From: Tom Wade <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Up until last year I worked at Guinness, and they (my Irish collegues)
spoke "mixed".
As a matter of interest, was this in Ireland ? If so, it bears out what
my experience here is (you will hear both spoken). If Irish people in the
UK also speak "mixed", that would be even more interesting.
Bit of both really - but mainly the Park Royal site in London (I always
tried to make any Dublin work start on a Thursday or Friday - you may be
able to guess the reason why!)
From my experience I've never heard any Irish people talk in terms of
kilometres (aside from on TV), for shorter distance either metres or yards
are used and for shorter distances still - feet.
I can only assume that over time Irish people who live in the UK will
continue to talk in terms of miles whereas Irish people in Ireland will
presumably start to talk in kilometres, although I have seen no evidence of
that "on the street".
Interestingly - I saw more lb's in Dublin butchers etc than in London (where
both g/lb are in use) although in the 'big' Dublin supermarkets both were
being used. I think that they "clamp down" a lot less in Ireland than in
the UK.
