Northern Ireland - how do you perceive it?

[TheBelleOfBelfastCity]

Genuinely just curious. I was born and raised in NI, opinions on MN seem to vary wildly from no go zone to friendly and welcoming. Trying to got a sense of what the most common thoughts are.

Have you visited? Maybe even thought about doing so? What was your opinion?

My granny's house in Scotland is grey pebble dash. My ADHD-self spent many a summer picking the pebbles off the wall, much to her annoyance. And her textured wallpaper in the bathroom 😬

@DonnaHadDee I suspect you live reasonably close to me with that user name 😂.

Our area certainly has it's issues but the community spirit and support is like no other. I always consider myself quite lucky to be from that area. It's definitely becoming a bit more diverse with all the new housing in the surrounding towns and villages.

My dad moved down from Holywood when he married it was a standing joke in our family for years after how many layers he wore the first winter.

@OwlishPeering

In fact, one of the oddities of the relationship between England and Ireland (and my experience of NI isn’t extensive enough to grasp where, if anywhere, it fits in to this) is that English culture has a weird habit of ascribing things to Irishness that are really just as much aspects of English culture it either doesn’t see or doesn’t want to see, or are largely or entirely imaginary. Reviews of Irish literary fiction are often fun hunting grounds for this.

TBF this goes both ways. I've had a couple of relationships with ROI men and Irish friends who were very keen to give lectures on how the English/Brits had an entirely different culture to Irish people. I grew up in suburban England Midlands and South where I couldn't tell the difference between what Irish or British people did that was in anyway stereotypical of either. Looked pretty similar to me, there are plenty of native culture differences within the UK population as there seem to be in ROI depending on where you live but at the same time mostly similar too, I just couldn't really see what was so typically English about it.

I didn't feel I had to change anything to fit in when I travelled to ROI. In fact most people I met in ROI seemed greatly surprised I wasn't Irish, having been caught in possession of an English accent, as though there is a discernable Irish look and way of being as opposed to a English or British one. Obviously I kept my mouth shut on that because I'd pretty much had enough of the lectures of not being Irish enough in whatever constituted that i.e. the way I made a cup of tea (???), using the word sarnie, ate black pudding instead of white, and any other weird or unacceptable English type behaviour.

@@thisiswheretheseagullfliesaway No, the water in Ballyholme is lovely and warm :) I really never realized it was cold until I went to boarding school!! It's like everywhere I guess, there are good people and bad people. I should clarify we (DH and I) moved back to England a few years back. But I recently lived/worked remotely there for 4 years prior to my parents passing.

When people talk about Irish culture, they mean Irish Catholic culture, don’t they. I read descriptions of people queuing up to go to strangers’ funerals, enormous, riotous wakes and everyone knowing everyone else’s business, and think I can’t imagine much further away from my Northern Irish Presbyterian family. Who have been known to spend four hours in a room with relatives they haven’t seen for five years, without any sentence longer than “aye, well” being uttered.

Absolutely! Irish catholics have a very different culture from many of the more traditional protestants that I know. Particularly in relation to drinking and socialising!

The protestants VS catholic clip in Derry Girls is funny as it is quite close to the truth.

DS and I had a fantastic week in Belfast, rural Antrim and Derry last Easter.

My perception is that Belfast is pretty cool now with loads to do. Derry small but with the friendliest people in the world (maybe we just got lucky?) and Antrim is very beautiful.

The Titanic museum is one of the best we have ever been to. We ate some brilliant food in Belfast and Derry and we also had some amazing live music.

If there is any possibility you could do something about the weather over there, that would be great.

DS was fascinated by the political situation and we did the open top bus tour about six times. If I'm being honest, I feel pretty scared to talk to Northern Irish people about politics for fear of causing offence in some way. I have lots of friends and family from the Republic of Ireland and don't feel as similar caution there. I guess it is all a bit raw. And I still don't really understand how things working in places like Belfast- for example, would you know if your GP was protestant or Catholic and would it matter?

