Introduction
The hospitality of a people is a welcome and pleasant asset in a fast-paced world. Of course, one thinks of the hospitality industry when considering the term. However, true hospitality, as will be defined in this document, cannot be duplicated because of the aspect of generosity, without expecting anything in return. Having lived in the country of Ireland, between the areas of Ballintober County, Roscommon, and South Dublin County, it was learned that the people in the country of Ireland possess a sense of hospitality that has a warm effect on those who experience it. The hospitality of the people inspired a document on this particular aspect of the people of Ireland. The research question is: What primary cultural aspect of Ireland’s people inspires their hospitality? In this research, an attempt will be made to define what inspires the term that has been documented about the people of this country, and, perhaps what aspect is most important to the hospitability of Ireland’s people.
Definition of the Terms
Firstly, to know what hospitality is, and which kind of hospitality applies to the people of Ireland, it is necessary for the sake of research to define the terms associated with hospitality. One definition for hospitality is “generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests: hospitable treatment” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). The next definition is “the activity of providing food, drinks, etc. for people who are the guests or customers of an organization” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). In these definitions, one aspect applies to customers. In other words, more often than not, at a price, a salesman or a business will reflect hospitality, and provide hospitality. However, one definition does not require cost. It is given. The former definition is the one that applies to the people the researcher met in Ireland. Also considered in this essay it the term culture. The English anthropologist Sir Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) defined the word culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.” (O’Neill, 2006). These are the terms for which the research will be documented.
Research
As far as validation that the people of Ireland are hospitable, at least one witness other than the research viewpoint is warranted. Searching for articles on the kindness and generosity of the people of Ireland, a mass of information documenting this aspect was found, and is available. In fact, one article defines reasons as to why the people of Ireland are friendly, according to The Guardian/Lonely Planet. “Centuries of turmoil, conquest and faminehave certainly taken their toll on the Irish; it's left them with a deliciously dark sense of humor and a welcoming attitude towards strangers.” (Baker, 2007). Indeed, Ireland has had more than a taste of turmoil. At least ten rebellions have taken place within the country, from the 15th Century until the 21st Century. Some of the uprisings were political, others were revolts about land. Yet other revolts were religion-oriented. All of these aspects seem to have added, perhaps, to the friendliness of the people, who, after all this time, are glad to have a sense of peace, and a sense of a better future (McNamara, 2016), (Baker, 2007).
Apart from the aforementioned aspects of Ireland’s history, there are several other cultural aspects that perhaps inspire the hospitality of Ireland’s people. The Irish folktale history of leprechauns and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow might sound like frivolity to some, but belief in luck is helpful. A study in Psychology Today found that people who consider their luck as stable is likely to have a more positive outlook than those who think that it is fleeting (Dowden, 2014). Not only do the Irish who believe in luck have a good chance of having a positive outlook. They also have their belief in their patron Saint, Patrick. Saint Patrick, who was not Irish, but Scottish, did help in converting the Irish, and also giving them a sense of relevance to the rest of Europe (Olsen, 2008). These two aspects of Irish life, from leprechauns to St. Patrick, create at least a balance in their belief, so that the outcome for the Irish is that they are both excited about luck, and at least interested in morals, if not completely immersed in religious fervor.
Another cultural love of the Irish is the geography of their land, and the places they consider precious. As mentioned before, some of the revolts on Ireland soil involved struggle over land. This seems appropriate, considering one of the popular things to do in Ireland has to do with kissing a stone. The Blarney Castle, located a few miles from Cork, Ireland, is home to the Blarney Stone (Gray, 2016). The stone is the subject of everything from Biblical implications to Irish folklore. There are so many stories about the Blarney Stone, they cannot not all be written in the research document. There are several folktales, and stories based on the religious beliefs of the Irish. While some think the stone is the rock Jacob slept upon, or the rock Moses stuck to produce water for the Israelites, others think it a stone to be kissed to make a person have the “gift of gab, eloquence, or skill at flattery” (Gray, 2016). Once again, the balance of both the religious, and the native belief of the people perhaps inspire the hospitality of the Irish people, to some extent, even if unmeasurably.
