The Times.......It cant be wrong!

Greetings my readers......er....reader....ok ok no readers, I don't care! Let me tell you of a little story of what happened to me on a call in work the other night which really pissed me off. Firstly a little back story, for those of you who don't know, I work in a call center on a number of different contracts, I have a few favourite because they are either very easy to do or I just like what it is and Tourism Ireland is one of them.

See with Tourism Ireland, we have to promote Ireland as a holiday destination, we get callers from all over the world so we have language speakers to cover each language and we also reply to emails. Some of the calls and emails we get can be ridiculous or funny, some just plain idiotic. We have had people ask us where they can find a leprechaun, do they sell them in pet stores, the person was dead serious, when he was told they were not real he got very upset as he wanted to get his son the best birthday present, if I was that son and he got me a leprechaun, it better be able to grant me some wishes otherwise I would want a smarter dad!

Another person emailed us to ask where in Ireland they could find the underwater forest. One of my colleagues tried to help them out and after not finding anything in our guides he emailed the person and asked if they could give more information on this forest. The person replied back with a paragraph on this underwater forest, it was just some magical kingdom based on a book they were reading.

Thats just 2 examples of the "Weird & Wonderful" requests that we get, the call center has an intranet with a section esepcially for them so everyone can read them. The majority of these requests are from Americans and that leads me to the call I recieved the other night.

I did my usual scripted greeting and the voice on the other end was a female, if I was to guess I would say she was around her mid 30 or early 40. She told me that she would be coming to Ireland to tour the country and wanted some information. So I asked her if there was any area in specific that she wanted to visit, she started to mention the likes of Cork, Kerry, Dingle, Cavan, I was taking note of them and then she said she wanted to see StoneHenge. After she had finished talking I told her that I would put together some brochures on the areas she mentioned, provide her with some accommodation information and other bits & pieces, then I told her that if she wanted information on StoneHenge she would need to contact the Tourist Information for the UK as we only dealt with Ireland.

She asked me why should she contact them when its in Ireland! I told her that StoneHenge was based in Wiltshire in the UK and that we were a seperate Island and not in any way connected by a bridge or anything like that(Most Americans think you can drive across from Ireland to the UK, I have yet to find this mystical bridge connecting us to the UK, if anyone reading this knows its whereabouts please contact me as it would help us a great deal) She wasnt convinced, I then mentioned that maybe she was mixed up with Newgrange, a megalithic tomb built about 1,000 years older than Stonehenge and probably the closest thing to it!

Her reply:
"No no no, your peopel went to war with the English over it because it was Irish and they tried to take it"
I told her I was not aware of any such war and that even if there had been one, it would have been very difficult to transport the large heavy stones to either country. But she was adamant about this and was getting annoyed with me, telling me that I was wrong and I didnt know what I was talking about. Lets get one thing clear here, in my spare time I like to read about Mythology and History so I know a few things about different countries and I know where Stonehenge is and what it is, not only that but I am kinda patriotic, I love Ireland and I dont like hearing people takl shit about it or talking like they know something when they dont, this caller had pissed me off that I stopped being courteous and made it my point to educate her!

I explained again about the difference in location and tried to tell her that the only wars I was aware of were during the English occupation of Ireland and how the Irish fought to regain their freedom and their country, again she wouldnt listen and gave me a reply that made me shut up for a minute, stare at the phone screen and then cut the call. She said to me "Well Time Magazine did a story on this a few years back and I doubt that Time Magazine would make it up"
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*CLICK*

Time Magazine? I have been on their site and searched around and have not found anything about Ireland and England being at war over who owned StoneHenge!
So if you ever wondered if Americans really are stupid then I can tell you yes, they are very stupid but thankfully not all of them are like that! I've always liked Americans, I have alot of friends and family that are American, If I offended you then I am sorry, if you dont know me and feel offended, tough shit!