Northern Ireland - how do you perceive it?

Never been (I’m English), no particular desire to go as there’s nothing that attracts me to visit over other destinations - UK or abroad.
Don’t know if all the stuff on the news in the 80s and 90s when I was a child/teenager has put me off subconsciously.

Oh, curious how holiday locations differ?

Visited two years ago- we stayed near Castlerock and visited, amongst other places, Londonderry/Derry, Belfast, Coleraine.
We only remember friendliness. We particularly liked Londonderry (the journey on the train from Castlerock is beautiful). We saw that there was an open day at an old Protestant church and we went in out of curiosity. A church member showed us round, he was so interesting and talked about the worst times of the troubles, when he lost friends, without bitterness.
Obviously we were just tourists and in no way experts or knowledgeable, but we took home with us the impression of a welcoming country, coming to terms with its difficult past.
I did wonder beforehand if an English accent would cause tension but we didn't notice any.
I'd be interested to hear if others have had the same experience.

In the same way your daughter will be too due to the various cultural indicators she will have. For example I assume played hockey/ didn’t go to a Catholic primary school/ holiday locations/ ability to speak any Irish.

I've been and loved it, however I'm not from the UK or ROI so don't have any "baggage" so to speak.

It is a country in its own right

Are you saying NI is a country in its own right??

If so, that's the only correct thing in your post.

Mate, your history knowledge is as sketchy as anyone's I've ever encountered.

And I was not saying it's a province of Ireland!!!!

Wtf?

Again you are being naïve. I am a prod who is open minded and I will never be truly accepted in the republican area in which I work. Whether you like it or not the impact of the trauma here means that people will still categorise you as Protestant.

a lot of English people I've worked with didn't know ROI and NI were different countries

Yep, same here.

I used to go home and rant to my h "look at your fucking passport cover, you idiots!!!".

Being patronised by my neighbour about GCSEs which "we do here". Yes, dear we do them too, and whip your asses in the results tables every year.

Also enjoyable being asked my name and told "that's not a very Irish name!".

No worries, I'll go and tell my Ulster Scot origin, protestant parents (who don't exist in the brains of a lot of English (and American and Spanish, I could go on) people .... To rename me an "Irish" name, from a language they don't speak, and from a culture that's not theirs.

I visited Belfast, Derry and South Armagh around 1998 as part of a university field trip and loved it. Totally blew away all my preconceptions. It was so beautiful and thd people so friendly. I'm going to be honest I didn't really like the Belfast but loved Derry and South Armagh.

We have 4 provinces in Ireland. Northern Ireland is not a province it is a country. If you are talking provinces you would be talking Munster, leinster, connaght and ulster. None of which say northern ireland. NI is 6 counties taken from us and colonised by the British. It is a country in its own right. It is not and has never been a province of Ireland.

Do you not think that's a bit naive? DH is atheist (as am I), our DC are in the local Protestant school and our friends are from both communities but he's still very much Catholic. It's not just in terms of his identity (he'd never think to describe himself as British no matter how much I tease him), it's his views on the Troubles, his cultural touch points (music, literature, sport), his schooling.

I don't think anyone can have grown up in NI and not be influenced by their community. That doesn't have to be a bad thing though.

I'm not sure my DC will feel the same, I think there's hope that many young people will truly grow up without strongly identifying with either community but I do think it's a bit naive for those who remember the Troubles and the peace process.

That was very dramatic on their part, you could drive up the Shankill with southern reg and noone would bat an eyelid

That's because 'Great Britain refers to the island, the physical land mass that is made up of England, Wales & Scotland

Apparently Northern Ireland is considered both a country and a province.

In any case, the front of a British passport would appear to corroborate NI being seen as a country, because you'd think there would be no need for "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" if NI was just considered a province.
Whereas Wales and Scotland are considered part of Great Britain.

I just see it as similar to Scotland (Im Scottish) in terms of the friendliness of people and actual landscape, with a different accent. Feel totally comfortable and gutted I'm not able to go this weekend with family to Belfast for the annual trip.

My sister in law has moved there and loves it, would never come back to live in England. She does complain about the amount of rain though 🤪

@NoBinturongsHereMate aside from recently when the irish and english flags (flegs possibly) were united against the foreign ones the same weekend as the fleadh ceoil was on ironically with concerts in aide of palestine. Fun times.

Having been there several times in the 80s, I've never been in any rush to go back and I've not had a specific reason to go again.

There are so many other (less divided) places to visit.

Well then they didn't read my post properly, as I said that a lot of English people I've worked with didn't know ROI and NI were different countries. Not that NI wasn't part of the UK. Though I've met people in England who don't seem to know that either 🤣🤣

Yes I'm here nearly 20 years and I'm still learning new flags.

Which community are you from?

But they are different countries like scotland and wales are.