Ireland is another planet

Fuinseog

how much do you learn about The south aka The Repulic aka 26 counties in Northern Ireland-

I was amazed that two different hotels in Belfast did not have any Irish channels, while we would have BBC NI.

the average citizen of the North seems to know very little about teh republic.

would it be true to say that northerners are not know for their travelling or interest in the world outside of the UK?

aquascrotum

Fuinseog wrote: »

would it be true to say that northerners are not know for their travelling or interest in the world outside of the UK?

There are plenty of travellers from NI - not sure what sort of slackjawed yokel aspersion you are trying to make with your statement tbh.

It would however be true to say that the Unionist population of NI would have more interest in the day to day affairs of the UK than RoI.

In terms of TV channels in hotels, RTE is generally only available outside border areas via Sky (not sure about Virgin). A majority of businesses and households get by on either the 5 UK terrestrial channels or Freeview, which doesn't carry RTE.

Those who are interested in the affairs of RoI will make the effort to get RTE in, the rest wont. From a hotels perspective, adding Sky to your room is simply an added expense that isn't needed.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

how much do you learn about The south aka The Repulic aka 26 counties in Northern Ireland-

I was amazed that two different hotels in Belfast did not have any Irish channels, while we would have BBC NI.

the average citizen of the North seems to know very little about teh republic.

would it be true to say that northerners are not know for their travelling or interest in the world outside of the UK?

Well the we can't pick up the irish channels here either, it comes from antrim and the signal is blocked from all the hills and mountains on the way!;) I wouldn't say that we wouldn't travel outside of the uk we have to go on holidays you know! though we would have more interest in the uk than the republic of ireland as that is our country, i know of people who have never been down south before, we really have no reason to go down, some people don't like it and others see nothing to do like me, besides scenery tbh there isn't much to do their for a person like me.

smcgiff

aquascrotum wrote: »

There are plenty of travellers from NI - not sure what sort of slackjawed yokel aspersion you are trying to make with your statement tbh.

Nah - too easy

aquascrotum

smcgiff wrote: »

Nah - too easy

Might change that to "outwardly mobile"....

d'Oracle

Why would you actually want Irish channels anyway?

The majority of the stuff worth watching they show you can get on UK channels anyhow.

pow wow

You can get them on Virgin too, though they block out the stuff that is shown on both channels so you can't get ahead of yourself with series that UK channels show!

I think we think Northerners don't know too much about ROI because we expect them to know too much (tongue twister eh). Just like England for example, many will have never been to ROI, would be unfamiliar with the education system, geography etc. When I worked in the civil service my HR manager insisted I was a Commonwealth citizen because ROI is, of course, part of the Commonwealth :rolleyes:.

I agree that most of the people I know in my age group have zero interest in traveling though - very few people studied abroad during college, went abroad after graduation, or plan to go to Oz etc. compared with friends from the Republic. I'm not sure why, but it is definitely something I noticed when I first moved.

Peyton Manning

That was my biggest grievance with the North in my 3 years living there - Virgin Media blocking any football matches RTE showed

chughes

owenc wrote: »

i know of people who have never been down south before, we really have no reason to go down, some people don't like it and others see nothing to do like me, besides scenery tbh there isn't much to do their for a person like me.

I was genuinely saddened to read this although I'm not surprised by it. I worked in Belfast for 5 months in 1990 and many of my work colleagues from the Unionist tradition had never crossed the border. When I asked about this, they would say that they were concerned that they would be targetted in their cars for being from the North. When I asked if it was possible to tell a Unionist Northern reg from a Nationalist Northern reg they had not thought of it like that. Mind you, my Unionist colleagues took great delight in describing us Southerners as Mexicans.

I could understand why there would have been great reluctance years ago for Unionists to travel south. By the same token, many Southerners would not travel north for safety reasons. Maybe I'm being naive but given the state of the peace process I would have thought it was perfectly safe to visit each other's country. It would be like visiting your next door neighbour's house. Unless, of course, if the whole peace process is just something that exists in the minds of politicians and in the hearts and minds of many people in the North a Cold War is now the current status of the relationship between North and South.

Fuinseog

d'Oracle wrote: »

Why would you actually want Irish channels anyway?

The majority of the stuff worth watching they show you can get on UK channels anyhow.

just find it bizzare that the two countries are so close. as I said we all have BBC NI. its usual to watch the channels of a neighourig state when so close.