I suspect Irish Protestants (as in, Protestants south of the border) would be closer to the Irish Catholic stereotypes than the NI Presbyterian ones - so they are Irish stereotypes that don't translate to NI unionists rather than Catholic stereotypes. If that makes any sense. Also very much open to correction on that, if there are any mythical Irish Protestants on the thread.

It could be a misunderstanding. Midlands born here, everyone else knowing everything that goes on in others households, big families, big funerals etc is perfecty normal there and yet not quite so common in the south of England where I live. The north and midlands were pretty boisterous places family wise in the 70s and 80s, to an extent, they still are.

I don't imagine most people would care if their doctor was protestant or catholic! Sometimes names indicate what religion someone is. Harder to distinguish between more middle class people. There is an old not very nice saying that when Catholics get money they start acting like Protestants. Also called 'west brits' or 'Castle Catholics'. Have heard my good catholic friends (middle class) referred to as this by republicans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Brit#:~:text=Castle%20Catholic%20was%20applied%20more,office%20of%20the%20British%20administration.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2g1lw0yn6o

Only a few weeks ago. What a shame that some find this acceptable. Seemingly the sign was there for some time before being removed by police.
Love Belfast and Derry. Derry is very friendly and easy to navigate.

They didn't mention the traybakes though!!

It definitely used to be the case that Catholics had Irish names and Protestants had English names. I get the impression that has blurred and middle class Protestants now quite often give their children traditional Irish names. But there’s also a lot more intermarriage (what a bizarre term in the 21st century) than there used to be. My dad’s favourite joke was “but are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic one?”- which he said people would genuinely ask him when he was young in the 50s and 60s.

Been to Belfast twice recently (just back from the second one) and would very happily live there. Like the place, LOVE the people, who are so much friendlier than the English folk I meet. Don't get me wrong, I love my home country and am English, but sorry, the NI peeps were just kinder, speaking to homeless people, looking after their elderly GPs etc. Saw it all and it's just different.

Totally agree. I used to live in Scotland. When I used to visit NI sometimes I thought that people in shops etc weren’t quite right as they were so chatty and friendly until my mother pointed out it was just I wasn’t used to it in Edinburgh lol

Northern Irish Presbyterian family and we definitely have huge wakes. A relation died recently and despite committing the sin of having the house private the door never stopped, of course I didn't mean private to them! Weirdly they often turn into joyous occasions with shared memories and funny stories.

There's definitely wee men and women nearby who attend any funeral going probably for the tea, sausage rolls and traybakes and legendary apple creams 😂. There's an old crater in our village who attends a different gospel hall every night for the supper after and finishes it off with a whiskey in the pub way home!

@DonnaHadDee where I live has almost doubled in size in the last ten years. It's more a commuter town now than a seaside town as the properties are cheaper and it's in easy distance to Belfast the new homes have brought more diversity to the area. There's still the odd one who thinks you only belong if you've two sets of grandparents in the graveyard 😂. My family are only here 50 years, pure blow ins to some.

Downside is the weather. I'm forever cleaning sand of the car and windows on a windy day. A mouthful of sand is a likely hazard you get used to shielding your eyes from it. Today though the smell of the sea on the breeze was beautiful it's the nicest smell on earth.

NI Presbyterians (and other Protestant denominations) have big wakes too! They're just more likely to be 'dry', ie no alcohol!

Ooh, apple creams sound interesting @thisiswheretheseagullfliesaway!
I've never even heard of them before and they're legendary you say - I fear I may be missing out 😁

I imagine it to be wet and grey and quite industrial and bleak.

DH has been for work and said it was a great place.

I've never visited because there are other places I'd rather go to.

Sorry to be so negative but you did ask for genuine opinions.

You're wrong, but don't come if you don't want to!

Not at all!! It’s very green and not industrial really! Really pretty and lots of amazing beaches.

Very industrial and bleak, yes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/676500406259034/?ref=share

There are nearly as many cows as people (1.9 million v 1.6 million). Belfast is a huge city of nearly 300,000 people - half the size of Manchester.

Apple pies with no pastry top. Instead of a pastry topping it's a dollop of fresh cream. Best in autumn with a blackberry on top.