September 15, 2003
Okay, so it's been awhile since I've updated this page. I can't believe it's already been a week! Anyhow, I can not remember what happened last Monday (it's the 22nd now), so I'll just write about general stuff.
In Northern Ireland, a "mixed" marriage is a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant. Thus far, of the very few people I've met, I've heard of two mixed marriages. In one case, the children are the religion of the father, as it is apparently customary that this is what goes on the birth certificate. In the other case, the couple does not have children, but the father does not intend to have them listed as either Catholic or Protestant. He also told me that he has not filled out his voter registration form (which you have to do every year here, apparently) b/c you can only choose between Irish or British as your nationality. Northern Irish is not an option.
See, the Catholic/Protestant issue isn't really about religion at all. It's really about Nationalists vs. Loyalists. Loyalists would like to stay part of the United Kingdom (thereby being loyal to the crown) and Nationalists would like to be a part of Ireland. Typically, Nationalists are Catholic and Loyalists are Protestant.
Then again, on a day to day basis, most residents of this city are happy enough with the way life is. As ever, it is merely some extremists who really want one way or the other.
In Northern Ireland, a "mixed" marriage is a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant. Thus far, of the very few people I've met, I've heard of two mixed marriages. In one case, the children are the religion of the father, as it is apparently customary that this is what goes on the birth certificate. In the other case, the couple does not have children, but the father does not intend to have them listed as either Catholic or Protestant. He also told me that he has not filled out his voter registration form (which you have to do every year here, apparently) b/c you can only choose between Irish or British as your nationality. Northern Irish is not an option.
See, the Catholic/Protestant issue isn't really about religion at all. It's really about Nationalists vs. Loyalists. Loyalists would like to stay part of the United Kingdom (thereby being loyal to the crown) and Nationalists would like to be a part of Ireland. Typically, Nationalists are Catholic and Loyalists are Protestant.
Then again, on a day to day basis, most residents of this city are happy enough with the way life is. As ever, it is merely some extremists who really want one way or the other.
Pasted in from archived geocities page 8/21/14
http://sabrinigreen.geo.do/september.html
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