Freckles, fries and philandering at Mass: What #BeingIrishMeans

We asked readers to tweet their definition of Irishness. Here are a selection of edited #beingirishmeans tweets, and the winner of our €200 prize

#beingirishmeans calling all ATMs drinklinks – Michael Collins

#beingirishmeans having an Aunt Mary – Frankie Fitzgerald

#beingirishmeans you don't have the foggiest idea of how to speak Irish – Raheen Jackson

Apparently #beingirishmeans accepting paying €36,000 each to bail out Anglo but despising #occupydamestreet for protesting about it – The Barbarian

#beingirishmeans the only Irish you can speak is "an bhfuil cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?" – Kain Devine

#beingirishmeans you owe more money than you could ever afford to repay without having borrowed it in the first place – Niamh Redmond

#beingirishmeans knowing Father Tedoff by heart – Lorna mcGinley

#beingirishmeans You can say "Any craic?" to a policeman and you won't get arrested – Niamh Manning

#beingirishmeans answering How are you? with How are you?. Foreigners never quite grasp that insist on saying how they are – Fiona McCann

#beingirishmeans having freckles – Niall

#beingirishmeans you've been greeted with "D'ya know who's dead?" by your mother – Ellen Power

#beingirishmeans saying prayers in school daily, even though you're athiest – Frankie Fitzgerald

#beingirishmeans enjoying a traditional Irish breakfast at any time of the day or night – Caroline Egan

#beingirishmeans nothing really. Other than buying into the view that there could possibly be an all-encompassing national stereotype – Cathal McQuaid

#beingirishmeans Being accused of being "D4" in a pub in London – Alan Duff

#beingirishmeans getting travel directions that consist of pub names, churches and roundabouts – Beano

#beingirishmeans watching the Late Late Toy Showevery year regardless of your age – Diane H

#beingIrishmeans sympathy for fraudsters – Allan Cavanagh

#beingirishmeans that if Penneys ever closed, half the country would be naked – Gareth McGregor

#beingirishmeans we must persevere – Aidan O'Callaghan

#beingirishmeans every other nationality loves you. – sarah and grainne

#beingirishmeans everything to me!? – aCASTLEinFIRTHland

#beingirishmeans growing up thinking that olive oil was only used as a treatment for sore ears – Paul O'Kane

#beingirishmeans you complain about everything but never do anything about it – Adam Kane

#beingirishmeans going to Mass just to check out the talent – Charlotte Ryan

#BeingIrishmeans never having to say you're sorry . . . oh wait no, that's just the Government – Editor in Chic

#beingirishmeans our own words craic, banter, shift, feckin, cop on will ya, few naggins be grand, morto, skittin, jaysus, state of yer wan – zoey finn

#beingirishmeans throwing on the shorts and sunnies when it hits 17degrees cos u don't know when it's gona be sunny again – okee o keeffe

#beingirishmeans hating the winner of the €200 euro – marc synnott

#beingirishmeans having aunties that are actually "friends of the family" – ciara oneill

#beingirishmeans adj. (I·rish) 1. the ability to be your best when youre at your worst – Cathy Orr

#beingirishmeans knowing all the words to Fairytale of NY, never knowing a stranger (aren't any), and not forgetting the green of Ireland – Pamela Boyd Shields

#beingirishmeans If there's not some form of potatoes with it, then it is not a dinner – Linda Callaghan

#beingirishmeans you can mime the whole national anthem – Colm Keegan

#beingirishmeans at least one of your relatives holds political office – Sandra Purcell

#beingirishmeans Lying to everyone! Doctor: I'm fine thanks!. Priest: Nothing to confess. Garda: I wasn't speeding. God: I believe in you! – Dermot Heaney

#beingirishmeans Great pride in our Nobel prize winning authors, but never reading their works – mell61

#beingirishmeans binge drinking you way into A&E on a Saturday night – Eleanor Tiernan

#beingirishmeans being in debt and indentured, till death and dentures us do part – brownbread mixtape

#beingirishmeans emigrating and suddenly developing an overblown grá for Guinness, hurling, the Irish language, U2 and Catholicism – David Mahon

#BeingIrishMeans It's Paddy's Day. Not Patty's Day – Hugh Curran

#beingirishmeans that you most likely hate #eurovision but secretly watch the final every year – Ivor Connolly

#beingirishmeans you don't wait for the lights to turn green when crossing the road – Johnny R

#beingirishmeans climbing Croagh Patrick just for the pints after – Pam

#BeingIrishmeans forcing children to play the tin whistle, or perform an Irish jig for all the relatives in the sitting room – Sarah Barrett

#beingirishmeans not actually living in Ireland. Sad truth! – laura masterson

In 2012, #beingirishmeans struggling to keep huge, lavishly-furnished houses. With no heat. – Mary O'Donnell

And the winner is . . .

#beingirishmeans emigrating because the country’s in tatters, and telling the world how much you miss it - Julia Cashman