Do many people visit Northern Ireland? When people from the rest of the U.K. or the Republic of Ireland speak of Northern Ireland, do they know what they're talking about?

Well I've never visited, I suppose because on the times I was able to get to any part of Ireland, Dublin was too convenient. I suppose the closest I have come is having had friends from both sides in NI but the troubles have never been a topic of conversation.

The closest I remember was a conversation I had when we were giving 2 people originaly from Belfast lifts home from a session and it emerged one was a catholic and the other a protestant and one joked "we are swarn enemies" (they were good friends of course and had been regulars in the session for a couple of years). The other asked that we changed the subject at that point. The incident always reminds me of the song "Then There Were Roses" BTW.

The bottom line is I know little about the situation and it is just a feeling of a past injustice(s) that tend me slightly towards the green. That said, I do believe the situation in NI is extremely complicated and am not convinced that it could be solved as simply as just "Brits out".

As far as I see it, it is really up to the people of NI to strive for peace, to put years of bitterness and wrongs (on both sides) behind them and to ingnore those who seem to want to shit stir.