h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spent last week in Northern Ireland, first time I've been back in a year. It's interesting to see the changes and there are quite a few.

Firstly, there are far fewer Union Jacks and Irish flags. The paint on the kerbstones is fading and the murals are starting to look less relevant. There is one kind of graffiti that is new, but more of that later. I hear there are still occasional bouts of petrol-bomb throwing and the like, but it seems to be more rowdiness than anything else. There's a lot of building going on. Belfast is just one big traffic jam. When you combine mind bogglingly inept traffic management with some of the rudest drivers in Britain, things tend to get a bit fraught. In between the snarled up traffic, the Belfast Telegraph vendors flit around selling papers with their red tabards with the cheery messages on the back. It's difficult not to notice that they're *all* Romanian. There was a set of roadworks at a roundabout on a very busy part of dual carriageway. There were about 6 traffic-clogged roads leading into it, tailbacks for miles and it was being controlled by traffic lights and two guys with stop/go boards. One huge van-driver obviously felt the guys holding the boards were being less than fair because I watched him jump from his van, grab the board from the wee guy holding it and throw it over the fence into the construction site. This met with the approval of many, judging by the resultant horn tooting.

There are so many new roundabouts outside Belfast too. My poor SatNav was totally befuddled. It's like any peace dividend is being spent trying to confuse drivers.

During my stay I stopped in four different B&Bs and hotels in Derry, Belfast and Armagh. All of them were superb. Clean, efficient & with good breakfasts. But I only heard one Irish accent in them. They're all staffed by Poles. Same on the ferry. The bar staff, waitresses and shop assistant were all Polish. The cafes in Belfast also seemed to have Polish staff too. Obviously there are a lot of Poles in Scotland too, but I don't spend as much time in hotels or cafes at home so I don't tend to notice. What happened to all the original workers? The cheery guy at the ferry terminal in Larne has been replaced by a surly bloke with an indeterminate Eastern European accent. Where have all the Irish shop & hotel workers gone?

In my previous job, I had access to the figures showing how much money was being sent out of Britain each week using money transfer services. The amount going to Poland was second only to that going to Pakistan. The worrying part for companies like Western Union and Moneygram is that the banks automatically give Poles bank accounts. Unlike the Romanians and others who have to be here six months before a bank will look at them, it's been recognised that Poles are significantly less dishonest and hence not a bad credit risk. All this no doubt helps oil the wheels of economic migration.

It seems the locals notice the influx too. On a wall in Belfast a UFF sign has been whitewashed out to be replaced by "Polish Out".

Oh dear.

It seems that the Poles are taking over!
I wonder what it will be like in the south. Any place you reccommend to visit?

Britain? Britain? It's called Norn Irrnd for a reason, mate!

TRiG.

And in Belfast, it's Norn Irrnd too.

But shouted.

Places to visit? Depends what you're looking for. The coast road north from Larne is beautiful, the nightlife in Belfast is good (or so I'm told).

What I like is that the small towns like Banbridge and Lisburn are like small towns used to be here. Loads of small independent shops offering a huge variety. Not the same identikit retail units offering the same bland rubbish which is largely the norm here.

'I wonder what it will be like in the south' as in southern ireland. Unfortunately, unable to see Belfast which I thought was in the north.

Well, it's south of Derry

I'll tell you about the south in a fortnight, as I'm going there next week.

What part do you hail from TRiG?

Yay ... do you get to travel a lot due to your job? starts wondering what you do.

I'm a sales manager covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire so I do about 1000 miles a week.

Ireland's nice, but it's usually raining

for that incite

I think I'm going to have to pack my woolens

Hey let us know next time you're over!

I've just moved to Lisburn, so can agree with what you say about the independent shops, although they appear to be a threatened species.

I love the choice of baking there! I go on at great length to anyone who'll listen about how all their supermarkets seem to have an additional 2 isles of bakery products over their UK counterparts. And oh what i'd do to be able to buy some Veda in Scotland

NornIrn radio stations are also better. More varied. Less reliance on the charts. Though like the high street shops, i expect the homoginisation of the airwaves to commence shortly


Oh and talking of all the building going on and the changing skyline, anyone spot this story? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6559917.stm?ls

<> Generally yeah, but if I hear the Undertones one more time

go on give us a job SWL I travelling.

Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

Lots of Poles here too.

(Polish, not Irish, is now this country's second language. I'm not sure what effect this has on the national character. I've not seen any "Poles out" graffiti, but I have seen signs in Polish in shop windows and on construction sites. Even occasional columns in some newspapers.)

I'm quater Polish myself, as I think I mentioned to you before.

TRiG.