Bushmills

Fuinseog

I was up there this year and last year and had the gut feeling I was not welcome there. maybe they are cold to everyone or is it the southern accent? it surprised me because Bushmills is on the tourist trail.
at the caueway thez were a bit friendlier.

do they still hate catholics and people from the Republic in the area?
is it safe to bethere in July?

its a lovely part of the world otherwise.

homerhop

Was up there last year, one guy in the distillery was sound out, chatted away to us and gave us some good advice on things to do. Went into the gift shop and have to say the girl behind the counter was very ignorant. Paid for some stuff and she threw my credit card at me. Stayed in the Smugglers inn, once again the bar staff were very friendly and chatted away but in the morning I felt the waitress blanked us when she heard our accent but chatted freely others.

owenc

Well the whole area of bushmills is protestant (something like 99%), you should've known that by the uk flags everywhere and the blue, red and white kerbs.. (yeah its very childish!)... they are generally good people and won't care were you are from, they should be used to tourists (everytime i go up there to the causeway hotel there i see loads of tourist buses, though most of the people are from donegal so they wouldn't notice an accent difference really, maybe thats why they looked at you, as its quite odd to see someone with an irish accent here i've never heard an irish accent here ever, plus alot of the people up there are farmers so they will be very backward and will stare at you because of the wierd accent, the locals are a bit odd here i don't know what it is , its just the way they go on here. Don't worry it'll be fine, those things are just rare occurrences.

owenc

homerhop wrote: »

Was up there last year, one guy in the distillery was sound out, chatted away to us and gave us some good advice on things to do. Went into the gift shop and have to say the girl behind the counter was very ignorant. Paid for some stuff and she threw my credit card at me. Stayed in the Smugglers inn, once again the bar staff were very friendly and chatted away but in the morning I felt the waitress blanked us when she heard our accent but chatted freely others.

She probably blanked you out because of the accent some people here are very bitter won't socalise with catholics.. tut tut. . you know the type.. :rolleyes: Feel like giving them a slap the stuff they come out with.. or maybe she just didn't understand your accent , its very rare to see that accent here..

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

She probably blanked you out because of the accent some people here are very bitter won't socalise with catholics.. tut tut. . you know the type.. :rolleyes: Feel like giving them a slap the stuff they come out with.. or maybe she just didn't understand your accent , its very rare to see that accent here..

you hear about these things but think its exaggerated. when you experience it for real its one heck of a shock. they could make a fortune from southern tourists, but the latter are still afraid to go near the place.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Well the whole area of bushmills is protestant (something like 99%), you should've known that by the uk flags everywhere and the blue, red and white kerbs.. (yeah its very childish!)... they are generally good people and won't care were you are from, they should be used to tourists (everytime i go up there to the causeway hotel there i see loads of tourist buses, though most of the people are from donegal so they wouldn't notice an accent difference really, maybe thats why they looked at you, as its quite odd to see someone with an irish accent here i've never heard an irish accent here ever, plus alot of the people up there are farmers so they will be very backward and will stare at you because of the wierd accent, the locals are a bit odd here i don't know what it is , its just the way they go on here. Don't worry it'll be fine, those things are just rare occurrences.

we don't care if they are protestant or what flag they are flying. we are on holidays and are there to enjozy ourselves, yet the naked hatred is reminiscent of the deep south in 1960s america.

trad

Was up there last year and didn't get a great reception in the distillery. Made a point of paying them with useless Ulster streling. Yet down the road in Cushedall it's all hurling and bi lingual road signs (and I don't mean Scots Gallic). Hard to figure out whether you are welcome or not up there so won't be going back in a hurry.

owenc

trad wrote: »

Was up there last year and didn't get a great reception in the distillery. Made a point of paying them with useless Ulster streling. Yet down the road in Cushedall it's all hurling and bi lingual road signs (and I don't mean Scots Gallic). Hard to figure out whether you are welcome or not up there so won't be going back in a hurry.

Thats because they are in east antrim, not north antrim... and they are the only areas that you will find bi lingual sings in antrim or derry/londonderry... that i know of, once past cushendun and cushendall its the same as north antrim again.. and they won't do you any harm, are you angry just because they had british flags up???

