Do you consider people from Northern Ireland Irish??

Love2love

I was going to Newry on Sunday with a few friends from France and they asked about changing over money and needing passports to go over the border. I laughed and said no need and they really couldn't understand why.

I always thought of Northern Ireland to be Ireland, simple as that but they argued that different currency ect.

What do you think? In your view are they Irish, British or Northern Irish??

Degsy

Lousebags,thats what i consider them to be!

Eigeen

I always think of them as an entity onto themselves - i.e. Northerners. I would consider it a different country - and would have a much more negative view of it compare to U.K. Countries. Generally find Northerners to have a giant chip on their shoulders about everything.

mise_me_fein

Irish and becoming more connected with the rest of us since the peace.

CountingCrows

Love2love wrote: »

Northern Ireland

Its the "North Of Ireland" or the 6 counties, I don't recognise British Rule :mad:

Ruu_Old

Norn' Irish or Northies.

el_tiddlero

i consider them my oldest and dearest friends..

Bendihorse

Effin Nordies - Booo

PurpleBerry

If you're asking me that question in a very general manner then I say "yes, I do" but if I'm talking to / dealing with an actual person I generally ask. It's often tied to religion but not even always.

My dad and his family are Northern Irish Catholics and they all consider themselves to be Irish. Of course a lot of them do live on the Republic side of the border now. In Wexford.

bottletops

They are the unfriendly Irish!

tobiesheba

I think people from the six counties have the right to call themselves Irish or British - whichever, it doesn't bother me. But what does annoy me is when some people swear to be Irish but yet travel on a British passport. In my view if you see yourself as Irish you should have an Irish passport and vice versa.

Quazzie

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

dee8839

That's a good question. When it comes to famous people is when I notice my instinctive opinion on this. Like Liam Neeson - I never count him as Irish because he's from the North. But I don't count him as British either! So I'll have to go with Northern Irish as a seperate group altogether.

But they should be Irish not British if the world was how it should be!:(
Except Ian Paisley. They can have him.:rolleyes:

*runs away fearing any form of debate on the issue*

lostexpectation

northern irish, although i have feeling it suppose to be irish ?

robinph

Well officially they should have had passports with them to go to Northern Ireland with them being French.

Hrududu

The last time I was on the Belfast/Dublin bus the cops came on checking passports and took people off.

Love2love

robinph wrote: »

Well officially they should have had passports with them to go to Northern Ireland with them being French.

As France is an EU state, they do not require a passport. A national identity card will suffice.

But there is nobody at the border to check this anyway. Actually where exactly is the border? One minute you are on the M1 and the next you are in Newry, I actually didnt see a border.

digitally-yours

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

robinph

Love2love wrote: »

As France is an EU state, they do not require a passport. A national identity card will suffice.

ID card would be fine for them to travel between France and Germay, but not France and UK/ Ireland or across the UK-Ireland border either.

Love2love

robinph wrote: »

ID card would be fine for them to travel between France and Germay, but not France and UK/ Ireland or across the UK-Ireland border either.

My boyfriend is French and uses his ID card to come here as he doesnt have a passport. He was also accepted flying to Spain, Italy and Germay from here and visa versa

Mr. Presentable

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

Going out with her once was enough. She was/is not British. Even her passport makes the distinction

"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.

Acoshla

This got me into trouble with a friend of mine from Newry on Paddy's Day (and every other day after it when i mentioned it,haha) I consider her a part of Britain and not really Irish for two reasons

1. Her passport says British Citizen
2. She doesn't speak Irish

I'm not saying it in a bad way, merely identifying where she's from, she disputes it and says that she's 100% Irish, yet knows nothing about the Republic.

I always say its like when India was a British colony, there were plenty of British born there, their passports would say British and they wouldn't speak Indian, you didn't see them telling people they were Indian.

oriain

I consider them Northern Irish. It is a seperate country despite many peoples aspirations on the issue. (crunch, crunch go the egg shells) Plus, as was said above, it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland so not really British either.

Northies! Only good thing about that place is Ikea!

robinph

Love2love wrote: »

My boyfriend is French and uses his ID card to come here as he doesnt have a passport. He was also accepted flying to Spain, Italy and Germay from here and visa versa

I thought the various national ID cards were only recognised for internal Schengen travel.

Third_Echelon

Hrududu wrote: »

The last time I was on the Belfast/Dublin bus the cops came on checking passports and took people off.

