INGERSOLL: Walked Into An Irish Gas Station And Experienced Culture Shock

A woman watches as a US marching band practices ahead of the annual St Patrick's Day parade through the city centre of Dublin, Ireland, on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Paul Faith / AFP via Getty Images)

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Greetings, Dear Reader,

I must issue profuse and enthusiastic apologies to start.

I failed to make you aware of my travel and thus I’m sure my musings went severely missed. I’m sure you were all near apoplectic to not see me in your inbox. I’m sure many of you phoned the authorities in abject anxiety.

Yes, I have been gone for nearly two weeks. It’s been almost three years since I last took a family vacation.

But in my excitement, I failed to give you a heads up. For that, I apologize, Dear Reader.

With that, the question of the hour …

Driving on the left in a miniature, mostly electric “SUV” on a roadway that would barely pass as a bike path in the US wasn’t the biggest culture shock.

In Ireland, the Irish still manage and staff most gas – excuse me, “petrol” – stations.

Only once on the outskirts of Dublin did I encounter what most of us have now grown accustomed to here in the US. A dumpy south Asian man behind the counter, leaning back, head down, looking at his phone, earpiece in, speaking one foreign language or another in an active conversation with someone who was not an in-person customer in front of him with a........

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