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What's the craic?

I couldn't think of more appropriate way to start an article about (e)Ireland - my only real true love in this game. This is an article about the community, about the passion, loyalty, love and support. Probably I wouldn't have write this if there weren't Peru's Airstrike, but I always felt like it would be great to share my feelings with everyone. I won't be getting too much political or propagandist as it's not the article about that. Ireland could've been any side of the bipolar world if some things didn't happen in the beginning of the game when the first alliance has been in makings. I don't think that'd change the way Ireland behaved through all its eHistory.



My feelings about Ireland didn't start with this game, however, the game helped me to meet the first RL Irishmens. Since I was a kid I kinda liked the Irish music, culture and history. So... when I joined the game, I've started in eCroatia, my RL home. After playing there for a year or two I kinda needed a change and that's how my story about Erepublik starts.

It wasn't hard for me to pick the alternative home in here, so I went on the Irish IRC channels. I've been told that IBhoy (isn't really playing anymore) is one of the main guys there so I went on his IRC channnel to ask if they'd accept new people in Ireland.

The moment I came there I knew I'd stay there eternally. Even with different CS's, even in other MU's I'll always be the Irish from that day.

When I came in there there were still lots of people playing in Ireland and most of them were RL Irish too, which helped me to realize what great kind of people they are. The amount of fun, troll, but also productive talk has been enourmous. I felt like it's the matter of life or death how argumentive they would be on every topic we discussed. It felt great to be part of that constructive and sometimes trollish debates.

The way those lads treated me was something special. I finally felt I was home. I felt I'd do anything to help that community grow and become just a bit stronger than it looks. It was one of the smallest world countries back then too, but we had something didn't - enormous amount of passion for the game. I think IBhoy is to be blamed for the kind of ePerson I became. He did that to others to, he has a great charisma, something you don't see often.

I considered him my eFather and eBrother in the same time. He set the bar high for the rest of us. There were several unwritten rules for our foreign affairs. We don't negotiate for Irish regions - never, even if it takes us two years and half of people to leave, we'll still fight instead of give them away as part of peace deal. The other, maybe even more important lesson he thought us was loyalty. Not just loyatly to the allies, MU, group or a party. It was a loyalty to anything you'd be doing. Loyalty was the key of eIreland.

So we did what he thought us, we never changed. For over 7 years we were the same. Regardless of people who came in and go away. It's funny because all those people who came adopted the way we were thinking and they liked it. We had tons of Presidents, MoD's and MoFA's, but I don't remember any of them breaking the loyalty part. Many has never met IBhoy, but his legacy were born in them.




It was always my dream to come to Ireland in real life. So I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity. That happened before this summer. I've been almost done with my college so I've decided it's time to go and see how all those stories look like in real life.

I was very happy to meet Sluagh from Erepublik, he was one of the last who still played this game, we had a great time together after meeting each others after 7 years of talking on IRC.

Coming to Ireland was a great thing for me. I finally saw all the buildings I've been hearing about my whole life, the bridges, oh the hills and the green landscape. It's beautiful sight for real. I went to Kilkenny - a small medieval town southern from Dublin. It looks really Irish with all the Pubs and shops and houses done in Irish style.

They, Irish, are the special people, they have their own culture, very different than European. They have their own sports, they live their lifes in much relaxing way than the rest of West does. The core of their lifes is the community. They are kinda like Balkans on the west. All the people are extremely friendly, you wouldn't believe until you see what level of friendly that is.

I got myself some easy part time job to cover the costs of living and so I can still enjoy simply living there. I went to nature, walked near the rivers and climbed all the hills. I got drunk in a pub and went on afterparty in some village like 30 km away from Kilkenny with the team of hurling players. No idea how I came back to Kilkenny, but it was 1 pm next day and my girlfriend was really mad.

It's great.