SIMON Hamilton of the DUP seems to be the latest of a long line of unionist politicians in Ulster to 'blast' mistakes made by people from the British mainland and elsewhere, who understandably make the mistake of thinking that various other parts of the traditional nine counties of Ulster are in fact in present day Northern Ireland.
This is only the latest incident, as there was a similar incident with Ulsterbus/Translink and their wrong identification of the border only recently.
Now, for starters, I would say that this attitude is downright hypocritical. For one thing, why
is the DUP not outraged by RTE's weather broadcasts? There is no border at all in them.
Or the fact that RTE, still to this day, continues to refer to the legitimate country of Northern Ireland as "the North". Where is unionist opposition to this?
Why are unionist politicians so antagonised by people's mistakes when it comes to thinking other parts of the province of Ulster, other than the six counties, are in the UK.
Surely the unionist politicians should be happy with this. Very much in the same way as republicans and nationalists are happy when people mistakenly forget the island of Ireland is made up of two different countries.
Surely, if republicans are as adamant that Northern Ireland is, as they refer to it, the "six occupied counties", then surely unionists should regard Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan as our "three occupied counties".
Why don't both the ULSTER Unionist party and the ULSTER Democratic and Unionist Party start to actually promote what their name suggests?
Either they do this or they should completely stop their usage of the word Ulster in their speeches and talks, for it bears no resemblance to their actual beliefs on what Ulster is.
If we are Ulstermen, then be proud of all of Ulster. And if we are proud of all of Ulster, we should want it united, even if the prospect of this ever happening in the short term is complete and utter fantasy.
I can't speak for Simon Hamilton and the DUP but I am a proud Ulsterman, and proud of the "other three Ulster counties" even though they are presently in the Republic.
Proud Ulsterman
Tyrone
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