One thing that really grates with me is when people refer to Northern Ireland (NI) as "Ulster". I don't want to be a pedant, but it's important to note that NI is a state of six counties while Ulster is a province of nine. Sometimes I think that unionists conflate the two terms in an attempt to bestow an historical legitimacy on NI which it doesn't posess.
It's important to keep in mind that partition entailed not just the division of Ireland but also the division of Ulster. Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, though part of the Irish Republic, are no less part of Ulster. While Cavan and Monaghan are in southern Ulster, Donegal's nothern-ness is apparent to anyone who looks at a map. It is one of the absurdities of partition that the northern most point in Ireland, Malin Head, is in Donegal and thus politically part of "the South" rather than "the North".
The decision not to include Donegal in the northern state in 1920 gives both states a strange appearance. There is Donegal, tucked away in the far north-west of Irealnd, with long borders with Derry and Tyrone, both in NI, and then a short stretch of land connecting it to Sligo and thus to the rest of the Republic. It looks out of place, as if it should be in NI but somehow it was forgotten.
In other ways too Donegal is a very northern place. It is the natural economic hinterland of the city of Derry, just across the border. It is also a place which many people from NI like to visit. It's not hard to see why. With its rugged coastline, its beautiful scenery and its pubs that never shut, it's a great holiday spot. Many northerners are so taken with the place that they buy second homes there.
And interestingly, this applies to both Protestants and Catholics. In middle-class Protestant areas like East Belfast and North Down, it is quite common for people to have second homes in Donegal. When the marching season begins in early July these areas are drained of people as many go on holiday to avoid the madness. And many choose to go to Donegal.
Yet paradoxically, there is a marching season of sorts in Donegal too. The Orange Order's only annual parade in the Republic passes through the Donegal town of Rosnowlagh each year. Regardless of how tense the situation is in NI, the Rosnowlagh parade passes without incident.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the order marches in Donegal. Partly its because the county has a Protestant population, though this hardly makes it unique in southern terms. I feel part of the reason there is a march in Donegal is that unionists don't quite regard the county as foreign. Like the former Soviet republics for the Russians, Donegal is the "near abroad", not quite home, but not quite not home either.
While most unionists still insist on describing the Republic as a foreign state, they seem to hold back a little when it comes to Donegal. Because of its geography and its attractiveness as a place to visit, many unionists feel warmly towards it. Some may boast that they've never so much as visited Dublin as a mark of their unionism, but I don't think anyone would make the same claim about Donegal as proof of their undying antipathy to the Republic.
Some years ago I was talking to a unionist friend about this. He admitted that while he liked Donegal, he knew that taking it in to the North was impossible because there were too many Catholics in the county. But, speaking in jest, he said: "If the South offered us Donegal in return for South Armagh, I'd bite their fucking hands of." Just one anecdote, but perhaps typical of a wider attitude.