28/09/2026
EVERYONE IS AN IRELAND EXPERT NOW
Social media has given everyone a microphone.
And somehow, it has also given everyone a teaching position.
Someone visits Ireland once and starts explaining Ireland to the Irish.
Someone hears one story about Dublin and suddenly knows what "Irish people" are like.
Someone sees a video about housing, immigration, driving, pubs, history or Irish culture and shares it as fact without checking where it came from.
Then someone else shares it.
Then someone else.
Soon, a claim that started with one person's guess is being repeated by thousands of people.
That doesn't make it true.
Views don't make something true.
Confidence doesn't make something true.
Being Irish doesn't automatically make someone an expert on every subject in Ireland either.
And being from outside Ireland doesn't automatically make someone's observation wrong.
The question should always be:
How do you know?
Where did the information come from?
Is there evidence?
Is it current?
Is this actually a fact, or is someone simply telling us what they think?
There is nothing wrong with having an opinion.
There is nothing wrong with sharing your experience.
But there is a big difference between saying:
"This is what happened to me."
and saying:
"This is how Ireland is."
We need to learn that difference.
Because the internet has given almost everybody a microphone.
It hasn't given everybody knowledge.
And you don't have to believe something simply because someone confidently said it into a camera.
