Against "Notions"

Ireland's biggest cultural obstacle

Every country has its own particular pathologies; let’s talk about an Irish one.

The term “Notions”, as summarised by the above tweet, is used to refer to a person who has gotten too big for their boots by showing an excessive level of pretension, ambition or aspiration. One can directly accuse a person of “having Notions”, but the textbook application of the term is to mutter it under your breath to a third person once the object of your scorn has walked away. “Notions!” you say to your friend, rolling your eyes as Mario with the red beret recedes into the distance. Ah sure look it’s just a joke! We all know you don’t mean it, but you also that you absolutely do mean it.

The tweet is a funny joke about a woman trying out a new item of clothing and getting roasted for it and as such not that serious but it does capture one of the most essential attitudes of Irish life; one that in 2025 is moving from being sometimes cute/ sometimes annoying cultural tic to a serious structural problem with real consequences.