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The chances of running into someone that you know or someone that you have mutual friends or acquaintances with on another side of the world were probably once much scarcer than they are now. In fact, running into someone at a famous landmark in a faraway country is quite possible. Or finding mutual connections while being away from your base with strangers that you haven’t met before is also more than likely to happen. Six degrees of separation is real, and so are the stories that Twitter users shared in response to Michael Redmond’s post about being asked by a random taxi driver if he knows Sean Corcoran, after hearing his Dublin accent. And well, he knew him.
Michael Redmond, who goes by @redmondmichael1 on Twitter, is known for his role in the now probably classic Irish TV series Father Ted, where he portrayed Father Stone. His post has received over 367k likes and more than 1.8k comments at the time of writing. We have handpicked the most serendipitous stories that prove how small the world actually is, so vote for your favorite ones.
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#1
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Why? There's not that many people in 'rural Wales', and far fewer Australians. The jump that to local Australians know of each other isn't that great --- it's at the same house even (grocery delivery!).
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Chrissie Mörbe 4 years ago
I guess Tamina lives in rural Wales as well, because why would the delivery driver know her. So not that remarkable then.
Sydney Hale 4 years ago
Story Time: My dad's mom went to school and was very good friends with Elvis Presley's best friend.
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#2
Otter 4 years ago
I was in a work group, and one co-worker was Ethiopian. "Oh," says another co-worker, "I knew some Ethiopians when I was in college in Spain". So the Ethiopian rolled her eyes but politely asked what college this was, when this was and what their names were... and stopped rolling her eyes and said "But those are my cousins!".
#4
#5
#6
#7
Laura Mende (Human) 4 years ago
During the war my grandmother was sent from Leipzig to her uncle in Thuringia. 75 years later, she went back to the village from then and talked to an old woman at the bus stop. When grandma told about her uncle without saying who she was, the old woman remembered "They had taken in such a little girl back then, the granddaughter or niece" It turned out that the two old women, my grandma and the other, had played together as children and when the conversation went on it came out that they are even grand cousins. This is the last relative that Grandma knew as a child.
#8
Auntriarch 4 years ago
Hope there's a tubby little Belgian with a prissy moustache there
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Fidgets McGee 4 years ago (edited)
Maybe the ex's have more in common than they thought..."if you like pin-a co-ladas, long walks in the rain"
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
TIL that it's "long walks in the rain". I always thought it was "getting caught in the rain" 😁
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Thorfin Wolfsbane 4 years ago
small boat on the Nile sounds dangerous. Someone people might dissappear unfortunately.
#9
#10
LadyGrimm 4 years ago
I took a tour of Chichen Itza, small random group of perhaps ten folks. Mostly other people from the States, couple of Europeans. At one point we went around the circle and said where we were all from. One lady said my state, so I asked her what area. My area. What town? My town. She lives behind my library and I see her at the grocery store sometimes!
Bored Birgit 4 years ago (edited)
Haha, once we met our neighbour from two doors down on the coast of the Netherlands 250km away from home - neither he nor we had been there for years or knew that the other one knows the small spot on the coast.
Ines Olabarria-Smith 4 years ago
Two friends from Bergamo got one of those places e tickets that allow you to fly as much as you want during a year. They started their trip goi g different directions. They met on a bridge in China.
#11
#12
Mosarat Ahmed 4 years ago
Congratulations, would you like a cake or something?
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#14
Tim Douglass 4 years ago
Irish, Bostonian, and Australian would produce a really interesting linguistic mashup!
Vanta Black 4 years ago
Something tells me this is Boston, England, not Boston, Massachusetts. Although two guys from Birmingham, Alabama, going their separate ways and reconnecting by proxy via a kid from Ireland who moved to the US, and then onto Australia, would probably make the world even smaller.
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Denise B. 4 years ago
Years ago in a very out of the way B&B in Scotland, my husband, a high school teacher, was sitting at breakfast with the host family (I was back in the room). He tells me later that the teenage daughter had a pen-pal in America. Oh? Where? At the very same California high school he had taught in! For context: There are approximately 26,700 high schools in the US!
