[rebel song]“An Ulsterman I am proud to be, from the Antrim Glens I come!”[/rebel song] 
I’ve been lurking here for a while and finally decided to register, I thought an “ask the” thread would be a good way to get started so…ask away!
I don’t have any really probing questions, I guess.
So a few non-probing ones:
What’s a good place to visit in Nortehrn Ireland? I like cathedrals, neolithic stuff, good beer & I don’t mind rain. What would you recommend?
What’s your favorite Northern Ireland beer? Do you export it?
Are you from Ulster? Does Ulster have a traditional dish for which it is known?
Next question: are you asleep now?
Do you think of yourself as British or Irish? Or both?
Will Dr. Ian Paisley and his gang celebrate when the Pope dies? :dubious: :rolleyes:
Have you seen northirish.net? It’s actually got some cool bits of history on it. And incidentally is run by my BIL (MIL is from Belfast).
Could you help us poor cultureless Americans understand what the whole “wearin’ o’ the green” is about, since St. Patrick’s day has just come and gone, and people go nuts over wearing green, and shamrocks, with no real understanding that it has its roots in politics? I thought about wearing orange this year in protest (and I know people who did) but I can’t remember WHY the orange, and green.
My dad was Scots-Irish, and my mom is Catholic. Will I ever find inner peace? 
Lame jokes aside, what’s it like living there? I’m completely ignorant about day to day life in Northern Ireland. What do people do for work and for fun? How does the conflict affect peoples’ daily life? How about travel? Is Northern Ireland isolated from the rest of the Isles, or do people travel, visit and/or have family that they visit on weekends?
Whoops, sorry, I posted that late last night and haven’t managed to get back to the computer before now!
Motorgirl
What’s a good place to visit in Nortehrn Ireland? I like cathedrals, neolithic stuff, good beer & I don’t mind rain. What would you recommend?
I live in the Glens of Antrim, designated an area of outstanding natural beauty and it is fairly nice so I’d recommend that.
If you come to NI you have to see the Giants Causeway, I think its compulsary or something, and close by is Carrick-a-rede rope bridge which is always fun to cross. Can’t be much help on the cathedrals, sorry.
What’s your favorite Northern Ireland beer? Do you export it?
I don’t drink beer at all shockingly enough so I can’t help out there!
Are you from Ulster? Does Ulster have a traditional dish for which it is known?
I’m from County Antrim, one of the nine counties making up the traditional part of Ireland called Ulster and one of the six counties making up Northern Ireland. (Also called Ulster but usually by the Unionist/Loyalist tradition)
The traditional dish is called the Ulster Fry imaginatively enough, commonly made with sausage, bacon, egg, black and white pudding, potato bread and a soda farl its one of the reasons why Northern Ireland has the highest rate of heart disease in Europe.
Cunctator
Do you think of yourself as British or Irish? Or both?
I have both a British and Irish passport, although I live in one of the hardcore Nationalist/Catholic areas of NI my family (on my fathers side at least, my mothers is a different story) has been fairly apolitical.
I consider myself Northern Irish, recognising that my region of the island has a different history from the rest of Ireland but I also consider myself Irish and I would like to see a United Ireland which is something I suspect will happen more quickly than people imagine. I have no great difficulties with considering myself to have something of a British background, after all I was born and grew up in the United Kingdom so why shouldn’t I take advantage of whatever opportunities are open to me within it? It is however not an identity I would embrace. Another reason behind that is that, as many loyal British subjects from Northern Ireland have found when they have travelled to “the mainland” (a designation I dislike btw) they are simply considered Irish by their British compatriots, something which I imagine can come as a deeply unpleasant shock.
I lived in Manchester while attending university and had great difficulty on more than one occassion with convincing certain areas and services of my credentials as a UK citizen (taxing my car for example) and the fact that banknotes from here are not considered legal tender over there grates, although Scotland has the same problem.
Hows that for complicated?
Enola Straight
Will Dr. Ian Paisley and his gang celebrate when the Pope dies?
Undoubtedly. I would be very very surprised if he and his party displays some class and either doesn’t comment or offers some show of sympathy (for which I suppose they would be open to charges of hypocrisy).
btw a fun story about Paisley, a couple of years ago the first dedicated mosque in Northern Ireland was due to open for worship, he and his party recieved an invitation to attend the service which he turned down with the words, “We do not wish to be associated with a religion of violence” (!!!) I’m surprise the massive irony didn’t cause his head to implode or something.
Chotii
Have you seen northirish.net? It’s actually got some cool bits of history on it. And incidentally is run by my BIL (MIL is from Belfast).
Haven’t seen it before but I’ll check it out, looks interesting.
Could you help us poor cultureless Americans understand what the whole “wearin’ o’ the green” is about, since St. Patrick’s day has just come and gone, and people go nuts over wearing green, and shamrocks, with no real understanding that it has its roots in politics? I thought about wearing orange this year in protest (and I know people who did) but I can’t remember WHY the orange, and green.
Well the Orange is from William of Orange, which the Protestant/Unionist community of Northern Ireland trace their cultural heritage, for example, the Orange Lodge with all the marches etc
If you “wear the green” your identifying with the Catholic/Nationalist part of Northern Ireland or Ireland in general.
