Sinn Fein objects to ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ road signs

stephendoyle; A nice thought, and it will surely become a museum piece some day; but not for the reasons you imagine. It will be because there will be no such border after those who broke the 26 counties away, have offered them back to the 6 Counties and they will all live happily ever after in IrelandNorth's inventive and amusing 32 Battalion Curragh-land Utopia!

There's a lot in a name. For instance, Greece will not allow the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to call itself simply Macedonia, because that implies a claim on the Greek province of the Macedonia, or indeed vice versa. Virtually no Greeks live in FYROM and no Slavs live in Greek Macedonia. The point here is, looking at it from a Unionist point of view, why did the Protestants not take the opportunity to call their new country by some other name, say "Orangeland" or something along those lines. If they had done that, it would have strengthened their argument that the 6 counties would never be returned to Ireland. Look at it another way. If England was renamed Southern Britain, Wales West Britain and Scotland named North Britain, this would imply a sense of longed-for unity in the way North and South Korea seeks to reunite, and would make independence for North Britain (Scotland) seem absurd. But because Scotland has its own name for its nation, this makes independence seem reasonable, even though many Scots are in fact Anglo Saxon. The rest are mainly Celts from Ireland in antiquity.

Irelandnorth: The original plan was for all nine counties to be included in Northern Ireland, but Carson/Craig knew it would not work, as the Protestants/Unionists would only have a tiny overall majority, and most of that concentrated in Antrim, Down, and north Armagh. Tyrone and Fermangh never should have been included in the north, along with south Armagh and west Derry. Going from Blacklion to Belcoo same country same people, one Ireland. And of course my beloved Slieve Russell and Cuilcagh mountains!!

Great! A sign to steal! And maybe in the not too distant future it might be worth some money to a museum when there is only ONE IRELAND !

Another idiot, mindless protest like the "Shell to Sea" moronic ruckus. Making a stupid protest just to get publicity and stir up the peasants. Gerry adams and Martin mcGuinness are great for that. They're the Irish answer to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Sign already removed and photographed on twitter - rather juvenille. The signs are helpful on several counts. Fisrtly for tourists to let them know they are entering or leaving Northern Ireland / UK so money changes from euros to pounds sterling, secondly that road signs and speeds are now in miles / mph rather than the republics kilometres/kph and also the fact you are in a different legal jurisdiction albeit a free common travel area of UK/Ireland

No matter what signs are put up, the Shinners will always be lost and will never get there! >> I have always felt that internationally;'welcome to ...' border road signs should always be in the language of the country you are leaving. In this case,though, if they were in Irish...hardly body leaving the South (Non-British Sector) would understand them!

During six years of active service with the Irish Army in northern Ireland (nI) in the late 70s/early 80s with the Curragh Commands' 6th, 26th & 32nd Infantry Battalions, we regularly strayed across the commissioned boundary between north eastern Ulster (ie NI), and south western Ulster (ie nI) along the Cavan/Fermanagh county borders. Since the then partitioned perimeter was signalled by little more than a white non-reflective hollow white box painted in the centre of the road a short distance from the estimated boundary, it was easily missed during night time recces, sorties and/or manoeuvres. Only way of knowing for sure was on driving past red post boxes/telephone kiosks rather than green ones. How simpler would it have been had Senoré Edwardo Carsoni & Co settled for all 9 counties of Ulster, (or the then 4 predominently Protestant ones), rather than forcibly including 2 predominantly Catholic ones. In an era of European/global convergence, how politically pragmatic is it for the NI Assembly/Executive to deny that boundaries were intended to be temporary. Not least against the backdrop of rapidly changing demographics in NI. And that they could have exercised some foresight by printing their roadsign as Gaeilge for Catholic counties like Fermanagh/Tyrone. "Failte go dti an TUAIRSCEART ÉIREANN".

ePHraimAg, what Northern Ireland are you referring to that includes Donegal. Northern Ireland is six counties (Armagh, Down, Antrim, Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh). Perhaps you meant Ulster which includes Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan. Gaelic is an officially recognized minority language in Northern Ireland. There are Irish language schools in Belfast, Armagh and Derry. Something in the neighborhood of 20-25 percent of the population has a working knowledge of the language. A variety of Gaelic directional signs are in use, although they are primarily in Armagh, Derry and Belfast.

Seano, i think you mean Norn Iron.

Nothing a little white paint can't help. WELCOME TO IRELAND!

LOL ! Which Sinn Fein` !

I'd rather see the sign in that new ulster language (or whatever it's called) Then the sign would read 'NORN AYRLAND" LOL

Phil will want his next MLA pay cheque in euros`s then. lol

I can't think of a bigger WASTE OF MONEY for no other reason that these border areas are heavily Nationalist and the offensive signs are practically asking to be spray painted over in Gaelic, blown up, used for target process or simply removed by local residents.