Lonely Ireland - do Irish people lack self-esteem more than others?

[Mr. Bumble]

Listen boy ye are no longer number one in hurling. Christy Ring must be turning in the grave. The Cats have the cream. Looks like all the way to defeat boy again this year. Will Jimmy Barry get the boot?

No. Brilliant player, brilliant manager and a genuinely nice guy. Very highly thought of, so he'll be given time.

[Prester Jim]

Cork people are confident. People in other counties without self-esteem often misinterpret confidence as arrogance.

Harris lost the plot when he left civilisation and went native in Dublin.

Your map clearly shows that Cork has been left with best of Gaelic and Norman cultures.

As the Lonely Planet says...

How could harris turn native when he still lives in Baltimore county Cork?
I always understood it that arrogance was a sign of overcompensation for a lack of confidence.
Just as calling yourself the food capital and culture capital was over compensation for not being the actual capital...
Cork is the biggest county in the country though so there is something to be proud of surely?
Also you have Eddie Hobbs.

[Mr. Bumble]

How could harris turn native when he still lives in Baltimore county Cork?
I always understood it that arrogance was a sign of overcompensation for a lack of confidence.
Just as calling yourself the food capital and culture capital was over compensation for not being the actual capital...
Cork is the biggest county in the country though so there is something to be proud of surely?
Also you have Eddie Hobbs.

Hobbs was expelled from Cork - impure bloodline.

Cork is the indeed the biggest and, of course, as the Lonely Planet says, it is also the best county.

[He3]

Interesting article and I'm sure he's right that there is some psychological hangover from colonialism. Mandela's words were powerful and very inspiring.

Nelson Mandela to his own people in his inaugural speech as President of South Africa in May 1994:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that

other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory of God that is

within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously

give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

Magic.