Fuinseog

pow wow wrote: »

You can get them on Virgin too, though they block out the stuff that is shown on both channels so you can't get ahead of yourself with series that UK channels show!

I think we think Northerners don't know too much about ROI because we expect them to know too much (tongue twister eh). Just like England for example, many will have never been to ROI, would be unfamiliar with the education system, geography etc. When I worked in the civil service my HR manager insisted I was a Commonwealth citizen because ROI is, of course, part of the Commonwealth :rolleyes:.

I agree that most of the people I know in my age group have zero interest in traveling though - very few people studied abroad during college, went abroad after graduation, or plan to go to Oz etc. compared with friends from the Republic. I'm not sure why, but it is definitely something I noticed when I first moved.

The English also live in splendid isolation and have the leprachaun image of us, which is sad when again they live so close.
I cannot understand why young northeners do not have the travel bug.
NI is small and it cannot be good to have only seen NI.

neilk

chughes wrote: »

I worked in Belfast for 5 months in 1990 and many of my work colleagues from the Unionist tradition had never crossed the border.

Northern Ireland has changed immesuarbly in the 20 years since 1990. There have been ceasefires, economic and social development, infrastructure development and huge changes in attitude particularly among those who were children in 1990, who are now in their late 20's or early 30's like myself. There was a massive boom before the current bust that we are all suffering from.

I'm not personally from the Unionist tradition, but I'm sure that I'm not alone on here in knowing people from both traditions who travel to the Republic for the odd holiday.

owenc

chughes wrote: »

I was genuinely saddened to read this although I'm not surprised by it. I worked in Belfast for 5 months in 1990 and many of my work colleagues from the Unionist tradition had never crossed the border. When I asked about this, they would say that they were concerned that they would be targetted in their cars for being from the North. When I asked if it was possible to tell a Unionist Northern reg from a Nationalist Northern reg they had not thought of it like that. Mind you, my Unionist colleagues took great delight in describing us Southerners as Mexicans.

I could understand why there would have been great reluctance years ago for Unionists to travel south. By the same token, many Southerners would not travel north for safety reasons. Maybe I'm being naive but given the state of the peace process I would have thought it was perfectly safe to visit each other's country. It would be like visiting your next door neighbour's house. Unless, of course, if the whole peace process is just something that exists in the minds of politicians and in the hearts and minds of many people in the North a Cold War is now the current status of the relationship between North and South.

Naw thats not the reason why these ones haven't been, its more to do with distance, donegal is like 50 miles away and once you get their the only place to goto would be letterkenny and tbh theres not much to do their... if we go on daytrip we usually goto scotland or fermanagh or county down, somewhere close with stuff to do. (yes scotland is far closer than most places down south.) If it weren't for my mum being from derry i wouldn't have ever been their, as my dad never goes and btw its not just unionists its nationalists aswell.

Ash.J.Williams

No nationwide for the northeners!!

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

just find it bizzare that the two countries are so close. as I said we all have BBC NI. its usual to watch the channels of a neighourig state when so close.

How is it, i can pick up itv scotland from my house and when i was in county down i picked up the manx phone network, this sunday i even picked up argyll fm in ballycastle which is a scottish radio channel and it was pretty clear!

owenc

Archimedes wrote: »

That was my biggest grievance with the North in my 3 years living there - Virgin Media blocking any football matches RTE showed

Its a uk tv channel why would british people want to watch irish sports?

Fuinseog

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

No nationwide for the northeners!!

if they watched some RTE programmes they might learn something of their neighours, which does no harm in terms of general knowledge. I watch UTV live now and then.

a friend of mine taught in the north donkeys years ago and he was a geography teacher, but was forbidden to teach them anything about the geography of the south, which i found bizarre, because in primary school i had to learn aout the rivers and mountains of britain.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Its a uk tv channel why would british people want to watch irish sports?

why would irish people watch aussie rules or the superbowl?

murf313

owenc wrote: »

Its a uk tv channel why would british people want to watch irish sports?

Not everyone from the north is british. But you unionists tend to forget that. BTW cop yourself on, scotland is not nearer to coleraine that the rep. of Ireland......

owenc

murf313 wrote: »

Not everyone from the north is british. But you unionists tend to forget that. BTW cop yourself on, scotland is not nearer to coleraine that the rep. of Ireland......

