Do you consider people from Northern Ireland Irish??

Agonist

Bitter nordy cunts, giving our fine country a bad name. I wouldn't give them the honour of calling them British, at the end of the day they're as English as the queen. You don't hear them saying, 'rashers and eggs' now, do you? QED

flanum

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

I consider them northies but for me I also throw Cavan Monaghon into that bracket

eh? how do you work that one out? if your going provincial, then what about Donegal?

nebra

tut tut, the ones that play GAA are Irish, the soldiers with the funny accents are British, and the ones with the orange sashes are northern Irish

funk-you

Agonist wrote: »

Bitter nordy cunts, giving our fine country a bad name. I wouldn't give them the honour of calling them British, at the end of the day they're as English as the queen. You don't hear them saying, 'rashers and eggs' now, do you? QED

bunny shooter

Blue 84 wrote: »

...........The few occasions I've been over the border I've never felt that I was still in Ireland, if you get me.....

The one time I went up there, I know exactly what you mean

ardmacha

says that she's 100% Irish, yet knows nothing about the Republic.

So no doubt someone knows nothing about the North is not Irish either. Ignorance of other parts of the country, while undesirable, does not determine whether you are Irish or not.

The Republic is just a region of Ireland, albeit a large one, defining your identity with this region only, rather than Ireland, is no different than being from Cork and looking down on everyone else.

WooPeeA

digitally-yours wrote: »

once went out with a girl from Belfast

called her "Irish" and she said I am "British"
As a proof she showed me her passport :mad:

it was in 2005
I guess things have changed since then

I had same situation with my previous manager in 2006. I asked her where is she from, she said "Northern Ireland".. I said "So, you're like Irish" and smiled. "Not really, I'm British" she said..


I think it may depend of where their families come from. If all of them live in Dublin, they would rather describe themselves as Irish, but if their family comes from Liverpool, I wouldn't expect them describing themselves as Irish to be honest..

doonothing

Northern Irish, surely?
I mean, part of the UK, attached to Ireland, but... Northern Irish, surely?

Xavi6

Cheers for the 'I don't care' option

BraziliaNZ

horrible place, horrible people with chips on their shoulders, bigots, racists, horrible accents, all this springs to mind when I think of the North. If they have an Irish passport and Irish Catholic roots I'd consider them Irish. The rest of them are not "British" as such but "From the UK", as Britain refers to the island of Britain itself.

hussey

I think they are officially classified as

"Not from Dublin"

Jimoslimos

nipplenuts wrote: »

"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is embossed on the cover. So, even the British say she is Irish.

OP, geographically they are Irish, politically they are Northern Irish (part of the UK but not GB), so I'd say yes, even if their name is Paisley, they are Irish.

Perhaps the "British" thing is a reference to the british isles and not just "Great Britain (which consists of Engand, Scotland & Wales). Rather unpalatable for many here as it lumps us Irish in as well.

Of course this is just silliness, akin to referring to everybody from Brazil-Mexico-Canada as "American" because of their geographical location.

In my opinion a large part of the problem (the unionist side anyway) stems from a lack of national identity, Not really Irish, somewhere in between English or Scottish perhaps - but with recent moves by both countries (post-devolution in Scotland and a rise in English nationalism its left the nordies the only ones flying the flag. Hence the marches, and the desperate efforts to cling on to any piece of history they have with britain.

Sam Vimes

Hellm0 wrote: »

I think there is a simple fix for this very large and very long running misunderstanding.

Look at a map.

For me, the map tells a pretty simple story. Looks like Ireland is an Island, one with a different color chunk on the top. The chunk was not always a different color but people made it so. That chunk may be claimed to be a part of some other country but never the less it is still a part of Ireland and always has been.

That said folks can imagine themselves to be whatever nationality they want but at the end of the day I think it's pretty obvious for all to see that the north is a part of Ireland.

an englishman could use exactly the same logic for scotland and wales

mise_me_fein

It really depends on where you live. I live near enough the border so I'm more likely to meet people from the north and when you see they are the same you just don't ever think that they are British.

It ignorance to say they aren't Irish just by hearing an accent from the TV. The only reason they would be different to people from the south is the level of violence some of them grew up with but I think Dublin is more dangerous than Belfast now.

It's mostly only people that rarely go up north that would consider it a different country.

gurramok

On the numbers side(barring minorities), there are mainly two tribes up there so you can't label them all as Irish/British/Northern Irish as each person has a different affinity to other nations.

A simple rule is that..
If they have a nationalist background, they are Irish like us down south.
If they have an unionist background, they consider themselves 'British' or as part of the uk for the pedantics.
If they don't care what tribe they are from, they usually call themselves 'Northern Irish'.

