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Colleagues, I can't argue with what Helen Hauser said about Ireland, but I think there is a quantative and qualitative difference. In Ireland that attitude does tend to be a schoolboy/uneducated one, because that's the only thing kids here have really heard of in connection with Germany, apart possibly from footballers. It doesn't permeate the media to any degree (maybe I've missed it, but I've certainly not noticed it anywhere in the native Irish media, as opposed to papers like The Irish Sun, The Irish Star, etc, which are Irish variations on London papers, owned by the parent and carrying most of the same news each day). For example, Ireland are in the same group as Germany in this year's World Cup and there has been no German bashing of any note in the media here. If it's all about WW2 in England, then Southern Ireland's neutrality back then may be the reason for the difference now. But in Ireland the things Helen talks about are largely the stuff of playgrounds. They are not the visceral hatred so apparent in England much of the time. One colleague who recently retruned to England after nearly two decades in Ireland wrote to me that the naked anti-Germanness was one of the biggest culture shocks he received on his return. Anyway, it was certainly not my intention to suggest (as one respondent put to me) that the Celts are superior in this respect - we are just outside that particular argument. But we have our own "attitood". Almost all of us are probably in the ABE brigade for the World Cup: Anybody But England. For an excellent description of just such an attitude read the section in Jeremy Paxman's "The English" on the crowd in a Scottish pub watching England's 1996 penalty shoot-out against Germany. (The book is a good read anyway.) But that's a different story all about small countries and big overbearing neighbours that is echoed in countries around Germany, Russia, the USA etc. It's not about two countries roughly equal in size. And, sadly (or perhaps fortunately), I often get the feeling that the envy, hatred or whatever is largely one way: the Germans often seem like a little brother who just wants to be loved by England. Anyway, as I say, I'd love to know about mediaeval English attitudes to Germans, if any are recorded. England was quite germanophile for most of the 19th century. And, of course, it took German monarchs from the early 18th century. By contrast mediaeval England was quite francophobe - certainly there were endless wars between England and France. Any thoughts on the mediaeval question from anyone? Regards, Pól Ó Dochartaigh. Dr Pol O Dochartaigh Senior Lecturer in German School of Languages and Literature Faculty of Arts University of Ulster Coleraine Co. Derry BT52 1SA Tel: +44 (0)28 - 7032 4548 Fax: +44 (0)28 - 7032 4962 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Web: http://www.ulst.ac.uk/faculty/humanities/lang+lit/modlangs/odochart.html