Erm do you seriously think a country is going to waste money on something for 600,000 people that 60 million others don't want, naw i didn't think so. And yes scotland is far closer than southern ireland anyone from county antrim will tell you that, plus why can i pick up scottish radio and not donegal radio?.:P From torr head you can see the houses in kintyre and even as far as ayr and that is on a cloudy day.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

if they watched some RTE programmes they might learn something of their neighours, which does no harm in terms of general knowledge. I watch UTV live now and then.

a friend of mine taught in the north donkeys years ago and he was a geography teacher, but was forbidden to teach them anything about the geography of the south, which i found bizarre, because in primary school i had to learn aout the rivers and mountains of britain.

We never learn about the geography of southern ireland either, we just learn about the uk as we live here and that is the way it is thought about in our school here... plus we are closer to most mountain ranges etc in scotland than southern ireland.

D-Generate

Colraine town centre to nearest point of the Republic is 12.477 miles
Colraine town centre to nearest point of Scotland is 36.528 miles.

owenc

D-Generate wrote: »

Colraine town centre to nearest point of the Republic is 12.477 miles
Colraine town centre to nearest point of Scotland is 36.528 miles.

Actually nearest point is 34 miles.. and i don't live in coleraine i live near it.


My house to mainland, scotland.. 24 miles..

Very north east of donegal 20 miles.. big woop one wee tooty bit of donegal the rest is far further than scotland.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Erm do you seriously think a country is going to waste money on something for 600,000 people that 60 million others don't want, naw i didn't think so. And yes scotland is far closer than southern ireland anyone from county antrim will tell you that, plus why can i pick up scottish radio and not donegal radio?.:P From torr head you can see the houses in kintyre and even as far as ayr and that is on a cloudy day.

there are one or two paddies in Britain so there could be a market for it.
again to reiterate my point belfast is two hours from Dulin, yet we have more contact with China that the nearest country to us.
BTW is it Setanta sports tahts hows aussie rules? you wouldn't think there would e a market for that either.
a cold war mentality still exists
Northern Ireland is a small place and the people appear to be insular. there appear to be very few northeners on this forum.

D-Generate

owenc wrote: »

Actually nearest point is 34 miles.. and i don't live in coleraine i live near it.


My house to mainland, scotland.. 24 miles..

Very north east of donegal 20 miles.. big woop one wee tooty bit of donegal the rest is far further than scotland.

Point still stands and also the last statement makes no sense. The rest of Scotland is far further than the tip of that point of Scotland, same with Donegal! Just face it, you harbour xenophobic tendancies towards Ireland.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Actually nearest point is 34 miles.. and i don't live in coleraine i live near it.


My house to mainland, scotland.. 24 miles..

Very north east of donegal 20 miles.. big woop one wee tooty bit of donegal the rest is far further than scotland.

so you live 20 miles from another country and cannot even pick that country's tv stations? for europe that is unusual.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

there are one or two paddies in Britain so there could be a market for it.
again to reiterate my point belfast is two hours from Dulin, yet we have more contact with China that the nearest country to us.
BTW is it Setanta sports tahts hows aussie rules? you wouldn't think there would e a market for that either.
a cold war mentality still exists
Northern Ireland is a small place and the people appear to be insular. there appear to be very few northeners on this forum.

Yes there is.:( There are ones from the town but they are from down south.:mad: Unfair most people here don't go on forums, i don't have a clue actually.

owenc

D-Generate wrote: »

Point still stands and also the last statement makes no sense. The rest of Scotland is far further than the tip of that point of Scotland, same with Donegal! Just face it, you harbour xenophobic tendancies towards Ireland.

Ugh who really cares, i'm still closer to scotland than most places in ireland, well except a wee tooty tip of donegal.:rolleyes:, besides donegal the nearest point in southern ireland is 60 miles which is the equivalent from my house to girvan, ayrshire, but its rather interesting being closer to the most northern point of another island to the most southern point of your own island.:D:D:D I'm also closer to ayr than places in county down, rather interesting!