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

we don't care if they are protestant or what flag they are flying. we are on holidays and are there to enjozy ourselves, yet the naked hatred is reminiscent of the deep south in 1960s america.

I don't think they hate you because of were you are from its more "whats he/she doing here for" because they are while nosy up here you see.. its just our way of doing things, i think they are more thick up here.. its funny that the thick dialects are always nosy.. a bit like farmers.

trad

owenc wrote: »

Thats because they are in east antrim, not north antrim... and they are the only areas that you will find bi lingual sings in antrim or derry/londonderry... that i know of, once past cushendun and cushendall its the same as north antrim again.. and they won't do you any harm, are you angry just because they had british flags up???

Angry because of flag flying? hardly. More bemused at the dirrerences a couple of miles make. Wasn't expecting to come to any harm, they just could be more welcoming. I suppose tourists from the south are relatively new to the area.

Beautiful scenery up there, went from Larne aroud to Carrick a Rede (was closed) along the coast. Off to Killarney on Monday.

owenc

trad wrote: »

Angry because of flag flying? hardly. More bemused at the dirrerences a couple of miles make. Wasn't expecting to come to any harm, they just could be more welcoming. I suppose tourists from the south are relatively new to the area.

Beautiful scenery up there, went from Larne aroud to Carrick a Rede (was closed) along the coast. Off to Killarney on Monday.

Well i suppose so people are a bit rare here, its very hard to explain but you get the jist after that visit and yea tourists are very rare besides donegal ones but they aren't really tourists you know.;) The coast is lovely around carrick a rede would love to live there.

eightyfish

I went to the Bushmills distillery with my girlfriend last year and loved it. We got an extensive whiskey tasting before the tour talking to the barman for half an hour. We were asking a lot of questions so he brought out a couple of older whiskeys for us to taste. We had about 7 whiskeys each in total. All for about £6 each.

The tour was good because the distillery was in operation.

Compare this to the Jameson tour here. It's about €8 for three measly 18ml measures of whiskey with no guide. The "tour" is of various false exhibits as there is no working distillery.

For the basic package the Bushmills experience wins hands-down.

(Have to say, however, that the premium guided tasting in Jameson is excellent but is expensive.)

homerhop

owenc wrote: »

She probably blanked you out because of the accent some people here are very bitter won't socalise with catholics.. tut tut. . you know the type.. :rolleyes: Feel like giving them a slap the stuff they come out with.. or maybe she just didn't understand your accent , its very rare to see that accent here..

She had no way of knowing if I was Catholic or Protestant and everyone else who chatted away with us seemed to understand me very clearly.As i said one of the workers in Bushmills had a right good chat with us. Bushmills is marketing itself as an international product and if that is the case it should have staff working in the gift shop that are able to live in the 21st centuary. I am sure there are things that I could have been bitter about too but welcome to the real world because at the end if the day we got to get on with life. I have stayed in Ballycastle before and found it very nice and friendly.
Its a lovely parish and has some lovely places to go, would i go back again for sure, as in all walks of life you will meet assholes its a pity that it just happend

stepbar

I'm heading up to Portrush next week. Was planning to go to Bushmills and on to the Giant's Causeway. Can't I book Bushmills in advance?

homerhop

I dont think there is any need to book a place, ya just walk in and wait for the next tour.

owenc

homerhop wrote: »

I dont think there is any need to book a place, ya just walk in and wait for the next tour.

Or you can just walk around yourself lol, but the tour is free.

