THE PATRIOT GAME?
Friday, November 28, 2008 at 08:14AM 
So here's a Friday moral dilemma for you.
Is it "unpatriotic" for shoppers in the Irish Republic to flock North of the border because food and drink prices here are relatively cheaper care of the weakening Pound?
"A leading DUP politician has said shoppers in the Republic should come across the border to buy cheaper products and ignore objections that they are being "unpatriotic". Jeffrey Donaldson says Northern business leaders should do all they can to get shoppers to come from the Republic, despite objections from Dublin. Mr Donaldson said that for years drivers from the North have been crossing the border to buy petrol and diesel in the South. Now the tables have turned and it's the turn of southerners to travel north, he's claimed. The strength of the Euro and changes in VAT rates have already led to thousands leaving home for Newry, Enniskillen, Armagh and Derry. The Republic's Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, has said that shoppers crossing the border are "paying Her Majesty's taxes", but Mr Donaldson says that Dublin supports a united Ireland except when it comes to shopping."
I reckon MOST Irish shoppers are way too sensible to listen to Lenihan and they will follow the best deals. "Paying her Majesty's taxes" is a pathetic line to use and shows just how detached some within the political class are from the financial realities faced by many people at this time in the Republic. All the same, I suggest that this mass exodus that now is becoming a feature of life each week, as Northern stores are full of Southern shoppers, must have a telling impact of Irish stores. Any views?
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Reader Comments (35)
The north has very little going for it, except for whoring English goods to the hard working free stater. The unpatriotic line is embarrassing, many of the little nordie workers (mostly in nationalist areas and probable Irish passport holders) are only paid around €7 an hour for their toils. Send them north, and make the southern stores drop their prices. I see Ben Dunne has done just that in recent months.
Im planning on making a trip up there soon myself with herself and her folks.
There is nothing unpatriotic about it in the least. For years we have been fleeced in the south at all levels, be it products or services.
Min wage NI 6.85 Euro
Min Wage ROI 8.65 Euro
From 1st of Dec
Vat NI 15%
Vat ROI 21.5%
A pathetic line for a pathetic government. As with Scotland, this financial crisis has highlighted the folly of dismembering the Union whilst, simultaneously, showing the benefits of remaining therein.
Yes, Dan, I'm sure moderate Catholics, whatever their electoral tribal loyalties, are just crying out to be absorbed into the Irish Republic at this time (LOL!).
Ahh, the cross border economic co-operation at work in the new Ireland.
Lenihan's remark truly is pathetic. All traffic and commerce between the two parts of Ireland should be encouraged.
And if the big spending by travellers between all the UK and Ireland were suddenly to end, Ireland would suffer more by far.
Lets try to come up with a name to describe the booming success in the six counties, as Andrew prefers me to say.(LOL)
Stormont Tiger?
Ulster-Scots Tiger?
Murdering Marts Xmas Give-away?
The last one was for the benefit of the "Afrikaneer wing"
There's a global recession going on, we're all in it together and comments like those of Lenihan's hardly help.
"Yes, Dan, I'm sure moderate Catholics, whatever their electoral tribal loyalties, are just crying out to be absorbed into the Irish Republic at this time (LOL!)."
Stop laughing at your own jokes Andrew, bad manners!
I think the UK in general is far more trouble than the Republic. As neither the UK government nor the Stormont executive are able to raise the northern economy above the basket case level, I'd say the nationalists in the border regions would still throw their lot in with the south (except for Markethill, you can keep Willie Frazer!) I believe the UK budget will not be balanced until 2015.
Employment prospects not great in Dublin at the moment, but still better than the wretched, subsidised (to Soviet levels) economy of the black north. Whoring merchandise for Lord Sainsbury doesn't really count for much in the grand scheme of things. So give them a few bob, they have f**k all else going on. Consider it an act of charity during this festive season!!
Dantheman,
"The black north"..eh? Isn't that a tad - racist?
The point that you miss that it the people that live on the island of Ireland that make it great. Well. most of them...
Given the offical attitudes of Irish Government ministers, I wonder just how well NI is being promoted abroad by Tourism Ireland these days!
By the way, David, your use of song titles as headers is an art in itself.
I notice they're practically tumbling over each other lately!
'Lenihan's remark truly is pathetic.'
Agreed, Noel - He's bancrupt of ideas if that's the best he can come up with.
Andrew,
It's because the ROI is outside the union it is getting the benefit of the strong Euro. I don't see people in NI jumping for joy at the current price of goods in the UK. If anything it's an argument for staying outside the UK.
To borrow a line from Gordon Gekko - Arbitrage is good!
Right, so ...
Lenihan serves in a government that promotes foreign rule. Lenihan believes that the Irish should be subject to foreign laws and and a foreign constitution. He campaigned for it himself.
But to shop abroad is 'unpatriotic'.
Yes, that's very clear.
I live in Donegal, have a euro mortgage but work in Derry and am paid in sterling. I am getting it in all directions and I do not care where I buy things as long as it best value for money. I do not often agree with Jeffrey Donaldson but on this one he is 100% correct. Lenihan did not complain when sterling bought 1.65 euro and busloads of shoppers went south with the mighty sterling but now that sterling is so weak it only buys 1.14 euro so the traffic has reversed.
The last budget put cigarettes up so much that it is a pound dearer now in the north when less than a year ago it was cheaper. Drink prices are crazy and food has gone through the roof. He is the unpatriotic one for shafting his own citizens so that Mary Harney can spend £410 on a haircut. What a waste of money that was!
Noel,
Thanks for that - it's a favourite sport and I virtually think in song titles!
Michael
Well said and I agree with you.
We Irish lost the true meaning of patrionism, Nationalism and cultural loyality to Political Correctness dictated by those Cute Hoor politicians decades ago.
Their objective was (and still is) to naintain a climate of "every man for himself" and divide and conquor.
We have been truly immasculated as a culture and a National entity!
So we can presume now that Mr Lenihan will campaign for the RoI to leave the European Union so that the 'patriotic' Irish govt. are no longer subservient to Brussels and can ignore the open market in Goods and services that EU law requires.
It seems a little odd for Mr Lenihan, as a member of "the Republican Party" to demand (in the name of patriotism!) that people getting ripped-off in one part of Ireland should not get value for money in another part of Ireland.
I'm sure shoppers in border areas of the Republic won't give a damn which Government gets the VAT revenue provided they're making savings in their own pockets.
Considering how much I spent in Clearys last Feb we are due a bit of reciprocosity.
70% off and the exchange rate in my favour made me excessively unpatriotic ;o)
Actually, Superquinn in Sundrive were doing a "Newry prices" gimmick when I was up there yesterday - until Sunday I think for any Dubs interested!
Southern politicos have no idea about the North and never have done! The Irish Times reporting a speech from the National Secretary of Sinn Fein on January 25th 1957, when he was asked what would happen to the Belfast shipyards in a United Ireland. