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Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Disagreement at US Post Office over Ulster
I had an interesting experience at my local post office yesterday with a man who isn't from the South and who displayed a bit of hostility towards Ulster identity.
Heh! Interesting! Maybe the guy didn't mean anything by it, probably just letting you know that he knew the geographical location of Ulster... but of course it all depends on the tone of how he said it, maybe you detected something a bit more sinister? Here in Ulster it can open up a whole can of worms. A lot of Ulster-Scots still affectionately refer to Northern Ireland as Ulster but this can upset some easily offended people, particularly in Sinn Fein who wont refer to N.I. as Ulster, in fact they won't even refer to the country with it's official name Northern Ireland! They'll call N.I. the 'six counties' as if somehow it isn't separate from the republic. Where as today most Ulster-Scots would refer to themselves as Ulstermen and rarely as Irishmen.
Agree, Citizen69 has given a good account of the situation re this particular subject,and the fella could have just been demonstrating his knowledge of where Ulster was. On the other hand he may not. I think even the term Northern Ireland can have its drawbacks. My mother who lived in Canada had a problem with her mail she sent back home, It was only getting there after long delays or in some instances not at all. My sister took her to the PO headquarters to see what they could find out. Well apparently when the sorters seen Northern Ireland on it they sent the letters to Dublin instead of London. Once again the 'Ireland' part caused the confusion.
Heh! Interesting! Maybe the guy didn't mean anything by it, probably just letting you know that he knew the geographical location of Ulster... but of course it all depends on the tone of how he said it, maybe you detected something a bit more sinister?
ReplyDeleteHere in Ulster it can open up a whole can of worms. A lot of Ulster-Scots still affectionately refer to Northern Ireland as Ulster but this can upset some easily offended people, particularly in Sinn Fein who wont refer to N.I. as Ulster, in fact they won't even refer to the country with it's official name Northern Ireland! They'll call N.I. the 'six counties' as if somehow it isn't separate from the republic. Where as today most Ulster-Scots would refer to themselves as Ulstermen and rarely as Irishmen.
Agree, Citizen69 has given a good account of the situation re this particular subject,and the fella could have just been demonstrating his knowledge of where Ulster was. On the other hand he may not. I think even the term Northern Ireland can have its drawbacks. My mother who lived in Canada had a problem with her mail she sent back home, It was only getting there after long delays or in some instances not at all. My sister took her to the PO headquarters to see what they could find out. Well apparently when the sorters seen Northern Ireland on it they sent the letters to Dublin instead of London. Once again the 'Ireland' part caused the confusion.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time of course the fella might have said Ireland as a way disagreement because UK was on the package.
ReplyDelete