Fuinseog

homerhop wrote: »

She had no way of knowing if I was Catholic or Protestant and everyone else who chatted away with us seemed to understand me very clearly.As i said one of the workers in Bushmills had a right good chat with us. Bushmills is marketing itself as an international product and if that is the case it should have staff working in the gift shop that are able to live in the 21st centuary. I am sure there are things that I could have been bitter about too but welcome to the real world because at the end if the day we got to get on with life. I have stayed in Ballycastle before and found it very nice and friendly.
Its a lovely parish and has some lovely places to go, would i go back again for sure, as in all walks of life you will meet assholes its a pity that it just happend

apparently you can tell a catholic from a protestant the way the catholics' eyerows grow together, like a werewolf. (i bet there are some in the bushmills area who still believe this).
bushmills gets a lot of tourists so they should be used to johnny foreigner.

they have gotten rid of the 'untouched by fenian hands' slogan they were so proud of. apparently the Dubliners are amd into Black Bush, but after my experience there I avoid the stuff.

i have been told that you always have to be on your guard when talking to the Northern Irish in general.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

I don't think they hate you because of were you are from its more "whats he/she doing here for" because they are while nosy up here you see.. its just our way of doing things, i think they are more thick up here.. its funny that the thick dialects are always nosy.. a bit like farmers.

true we have farmers in these parts,who are inquisitive to say the least, but bushmills farmers treat us with a certain degree of contempt and still refer to THe Free State (ceased to exist in 1949).

these days its normal to have a staycation and not leave the island and as the village of bushmills has the oldest distillery on the island tourists flock there so you would think they would be used to it by now.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

apparently you can tell a catholic from a protestant the way the catholics' eyerows grow together, like a werewolf. (i bet there are some in the bushmills area who still believe this).
bushmills gets a lot of tourists so they should be used to johnny foreigner.

they have gotten rid of the 'untouched by fenian hands' slogan they were so proud of. apparently the Dubliners are amd into Black Bush, but after my experience there I avoid the stuff.

i have been told that you always have to be on your guard when talking to the Northern Irish in general.

Yes that is true but it dosn't work as there are ulster scot catholics (my mothers family actually.).. but that is gone now only really bitter people would do that ****. Though most people would still ask what relgion you are (i say none and they look at me.:rolleyes:) you can usually tell what someones religion is by just looking at them, i don't know what is i just know what a persons religion is the minute i meet them its unique to northern ireland people and if i'm stuck you can work it out by the surname, really weird like.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Yes that is true but it dosn't work as there are ulster scot catholics (my mothers family actually.).. but that is gone now only really bitter people would do that ****. Though most people would still ask what relgion you are (i say none and they look at me.:rolleyes:) you can usually tell what someones religion is by just looking at them, i don't know what is i just know what a persons religion is the minute i meet them its unique to northern ireland people and if i'm stuck you can work it out by the surname, really weird like.

so if its not the eyebrows how can you tell them apart?
although we can sometimes recognise a protestant here aswell.
in derry it was the way they wore the baseball cap. prods with peak up and cath with peak down, i believe it was.

Trampas

I posted a thread in travel but more appropriate here.

heading up next next week.

can anyone recommend a place to stay?

Fuinseog

Trampas wrote: »

I posted a thread in travel but more appropriate here.

heading up next next week.

can anyone recommend a place to stay?

there is a hostel in Bushmills, but i can not vouch for it. maybe B.elfast would be a beter option. if driving you would make Bushmills from there in about two hours

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

so if its not the eyebrows how can you tell them apart?
although we can sometimes recognise a protestant here aswell.
in derry it was the way they wore the baseball cap. prods with peak up and cath with peak down, i believe it was.

Naw its really not like that, lol. The way i work it out is either the accent or the way they talk i.e never shut up about ireland and call ni ireland, or go by surname, or i just have instinct which nearly always works dunno how, maybe someone else in ni would care to explain lol.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

there is a hostel in Bushmills, but i can not vouch for it. maybe B.elfast would be a beter option. if driving you would make Bushmills from there in about two hours

More like 1/ 1 hour and half, its not two hours! I would recommend a hotel in either coleraine or ballycastle, which ever you prefer, i wouldn't really goto bushmills or you could stay in the causeway hotel, but its a bit outdated, though the food is good, i've been there 6 times this summer i'm sick too death of it.:rolleyes:

JimmyAlfonso

As with Trampas I was also thinking of heading up next weekend with herself, sounds like Belfast is prob too far from causeway, rope bridge etc. But it looks like hotels in that area are pretty expensive in comparison to some of the deals in Belfast?

