O'Carroll - Cold Beer Warm Hearts (2)

The core argument or point the author is trying to make in this story is many times. The image one culture has of another is more based on a continued tourist type specially marketed representation than is an authentic real view of that culture.

In this story many German customers had a pre conceived view of Irishness especially Irish pubs and what the Irish pubs representation. To them it was a place which representated what the title suggests, a place to get a cold beer at a place that is filled with warm, friends, welcoming Irish.

This view was even more cemented by the promotes of Irish pubs in Berlin which tapped into the symbolic image that tourist representation of Ireland promises from the Irish music beer and whisky, décor all things Irish.

The author makes the argument that it is not just the tourist image of Ireland at work, but the role of imagination in social lives of how people use their. Imagination to create a need they have or to feel something in their own world that’s not there.

The description of the Eckkneipe or German pub or bar with its dark grubby environment with its interior more closed off from the outside and not even visited by mainstream Germans, seems the polar everyday and our necessary to our socialization.

I do agree with the authors view that when you visit another country you already even if you don’t realize it a preconceived view of that country culture. For example, it could their food, music, historical facts personalities of this culture; it could be from mass media, tourist marketing contact in your country with people from this country. This can be a negative thing when your ore conception does match the reality and you get there.