7 Responses to “Irish Fools and Horses”

  1. WHS says:

    “Sullivan was spot on here to add in this South London humour but also to show Brendan as a character who did not laugh at the comment – this is generally because the Famine is still perceived as a time of great sadness in Ireland and not deserving of Brendan’s laughter”

    Surely this set-up isn’t meant to be some sort of profound comment – but instead just meant to be a cheap gag where the stereotypical ‘thick Mick’ O’Shaughnessy doesn’t realise that carrots don’t get potato blight and genuinely believing there was a problem with Irish carrots?

  2. mick o'neill says:

    I must argue the point about WW1 and 2 regarding the Ulster Protestants, both Catholic and Protestants fought in the wars and the only N.Ireland native to receive the victoria cross in WW2 was a Catholic from Belfast. Many just joined the army due to the lack of work, in my own family history there were families who had 1 brother in the British Army and the other brother in the IRA.

    You are right about the Irish-Catholic thing regarding the mother, it mentions this in the Story of Only Fools book however the Irish Catholic church is actually a part of the UK too, 1/2 of Northern Irelands population are Irish Catholics and the capital of the Irish Cathplic church is in Armagh City up here.

  3. Griff says:

    The Irish trying to claim glory in a British sitcom?

    Calm down, Paddies!

    • mick o'neill says:

      The writer was a half paddy sir, the Irish have a long history of being great writers and poets, the Yorkshire Bronte sisters father was a paddy and they stated that they got alot of influence from Gaelic mythology.

  4. Rich says:

    Plus in “A losing streak” there’s the “McAlpines Navvy on a diet” whom Del lost 20 quid on.

  5. James says:

    There’s also a reference in ” The Russian’s are coming” Del points to the chemical toilet inside their air raid shelter and says “that will have to go back to the building site first thing Monday morning or those Paddies will go mad,”

    OFAH has always been popular in Ireland, the humour is very Irish.

    • JJFolepot says:

      That’s right James. I will confess that I must have overlooked that reference. But yeah, I am glad to see that folk like yourself agree with what I am suggesting by this article.

      The BBC have produced many great comedies throughout since the 1970s and I remember reading about how Stephen Fry believed that ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ was typically British humour. Whilst I can concur with him there, I do believe that OFAH is, although British, a very Irish-humour based show and for that reason, I think its easy to see why the Irish took so well to this BBC show much more than any others.

      No offence to them, but I dont think that Irish people during the economic downturn of the 1980s could relate themselves to shows like ‘To The Manor Born’ and the like. OFAH on the other hand allowed us as Irish people to connect with quick-witted characters who could happily sit in pubs, slag one another off and not apologise for who and what they were; charmingly devilish characters.

      Thanks for taking the time to read James.

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