Everything that only a Northern Irish person in Aberdeen will understand

Northern Ireland and Scotland may be just 12 miles apart at their closest point but they are remarkably different places. Aberdeen is home to large number of Northern Irish people, many of whom are students. It’s a welcoming place and a wonderful place to study, but being Northern Irish over here it does have its struggles.

The Accent

It will come as no surprise that people mock our accent. We're asked multiple times to say ‘power shower for half an hour’ and everyone always looks confused when we say mirror (pronounced myrh). People try to copy our accent and here's a shocker, very few people can actually do it. None of us are strangers to disappointed faces when people realise were are from the north and don’t have the lilting Irish accent they expected. We never really miss our accent, given that there are so many Northern Irish people in Aberdeen, but when we do we simply listen some COOL FM or ’Give My Head Peace’. Northern Irish got voted as the sexiest accent, so despite our constant need to repeat ourselves and possibly even make ourselves sound a little posh, who are the real winners?

The Cuisine

Potato scones and potato bread are NOT the same thing, potato bread is much superior and on the subject of bread, you are missing out on soda bread and veda. Most of us half fill our suitcases with it anytime we’re home to bring back. We miss our hearty Ulster Fry, sorry, but it’s just not the same here. Nobody understands our deep love for Tayto crisps, but thankfully you do understand crisp sandwiches. We also love a wee cup of tea, thank goodness.

The basic diet for Northern Irish people

The Humour

We have a unique sense of humour which is often misunderstood for being offensive. We love you really, but we are incredibly likely to express that through a bit of good auld’ norn irish slaggin’. On a side note we thoroughly enjoy the Scottish sense of humour too.

Great craic when Dorothy met the mystery crew

The History

Trying to explain the geography and politics is always interesting. The island of Ireland is 2 different countries. Northern Ireland is in the UK. We can have British or Irish passports. We don’t have our own flag and to be honest it’s just better not to ask about the politics in the first place, unless you want to be trapped in a discussion for several hours.

The Money

We are subject to some funny looks when we try to pay with our Northern Irish notes. Shop assistants look at them like they've just been pulled out of a Monopoly box before we reassure them it's definitely sterling. Scottish notes look just as funny to us as ours do to you.

Money causes confusion

The Scenery

We aren’t scared of seagulls, we have many beaches in NI and so are well accustomed to dealing with the almighty beasts. Sure Aberdeen is pretty, but nothing ever matches the North Coast or the Mourne Mountains, and we loving showing off NI whenever anyone visits.

Murlough Bay

Wishing Arch

The Famous Exports

No, I haven't met Liam Neeson. I haven’t met Jamie Dornan either, nor do I know any famous Northern Irish people as a matter of fact, but when someone from our wee country hits the big time we’re all immensely proud of them and people will often try to find some link to them.

The Fellow People

We can hear the accent a mile off, if we sense another Northern Irish person we will seek them out and we will instantly befriend them. Chances are we will already have a mutual friend anyway.

City Hall, Belfast is a prime sunbathing spot

I reckon we have the best of both worlds’ splitting our time between the 2 best countries. Hope this wasn’t wick, til next time muckers, sure you know yourself!