People have mentioned masculine expectations, concealed weapons, legal repercussions, excessive booze and such.
In cultures or areas where fights are condoned they presumably still occur. I remember seeing a “no brawling” sign in a Sydney park. I don’t visit many rural country redneck taverns and do not know what happens there these days. Bouncers have always liked to push people around.
Lots of men served in global wars and may have viewed fighting in light of their history - something one did out of duty and yada. Fighting in poor conditions could lead to trauma, difficulty reintegrating into society or the belief it was a reasonable way to settle disputes. Of course, people were said to have been in better shape then (probably not true if people smoked and drank heavily) and could not aussage their boredom and ennui by playing video games or overusing their smartphone. We have many more distractions.
About 30 years ago, I was working at a newspaper in a small city in a rural area. There was a situation in which there was some petty argument at a country bar in the middle of nowhere and as one of the disputants was leaving, the other party ran out after him and hit him in the back of the head with a bottle. The head injury was serious and some days later, the assailee died in the hospital. The assailant was charged with manslaughter.
A clerk in our office–who, unlike most of the newsroom staffers–was a local said she felt sorry for the defendant. After all, it was just a bar fight and it just by chance ended with a death.
I was taken aback by this attitude. To me, hitting someone in the head intentionally with a hard object, especially without warning and from behind was a grievous act of violence and there should always be an assumption that such an act might cause a grievous or fatal injury.
I was raised with the attitude that you just don’t hit anyone by choice. And if you do so intentionally, you should expect to be held responsible for the consequences. Apparently, the culture in this area was different.
Yeah, but blindsiding him is a dick move, no matter where you are. Pay the consequences. It’s one thing if you are both active participants; the deceased didn’t have a chance.
It’s very likely not the culture of the area, but rather of the clerk’s class. I grew up in NYC in a working-class neighborhood and absolutely most people would have felt sorry for the defendant. They would have thought blindsiding him was a dick move , but still “no one expects to go to prison for a bar fight”. In my experience, people from more middle class neighborhoods did not have the same attitude.
The crazy thing, of course, is that Donnybrook is now a tony suburb of Dublin, full of shady streets, fine homes, and the headquarters of RTE. It’s come a long way from the days of the Donnybrook Fair.