For several decades, Northern Ireland has been troubled by a conflict over a Protestant desire to remain a part of Britain and a Catholic drive to join the Republic of Ireland to the south. As recently as three years ago, in a poll of the population, only 19% of Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland indicated they wanted to remain a part of Great Britain.
Last week, another poll of the Northern Ireland population showed that a surprisingly different number, some 52% of all Roman Catholics living there, now wanted their country to remain a part of Great Britain. What caused this extreme shift of opinion? The economic crisis in the Republic of Ireland that has worsened conditions in the south, is the obvious explanation. British subsidies for the Northern Ireland economy have apparently caused economic conditions there to be far better than in the Republic of Ireland. Among other things, the British Pound continues to be a stronger currency than the Euro used in the Republic. And unemployment rates are now worse in the Republic of Ireland than in Northern Ireland.
Much of the actual fighting in northern Ireland — the open conflict between the I.R.A. of Roman Catholic sentiment and the “security forces” of the Protestant population — was largely eliminated several years ago by a political settlement reached under the aegis of former British prime minister Tony Blair. A fragile peace prevails. If the current majority of the Catholic population now remains convinced that they wish to remain a part of Great Britain, then even any last remaining subtle threat to peace will be removed. According to every indication, tourism is returning there as tourists become convinced it is safe to travel in a once-troubled country. Economic improvements in Northern Ireland will have made all the difference.
My daughter Pauline, currently traveling in Northern Ireland , is a a great enthusiast for vacations enjoyed in that part of the world. She and her family are presently living in a home they have rented near the town of Cushendall in a glen of County Antrim near the sea. Because she very much enjoys Northern Ireland, but is less than enthusiastic about Irish food, she has been doing her own shopping in a butcher shop and grocery of Cushendall and the family then cooks breakfast and dinner in the home they have rented. After a first day there, she and her husband are now on a first-name basis with the local butcher and other merchants.
After dinner most evenings, the family walks along the sea in a country where summer daylight lasts as late as 10pm, and then they go driving the next morning in a rental car to other parts of Northern Ireland, including Belfast. They have been to the Ulster Museum in Belfast, seeing dramatic exhibits on the recent conflict, visited the ancestral home of Andrew Jackson, gone to look at the Giants’ Causeway , eaten bangers and mash in various pubs, attended their first hurling match, and drunk 16-year-old Bushmills whiskey at the Bushmills Distillery nearby.
She reports that tourism in Northern Ireland is now an entirely pleasant venture, especially for families on vacation.
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