Comment by conorgdaly | Hacker News Reader

Comment by conorgdaly | Hacker News Reader

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> But Donegal is, essentially, 100% Hicktown. It's a rural lifestyle and you raise cows or you farm or you cut peat bogs or something.

This is possibly the most uninformed and ignorant thing I've read on here in quite some time.

> I have been doing extensive genealogical work lately, and my ancestors hail from County Donegal

Well, that definitely qualifies you as an expert.

You know there are actual Irish people on this site with far more local knowledge than yourself? It's not just other uninformed Americans who you may have become accustomed to swallowing your utter braindead nonsense.

Donegal is a rural area - correct. It also (shocker!) has international software companies there(like SITA!). Ireland is geographically small so remote isn't hours on end to reach civilization. But I don't want to disperse any more tales your ancestors may have passed down through the family.

I am sorry for insulting the inhabitants of Donegal in such a way (although I probably used insulting terms for it, I don't consider the rural life to be dishonorable in any way).

Admittedly my impressions are hasty and not based on a first-hand experience of any kind. Basically, I toured the place on Google Maps, did some tourism research, and basically did a lot of planning for a trip I won't be taking any time soon.

I did find that there are no major urban centers. Sure, Derry is right up there, but technically it's in Northern Ireland and not in Donegal. Every village I inspected (again, through the lens of Google Maps) seemed to contain a coffeehouse, a pub or two, a hotel, and a few independently-owned little shoppes.

I definitely know of a department store from which I ordered goods online, but what I did not spot in Donegal were any apartment-block highrises, downtown centres with a fast-food district and a promenade for people to stroll around, or any of the marks of upscale urban life. In learning about professions and occupations throughout Donegal, I came to know many dairy and beef farmers, lots of fishermen, there was one King of Tory Island in fact, and it seemed like a lot of subsistence workers and rather a lack of office workers in a "thriving tech industry" of some kind.

So correct me if I'm wrong, or just flame away instead, if that's your inclination, I guess. And then I can add "verbally abusive" to my impression of today's Irishman.

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