D-Generate

Fuinseog wrote: »

there are one or two paddies in Britain so there could be a market for it.
again to reiterate my point belfast is two hours from Dulin, yet we have more contact with China that the nearest country to us.
BTW is it Setanta sports tahts hows aussie rules? you wouldn't think there would e a market for that either.
a cold war mentality still exists
Northern Ireland is a small place and the people appear to be insular. there appear to be very few northeners on this forum.

I would completely agree with you on it being insular. Considering its population makes up over a quarter of the population of the island of Ireland it is rare to meet someone from the North (Unionist, Nationalist or doesn't care) anywhere in the world. I live in London and there is a disproportionate amount of Irish people that I come across in every day goings as compared to those from the North. Other than my housemate who is from the North I have met very very very few.

dlofnep

Pay no attention to Owen. He's purposefully ignorant about the south and it suits him to be that way.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

there are one or two paddies in Britain so there could be a market for it.
again to reiterate my point belfast is two hours from Dulin, yet we have more contact with China that the nearest country to us.
BTW is it Setanta sports tahts hows aussie rules? you wouldn't think there would e a market for that either.
a cold war mentality still exists
Northern Ireland is a small place and the people appear to be insular. there appear to be very few northeners on this forum.

Oh i wasn't thinking about that.:rolleyes: Sorry.

dlofnep

owenc wrote: »

Oh dear god not you.:rolleyes: and you keep out of my politics, i can be unionist if i want, theres no point in people getting frustrated about that.:mad:

I'm not "in" your politics. And I never once stated that you don't have permission to be a Unionist. I stated that your were purposefully ignorant about the south. You go out of your way to not know about how things operate south of the border. You claim that the South is completely foreign to you, and the culture is completely different, and that Scotland is closer to you (despite me pointing out that Donegal is actually closer to Coleraine). You make stupid posts like that, with intent of distancing yourself from the south, or indeed - any notion of Ireland.

Most Unionists accept that they live on the island of Ireland, and have indeed common ground with all Irish people. It's only those, like you - who have a chip on their shoulder - that look for ways to purposefully distance themselves from Ireland.

But like the previous poster stated - If you have an issue with Ireland so much, then why bother to even post on these forums?

owenc

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm not "in" your politics. And I never once stated that you don't have permission to be a Unionist. I stated that your were purposefully ignorant about the south. You go out of your way to not know about how things operate south of the border. You claim that the South is completely foreign to you, and the culture is completely different, and that Scotland is closer to you (despite me pointing out that Donegal is actually closer to Coleraine). You make stupid posts like that, with intent of distancing yourself from the south, or indeed - any notion of Ireland.

Most Unionists accept that they live on the island of Ireland, and have indeed common ground with all Irish people. It's only those, like you - who have a chip on their shoulder - that look for ways to purposefully distance themselves from Ireland.

But like the previous poster stated - If you have an issue with Ireland so much, then why bother to even post on these forums?

No i have an issue with irish POLITICS i.e republicans. Anyway! Erm i don't have a chip on my shoulder sunny, and yes ireland is foreign its a totally different country, different currency, different roads, different rules.. i'm sorry but i'm not nationalist i don't view it like you, or republican, and what has this got to do with this thread?

sealgaire

I would also say that very few in the Republcic know anything about the north.

Fuinseog wrote: »

how much do you learn about The south aka The Repulic aka 26 counties in Northern Ireland-

I was amazed that two different hotels in Belfast did not have any Irish channels, while we would have BBC NI.

the average citizen of the North seems to know very little about teh republic.

would it be true to say that northerners are not know for their travelling or interest in the world outside of the UK?

Tabnabs

Belfast, like most/all of NI is very much a different country considering you don't cross a physical border when driving up to Belfast from Dublin for example. An English mate of mine was interested to see what it was like and came with me on a buying trip up there and was very surprised at how British it felt.

There are always little pockets of resistance though, I have a friend from Cushendall in Antrim which is very Irish and even in "Loyalist Larne" they sell the Irish Times in the train station shop (never had the courage to go any further despite working out of Larne for 6 months)

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

Oh dear god not you.:rolleyes: and you keep out of my politics, i can be unionist if i want, theres no point in people getting frustrated about that.:mad: If people knew what you got upto at your free time.;)

you can be Ian Paisleys lovechild for all I care. I want information and you appear to be the only one from Norn Iron on this forum.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

you can be Ian Paisleys lovechild for all I care. I want information and you appear to be the only one from Norn Iron on this forum.

