Moving to Antrim,Ballycastle, Coleraine?

[Greenelandahoy]

Hello folks.
I’m considering a move from the East of England to NI. My partner works and lives in NI. (From N.I too). The areas considered are mentioned specifically in the title.

I am well versed in the history between the two countries and the current politics (for a variety of reasons) and this awareness makes me feel sensitive to the people and how I or my family may be viewed. I myself am sensitive towards the issues not at all ignorant.

My concerns are as follows:
Is there an anti British sentiment in the areas I’ve mentioned and how much of this would be played out towards my family and myself. You know, cutting remarks or being ignored or basically outcast! We were in Donegal (I know it’s a different place but my son was taunted in the bar and called a Tan. He isn’t a Tan, he’s early 20s!)

I am not religious but I note most schools seem to be much focussed on P or C rather than integrated. Would our atheism this be viewed negatively by either camp or prevent integration into the communities?

Is the health service as bad as people say? I’ve been to the A&E dept twice now in Coleraine and it’s way more efficient than my experiences in England!

Is there any right to roam at all ? I can’t quite get my head around not being able to walk across the countryside like in England.

Also, the flags scare me. How significant are the flags. Are they warnings to folks? Someone told me they make it clear who lives in the area and who is/isn’t welcome.

Any feedback, advice, straightforward comments massively appreciated.

Reasons for wanting to move are :

Beautiful landscape.
The Sea!
So far, very very friendly people who seem overwhelmingly helpful and kind, except for man in Donegal.
Good education system (from what I hear)
Smaller population
Not frantic like England.
Just really like it and it makes me sad to leave.

Basically, I don’t want to move somewhere and end up ostracised and hated (through no fault of my own) and make a massive mistake that could be costly in so many ways. My heritage is Irish/English but a generation or so back. I can’t exactly walk around with a badge identifying my DNA now, can I.

Cheers for any forthcoming helpful comments.

I'm from the Republic but have spent some time in N.Ireland. Coleraine was always a Unionist town , I can't imagine you would get much grief about being British there. Ballycastle might be more mixed. There is far less commonage here than in England - basically big landowners nicked everything. Rather like Scotland? More walking routes are being opened up though. DH will know the ins and outs surely?

You will be absolutely fine as an English person in the vast majority of NI, I don’t think you need to worry at all tbh! Especially if your partner is from NI and local to the areas you mention. No one will care about your atheism either. Integrated schools are becoming more of an option but you’re right in that the majority are Protestant and catholic. There is probably more religion in schools than in England, our primary school would have religious assemblies, say grace, sing hymns etc but there is no need to prescribe to any religion to attend, and you can opt out if you want to.

I’m not sure what you mean about flags. They go up around the 12th of July and various other times, and basically Protestant areas will have union jacks and red hand of ulsters up and catholic areas will have the tricolour up, but in generally it won’t be an issue for you at all. I give it zero thought. You won’t have any reason to go into any of the really hardcore catholic and Protestant areas so you’ll be fine.

Right to roam? Well you can’t just walk across random farmers fields unless there is a bridle path, but around the North coast in particular there are loads of public footpaths around the coast, and there are loads of forest parks and country parks that you can walk miles in!

I'm currently house hunting in Coleraine so interested to see the responses