SoozeeQ 4 years ago
The look on the American penpal's face, if he'd hand-delivered a letter from Scotland!
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#16
#17
Anna Repp 4 years ago
Stories like this make me sad. I have prosopagnosia and have a hard time even recognizing my family and close friends. I will never recognize someone I've met once, even if they changed into shorts from jeans in front of me :)
Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
I would totally do this. I really don't forget faces and details. BUT! Tell me your name and it is gone in a millisecond. LOL!
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Cheri Aline Sydney 4 years ago
My memory isn't of faces or names, but if I have ever heard your voice, I will never forget you. I am old now, and my short term memory, in general, is getting worrisome but, so far, voices & sounds, short and long-term, don't fail me... although, there are some people I wouldn't mind forgetting... : )
#18
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
Ruud Gullit... Was one of the best footballers! I remember he did a song called "Not The Dancing Kind" as well!
NoWayNoWay 4 years ago
Been proven that accent is closer to the true English than anywhere else.
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#20
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
Grandad was gone 30 years, claimed the cabbie recognized him when he got back. But Grandad was a notorious liar.
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Delta the hybrid 4 years ago
He remembered him!? Also 'The flies flew away with my fish and chips' XD
#21
#22
Pantea 4 years ago
I worked at a restaurant in a small village somewhere in Germany, as a waiteress. The owner was Iranian, like myself. His uncle came to visit from Sweden and immediately we knew we had seen eachother before. Turned out he was the former owner of the stationery store I used to buy my school supplies from, in Tehran.
SykesDaMan 4 years ago
I think it's the way it was told: A slow, big, long build-up with a small "reward".
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#23
Valerie G. 4 years ago
Sneery little git - sounds like something a character would say on Coronation Street.
#24
Seán Baron 4 years ago
Would that have been the Christmas episode with Katherine Jenkins I wonder?
Vanta Black 4 years ago
Could be, but then again most of Doctor Who is filmed in and around Cardiff, so it could be someone else, as well.
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#26
SoozeeQ 4 years ago
Actually, it's a Celtic nation. It's part of the UK, but is definitely not English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man
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#27
fogharty 4 years ago
I got a job photographing at a convent and school (photo of students doing lessons and such) and was chatting with the equivalent of the Mother Superior of the order. She asked me about my last name, where my dad was from etc. Then she asked if I knew Bill [Lastname] and I told her he was my uncle, to which she replied that she had dated him in high school. Of course i had to say well, at least my Uncle Bill could take comfort in that he lost her to a better Man.
Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
Wow! It sure is. Labrador is kind of way up on it's own. It shouldn't be. Kind of like "Nfld, and oh ya! Labrador" I wish Canadians were taught about it.
#30
Bob Stuart 4 years ago
In the West Indes, someone said "Oh, you are from Canada! Do you know" and we all immediately thought "What kind of island does he think Canada is?" Then, he said the name, and dad replied "Yes."
Eithne Griffiths 4 years ago
Canada again. Do you know Bob, he works in an office? Oh yes office Bob,he's dead' lol
#32
#33
Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
That is amazing. Those rezes are truly remote, and to meet out there seems so impossible. But strange things do happen.
#34
James016 4 years ago (edited)
He was a member of Take That who were the biggest boy band in the UK. Robbie Williams was a member as well if that helps.
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RoseTheMad 4 years ago
When I was in Japan, I ended up on the same boat cruise on Lake Biwa as my former teacher/mentor (mentor as in, she was a bit like a counselor to me), yes she recognized me. She remembered me because we would always both talk about how much we'd both love to visit Japan. xD
Ranch Dressing 4 years ago
I think this kind of thing must happen a lot in Ireland. I lived in Germany, went to Dublin. Talked to the tour guide for a bit... "My nephew works in Germany, do you know him?" The tour guide asks. "What's his name?" I reply "Connor ***** " Jesus Mary and Joseph I worked with Connor....
