Silly question for people from the south, do you consider Northerners to be "Irish"?

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Soul Jacker

As a fellow Nordie I would consider you as Irish as anyone one else because you have identified yourself as such. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this but in the north we do generally speaking have an in built sensibility built into qsychie.

I've mentioned this before but in the North the first we will do when we meet a fellow nordie is covertly try and figure out what their religious background is. This is not for any malicious reasons but so we know were we stand with them. It's possible that because in the south, (as Priscilla has mentioned before) the fact that the country is predominantly monocultural (sorry I should say with regards to religion as i't untrue in every other aspect of life in the south) means that that sensitivity doesn't exist so much.

The Nordie comment's is just slagging, just remind about all the Mexican's who come over the boarder clogging up our roads, stealing all our parking spaces and buying up all our cheap booze. Honestly with the amount of southern accents you here in Newry I'm surprised there are any shops in the South left, but anyway.

The other comments are completely uncalled for. They are as offensive as anything that would come out of the mouth of a LVF bigot and I'd let them know that.

If it's in work or school speak to your boss or teachers, you do not have to put up with bullying form anyone. If it's outside work just ask these eejits if they've ever made it outside Cork never mind Ireland, and put them in their place. They're giving a bad name to Cork so I'm sure you'd be supported by the majority of locals.

100% Irish
1. Northern Ireland is not in Britain it's in the UK
so first of all it's not true to say someone from NI is a 'Brit.' That is why many NI protestants call themselves Unionists. A subtle but important difference.
2. People born in Northern Ireland, regardless of their heritage are entitled to Irish citizenship thanks to the Good Friday Agreement.

Please don't argue about something so trivial as semantics when a person will genuinely be hurt. Think how you would feel is someone made you feel unwelcome or an outsider in your own country?

I have never found any problem in the south. I consider myself Northern Irish but to be honest I don't really care what people call me. It's funny how many people think I'm from the other side of the house though, especially when I was abroad, as I always describe myself as N.Irish, which most people take to mean British, I don't really care and find it very funny to watch but I can completley understand how you might.

I think you were just unlucky to stumble across a few gobshites. Stand up for yourself and don't let them get you down.

____________________

Two.... really couldn't be arsed writing out your full name. You're entitled to to your opinion and so am I.

Tell me when's the last time you've been called a paddy? Have you ever seen a sign up saying no dogs blacks or paddies? Or are you just digging?

You can live in the past if you like but if you'd ever like to join the present you'd see that most people across the water have a very high opinion of us, you might be even more surprised to here that a good deal of us are secure enough in our own identity to no longer feel inferior to the english. Some of us even don't mind them that much either. I hope some day you will join us.

Glitterchick

Well I'm from Donegal and spend loads of time in Derry so I don't think of anybody there as foreigners.. But saying that I have met a few people from the North who hate to be associated with the term 'Irish'... they are very much god save the Queen.

Don't get me wrong, I don't care and have no problems with anyone from the North or England but sometimes it's really difficult to know where you stand with them.
I find it best to avoid that area of discussion rather than step on any toes ;)

And those people giving you those type of 'nicknames' can be quite insulting.. maybe you should tell them it was alright the first time but it's getting a tad old now.

agooddub

You are as Irish as myself and I was born in Dublin. It appears these people are just ignorant. They probably single you out for slagging just because you have a northern lilt to your accent. Ignore them and be proud. It must be an area thing 'cause I know loads of Cork people who would be very annoyed at the way their fellow county cousins are treating you.
It is not a general attitude in the south, but appears to be a local thing.

I should be doing something else

I agree. I was at a wedding between a family member of mine and a lovely girl he got married to from Co. Cavan.

They got married without telling anyone in Australia and we couldn't understand why until we met her family. They just 'Don't like people from the North' regardless of religion, and made this very clear.

This was the first t and only time I have come across people like this and unfortunately you seem to have come up against the same, although i know that 99.9% of people do not hold these views I do sympathise how hard this must be for you.

Anyone in Northern Ireland has the right to identify themselves as either British or Irish (or both) - and anyone who identifies themselves as being Irish should be recognised as just as Irish as anyone born south of the border.

Priscilla Duck

You will always find a few ignoramuses, no matter what part of Ireland you live in, it certainly isn't limited to Cork. One of my English-born cousins who is as Irish as I am comes to visit me regularly and has been nicknamed 'the Tan' by some idiots in one of the local pubs. I've said before on Y!A how the Irish like to have the craic and slag people off; however, these types of comments are simply offensive and unjustified. 'The Nordie'' is probably meant at the same level as when country people are referred to as boggers or culchies by Dubliners and when people from Dublin and surrounding counties are called jackeens by country folk. Seeing as you yourself can handle that one I'd leave it be.
The other tags you're being stuck with are pretty insensitive and uneducated. I don't think I could let that lie. If this is happening at work, I would definitely explain how I felt to the people involved and then make an official complaint. If you get no joy, the NCCRI is the body that deals with racially motivated abuse - and that is what this is, it's not just harmless slagging.

As to the title of your question, I personally would consider you to be Irish, as you live on the island of Ireland, but I wouldn't presume to call you Irish, as that has gotten me into all sorts of problems in the past with other people from Northern Ireland who are stongly loyal to the UK. It's a delicate area. Having said that, once you had identified yourself as Irish, I would think of you as Irish - no reservations at all.

EDIT ________________
viva la eire- Our island is called Ireland. It contains two political entities, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Citizens of both are entitled to call themselves Irish, just as Scottish, English and Welsh people can identify themselves as British if they so choose. If people from Northern Ireland should call themselves Northern Ireland, by that same token we should call ourselves Republican Irish, or some such nonsense. To deny citizens of Northern Ireland the right to identify themselves as Irish is to claim cultural hegemony over the entire Ireland, which is in itself a form of colonisation. Learn from your history.

froggequene

Yes, technically speaking we're all from the island of Ireland so we are all Irish but everyone has their own ideas about what they are, technicalities & politics aside I consider our brethren in the North to be Irish but like all cardigan wearing, fence sitting, Guardian reading liberals I will respect anyone's choice to describe themselves as being other. Generally speaking it's not a subject I would raise with anyone, I've spent most of my working life in environments where ethnicity & nationality are interchangeable or completely at odds with one another.

It sounds like you've stumbled onto most the pig ignorant bunch of corkonians I've ever heard of - most of us south of the border are raised to have a few manners.

Dave W

The Irish don't generally, but there's a lot of regionalism and rivalry.

Cork has a major inferiority complex towards Dublin and the "pale" for example
.
There's a general decline in standards of behaviour too and a hence lot of promiscuous and careless language goes with it.

The Ironic thing about Cork is that they call themselves the Rebel county.

You should ask them why are being so partitionist if they ARE such rebels?

That should shame them and if it doesn't they're only skangers you're dealing with anyway. Ignore them.

bow_stringtootight

The way I see it is from any other countries point of view. Which is a lot more people than in Ireland on a whole. One would consider any person residing in the country as Irish.
Then again Australia has been lucky enough to never experience Civil War. Do I consider myself Australian, although I am not Aboriginal and of Irish decent? Well yes. And damn proud of it.
Ireland has a long history of being kicked out of a few settlements, including the Americas, 400 years or so ago. So if any Country should have anything to be upset about, certainly, it should the the Irish!

Viva La Eire!

I'm from dublin and I wouldn't consider NI people to be irish, i consider then to be Northern irish, not english. Basically I treat N. Ireland as a separate country from the republic and britain. Its not that i don't want to think of them as irish or that i have anything against them, its just that I'm irish, your Northern iris and people from britain are british!

TwoBigOneGrowing

Now your a little sensitive to be "Really" Irish.(Oirish)
We have had to live and turn the other cheek to far worse than you have been called.
Did you see any signs saying no Dogs,Blacks or Paddies.
So relax, learn to live in Cork in happiness with its lovely accent, views and people . You were not born within spitting distance so for many years to come and possibly foreveryou be known as the outsider. If you were from Dublin they would have several names for you and not all as innocent

IRISH AND PROUD

well like you do live on the island ireland but technically you are a part of the uk so the statement are true!!! i don't agree with people saying them but its true!!! you don't follow our rule or anything and have a different currency!!!!

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