Practical Travel Safety Issues - Dublin Security - Bad Last Impresion

I had a phenomenally great time this weekend in Dublin.

However, airport security there seems to be more moronic than the TSA. I was forced to "surrender" my eye glass repair kit because the supervisor deemed it to be a "dangerous tool"!!

For good measure he also decided to confiscate the Irish butter in my bag, because when it melts it is a liquid! No big deal went to the store down from security and bought another one exactly the same that had gone through the magic X-rays.

The reason the supervisor was there is because as the drone was searching my bag she found the repair kit, she said it can't be taken through, I responded with a you got to be kidding me. She said if I'd like she can call over a supervisor. That is when the difference in English became apparent, as I told her to knock herself out and she became extremely agitated and started to chastise me in a loud voice because I was being extremely rude to her and she does not have to take it. This led to the supervisor coming over and the surrendering of the items.

"If you don't need the tourism Euro, then I just won't come back. Enjoy your new possessions." :td:

That is when the difference in English became apparent, as I told her to knock herself out and she became extremely agitated and started to chastise me in a loud voice because I was being extremely rude to her and she does not have to take it.

Oops...

I suspect this would be understood literally, as "knock yourself unconscious", and hence a physical threat. Utterly pointless reaction on her part, though.

Yet another example of useless airport security. Seems to exist everywhere. It is a very sad world we live in.

Generally I find them ok. I think your "knock yourself out" comment was probably taken in the 'non-US' sense, and I'm sure thinking back you probably wouldn't have said it ;)

Generally I find them ok. I think your "knock yourself out" comment was probably taken in the 'non-US' sense, and I'm sure thinking back you probably wouldn't have said it ;)

Sometimes we forget, as G.B. Shaw supposedly said, that we're "two peoples separated by an ocean and a common language."

Remember the Britisher who complimented a visiting American businessman on his "homely" wife and said he'd hope to drop around and "knock her up" during their stay. ;)

No big deal went to the store down from security and bought another one exactly the same that had gone through the magic X-rays.


Now if this were me, I would have gone back and waived it at them. Perhaps they would have shut the store down.

Think of the children...and lobsters! ;)