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Rose the Cook 4 years ago
Checking into a hotel in Belgrade years ago the desk clerk was acting very familiar. I thought he was just a sleazy type until he said, "You don't recognize me do you? I'm Peter from next door to your parent's old house." I hadn't seen him for ten years but he remembered me.
Janna 4 years ago
Moved to the UK 12 years ago from the Netherlands.Took my 3 year old to a random playground in the next village from ours, to have change of scene. Heard a dad speak Dutch to his kid and struck up a conversation. Turns out we both read the same subject at the same university in the Netherlands, one year apart. We were members of the same student society. His gf at the time lived in the same student flat as I did and he used to hang out is the same local bar. We did not recognise each other at all, but must have crossed paths at some point. Also, he lived in another village and had stopped because his kid spotted the playground and wanted to explore.
Fidgets McGee 4 years ago
That's wack dude...the coincidence of the random park choice is pretty trippy...
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Robert T 4 years ago
Many years ago, we were on holiday on Cyprus, visiting Nicosia. My dad didn't want to have to try and find somewhere to park our hire car in the centre, so he parked in a residential street just off the main road. I dutifully copied down the street name in Greek, so we could find it again, and we walked into the city. It was a longer walk than we thought, so we decided to get a taxi back. We went to the taxi rank and showed the street name to one of the drivers. A bit of a kerfufflle went on in Greek and he asked "why do you want to go there?". My dad explained that he had parked our car there under the shade of a tree. Another driver then says "You park under my trea?". We thought it was a joke. Anyway, the first driver agreed to take us and when we arrived at the car, he told us that we were parked outside the other driver's house! It was indeed his tree!
ADHORTATOR 4 years ago
We met two of our kids teachers in front of a church in Harlem NY.... We are from France
Sue Hazlewood 4 years ago
Was on a tour in Europe and the group was all sitting down for a meal in Amsterdam when I heard my name. It was a guy I worked with many years ago, on the same tour.
marianne eliza 4 years ago (edited)
Department Christmas season lunch at restaurant. Female 2nd level manager, a very cool woman and excellent people person, brings along a girlfriend. We're all seated at long rectangular tables and I happen to be across and over 1 from manager and friend. Over hear conversation about friend's relationship. She's talking about what he does, owns restaurant X in town Y. Now my ears are up because my very married uncle is one of the owners. I interupt them and ask if she is talking about John Doe. She says yes. I reply that he is my uncle who is very married to my aunt and has 7 kids. (most of them grown and out of the house at this point). That put paid to any more conversation for 2 people on either side of all of us. No questions and no follow up occurred to any of the parties.
Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
I was in grade 5 during Canada's centennial year, 1967. I had the most wonderful teacher and to celebrate Canada's birthday he and his wife were going to bicycle across the country, starting in Vancouver B.C. The night before they left they were staying at a campground there and didn't have much with them because they had to carry everything on the bikes or their backs. A family was camping right next to them and the family ask he and his wife to join them for dinner. Introductions were made and the father said "Im (his name)". Very uncommon last name. My teacher said, "That's interesting. I have a girl in my class by that last name" The dad asked him what the first name is. My teacher told him my first name. He said, "That's my niece."
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
Your uncle's family was kind to invite them for dinner.
Load More Replies... Maroon 4 years ago
Was in Italy 2 years ago visiting relatives and I accompanied my father to a dinner where he met up with old school friends and their families. I talked to one of the wives of my father's friends about my dissertation in archaeology and about one specific author who is one of the main contributors regarding my topic... It turned out that it was her!!! I was so mindblown
Frances M 4 years ago
On my honeymoon I went to an Irish bar in San Diego and the singer started playing “living next door to Alice”. Well, as any Irish person will tell you, there’s a particular way you sing the chorus. The singer stopped and said “there’s some real Irish in tonight!”. Later we got talking to him when we went up to ask for a particular song and it turns out he was Irish himself and used to live on the road directly behind my MIL. so close you could have just yelled a conversation between them.
