50 Of The Best Posts From This Online Group That Perfectly Sum Up Ireland And The Irish Sense Of Humor (New Pics)

One of the moderators in charge of running the r/ireland subreddit was kind enough to tell us about the online community’s roots, what the members are like, and how to tell whether a post is ‘Irish enough’ (and, therefore, fit for the sub) or not. The entire mod team is Irish or from Northern Ireland, however, that’s not a requirement to join them.

“The subreddit has been around a long time, 14 years. Back in those days, there was a huge proliferation of subreddits for different places and r/ireland was one. It's meant to be a haven for Irish redditors to talk to other Irish redditors about things that are interesting to Irish folks,” the team representative explained to Bored Panda.

“The rest of Reddit is heavily dominated by Americans talking about American stuff in an American way. Our culture is a little more casual and it's nice to have our own space,” they noted.

According to the moderator, each country-specific subreddit is going to be “a reflection of that country.” The r/ireland sub is no exception.

“We're a fun bunch and like to joke around (especially referencing the ‘90s sitcom Father Ted— that's where our icon comes from), but we also love to argue. Ireland has changed a lot over the last 30 years and the mods see some pretty heated conflicts between our users that would be typical of that.”

They gave Bored Panda some examples of what some of the arguments were about. “A few years ago, r/ireland users were heavily involved in the abortion and gay marriage referendum campaigns. Our users mostly skew liberal and the sub showed that, but when those users ‘have a row’ with some of our right-wing users, it can get pretty messy.”

They continued: “In the past year, we've covered some pretty controversial topics like transsexuals in sports, crime in and discrimination against the traveler community (an ethnic group specific to Ireland and the UK), the housing crisis, and the current politically hot topic is how the country should be accommodating asylum seekers.”

Meanwhile, we were curious about how redditors can tell that their posts are ‘Irish enough’ for r/ireland, so they don’t end up getting removed.

“A post is Irish enough if a) it's about Ireland, b) it's about an Irish person, c) it will have a large effect on Ireland, or d) it's a joke we know our users like.”

The moderator also shared where the line between a regular and a ‘substandard’ post is. “A post is substandard if it looks like it took very little effort to make and is not clever, or a joke that has been overused. A lot of substandard posts are from users that are making an effort,but don't frequent the subreddit enough to know what's been said 20 times in the last week... which is probably a good sign for them!”

The only requirements for joining the r/ireland team is to be active when it comes to modding the community, as well as being familiar with the subreddit’s culture. That way, they’ll understand the in-jokes and won’t overreact to normal banter.

“The team rotates pretty frequently because it's hard work and I know in the past we've had mods that weren't Irish, but had lived in Ireland at some point in their lives.”