After having lived and worked in Hamburg for a number of years in the past it is my experience that the Germans generally view the Irish with a mix of bemusment and bewilderment.
They enjoy travelling to Ireland to get drunk and watching the little pixies sing and dance,but would never dream of living this way in their own real world,and are generally very happy to go home to"normality"
As for being in love with the Irish,I often wonder where this idea came from,I have concluded it was invented by the Irish themselves.
Sorry to blow the illusion but nobody loves you and they never really did!

Well, there is really some kind of love for Ireland in some Germans. One of them is me, and I think it's not just an illusion created by the Irish themselves. And as far as I am concerned, there's no love regarding pubs, drinking and shaking the head about those funny natives. I am cultivating my love for an often (seemingly) untouched and quiet nature, a lot of space, clean air and the vast sea. I know that a lot of Irish people don't understand it because they didn't grow up in a country as densely populated as Germany, with lots of industry and big noisy cities and a countryside spoiled by land consolidation projects, masses of fertilizers and monocropping. Being in Ireland, I enjoy beauty and a non-hectic lifestyle - and I know very well that I don't find this in the centre of Dublin, where life wouldn't be so very different from Hamburg. I enjoy all the many artist's outlets of paintings, pottery and woodwork - something I might also find in Germany but don't take the time. I enjoy contemporary folk music (combining old and modern features) and your famous literature. I enjoy the friendly helpful people, knowing very well that it is different to be a guest who goes home soon from being a longtime resident who stays. A difference for both sides. And there is an atmosphere lingering all over this that I didn't find in other countries, and that's why I’m coming back for some twenty years now. My love has never been blind, I have always seen the less beautiful parts of living an everyday's life in Ireland and so I never thought honestly of immigrating. But every now and then I want to drive again over the small grey roads, see the gorse in bloom, look out over the Atlantic sea and walk over those incredible brown-green-violet hills under those everchanging skies, and having some good food afterwards. So I even came when the prices went up during the Celtic Tiger years which wasn't easy for me. It is a kind of feeling at home - at least for some days -, and I call it a kind of love. I wish you all the best for the future and will bring more money in summer ;-) !

Thank you, Silke, for the positive and very human insights, given as re-actions to the unfortunate negativity that preceded your and Jan's pieces. Phil thinks this is a place to be angry and let off steam. I sincerely wish him a happier perspective, after reading your heart-felt comments. Ireland is changing, in some ways for the worse, but it is still often a magical alternative to the too hectic and too-often polluted environments of our much-loved european neighbours. Long may ye come, with or without the promised money, Silke. Well done!