No i'm not but i'm the only native!;) And no i think he is a bigot, i follow mr empy thank you.:pac: Oh dear god if i hear that again i'm going to die!

Fuinseog

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm not "in" your politics. And I never once stated that you don't have permission to be a Unionist. I stated that your were purposefully ignorant about the south. You go out of your way to not know about how things operate south of the border. You claim that the South is completely foreign to you, and the culture is completely different, and that Scotland is closer to you (despite me pointing out that Donegal is actually closer to Coleraine). You make stupid posts like that, with intent of distancing yourself from the south, or indeed - any notion of Ireland.

Most Unionists accept that they live on the island of Ireland, and have indeed common ground with all Irish people. It's only those, like you - who have a chip on their shoulder - that look for ways to purposefully distance themselves from Ireland.

But like the previous poster stated - If you have an issue with Ireland so much, then why bother to even post on these forums?

the scottish culture is closer to Norn Iron tahn the irish one. its similar for people from donegal.
I am not sure what you mena by "pursposely ignorant'. it seems to be that there is a media blackout in the the north when it comes to the republic.

Fuinseog

owenc wrote: »

No i have an issue with irish POLITICS i.e republicans. Anyway! Erm i don't have a chip on my shoulder sunny, and yes ireland is foreign its a totally different country, different currency, different roads, different rules.. i'm sorry but i'm not nationalist i don't view it like you, or republican, and what has this got to do with this thread?

yes ireland is a foreign state for you. France is a foreign state for me but I will still learn something about it, whether it be in school or my priavte life.

true, the shinners are not without sin.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

yes ireland is a foreign state for you. France is a foreign state for me but I will still learn something about it, whether it be in school or my priavte life.

true, the shinners are not without sin.

Never thought about it that way, maybe i just don't have an interest.

owenc

Fuinseog wrote: »

the scottish culture is closer to Norn Iron tahn the irish one. its similar for people from donegal.
I am not sure what you mena by "pursposely ignorant'. it seems to be that there is a media blackout in the the north when it comes to the republic.

Yep true we have a close culture with scotland, i.e speak lots of words that they say, i read somewhere that we have more scottish words than irish here.

Gestapo

Fuinseog wrote: »

how much do you learn about The south aka The Repulic aka 26 counties in Northern Ireland-

I was amazed that two different hotels in Belfast did not have any Irish channels, while we would have BBC NI.

the average citizen of the North seems to know very little about teh republic.

would it be true to say that northerners are not know for their travelling or interest in the world outside of the UK?

Wow you havent discovered that yet.I thought we where over the moon so to speak

Ilyushin76

owenc wrote: »

You tell them and you know my name is owen so don't try that with me again it is a totally different name.

:rolleyes:

jordan..

owenc wrote: »

Because there was no british forum for the equivalent to this and didn't i just tell you i live outside coleraine!

Im sure Scotland or the UK you worship so much has at least one forum! Pretty embarrasing that they dont :pac: you could go too and troll there instead of coming on here with your constant ****e talk.

jordan..

owenc wrote: »

<SNIP>

Good! bye bye

alan85

Interesting topic.

I travel up to the North of Ireland regularly to train there. It's in a predominantly unionist area. I have a very Irish name and accent. They are generally very respectful with the odd bit of horseplay. Nothing major. I remember being there around the time of the July marches and they were interested to know what I thought of it all. There was an English fella too and he thought the same as me; that the way they put up British flags is disrespectful to the flag and the British nation. He described it as being like dogs marking out territory. I see less of the tricolour and am thankful for that! I'd like to see it treated with respect.

I often tune into UTV for the news. It's very biased. BBC NI is a bit more balanced but only just. I'd love to see more unionists show an interest in the south. It can only be good. I wouldn't go as far to say the south is ready for any parades any time soon though. It was pure ignorance on their part last time. They didn't display any Irish or Dublin flags even though they were invited here to march. I think they saw it as an opportunity to parade the Union Jack around and let's hope those bigotts never come again...

owenc

alan85 wrote: »

Interesting topic.