Rose the Cook 4 years ago
Checking into a hotel in Belgrade years ago the desk clerk was acting very familiar. I thought he was just a sleazy type until he said, "You don't recognize me do you? I'm Peter from next door to your parent's old house." I hadn't seen him for ten years but he remembered me.
Janna 4 years ago
Moved to the UK 12 years ago from the Netherlands.Took my 3 year old to a random playground in the next village from ours, to have change of scene. Heard a dad speak Dutch to his kid and struck up a conversation. Turns out we both read the same subject at the same university in the Netherlands, one year apart. We were members of the same student society. His gf at the time lived in the same student flat as I did and he used to hang out is the same local bar. We did not recognise each other at all, but must have crossed paths at some point. Also, he lived in another village and had stopped because his kid spotted the playground and wanted to explore.
Fidgets McGee 4 years ago
That's wack dude...the coincidence of the random park choice is pretty trippy...
Load More Replies... Robert T 4 years ago
Many years ago, we were on holiday on Cyprus, visiting Nicosia. My dad didn't want to have to try and find somewhere to park our hire car in the centre, so he parked in a residential street just off the main road. I dutifully copied down the street name in Greek, so we could find it again, and we walked into the city. It was a longer walk than we thought, so we decided to get a taxi back. We went to the taxi rank and showed the street name to one of the drivers. A bit of a kerfufflle went on in Greek and he asked "why do you want to go there?". My dad explained that he had parked our car there under the shade of a tree. Another driver then says "You park under my trea?". We thought it was a joke. Anyway, the first driver agreed to take us and when we arrived at the car, he told us that we were parked outside the other driver's house! It was indeed his tree!
ADHORTATOR 4 years ago
We met two of our kids teachers in front of a church in Harlem NY.... We are from France
Sue Hazlewood 4 years ago
Was on a tour in Europe and the group was all sitting down for a meal in Amsterdam when I heard my name. It was a guy I worked with many years ago, on the same tour.
marianne eliza 4 years ago (edited)
Department Christmas season lunch at restaurant. Female 2nd level manager, a very cool woman and excellent people person, brings along a girlfriend. We're all seated at long rectangular tables and I happen to be across and over 1 from manager and friend. Over hear conversation about friend's relationship. She's talking about what he does, owns restaurant X in town Y. Now my ears are up because my very married uncle is one of the owners. I interupt them and ask if she is talking about John Doe. She says yes. I reply that he is my uncle who is very married to my aunt and has 7 kids. (most of them grown and out of the house at this point). That put paid to any more conversation for 2 people on either side of all of us. No questions and no follow up occurred to any of the parties.
Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
I was in grade 5 during Canada's centennial year, 1967. I had the most wonderful teacher and to celebrate Canada's birthday he and his wife were going to bicycle across the country, starting in Vancouver B.C. The night before they left they were staying at a campground there and didn't have much with them because they had to carry everything on the bikes or their backs. A family was camping right next to them and the family ask he and his wife to join them for dinner. Introductions were made and the father said "Im (his name)". Very uncommon last name. My teacher said, "That's interesting. I have a girl in my class by that last name" The dad asked him what the first name is. My teacher told him my first name. He said, "That's my niece."
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
Your uncle's family was kind to invite them for dinner.
Load More Replies... Maroon 4 years ago
Was in Italy 2 years ago visiting relatives and I accompanied my father to a dinner where he met up with old school friends and their families. I talked to one of the wives of my father's friends about my dissertation in archaeology and about one specific author who is one of the main contributors regarding my topic... It turned out that it was her!!! I was so mindblown
Frances M 4 years ago
On my honeymoon I went to an Irish bar in San Diego and the singer started playing “living next door to Alice”. Well, as any Irish person will tell you, there’s a particular way you sing the chorus. The singer stopped and said “there’s some real Irish in tonight!”. Later we got talking to him when we went up to ask for a particular song and it turns out he was Irish himself and used to live on the road directly behind my MIL. so close you could have just yelled a conversation between them.
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