{"id":672048,"date":"2026-09-04T10:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672048\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:22:17","slug":"youre-not-a-snowman-you-wont-melt-nobody-needs-a-fancy-raincoat-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672048\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019re not a snowman, you won\u2019t melt: nobody needs a fancy raincoat in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Nobody Needs This, a series for The Journal, Emer McLysaght focuses her eagle eye on the trends, products and notions we can do without. It\u2019s not all giving out, however. She\u2019ll also be keeping up with what\u2019s catching her attention, keeping people interested and, quite frankly, driving her mad.<\/p>\n

\u2018SURE, WHO\u2019LL BE looking at you?\u2019<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re not a snowman, you won\u2019t melt\u2019<\/p>\n

These are two of my mother\u2019s most enduring and spine-forming pieces of advice. The first is efficient at tearing you down and reminding you that nobody cares a jot what you\u2019re doing and especially what you look like. In the same breath, \u2018sure, who\u2019ll be looking at you?\u2019 is the ultimate confidence builder, giving you the courage to do whatever you\u2019ve set your mind to without the fear that anyone might be judging.<\/p>\n

\u2018You won\u2019t melt\u2019 is an essential mantra for anybody living in a climate as damp and humid as Ireland. Okay, so we got a bit of a summer (the hottest since records began in fact<\/a>) in July and August, but it\u2019s hard to believe this is the same island that was forced to implement a hosepipe ban 53 days ago. Difficult as it may be to believe, given the appalling turn the weather has taken in recent weeks, Ireland is nowhere near the wettest country on Earth. We tend to hover somewhere in the low 80s<\/a> in the worldwide rankings by mm of precipitation, alongside the likes of Paraguay, Croatia and Bolivia. However, what we lack in centimetres and inches we make up for in frequency, drizzle and the infernal \u2018showers\u2019.<\/p>\n

You would think, with such a propensity for rain, that we Irish would be on top of our game when it comes to outerwear. When tourists come to visit they are often rigged out in Gore-Tex and horrifically sensible footwear, ready for the deluge. The Italians especially love to besmirch our sunny days by wearing winter coats and scarves while ebullient Dubs swan around topless.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m of the belief though that in a country so dominated by the \u2018four seasons in a day\u2019 phenomenon, fancy raingear is a waste of time. It can claim to be as breathable as it wants, but I have yet to meet a raincoat that isn\u2019t a swizz. Ireland is simply too changeable and humid (thanks to our island status and our old friend, the North Atlantic Drift*) to endure the sweatiness that comes with encasing oneself in waterproof gear. Sure, you can carry a nice raincoat around with you, but by the time you have it on the shower has probably stopped. Anyway, in the same way you might get called Abraham Lincoln or Slash by a stranger for wearing a hat on a sunny day, an ostentatious raincoat might draw accusations of an Everest summit attempt.<\/p>\n

At Electric Picnic last weekend, the weather was one of the main topics of conversation. It rained so much that my pal asked for a refund on the weather spell she\u2019d purchased from a witch on Etsy. The prevailing cover-up of choice was the old reliable: the plastic poncho. Far be it from me to be encouraging the use of plastic but any Irish person worth their salt knows they can get longevity out of a \u2018disposable\u2019 poncho if they treat it well. My pal had to ban her husband from packing his old reliable Emerald Park poncho for fear of making a show of us. I have a Childline poncho that I purchased at a CMAT concert in 2024 that\u2019s still going strong. I paid \u20ac10 for it but can\u2019t call it out as a swizz because it was for charity. Gone are the days when you\u2019d get a radio station or mobile phone branded poncho for free.<\/p>\n

It was wet at Electric Picnic, but it wasn\u2019t cold. When Gorillaz took to the stage on Saturday night Damon Albarn complained that his melodica keys were sticking because of the humidity. You couldn\u2019t have been going round like Roald Amundsen, you\u2019d have been sweltering. On the Sunday I did pull out my decent raincoat (a Helly Hansen fishing jacket, thank you very much) and endured an evening of sensory nightmare as the bare skin on my arms created a sweaty soup against the lining of the coat. I should never have forsaken my trusty poncho.<\/p>\n

Look, if you\u2019re climbing Carrauntoohil or spend most of your time outdoors or need a full rain set for cycling, that\u2019s all well and good. However, nobody needs a dedicated fancy raincoat in Ireland despite it being the 81st wettest place in the world. You won\u2019t melt. And don\u2019t get me started on umbrellas. The greatest swizz of them all.<\/p>\n

Currently reading:<\/p>\n

Currently enjoying:<\/p>\n

\"westwood-united-states-01st-sep-2026-westwood-los-angeles-california-usa-august-31-nicole-kidman-wearing-atelier-versace-styled-by-jason-bolden-and-sandra-bullock-wearing-custom-louis-vuitt\"
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

Currently listening \u2026 to my top acts from Electric Picnic<\/p>\n

\"the-mary-wallopers-performing-ahead-of-kneecap-headlining-at-crystal-palace-park-in-london-picture-date-saturday-june-27-2026\"
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

Emer will be back next Friday morning with more recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Nobody Needs This, a series for The Journal, Emer McLysaght focuses her eagle eye on the trends,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[284138,18,11985,117,114021,19,17,1874,284139,207962,157562,25410,284140,284141,15317,443],"class_list":["post-672048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eamon-speaks-irish","tag-eire","tag-electric-picnic","tag-entertainment","tag-geese","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-d-higgins","tag-mik-pyro","tag-nobody-needs-this","tag-practical-magic-2","tag-rain","tag-raincoats","tag-sorcha-richardson","tag-the-mary-wallopers","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}