Recruiter: ‘We don’t hire Irish, you’re drunks’

A SCHOOL in South Korea has revealed its hard line recruitment policy which outlaws employing Irish people on the grounds that they are all drunks.

Irish teacher Katie Mulrennan, from County Kerry, saw an ad on Craigslist for a job in the Korean capital Seoul.

The 26-year-old decided to apply but was tued down in a brief email telling her that the school was not interested in hiring Irish because it considered them to be alcoholics by nature.

The email reads: "I am sorry to inform you that my client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind”.

Email ... Ms Mulrennan was able to see the funny side although she was sufficiently upset by the unfair stereotyping to report the incident to Craigslist. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Ms Mulrennan was able to see the funny side although she was sufficiently upset by the unfair stereotyping to report the incident to Craigslist.

She told the BBC: "When I got the email, it was so abrupt and short. I actually laughed when I read it initially.”

To be fair to the school the reputation of the Irish as heavy drinkers is not exactly undeserved. They have the highest percentage of men binge drinking in the world, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) stats published in April. However, many African nations consume more alcohol overall with a drinker in Mali putting back 39 drinks per week on average compared to 21 in Ireland.

Thankfully not all South Korean employers consider the Irish a nation of drunks and Ms Mulrennan has since found a teaching job at another Seoul school.

She went on: "I was annoyed about it. But I can also see it was a little bit hilarious as well.”