Southerner/Northerner?

deman

I've always hated these terms!! I hate it when I my friends in the North call me a Southerner and my friends in Dublin (when I lived there for 2 years) called me a Northerner.

I am NOT the southern Ireland!!

I am NOT from Northern Ireland!!

I am from Donegal!! (although I left 11 years ago)

Finns always ask me "Donegal? Is that Southern or Northern Ireland?"

Do you get this? What do you day?

Aligator Farmer

Yep, I get that too, I usually say "geographically north, politcally south".
(I await corrections from the regulars here ;-)
If someones really interested I'll go into more detail.
Don't let it get to you, many people have a limited knowledge of the geography of their own country, never mind someone elses.

mamakevf

Agreed, used to work in a pub in L/K and an odd time I'd get people from down south asking me if we accepted Euro's. (or Punt's)

Senna

Used to work over in london and had a lot of conversations like this;

Them; What part of Ireland are you from?
Me; Donegal
Them; Is that in the North or South?
Me; Well, i live a couple of miles away from the most northerly point of the Island.
Them; So its the North,
Me; No, it the south.
Them;
Me; :cool:

Daniel O Donnel

It does my head in when people refer to Donegal people as being from the south:mad:

Had to laugh at a woman on the rte news one time from Malin town, she was being interviewed about when her local post office was robbed and she said" they wern't locals as they had northern accents"

I always say l am from the republic.

jonnygee

Once had a shopkeeper in galway ask me if i was from the "black north" whatever that meant, i usually say that i am from the north and the south, which is correct, just to confuse people.

Madam

Does it matter so much, sure are we not all from Ireland?:rolleyes:

muffler

What confuses a lot of people is the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland and the South of Ireland/Southern Ireland terms.

The North and South terms are geographic while the terms Northern and Southern are taken in a more political context.

RodgerTheDoger

Southern Ireland? No such place. ROI or N.Ireland. Anyone asked me am I from the south, I say yes in an old style american southern accent and tell them me and Kernel Sanders just love the chicken from Kentucky! Then say go look at a map Dumb Dumb!

babaloushka

Depending on where I am on the island of Ireland, I say I'm from this side or the other side of the border. I used to just say 'the other side' until one witty woman in a shop in Derry asked me when I had passed away

smashey

Senna wrote: »

Used to work over in london and had a lot of conversations like this;

Them; What part of Ireland are you from?
Me; Donegal
Them; Is that in the North or South?
Me; Well, i live a couple of miles away from the most northerly point of the Island.
Them; So its the North,
Me; No, it the south.
Them;
Me; :cool:

I used to do this as well.

BlackEdelweiss

I always say I am from the northern part of Ireland.

Cee-Jay-Cee

As above, rather than confusing people who have to ask where donegal is, i say i'm from the northern part of republic of ireland. I hate the term sourthern ireland, southern ireland is cork/kerry etc etc

donegalman1

I have often heard people from Strabane and Derry call us Freestaters!

My best one was in the 90's working for the Regional Tourism Authority and getting a call from the Tourist office in Cork at the time of Drumcree disturbances in NI, now this was the official Tourist Office in Cork.

Her: What are the Roads Like up there.

(In Fairness I knew what she meant)

Me: They are Tarmacadam, some smaller country lanes have grass in the middle, most roads have two lanes and we actually have a stretch of Dual Carraigeway!

She proceeded to give me a lecture on sarcasm which I enjoyed and let her ask me about all the rioting, burned out vehicles and marches on our roads. It was her clear understanding that Donegal was in Northern Ireland, the people wanted to come and she only rang on their insistance

I took the time in my long fashioned manner to point out at least twelve publications that had maps of Ireland in her office and how a knowledge of Geography would be of benefit to her role.

I have no objection to people from abroad etc making mistakes but when an Irish Tourist Office was basing their holiday advice to people on the clear belief that we were in Northern Ireland I felt, I now knew why Donegal got it so hard to attract people.

The difference in Northern Ireland offices both Bord Failte and NI Tourist Board to Donegal compared to southern ones was astonishing. Dublin is 5hrs from Kerry, 3 hrs from Donegal, never marketed that way by Dublin and when we had the troubles to contend with too....

Monkeybonkers

I tell people that it's in the Republic but in the Northern part of the country. I've had to repeat this thousands of times. Lots of Irish people don't know if it's in the Republic or the North.

danjo

Interesting thread. Surprised that there is that much confusion.

One thing I find amusing with some of my Donegal friends is when they speak about going "up" to Dublin.
Don't know how widespread this is in Donegal.

For me it was always going "down" from Donegal to Dublin or "up" to Donegal.

deman

danjo wrote: »

Interesting thread. Surprised that there is that much confusion.

One thing I find amusing with some of my Donegal friends is when they speak about going "up" to Dublin.
Don't know how widespread this is in Donegal.

For me it was always going "down" from Donegal to Dublin or "up" to Donegal.

When I lived in Dublin, I always talked about going "down" to Dublin but my Dublin friends always corrected me by saying "it's always 'up' to the capital".

babaloushka

deman wrote: »

When I lived in Dublin, I always talked about going "down" to Dublin but my Dublin friends always corrected me by saying "it's always 'up' to the capital".

Opposite for me - grew up in Dublin and always said 'up' to Donegal and 'down' to Dublin. Just seems right when you look at a map and think geographically - you'd never say 'down' North or 'up' South

Mint Sauce

Senna wrote: »

Used to work over in london and had a lot of conversations like this;

Them; What part of Ireland are you from?
Me; Donegal
Them; Is that in the North or South?
Me; Well, i live a couple of miles away from the most northerly point of the Island.
Them; So its the North,
Me; No, it the south.
Them;
Me; :cool:

had a very similar conversation growing up in london at school, with a lad who also claimed to be born to irish parents

conversation went something like

him - wheres your parents from
me - fermanagh and donegal
him - so their both from n ireland then
me - no only one is
him - but their both n ireland
me - no, fermanagh is politcally north, donegal is geograpically,
him - but their both in the north of the country, which is part of the UK
me - (might have drawn a map at this stage), donegal is in the rep' (pointed to spot on map), fermanagh is in n ireland (pointed to shaded part of map)

he still didn't get it