Opinions on Irish identity

Ulsterman96 wrote: »

My question is, I am a 19 year old from the north and come from a very mixed religious background family,  and growing up I was raised not to judge people on where they're from or what religion, political stance they belong to and I am thankful for this. I am aware of both my linage of having both grandparents from the south and grandparents of Scottish decent, and recently have become very compelled to embrace both cultures, but whilst doing so, especially in the north it feels like its either, you're British or you're Irish, and I honestly feel I do not belong to any of these and struggle with my identity because of the divide of the island and so I feel Northern Irish is the only identity I feel comfortable expressing and so I just wanted to get other peoples opinions of this identity from across Ireland.

That all sounds very progressive of you and you are right to be thankful to your parents that they´ve raised you in such a sense. The problem you and many others like you from NI who are stuck between the divide of cultures or more precisely identity which is to this day always politically tainted is an old one and the term or feeling of being "northern-irish" seems to be a way out of this never ending circle of "choose your side" in NI. I´ve met a couple of posters on irish forums from NI who adopted that term for themselves in order to a) make it a part of their own identity for the reason of being born in a culturally/religious mixed family and seeking to avoid being dragged into this long ongoing conflict between Irish Republican Nationalists and British Irish Unionists and Loyalists. But I do have to say that from all those posters from NI, those who took on the "northern-irish" label were rather few in compare to the whole of them.

If it wasn´t for the stupidity of the usual "taking sides" posters on both sides CNR and PUL, you´d be in rather lucky situation cos you can choose whatever suits you from all the cultures represented in your Family and that can give one a varity of opportunities and following of interests.

I don´t regard the term "northern-irish" as being a negative one, but I still realise that this is a matter of the difference between the generations and of course the environment and family affiliations one grew up with.

The only advice I could give, if I may say so, is to simply stick to it and the more of your generation and generations to come take that for themselves as well, the better cos that appears to be the way out of this silly and sometimes insane running in circles which many of the older ones who lived through the troubles are doing to this day. It´s good to see some younger people rejecting to take part in that old silly game cos it´s a thing where no-one can win, but every part can run along with his / her frustrations that come along with it.

I have met people from both parts of the divide on this place and others. The only thing they are doing and that is really day in day out from early morning to late night is to play that silly game of running around in circles where every side gives out to the other and vice versa. For a while this can have some funny and laughable moments, but the more one watches - respectively - read it, the more it is getting boring and one starts to wonder whether these people have got nothing better to do than that. It appears like having the troubles shifted from the streets to the Internet and if you dare to refuse both sides and try to stand your ground as being neither of them, you´ll have to endure some harsh attacks on yourself and all the slanderings and mud slinging that goes along with it. It´s a waste of time and I took part in that wasting my time but frankly, despite the disgust and sheer utter inconveniences, I have learned a lot from those Northerners who can´t put the past behind and rather stick to it as if they could compensate anything while being at it. That´s a matter for the individual involved and the moment one agrees with one side, the other counter side treats one as either an Irish Republican / Nationalist or British Unionist / Loyalist, always depending on the discussed matter at hand. Telling the chaps that one won´t have any of it doesn´t make a difference and is duly ignored for "the sake of the point socoring game" that runs between them.   

To be most frank on the matter, it doesn´t matters much to me what a person is in regards of his identity cos what really counts is the character of the person and to judge one on that level it needs to learn to know the person. In short everyone is a human being in the first place to me, his identity is a part of the person but every person should be free to choose which part of the identiy given to him by ancestry is the part that suits him best. That is in my opinion an important part of human freedom, but as you may have experienced yourself, you meet more of the sort of stupid c*nts in your life than you meet the intelligent ones cos the stupid ones are almost or more often the louder and the intolerant.

Keep your chosen identity and try to make the best out of it. If I were in your place I would be glad to have all that what interests me as a part of my ancestry. That reference goes more on cultural matters such as traditional music from Scotland and Ireland (both North and South). The people in NI have much more in common as what divides them, if it wasn´t for stupid politics, it wouldn´t be such a problem and no-one wouldn´t ask whether one sees himself more as British, Irish or Northern-Irish.

Good luck to you and keep up the good manners and be what you like to be, Northern-Irish posting as Ulsterman (even your nickname could be enough to put some others off, as the reference is most occupied by the Unionists if you ask some others, but fair enough).

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Being born in the north for a start. Northern Ireland should be its own sovereign state at this stage and let them both get on with it.

It very may well be in the future. As soon as the English realise the money they send to the North could be spent on the NHS...