this. (Exceptions include those aged below 20).

So, in Ireland, you aren't expected to tip.

People do tip sometimes, though, usually because they had a big meal out with a big enough group of people, or if they thought that the food or service was really top quality.

Tipping is neither expected, nor frowned upon. Our tipping etiquette is mostly just viewed as "Leave a tip because you really liked the food or the service, or simply because you want to. There is zero obligation to tip. You shouldn't tip if you disliked the experience and you shouldn't feel that you need to tip in order to ensure that the waiter earns a fair wage". That's how i'd describe it.

Also, the amount you tip, if you decide to tip, does not need to be "calculated" in the way they do in the USA. You don't need to make sure to give a 25% tip, or make sure that you give a certain amount or whatever. Generally, if you pay in cash, you can just leave your change as a tip (Provided it's a decent amount, like a couple of euros, not just a single 10 cent coin, because that's more of an insult than a tip). A reasonable tip is anything from say €2 to €5. Anything more and you're being extremely generous. Like if you're leaving a €10 tip, i'm imagining the waiter must've been the greatest person on the entire planet for you to give them that much. ALSO DO NOT TIP IN A FOREIGN CURRENCY. GIVE EUROS AS A TIP. YOUR AMERICAN DOLLARS ARE USELESS IN IRELAND, AND THE WAITER ISNT GOING TO BOTHER TAKING THOSE DOLLARS TO A FOREIGN EXCHANGE LMAO. If you have no Euro cash to tip in, just don't tip.

A tip is generally just a couple of euros to show your appreciation to the waiter for an exceptionaly quality service, rather than you trying to make sure they earn a fair wage.

This doesn't apply to other European countries, necessarily, because other places may be more opposed to tipping.

[guidetoireland]

Saying "Grand" in Ireland

The word "grand" has a very different meaning in Ireland.

Generally, outside of Ireland, describing something as "Grand" would imply that it is maybe a bit fancy, quite impressive, spacious... like you might describe a castle's ballroom as "A grand ballroom", or maybe a big fancy staircase as "the grand staircase".

In Ireland, though, "grand" takes on another meaning.

"grand" is used in a similar way to "fine". (AS IN: Fine like "oh yeah that's fine, dont worry", not "ah yes this fine silk from arabia is very delicate".)

So if you've made a mistake and you're apologising, a person might say "listen, it's grand, don't worry"

Or if you ask someone how their food is, and it's yknow kinda ok, not bad, but not the most amazing food ever, they might say "yeah it's grand"

Or you make plans with someone and say "i'll see you there on friday" the other person might reply "grand, see you then".

Basically, you can kinda just assume that grand=fine, for the most part.

We do also use "grand" in the first meaning i mentioned, but you can usually tell the difference based on context. Like, your friend describing their visit to Versailles and saying it was "grand" probably isn't describing a centuries old palace as "fine". Also, when using this meaning of "grand", like to mean big and fancy, people will often stretch out the "ah" sound like graaand.

Also, when speaking about money, we, similar to the English, use the noun "grand" to refer to €1000. Kinda like saying "5K" to mean 5000, we would say "5 grand" to mean €5000. Unlike "5K" though, the "grand" thing is ONLY used when speaking about money, so you can't use it to describe a thousand of any random object. "a grand" means €1000. This is based on if you're in Ireland though. If you say "a grand" in the UK, it will be assumed that you are saying £1000.

TO SUMMARISE

"ah, it's grand" = "it's fine, don't worry"

"yeah the foods grand"= "the food is alright, fine, it's not the best i've ever eaten, but it's not bad. I could eat it again but it's not my favourite"

"the grand ballroom" = "the grand ballroom, the fancy big ballroom"

"it cost me a grand" = "it cost me €1000"

[guidetoireland]

Romanticising Ireland

People romanticise Irish culture as this ye olde mystical thing, with “fae” wandering about and everyone doing a wee jig and speaking in seanfhocail...

but whenever i see this stuff, i feel so disconnected from it all. The Ireland that people talk about from abroad, looks nothing like the Ireland I’ve grown up in.. the Ireland I’d dare to call home. 

Ireland, perhaps to your disappointment, is not what the stereotypes have led you to believe. Our culture isn’t so on the nose with all those leprechauns and shamrocks n stuff. We don’t Irish dance our way down the street, and we certainly don’t ever say “top of the mornin to ye”.  

Yeah there’s a lot of beautiful green countryside, and lots of wonderful scenery, but i think the “Ireland” that most of us tend to grow up with, is suburban Ireland. 

There’s a certain beauty, I’ve come to find, in the suburbs of Ireland. 

Growing up in a big-ish suburban town outside of County Dublin, my childhood was not this romanticised view of growing up in Ireland, no, it was the little things like shopping in Aldi, Lidl and Tesco, and very occasionally Supervalu or Dunnes Stores, and completely rarely Marks and Spencers (for Percy Pigs of course).  

It was driving to primary school, listening to our shitty local radio station on the way. It was occasionally getting a chipper or a kebab on a cold autumn night (BRUH the feeling of walking out of a takeaway on a windy, dark evening is honestly just fucking fantastic). 

anyway yeah i just wish that when people would overly-romanticise life in Ireland, they’d at least make it more accurate to real life in Ireland, and maybe pepper in some of the slightly-depressing beauty of living in Irish suburbs, because honestly, all that country mystical “fae” shite is all well and good but if you just look at our population statistics you’d realise that most of us are living in towns, suburbs and cities, and almost half our population is in the Greater Dublin Area lmao. Please just romanticise getting a chipper on a cold evening, please, it’s so much more accurate than half the stereotypical bollocks yous yanks love to natter on about.

[guidetoireland]

Yous say “Ireland” weird

In Ireland, most of us pronounce the name of our country as “Arr-lind”, of course there are many different accents throughout the country who say it a bit different.

When people of the USA say it like “Eye-er-lind” it sounds horrendous and we often take the piss outta yous for saying it like that. Yous are pronouncing it by the way it looks, but the “I” isn’t pronounced as much as yous seem to think. Again, different accents in Ireland have different ways of saying it, and some people pronounce the “i” a bit, but i don’t at all. 

Brits often say it a bit funny too. Yorkshire people coming out and pronouncing it like the word “Island” always throw me off.  

If you want to pronounce it in a more authentic way, just say 

“ARR-LIND”

Or say Éire if you wanna help revive our language lmao.

((I do appreciate the beauty of language. the fact that different places have different ways of saying things is wonderful, but i think when using the name of a country, you should pronounce it as closely as possible to the people who live there))