Yesterday, I took a notion that I would drive to Cavan. It’s about thirty minutes in the car from where I live in county Fermanagh. I like to go there sometimes to browse in one of the best bookshops in Ireland. In fact this bookshop, called Crannog, won an award for the Best small Bookshop in Ireland. Now when I arrived in Cavan I looked at my phone to see if I had received any new messages since I left the house and ‘lo and behold’ there was one: “Welcome to Ireland!” it said. I was excited, to say the least, because I did not notice that I had left the country and returned! I began to worry about the general state of my health. And then the penny dropped. O2 does not regard Fermanagh as being in Ireland. It is when you enter county Cavan that you enter into Ireland. I do not know if this ‘welcome to Ireland’ is a new thing. I never noticed it before. Perhaps O2 is getting ready for Brexit.
Come to think of it, the Post Office has never recognised the island of Ireland as one country and charges the foreign rate for stamps on letters posted in Fermanagh to Cavan or any of the other 25 counties in the Republic. (I try not to use South because Donegal is more northerly than Fermanagh.) I suppose we will see road signs along the border Welcome to Ireland & Europe going south and Welcome to the UK & the Rest of the World going north. It’s getting to be a strange place this island of Ireland –and indeed this planet of Earth.
Truth is stranger than fiction, they say. Anyway, in Cavan, Ireland, I bought a new book about Dying written by an unbeliever and a new book by Margaret Urwin ‘A State in Denial’ about the British government’s covert actions in Ireland – including the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974. Margaret Urwin has been active for many years in the campaign to have truth about British/loyalist involvement in the Dublin /Monaghan bombings in 1974 exposed. I look forward to reading her book.
After an hour or so in Cavan, I returned to my home in Fermanagh, Ireland. I did not feel anything when I left Cavan and entered Fermanagh except the road got a bit bumpy. There are parts of that road which seem like an earthquake hit it. It’s in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone constituency -by the way. When I got home I checked my phone but there was no Welcome back to the UK. Maybe, that will be coming on 30 March 2017 when Brexit is triggered (‘triggered’?- now there’s a funny word for Brexit).
Re ‘welcome to Ireland’, etc, blame the people of the 26 counties who gave their country a misnomer of a name.
“When I got home I checked my phone but there was no Welcome back to the UK. Maybe, that will be coming on 30 March 2017 when Brexit is triggered (‘triggered’?- now there’s a funny word for Brexit).”
March 2017 will only be the start of the negotiations. It will probably be another two years before the UK leaves the EU.
MT.
Can you tell me what the economic, social or cultural logic is in having a 310 mile border scarring this island please?
“Can you tell me what the economic, social or cultural logic is in having a 310 mile border scarring this island please?”
Borders aren’t generally drawn for economic reasons, but socially and culturally it is to allow the people.living either side to be organised in states with those with whom they feel social and cultural affinity.
More aul unionist rubbish from you MT – ‘Borders aren’t generally drawn for economic reasons, but socially and culturally it is to allow the people.living either side to be organised in states with those with whom they feel social and cultural affinity’
thats complete tosh you are spouting. how can your assertion make sense in border area like, Roslea, Crossmaglen, Aughnacloy etc.
The natural hinterland of those said areas are in the republic. Thats why your last border brought a war in those areas for 20 years. Bring back the border, prepare for another war.
I know Arlenes people i see them about Clones all the time. How can you say her natural hinterland isnt with Monaghan?
“More aul unionist rubbish from you MT – ‘Borders aren’t generally drawn for economic reasons, but socially and culturally it is to allow the people.living either side to be organised in states with those with whom they feel social and cultural affinity’”
Why do you think it is rubbish?
“thats complete tosh you are spouting. how can your assertion make sense in border area like, Roslea, Crossmaglen, Aughnacloy etc.
The natural hinterland of those said areas are in the republic. Thats why your last border brought a war in those areas for 20 years. Bring back the border, prepare for another war.”
I assumed the questioner was asking about the border in principle rather than the precise detail of where it is located.
:I know Arlenes people i see them about Clones all the time. How can you say her natural hinterland isnt with Monaghan?”
Because as a unionist she shares cultural and social affinity with Great Britain. Sadly.most people in Clones do not and hence they broke away.
MT….”Borders aren’t generally drawn for economic reasons, but socially and culturally it is to allow the people.living either side to be organised in states with those with whom they feel social and cultural affinity.”
…..so MT, you reckon they’ve got it at least half-wrong then, given that the border actually separated and still separates about half of the population from those with whom they feel “social and cultural affinity” in some respects….maybe time for a re-think, eh?
“…..so MT, you reckon they’ve got it at least half-wrong then, given that the border actually separated and still separates about half of the population from those with whom they feel “social and cultural affinity” in some respects….maybe time for a re-think, eh?”
Obviously the border should have and could have been more carefully drawn.
I think I’ll blame the British for partitioning Ireland in the first place, thanks.
“I think I’ll blame the British for partitioning Ireland in the first place, thanks”
‘The British’ were merely facilitating the wishes of the people. If Irish nationalists didn’t want a border they shouldn’t have agitated for one.
Link to where the Irish nationalists agitated for a border. This is good – even for you.
“Link to where the Irish nationalists agitated for a border. This is good – even for you.”
From at least the1870s until 1920s they agitated for a border within the British Isles.
You do make me laugh MT.
Hi Joe, every day now, i get a ‘Welcome to the UK’ message – every morning going to work. This is all new, its happening for about 10 months now.
See the way technology and Arlene’s cloud can recognise the border. Isn’t science magic?
Joe, you obviously haven’t used O2 to ring anywhere in the south, as the phenomenal rates they charge would give you never to be forgotten apoplexy!
More importantly, I observed that on the map is a village named after an English monarch!
How do the poor souls of this village survive the sheer oppression and offence of such a label???!!!
Bring in SF to undo this act of inequality!!!
Joe
You should use your phone more often. The change of mobile provider happens regularly. It also happens when walking in Portstewart. There we might be, happily walking the streets of the United Kingdom when up pops a text message telling you that you have been connected to O2 Ireland, or such like. And then an email will arrive and all of a sudden you’ll be charged for data roaming because you didn’t turn the option off because you thought you were at home.
Frustrating business.
Joe, I hope you’re ok and not attacked last night.
I used to have a place in Fermanagh not far from you, on one side of my living room I was on o2.ie while on the other o2.uk, and was of course charged roaming for sitting in my house making calls, never worry about o2, my now provider lets me know I’m, allegedly, in some uk when I get to Newry each night.
If all borders were created for sentimental reasons Fermanagh and Tyrone would be under the same jurisdiction as Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, all 12 counties of Leinster, all 5 counties
of Connacht, all six counties of Munster, plus the city of Derry, and swathes of Counties
Down and Armagh.