Any reasonable recommendations? And is the trip from Belfast a comfortable hour and a half?

owenc

JimmyAlfonso wrote: »

As with Trampas I was also thinking of heading up next weekend with herself, sounds like Belfast is prob too far from causeway, rope bridge etc. But it looks like hotels in that area are pretty expensive in comparison to some of the deals in Belfast?

Any reasonable recommendations? And is the trip from Belfast a comfortable hour and a half?

I was gonna say stay in a hotel in belfast and then drive up, what a coincidence!:DThe hotels aren't work the price anyway!It is joule carriageway up-to Ballymena and then it turns back into single carriageway up-to ballymoney and then you turn off to bushmills, it is an alright journey it shouldn't take very long at all about an hour or less.

muffler

Listen guys (Fuinseog and owenc) take your differences to PM or anywhere you wish but Im not going to allow this childish tit for tat sniping here or in any of the forums I moderate.

You have been warned.

Fuinseog

muffler wrote: »

Listen guys (Fuinseog and owenc) take your differences to PM or anywhere you wish but Im not going to allow this childish tit for tat sniping here or in any of the forums I moderate.

You have been warned.

I do not know you are on about. the purpose of this thread was to have an informed debate on personal experiences so I could learn the reason why people behave as they do. i have no problem with anyone who has made a contribution to this thread. I have no problem with Owen C and I reallz fail to see how you could deduce that i had one.

owenc

I didn't mean anything about that post further back just saying a few things that we do, its really not that bad.

Aero28

I've been up there about several times in the last few couple of years. I have never found anyone to be rude to me. I have a friend living up there, and she did advise me that there are certain towns on the border with the republic that you shouldnt really stop in, because they're very much against catholics and irish people, but generally, on the whole, people in Northern Ireland are very friendly and welcoming.

I do love going into the Bushmills. The tour is really good, and the taster at the end is pretty good too. The gift shop is also really nice.

I love the causeway, and make sure i walk the whole thing, right to the very end and then come back towards the car park, by the walk on the cliff. Its really beautiful.

pow wow

Perhaps your friend has had bad personal experiences but I don't think I've ever come across a 'no go' town/village for Irish folks near the border Aero28. I mean, there are places that wouldn't be my first choice to stop, but not because of my car registration or accent

Aero28

pow wow wrote: »

Perhaps your friend has had bad personal experiences but I don't think I've ever come across a 'no go' town/village for Irish folks near the border Aero28. I mean, there are places that wouldn't be my first choice to stop, but not because of my car registration or accent

Ya, I can't say i've ever had any problems, and i've travelled through most town throughout the north and on the border and have stopped in several of them. Perhaps they did have some issues themselves.

Guillelligan

Hi, hoping someone will reply to this old thread. Myself, my wife and our son are staying in Bushmills for a week soon and we're a little nervous after reading all of this. We're from the South and have a Southern reg car. Does anyone think we'll get any trouble? Or is it relatively safe these days? We had figured it was a safe enough area being so associated with tourism.

sheriff2

An opportunity came up for me to purchase a small guest house in the area, I was strongly considering it until I read this thread. I am from Dublin, I figure this is no a complete No Go..

As for visiting the area id imaging you's be fine, it one of the biggest tourist places on the Island!

Frynge

Myself and the wife stayed in bush mills for two nights last year and had no problems at all. Everyone we met or interacted with were all lovely people.

muffler

sheriff2 wrote: »

An opportunity came up for me to purchase a small guest house in the area, I was strongly considering it until I read this thread. I am from Dublin, I figure this is no a complete No Go..

If you made your decision based solely on the content of a single thread in a discussion forum then you obviously didnt give the matter much thought at all and clearly had no intentions of ever purchasing the guest house.

This thread was dominated by a very sectarian minded individual and another poster who was nothing more than a wind up merchant. I can state that clearly as I was a moderator here for a long time.

Yes of course there are certain areas of N.I. where people of particular religions or backgrounds are generally not welcome particularly at certain times of the year. But all of that prejudice is demonstrated by a very small minority on both sides of "the divide". I have been to Bushmills several times as have family and friends and we never experienced anything other than a céad míle fáilte.

You would be a lot more safer in Bushmills than in O'Connell Street in Dublin.