I want to take two minutes to respond to a Medium post Brian Murray wrote last week in response to two tweets I posted about a culture of negativity I saw in the Irish tech scene.

As soon as I read [two of Tommy's tweets] I felt hurt, on many counts.

First off, I am Irish. Secondly, I am involved, if only on the fringes, in the tech community in Ireland. Lastly, there’s nothing that boils my blood more than watching somebody translate a minor number of transgressions into a brush with which to tar an entire community.

I started blogging in April 2007, and was involved in the Irish tech scene from then up until I moved to the US in August 2013. I got to know a lot of bloggers, coders, and designers during that time, through events like the Irish Blog Awards and assorted meet-ups. My experience of the scene was that it was a relatively small pond with a handful of relative heavyweights. Tweets like this one felt like the norm, and the attitude behind it didn't feel like a 'minor transgression' or an isolated incident. 
Everyone's experience of Ireland and its tech scene is different. A handful of people have e-mailed me saying that their experience with the tech scene was nothing but positive, and that's great. But that wasn't my experience.