I travel up to the North of Ireland regularly to train there. It's in a predominantly unionist area. I have a very Irish name and accent. They are generally very respectful with the odd bit of horseplay. Nothing major. I remember being there around the time of the July marches and they were interested to know what I thought of it all. There was an English fella too and he thought the same as me; that the way they put up British flags is disrespectful to the flag and the British nation. He described it as being like dogs marking out territory. I see less of the tricolour and am thankful for that! I'd like to see it treated with respect.

I often tune into UTV for the news. It's very biased. BBC NI is a bit more balanced but only just. I'd love to see more unionists show an interest in the south. It can only be good. I wouldn't go as far to say the south is ready for any parades any time soon though. It was pure ignorance on their part last time. They didn't display any Irish or Dublin flags even though they were invited here to march. I think they saw it as an opportunity to parade the Union Jack around and let's hope those bigotts never come again...

How is it disrespectful putting up flags i don't think it is. Its interesting that you think that the utv is biased, i'd say its nationalist, i'd go more with bbc news. I agree with you on the orange order its a bitter thing that was used in the 1900s when they were really bitter, thats why so many people are leaving.

aquascrotum

If a Mod could come in and clean the preceding ****e and slanging match up maybe some other NI boardies (like me) could come on and give an opinion to disprove the notion that Owen is the only nordie about here.

My notions on this -

I would agree that that NI people are less far flung than citizens from RoI. But then I reckon thats as much to do with the notion down south that travel, emigration, a widespread diaspora is a good thing as it is to do with the conservatism in NI. Historically it would seem that NI has often had it better economically than RoI due to ties with GB, therefore the need for mass emigration has never reared its head - other than the "brain drain" to mainland GB of the educated classes during the Troubles. I worked in the south for a year, many of those I worked with are now abroad seeking work following redundancy. Due to demographics and the economic makeup in NI it would seem that the same flood of emigration hasn't hit NI this time around as (from what I've seen) a lot of those hit hardest have been from working class low skilled backgrounds for whom there would be little demand abroad. I'll also happily admit that the Protestant / Scottish Presbyterian culture is much more conservative that would also limit ambition to travel, people are generally quite happy to have what they hold. This could be a boon or a social failing depending what way you look at it (NI people tend to be happy with their lot - whereas just about every second person I met in the south is in counselling and for some reason thinks their life is crap cos they only earn E50k a year and only have 2 houses and cant get skiiing but their vbff can. Sometimes ignorance is bliss).

Its also worth nothing that while Irish people have had a disproportionately high degree of success worldwide, NI people (in our insular wee way) have a disproportionaly high degree of success within the UK.

In terms of RoI specifically, theres no doubt there is an antipathy towards RoI from Unionists, but this would differ to outright fear (with corresponding hostility) a generation or 2 previous.

I don't go along with any witchhunt ideals that the NI administration brainwashes an anti Irish ideology into its people - from what I can remember academic curricula were generally in line with what happens everywhere else in the UK. Geography concentrated on NI (we didnt learn about Scotland at RoIs expense etc), history to GCSE concentrated on the first world war and irish history (there would obviously be a different slant put on things in catholic maintained schools and state schools).

I personally am not anti Irish. I am Northern Irish, I'm proud to be from here, I think generally people here have a distinct sense of themselves due to the relative isolation of the last 40 odd years. I appreciate the Irish side of culture here and have made active inroads to go and explore RoI and meet people. I've lived there, Im engaged to an Irish girl - but I feel different to the typical irish 28-yr old, with different values, a different culture (not a stereotypical Orange culture). I do feel an at least equal if not greater connection with other UK celtic traditions, i.e. Scots and Welsh. And for what its worth, my Dub o/h is very much of the opinion that even northern Nationalists are infinitely more conservative than the typical Irish man in the street down south, and that NI feels very culturally different to RoI.

As for the lack of Nordies on boards.ie - as Jordan said, it's boards.ie. When I'm looking for a website I look for the .co.uk version. My google default is .co.uk. This is an Irish board for Irish people.

And as for RTE - as far as I'm aware it's RTE's perogative to set up the infrastructure to broadcast in NI. There is limited coverage as it is and a lot of spillover of signal in border areas. There wouldn't be tricolours burned in the street if RTE put a mast up on Blackstaff mountain or negotiated a deal with the BBC to use theirs.

JohnM81

aquascrotum wrote: »

And as for RTE - as far as I'm aware it's RTE's perogative to set up the infrastructure to broadcast in NI. There is limited coverage as it is and a lot of spillover of signal in border areas. There wouldn't be tricolours burned in the street if RTE put a mast up on Blackstaff mountain or negotiated a deal with the BBC to use theirs.

