'...one of the most bearable', eh, McGrath? Germany's pretty nice. So too France. Ever notice how the only Irish people who praise Ireland are the ones living abroad (besides the tourist board, and they're paid to do it)? Our greatest 'inpatriate' intellectual (though by God he'd've despised the epithet), Myles na gCopaleen (moment of silence, please), hated the place, and spoke more often than not of his distaste for everything pertaining to 'Gaelic culture' and its revival. But, then, that was in the 40s and 50s, when it was far, far worse than today's whippersnappers can imagine. I don't like Ireland very much either, but it's easier to stay than to go. As for the North, the less I have to think about it, the better, I find. Cold, I know, but one grows weary of the rhetoric of hatred.