Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: RedLeader on May 16, 2012
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I chanced upon this article about a writer from England who had a day hiking in the Mournes. It's a pretty bland piece but these few excerpts irked me a bit.
“Don’t travel in your walking gear,” David instructed me the day before I flew to Belfast. “Even now, it’s still not quite wise to turn up at the airport with a pair of boots and an English accent.”
David had filled up with petrol before leaving, and picked his roads with care. “You don’t want to run over someone’s cat in K–––,” he said, “or run out of fuel in A–––, if you’re conspicuously English, which you are.
I'm not sure if this guy travelled to the Mournes in a time machine but I don't find this representative in any way of current life in Northern Ireland.
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/where-wind-howls
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When I got home, I e-mailed a friend who had been involved in the peace negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and who is an accomplished mountaineer. I commended the range to him. “Oh yes, I remember the Mournes, and Slieve Donard in particular,” he wrote back. “I climbed it when I was at Stormont, for relief. A security man followed me discreetly all the way up, ten paces behind, never saying a word, gun always in hand.”
Expected better from the Economist....
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I left a comment. That's just ridiculous.
The only justification would be if him or his mate were directly linked to something that our unsavoury elements view as a threat/target, and if so you'd not flippin write about it. Me thinks it's just playing on the past for cheap thrills in the story. >:(