The RTE player @ http://www.rte.ie/player/ might be worth checking out. I'm from the south and use this service more often than the tv broadcasts.

owenc

aquascrotum wrote: »

If a Mod could come in and clean the preceding ****e and slanging match up maybe some other NI boardies (like me) could come on and give an opinion to disprove the notion that Owen is the only nordie about here.

My notions on this -

I would agree that that NI people are less far flung than citizens from RoI. But then I reckon thats as much to do with the notion down south that travel, emigration, a widespread diaspora is a good thing as it is to do with the conservatism in NI. Historically it would seem that NI has often had it better economically than RoI due to ties with GB, therefore the need for mass emigration has never reared its head - other than the "brain drain" to mainland GB of the educated classes during the Troubles. I worked in the south for a year, many of those I worked with are now abroad seeking work following redundancy. Due to demographics and the economic makeup in NI it would seem that the same flood of emigration hasn't hit NI this time around as (from what I've seen) a lot of those hit hardest have been from working class low skilled backgrounds for whom there would be little demand abroad. I'll also happily admit that the Protestant / Scottish Presbyterian culture is much more conservative that would also limit ambition to travel, people are generally quite happy to have what they hold. This could be a boon or a social failing depending what way you look at it (NI people tend to be happy with their lot - whereas just about every second person I met in the south is in counselling and for some reason thinks their life is crap cos they only earn E50k a year and only have 2 houses and cant get skiiing but their vbff can. Sometimes ignorance is bliss).

Its also worth nothing that while Irish people have had a disproportionately high degree of success worldwide, NI people (in our insular wee way) have a disproportionaly high degree of success within the UK.

In terms of RoI specifically, theres no doubt there is an antipathy towards RoI from Unionists, but this would differ to outright fear (with corresponding hostility) a generation or 2 previous.

I don't go along with any witchhunt ideals that the NI administration brainwashes an anti Irish ideology into its people - from what I can remember academic curricula were generally in line with what happens everywhere else in the UK. Geography concentrated on NI (we didnt learn about Scotland at RoIs expense etc), history to GCSE concentrated on the first world war and irish history (there would obviously be a different slant put on things in catholic maintained schools and state schools).

I personally am not anti Irish. I am Northern Irish, I'm proud to be from here, I think generally people here have a distinct sense of themselves due to the relative isolation of the last 40 odd years. I appreciate the Irish side of culture here and have made active inroads to go and explore RoI and meet people. I've lived there, Im engaged to an Irish girl - but I feel different to the typical irish 28-yr old, with different values, a different culture (not a stereotypical Orange culture). I do feel an at least equal if not greater connection with other UK celtic traditions, i.e. Scots and Welsh. And for what its worth, my Dub o/h is very much of the opinion that even northern Nationalists are infinitely more conservative than the typical Irish man in the street down south, and that NI feels very culturally different to RoI.

As for the lack of Nordies on boards.ie - as Jordan said, it's boards.ie. When I'm looking for a website I look for the .co.uk version. My google default is .co.uk. This is an Irish board for Irish people.

And as for RTE - as far as I'm aware it's RTE's perogative to set up the infrastructure to broadcast in NI. There is limited coverage as it is and a lot of spillover of signal in border areas. There wouldn't be tricolours burned in the street if RTE put a mast up on Blackstaff mountain or negotiated a deal with the BBC to use theirs.

Great post.:) Explains how i feel, you explained it very well, the whole culture thing i.e scottish heritage but not orange order suits me, the politics up here is different down their i.e the conservative, i would always go for the conservative party and unionist party but would never ever stick for labour, ewgh!:rolleyes: and as you say i feel more closer to someone in scotland than someone from southern ireland , maybe not donegal so much. I have to say thats true they don't believe me on here that nationalists have british passports and would be more conservative, i've really noticed that when i've come on here , they run the conservative party down to the lowest and all the conservative news papers and news channels! But whats funny is how scotland is labour!

owenc

JohnM81 wrote: »

The RTE player @ http://www.rte.ie/player/ might be worth checking out. I'm from the south and use this service more often than the tv broadcasts.

That doesn't work, its blocked for us.