There is one aspect to the people of Ireland’s sense of hospitality that is a point worth more exploration than all others in this research. While all cultural aspects mentioned in this document are important aspects, and possibly inspirational to the Irish sense of generosity and kindness, an important study of one aspect, performed at Cornell University, seems to be the benchmark that brings all other cultural ideals together, and is more than likely the element from which all other aspects flow. The aspect of hospitality itself, call it kindness, sincerity, giving, caring, or otherwise, all seem to have an effect upon another person, and causes a reciprocal act by another person. A peer-reviewed study, called The Social Contagion of Generosity, is especially important to the documentation of the hospitality of the people of Ireland, because they are people who are generous, and this quality cannot be purchased, as mentioned before, because it is given. Giving is the most interesting aspect of hospitality, because it is not done with an expectation of reward. However, according to this study, there are rewards from givein that cannot be measured. The study’s abstract begins with what has been found out about giving—that a person will give back; in other words, it tests the contagion of generosity (Tsvetkova, Macy, 2014). The model makes a motion to the pay it forward theory, in which a person does another act of kindness to another individual, rather than feel responsible to give back to the person who gave to them (Tsvetkova, Macy 2014). The research of several hundred individuals who received a certain sincere form of treatment one to another were found to have a desire to give back to each to other in one aspect. In another set, it was slightly more difficult to see the connection between one group interacting positively in a generous way, and it then becoming a matter of a third party acting with a completely positive way as far as generosity was concerned; However, this is also a study, with variables (Tsvetkova, Macy, 2014). This quote is a sum of the results, which concludes, “the experimental results show that receiving and observing generosity can significantly increase the likelihood to be generous towards a stranger. However, the results are also consistent with the “bystander” hypothesis that the willingness to contribute can be offset by lower perceived need when the level of helping is sufficiently high (Tsvetkova, Macy, 2014). These results are important in the study of people. The reason here is that if Cornell University can take a random sample of hundreds of people, and get results that actually show that people being generous to another group of people tends to make that other group want to respond to giving to someone—not to mention in a situation where there are even bystanders who had, to some extent the interest in doing the same for someone else, this result is remarkable. Indeed, this proves to a certain measure that people in general react to generosity by wanting to be so themselves. Since generosity is, as defined, the key to the hospitality that is shown by the people of Ireland, then there is a great possibility that this mode of behavior in a culture of people on the Emerald Isle, who have common cares, would be even more so, a model of hospitality to themselves, and to others.
Results
The conclusion of all aspects from the research done on this study seem to point to one particular proof from the Cornell University research. Generosity is contagious, and makes even those watching the giving take place encouraged with the desire to give, even if they do not do so overwhelmingly in reaction to it. Therefore, for the people of Ireland, this study means more to their hospitality, because of their culture. Through famine, revolt, their love of their balance of appreciating their religion and the quality of their luck, the people of Ireland not only know how to be hospitable, they know how to pass it along as well. The other aspects of their culture, from their Blarney Stone to their Patron Saint also creates another question? Which came first, the hospitality? Or did the hospitality flow from their sense of appreciating what they choose, from folklore and tradition, to the Scotsman who first converted Irish to Christians? It is another study worth examination, but for now, a question has been answered about the kindness, the helpfulness, and the generosity of the people of Ireland. The most important primary cultural aspect of the people of Ireland is the people of Ireland. They are the reason for their hospitality, and the reason why it is passed on to those who appreciate it.
Works Cited
Baker, Vicky. "Is Ireland the World's Friendliest Place?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 17 Oct. 2007. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
Dowden, Craig. "Why You Should Believe in Luck." Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 9 June 2014. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
Gray, Martin. "Blarney Stone Facts." Sacred Sites. N.p., 2016. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
"Hospitality." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2016. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
McNamara, Robert. "Irish Rebellions of the 1800s." About.com Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
Olsen, Ted. "The Real St. Patrick." Christian History. Christianity Today, Aug. 2008. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
O'Neill, Dennis. "Human Culture: What Is Culture? N.p., 6 May 2016. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
Tsvetkova, Milena, and William W. Macy. "The Social Contagion of Generosity." PLOS ONE:, N.p., 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