The legend behind the flag of the Republic of Ireland is that the Green signifies the Catholics, the Orange the Protestants and the white for peace between the two.
btw to show how sensitive the whole thing can be, a Unionist delegate nearly walked out of talks to resolve the Drumcree dispute a few years ago because the (England based) cooks and staff innocently placed a plate of peas, carrots and potato in front of him during a meal, he thought the green, white and orange was a subtle insult and flew into a rage!
cornflakes
My dad was Scots-Irish, and my mom is Catholic. Will I ever find inner peace?
No. 
Lame jokes aside, what’s it like living there? I’m completely ignorant about day to day life in Northern Ireland. What do people do for work and for fun? How does the conflict affect peoples’ daily life? How about travel? Is Northern Ireland isolated from the rest of the Isles, or do people travel, visit and/or have family that they visit on weekends?
These days things are pretty much normal, you just have to be area of certain local sensitivities but apart from that you shouldn’t have any trouble no matter where you go. Although I’m of the firm opinion that the background level of violence (more fights, worse behaviour from people) is rising in the UK in general which is felt here, but thats not something unique to NI.
The lifestyle is I suppose a mix of British and Irish traditions, with one or the other being stronger depending on where you are (eg: in a Unionist area people would play Rugby and other British sports while in Nationalist areas Hurling and Gaelic football is king, standard football is one thing both communities tend to play)
There are an infinite number of subtle differences like that.
Leisure time is built around the pub to a large extent (in my local village there are eleven different pubs for a population of a couple of thousand), thats were much of the social life and events revolve around. I’m not a big drinker and I personally wish the drink culture wasn’t quite so prominent.
Basically Northern Ireland just another region of Europe now but the local political and religious peculularities always have to be kept in mind. This is not a normal society and in my opinion won’t be for a long, long time, if ever. There are no restrictions or difficulties in travelling, even crossing the Border into the Republic is pretty much a non-event.
I’d like to type more but its 1.45am here, hopefully I’ll be able to get back to the PC quicker next-time.
Complicated, but very reasonable I’d say.
Interestingly, I just learned today that Protestant Sinn Féin Councillor Billy Leonard says it was precisely this experience that first caused him to re-evaluate his own identity, which he has eventually come to see as more Irish than British. I’ve heard/read about a number of other northerners from the unionist tradition who have gone through a similar process, although obviously most of them don’t complete the transition quite as thoroughly as Cllr. Leonard has.
BTW welcome to the boards Midwinter; I’ve only been to your corner of the country once, but what a beautiful place it is.
The Northern Irish guy will ask the Northern Irish guy, have you ever tasted any of the local brews, all those Belfast ales and the like? I tried one in Witherspoons and it tasted a little watery for my palette.
And another question, what brought you back to the Province after you escaped across the water? (A phrase which is indeed preferable to “The Mainland”)
For those of us not up-to-speed on the whole conflict situation, can anyone recommend some good websites or books to read?
Seriously?! :eek: I haven’t heard about that one before, but people can be daft. An area in SW USA has the same problem. I understand that some people in the state of New Mexico often have problems with other Americans thinking they are from some area in the country of Mexico. (“No, see. There’s the word ‘New’ in front. It’s still the USA.”)
And welcome to the SDMB. I haven’t made it that far north, but plan to in a future trip. It is nice to hear of the Glens of Antrim.
The CAIN website seems pretty comprehensive.
Lost Lives is a sobering book to read. Its contains details of every person killed (and the manner of their death) during the “Troubles.” A girl from my old school is included, towards the end of the book.
Probably a stupid question, but do the people in N Ireland with Irish ancestors way back and the people with English ancestors all have to same accent, or can one tell them apart? I ask because for some reason I’d always assumed the English-Irish would have English accents, but now that I’m thinking about it, why would they?
Are you all MORE sick of U2 than even the rest of us are?
Do the Northern Irish feel any relationship with the Dutch, with the House of Orange thing?
The latter category have Scottish ancestors, generally, rather than English ancestors. To answer your question the accent is generally the same, but there is some difference in vocabulary and in the pronunciation of certain letters of the alphabet (most notably H tends to be pronounced ‘haitch’ by Catholics and ‘aitch’ by Protestants).
Some Northerners say that they can sometimes identify people from the ‘other’ community on sight anyway, though they often aren’t able to explain exactly why … ‘He just looks like a Protestant’.
Kilt, perhaps?
The key event was the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Here’s a potted history. See particularly pp. 1, 4-5.
capybara I should point out, before somebody else does, that the amount of residential segregation in the North sometimes makes it possible to assume with reasonable accuracy what religion a speaker is: for example, there are relatively few Catholics with North Down accents, because there are relatively few Catholics in North Down. Similar with Protestants and South Armagh accents. But I don’t think that’s really what you were asking.
Heh. 1690. It is only brought up as a means of triumphalist jingoism by people in the Orange Lodges who use the “traditional routes” to “celebrate their heritage” as a good way of “winding up the taigs”.