I'd recommend any bargain hunters to goto Newry and see for themselves whats it like. It's just like any other Irish town in ROI and the reason is because it's mainly a nationalist town whose inhabitants identify with being Irish.
To see how the other side plays, goto Banbridge or Lisburn and you will see it's mostly the opposite.

bill_ashmount

gurramok wrote: »

A simple rule is that..
If they have a nationalist background, they are Irish like us down south.
If they have an unionist background, they consider themselves 'British' or as part of the uk for the pedantics.
If they don't care what tribe they are from, they usually call themselves 'Northern Irish'.

Agreed



Edit to say: Belfast and Derry are Irish cities in my opinion. I don't care what British/Irish or International law says. Always have been always will be.

Fratton Fred

bill_ashmount wrote: »

Edit to say: Belfast and Londonderry are Irish cities in my opinion. I don't care what British/Irish or International law says. Always have been always will be.

fixed that for ya

citytillidie

From the North i am Irish and hold an Irish passport

Terry

Island of Ireland. Irish.

mise_me_fein

Anyone got any feelings on Rockall?

Fratton Fred

mise_me_fein wrote: »

Anyone got any feelings on Rockall?

its British, everyone who lives there agrees as well.

Terry

Fratton Fred wrote: »

its British, everyone who lives there agrees as well.

Why?
Because some british sailors stuck a flag on it?

It's Irish. End of.

Fratton Fred

Terry wrote: »

Why?
Because some british sailors stuck a flag on it?

that's pretty much how it works, yeah.

Usually its followed up by building an Anglican Church, but I guess they haven't got round to that yet.:D

PrivateEye

First thing that comes to mind is that AliG skit up North.

"Is you Irish?"
"No! I'm British!"
"Then are you on holidays or something?"

I can't see partition remaining in place for another 100 years truthfully, economically and socially I don't think it will make sense. The British Government truly don't give a damn for the region, British taxpayers mainly see it as a waste of money. A new state would- as I always point out- need a new flag/anthem and the rest if you're to convince 'unionists' (dont use the word Prodestant, sure wasn't Wolfe Tone a prodestant...) to leave the U.K they will need an input in the symbolism etc. of the new state.

I hate the Kevin My-Arse type of attitude some Irish people hold to the North. They're not bloody aliens 'up there', if you actually enaged with the locals when filling your car in Newry you'd all notice that. The 'border line' was cut through a mainly nationalist province too remember, and many of the towns/cities in the North strongly identify with the south. Look at Newry during GAA season.

Plus, it's 2008. Beyond a handfull of 'God Saves...' and 'Chuckys', the North is more or less the same as the South, bar the colour of the postboxes.

I also hate the attitude of the British media when it comes to picking whos Irish and who's British. There's a Christy Moore song called 'On The Mainland' where he talks about how they claimed 'Seamus Heaney from Londonderry" when he won the Nobel Prize, but wouldn't touch "Bellaghys other boys" with a stick!

"Be advised, my passport's green
No glass of ours was ever raised
To toast the Queen."

-Seamus Heaney


---
citytillidie, you a Derry City supporter? Patricks here, but love the Derry crowd. Great lot.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Fratton Fred wrote: »

that's pretty much how it works, yeah.

Usually its followed up by building an Anglican Church, but I guess they haven't got round to that yet.:D

...or, in our case, a pub and a guy in a Celtic shirt.

L1011

PrivateEye wrote: »

F

"Be advised, my passport's green
No glass of ours was ever raised
To toast the Queen."

I'm sure his passports actually purple, or black if its a 1 year replacement

Holsten

They are Nordies... neither British nor Irish.

Terrontress

Why can someone not be British AND Irish as they can be British and Scottish, English and Welsh. There is a difference between Great Britain and Britain.

Another interesting point is that Northern Ireland is the part of Ireland that has not had a change in constitution in God knows how long. To the people from the Republic, to suggest that people from the North are not Irish as they are ultimately ruled by London would mean that your grandparents, great-grandparents and back were not Irish. The people who led the 1916 rebellion were not Irish as they lived and died under rule from Westminster.

Both the UK and Ireland are fairly miserable places, filled with miserable people and ugly girls. I'm from Belfast and use a British passport as it was cheaper than an Irish one and there is a UK passport office in Belfast. I'd gladlay travel on any EU passport without any worry.

CPG

Horsefumbler wrote: »

I consider them british, coz they live in britain.

Well after reading through this thread, I consider you all to be truly "Irish"

Dear God Help US

Here_Young_Wan

I call em Nordies, consider them Irish.