Was the last time that you were on the Dublin to Belfast bus 1986 by any chance?

dreamr

their passports say British. end of.

but personsally i'd call them Northeners.

leninbenjamin

tobiesheba wrote: »

I think people from the six counties have the right to call themselves Irish or British - whichever, it doesn't bother me. But what does annoy me is when some people swear to be Irish but yet travel on a British passport. In my view if you see yourself as Irish you should have an Irish passport and vice versa.

i'm Irish but i would travel on a British passport if i had the opportunity. much better support in terms of embassies if you ever find yourself in a pickle. half the time us Irish have to make do with gong to a Swedish embassy.

robinph

leninbenjamin wrote: »

i'm Irish but i would travel on a British passport if i had the opportunity. much better support in terms of embassies if you ever find yourself in a pickle. half the time us Irish have to make do with gong to a Swedish embassy.

You can use a British one wherever an Irish one is not available, or any other EU embassy actually but seeing as they all tend to speak foreign probably not as usefull.

Magpie!

Geographically - Ireland

As a political entity/juristiction - Northern Ireland

As a people - if they consider themselves Irish I consider them Irish. If they don't I consider them scum*

Simple really.












*Not really. But I'd view them with a certain suspicion I must admit.

Genghiz Cohen

If they consider themselves Irish, so do I.

DEmeant0r

Spadina wrote: »

This got me into trouble with a friend of mine from Newry on Paddy's Day (and every other day after it when i mentioned it,haha) I consider her a part of Britain and not really Irish for two reasons

1. Her passport says British Citizen
2. She doesn't speak Irish

I'm not saying it in a bad way, merely identifying where she's from, she disputes it and says that she's 100% Irish, yet knows nothing about the Republic.

I always say its like when India was a British colony, there were plenty of British born there, their passports would say British and they wouldn't speak Indian, you didn't see them telling people they were Indian.

Wow you've a really big chip on your shoulder. Why does it matter if you speak Irish or not? Do many Irish actually speak Irish?

meglome

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

My friends sister is married to a northern protestant. He has two kids from a previous marriage and I asked the youngest and she told me she's British, but her father would say he's Irish. But to be honest after spending a bit of time up there they are in general as Irish as any other Irish person down south. Yes they've been brought up in the UK system, there attitudes are Irish even if they don't care to believe that. I think more and more northerners are coming to realise that they are indeed Irish and it's not a bad thing like they were always told.

super_furry

They're Nordies and they're all mad.

kevmy

Technically they are not part of Britain, they are part of the United Kingdom.

Secondly they are probably more correctly Northern Irish. This is because most of their decision making goes on in Stormont - not in Dublin or London

Thirdly and more importantly they are whatever they view themselves to be Irish, British, Northern Irish or Nordies

Finally aren't pepole born in the North before 98 or who has parents who are entitled to an Irish passport not a UK one

Hellm0

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.

crushproof

It all depends, I just call them Nordies!

I've Nordie friends who consider themselves Irish, and ones that consider themselve British!
It obviously depends on which side of the divide they grew up in!

All in all, what difference does it make!

darkman2

I consider them Irish. Some may say they are not but only the ones that never smile.

Patricide

I consider them just irish.

Stabshauptmann

They're a mixed bunch

Amazotheamazing

Canadians, and every single last one of them has a chip on their shoulder.

pickarooney

They're Europeans. If Americans don't feel the need to make the distinction, then neither do I.

BTW, there's no need for anyone to have ID going between the UK and Ireland. Sure haven't we a long-standing blind-eye agreement which pre-dates Schengen and effectively precludes us from acceding to the latter?

R0ot

I cross the border most days of the week traveling to school, for shopping or just to hang out with friends since I was little. Never in my mind have I considered people from Northern Ireland to be anything but Irish.

I was along with our local under 16 basketball team as a coach for a cross border league thing, there were 12 teams or so, nearly even mix from the north and the republic, during the lunch break in the middle one of the teams (from Dublin) was standing behind me and the other 2 coaches and a group of coaches from one of the northern teams, one of the kids from the Dublin based school said the following "i'll be glad when we're back around other Irish people" at this point one of the other coaches turned to the kid and said "you are around Irish people" the kids response was "nah I mean real Irish people" *slide in me holding the other coach from leaping at the kid* . [/short story]

O'Morris

Irish!

But I consider the Orangemen to be "New-Irish"

Fratton Fred

There's no such thing as British people, everyone is either English, Scottish or Welsh.

They aint any of those three so they must be Irish.

what flag they want to wave or what passport they want to carry is up to them I suppose, but they are Irish as far as I am concerned.

CPT. SURF

Well if they do not want to be Irish I am so over them. Although the irony for me is that most foreigners (i.e. Americans, Ozzies, Kiwis, Saffas, etc.) consider them Irish whether they like it or not. I once saw a big American guy laugh in the face of a Nordie when he told him he was British.

