TWO DAYS AGO, a 17-year-old American student posted on Reddit asking what he need to know to move to Ireland.
Yesterday, an Irish redditor responded with this post describing the ’rounds system’ in Irish pubs. “This is very important, very,” he wrote. Then gave a set of 10 rules of the round.
The post went viral – so far it’s attracted 500 follow-up comments, been shared on Facebook 600 times, and tweeted dozens more. It’s a little complicated in full, but basically boils down to:
You’ll notice immediately that people will offer to get you a drink when you are out with them [...] They are doing it under the implicit agreement that you will buy the next drink for them [...] You will be despised if you make no effort to get your own round in.
Strangely, many people were puzzled by this clear and cogent approach, and had their say in the comments. Here are some of the best: