What are you listening to?

[ness]

2 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I will have to watch that movie. I used to drive into Belfast for supplies when I was working in Northern Ireland in the late 90's. They no longer had border crossing gates/checkpoints, but there was always a heavily fortified military building with "police/troops" at the border crossings. Lots and lots of IRA murals on the buildings through town.

I've seen some travel videos on Northern Ireland. One of the points they make is to avoid green or orange clothing, hats, etc. I don't know if that's still the guidance, but if I was up there I'd be careful. Is that what you experienced?

[BilletHead]

34 minutes ago, ness said:

I've seen some travel videos on Northern Ireland. One of the points they make is to avoid green or orange clothing, hats, etc. I don't know if that's still the guidance, but if I was up there I'd be careful. Is that what you experienced?

Wear pink you will be fine and the local MEN and women will love you. 😆

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, ness said:

I've seen some travel videos on Northern Ireland. One of the points they make is to avoid green or orange clothing, hats, etc. I don't know if that's still the guidance, but if I was up there I'd be careful. Is that what you experienced?

We haven't been there in a long long time. Back in the 90's, the peace accords were still somewhat new. I could see an issue since both green and orange are in the Republic of Ireland flag and not the White and Red Northern Ireland aka Ulster flag.

At that time we were there, lots of folks would wear green shirts since the local footbal or hurling clubs often had green jerseys. I could see staying away from Orange. Orange is the color of the Orange order, the Ulster loyalist (protestant) groups. Back when we were there (likely still today since they have been marching for over 200 years by then) they would March thru Catholic/Republican neighborhoods. Our lab was a pretty 50:50 split of protestant:Catholic due to forced hiring practices. The gov't Home Office couldn't figure out what to do with me as a non-denominational Christian. Anyway in July (the marching season) folks in the lab simply would not go out of their way to talk to each other, if they didn't need to provide some information to each other.

I will say that we really enjoyed living there. The people for the most part are very friendly even though some of the older folks carried a chip on their shoulders and were hesitant around American and British folks. That may have all changed since we were there. The country has so much to offer.

[ness]

7 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

We haven't been there in a long long time. Back in the 90's, the peace accords were still somewhat new. I could see an issue since both green and orange are in the Republic of Ireland flag and not the White and Red Northern Ireland aka Ulster flag.

At that time we were there, lots of folks would wear green shirts since the local footbal or hurling clubs often had green jerseys. I could see staying away from Orange. Orange is the color of the Orange order, the Ulster loyalist (protestant) groups. Back when we were there (likely still today since they have been marching for over 200 years by then) they would March thru Catholic/Republican neighborhoods. Our lab was a pretty 50:50 split of protestant:Catholic due to forced hiring practices. The gov't Home Office couldn't figure out what to do with me as a non-denominational Christian. Anyway in July (the marching season) folks in the lab simply would not go out of their way to talk to each other, if they didn't need to provide some information to each other.

I will say that we really enjoyed living there. The people for the most part are very friendly even though some of the older folks carried a chip on their shoulders and were hesitant around American and British folks. That may have all changed since we were there. The country has so much to offer.

My understanding was that green was associate with the Catholic side while, like you said, orange was Protestant and wearing the wrong color in some neighborhoods could potentially lead to trouble. 

The history of Ireland is really interesting. Centuries of mistreatment of the natives (Catholic) and forced settlement of English/Scottish Protestants into Ireland, pushing the Catholics off their land and into servitude and poverty and famine. And the civil wars, fight for independence, the "Troubles", etc.  

My GGG grandfather, Patrick McGonigle, Catholic from Derry, emigrated to the US in 1848, right in the middle of the famine. I'm pretty sure he would have liked Van Morrison  

 

[Johnsfolly]

@ness We lived about 40 mins from Derry in the town of Coleraine. Mostly we drove through Derry on our way to Donegal. As you mentioned the Irish were pushed from the better lands in the East of the island and pushed to the rougher areas in the West. There are lots of areas in Donegal where English is almost a second language. I recall one trip where none of the signage was in English unlike my map. So I kept driving such that the ocean/coast was on our left or rear until we ended up in Derry and roads that I recognized. Also on that trip we were passed by some cars that were just flying by. Turned out we were in a local road rally race course😅.

If you haven't been you guys should consider going. We would love to get back there.

[ness]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

@ness We lived about 40 mins from Derry in the town of Coleraine. Mostly we drove through Derry on our way to Donegal. As you mentioned the Irish were pushed from the better lands in the East of the island and pushed to the rougher areas in the West. There are lots of areas in Donegal where English is almost a second language. I recall one trip where none of the signage was in English unlike my map. So I kept driving such that the ocean/coast was on our left or rear until we ended up in Derry and roads that I recognized. Also on that trip we were passed by some cars that were just flying by. Turned out we were in a local road rally race course😅.

If you haven't been you guys should consider going. We would love to get back there.

We spent a couple weeks in Ireland in 2023. Flew into Dublin on the east coast, spent a couple days there, then rented a car and drove south inland to Kilkenny,  then to the south coast at Kinsale, west to Kenmare, then to the west coast and north to Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Galway, Aran Islands and finally Connemara before flying home from Galway. Great trip! 

Like you, we found the people extremely friendly all along the way. We had excellent food and drink everywhere. And great music in the bars, which seem to be called ‘pubs’ more outside Ireland than in. And, absolutely spectacular scenery in the places we went along the coast. 

I had a guided fishing trip set up for salmon/trout at Connemara but the river was low and the temp high so they closed the river and my bucket list trip was cancelled.  Honestly, we did other stuff that was great. Adapt and make the most of things!

Anybody here like the Kinks? 🤪

 

[Johnsfolly]

9 hours ago, ness said:

Anybody here like the Kinks? 🤪

Seen them in concert. Like the Kinks and the Pretenders if you know what I mean 😉.

Anyon know how the band Foreigner got their name?

[ness]

15 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Seen them in concert. Like the Kinks and the Pretenders if you know what I mean 😉.

Anyon know how the band Foreigner got their name?

Yep, love the Pretenders too. Kinda went down the rabbit hole watching their old videos the other night. 

I’ll bite: how did Foreigner get their name?

 

[Johnsfolly]

Half the band was from the US and the other half was from England. So no matter where they played they were Foreigners 😁

[Johnsfolly]

Song from one of my favorite travel albums. Was listening to this while headed back from a fishing trip yesterday.