I don’t see what he did wrong other than think Ireland is part of the UK, is on the same island as Scotland, and uses Sterling. It’s only our inflated view of ourselves that makes us think most Americans are intimately aware of our location and our political history. For God sake, I’ve met people in London who didn’t know where Ireland was, let alone Yanks who live thousands of miles away in a country with 40 states out of 50 bigger than Ireland. Not to mention that our relationship to Britain, the UK and the British Isles isn’t exactly straightforward:
I take your point, but this isn’t just some yank on the street. You’d think if they were planning a feature interview they’d at least read-up Wikipedia?
I think the bigger issue with the stereotypical “ignorant Yank” isn’t what they don’t know, it’s that they don’t seem to realise how ignorant they are. It would never occur to me, on discovering I had a totally misguided idea of a region’s geography/economy/politics, to then try and blame that region instead of my own ignorance. In contrast, the ignorant Yank will declare that the region needs to “sort itself out”.
EDIT: Got gazumped… But yes, what Eschatologist said.
Poor Mr Shanahan