It’s incredibly difficult to be Northern Irish when you’re abroad

It’s all rather confusing, Northern Ireland that is. Granted, anyone from the area knows the craic. It’s a fact that it’s part of the United Kingdom. But it’s also a fact that someone living there can have an Irish or British passport, just not a Northern Irish one. Even though they live in Northern Ireland. Which makes the concept of travelling a little complex.

The joys of dual nationality

Picture this, you’re on Erasmus and the very friendly Dutch fella in your hall asks you and your two friends – all of whom live within 10 minutes of each other back home – where you’re from. The answers, all said at the same time and all equally true: “Ireland”, “Northern Ireland”, “The UK”.

Now I feel sorry for the Dutch kid because this is often followed up by the question: “so you’re all from different places?” which turns into a spiel involving an 800 year history of the island and Anglo-Hiberno relations and why someone from Northern Ireland can claim to be from any of the three places, or all three of them at once if they want to. It’s a rather stressful experience for all involved.

Poor fellow should have just made small talk on the weather. If only he had known.

Whereas the Irish stereotype involves the likes of Guinness, leprechauns and P.S. I Love You, the North has a bit of a different image, something more along the lines of terrorism and clan mentality. This Captain Planet clip is the perfect example:

But there’s more to the North than societal divisions. We have as much craic as the South and drink far more Guinness. It’s just a pity that when someone from the North heads abroad they’re politicised a whole lot more than their Southern counterparts.

The perfect example of this comes from an Inter rail trip I took this summer, where I told an Australian fellow where I was from, and having studied the Troubles he bombarded me with questions on relations between religious groups and stuff that happened 30 years before I was born. All I could think was, “I dunno, I studied the Norman invasion of 1066 in school.”

Proudly wearing the tri colour

But there are perks to being Northern Irish abroad. Where ten years ago a Northerner would be known for nothing more than terrorism and Bono’s political activism during the Troubles (and we don’t know which one we should be sorrier about), we have a few more things to shout about these days. Apparently our accent is pretty sexy, so is Jamie Dornan I’ve been told. We have Game of Thrones; and James Nesbitt flying the flag over in England upping the idea of a Northern Irish identity.

The irony of Northern Ireland is that the population of the counties, divided between two nations and two populations all share the same experience but can’t seem to grasp at the idea of a shared identity, which in turn causes an awful headache when trying to explain where you’re from when abroad. Despite this though, it can always be agreed that when we’re abroad we just can’t wait to get home, and sit down to a big aul fry. Whether it be full Irish, English, or Ulster – but that’s a different argument all together.