This is because the Irish are loved the world over. Therefore

Us>>>>>>>>>Nordies

Fratton Fred

I thought another airing of this is called for

Ali: "So is you Irish?"
Sammy: "No, I'm British."
Ali: "So is you on here on holiday?"
Sammy: "No, Northern Ireland has always been part of Britain."

Sammy: "The vast majority of people in Northern Ireland actually use
the police for their own protection."
Ali: "But why is they using a breakdown service as police, that, to
to me, sound like the most stupid thing. No wonder they is
fighting here or whatever, if..."
Sammy: "I think you've got a mistake, it's the RUC."
Ali: "A'ight."

George Paton, Orange Lodge Grandmaster in Northern Ireland.

Ali: "Do you have music at this march?"
George: "Oh yes, yes, lots of music, the whole works."
Ali: "For real, do you have drums?"
George: "Drums, yes."
Ali: "And is you like knocking out a drum and bass thing or is it
more kind of speed garage that you is knocking out?"
George: "It's all there, different drummers have their own rhythms,
it's an individual thing."
Ali: "Do you not think though, me just not giving advice but me
sayin' from me own experience, sometimes it's good to back up
the drums with a bit of human beat box?"
George: "Yes, er..."
Ali: "Do you not think that would be good?"
George: "Yes, course it would."
Ali: "If someone is doing, you know, dumpf, duf, dumpf, duf, dumpf,
people could chill form both sides and get into that."
George: "I would hope that people could."

Ali: "What can we do to increase the peace? Would you ever marry a
protestant girl?"
George: "I have, yes."
Ali: "Well that is a gesture, no, that is a long way to getting the
peace."
George: "Yeah but I'm a protestant as well."
Ali: "Okay, alright, well, so if you weren't married to her, would
you marrying a Catholic girl then?"
George: "Possibly because of my faith I wouldn't."
Ali: "What if she was fit really though? What then?"
George: "Because my religion is so important to me, that's going to be
the overriding factor."
Ali: "But what if she had her own car, she had a, you know, sound
system, whatever, she wasn't gonna be stealing money from
you, whatever. Would you go with her then?"
George: "I think that, you know, I am friends with Roman Catholics,
and I have Romen Catholic friends, but..."
Ali: "But would you get jiggy with them?"
George: "It would never come to that, my religion is the most
important thing to me."
Ali: "Even if they was really, really fit?"
George: "Yes, yes. That's the bottom line, yes. That's hard for people
to understand, but..."
Ali: "Even if she was incredibly the fittest."
George: "Even so, yes."
Ali: "So you is telling me honest that if, like, The Corrs, them
band The Corrs, they came in here now and said they wanted to
marry you, you wouldn't just jump and say yes."
George: "Yes, I've got my views, they are important to me."
Ali: "You is telling me you would say no to The Corrs."
George: "Yes, yes..."
Ali: "All three of them."
George: "Yes."
Ali: "So you really believe this thing. You're really into it, it
ain't just a joke."

and to balance things up

Sue Ramsey, member of the assembly of Sinn Fein.

Ali: "And what is the language that they speak here?"
Sue: "Gaelic."
Ali: "Gay-lick? What is that like, a batty language or somethin'?"

Ali: "What is the story with drugs and that kind of thing here? Is
there a problem with drugs here?"
Sue: "Um, there probably is."
Ali: "Is maybe the cause of the problem that they say, and maybe it is
a stereotype or whatever but that say that the Irish is always
up for the crack or whatever. You've got a problem because the
crack make you violent, me know people from me estate, they go
mental whenever there is someone around they want to fight them,
whatever, it's a bad drug."
Sue: "No, crack in Ireland means having a good time."
Ali: "A'ight, for real, but it ain't all fun, it's also bad stuff as
well, there's a high but after you've finished it there's a
low."

leninbenjamin

robinph wrote: »

You can use a British one wherever an Irish one is not available, or any other EU embassy actually but seeing as they all tend to speak foreign probably not as usefull.

i think it depends in which region you are in, no? I though us and Sweden have some reciprocal agreement for embassies in Asia (where i was in when i was told the Swedis embassy).

or maybe whatever I read was out of date...

newballsplease

i dont see them as been irish or british. however they see themselves i suppose. id hate to have to see someone whos plays gaa with antrim or down etc been called british. and vise versa, id hate to see an orangeman or ian paisley been known as irishmen.

greatgoal

theyre living on the island of ireland so theyre irish,even if they want to be english,theyre still irish,if they all move across the water to that other island called england,they will be the people from the other island called ireland,so they will in theory still and always will be irish.:D

stovelid

Northies, but subsumed under the not-Dublin category.

HalloweenJack

I've always considered themselves Northern Irish, they can like it or lump it.

I am a Nationalist, though not in the Sinn Féin interpetation, so I believe we are all Irish but while they insist on being different, they're Northern Irish.