[theBobBob]

I think Ireland is champion of euphemistically naming things to greatly play them down. We referred to WW2 (you know that little conflict that killed like 70 million people) as "The Emergency" while we still call the conflict in Northern Ireland as "The Troubles".

[donaltroddyn]

And the famine was the big hunger (an Gorta Mór).

[WesolyKubeczek]

I read Flann O’Brien’s “An Béal Bocht” once. In it, Irish people have more suffering or less suffering, but never none, not even after death.

I know it was satire and an exaggeration, but those stereotypes usually stem from a kernel of truth.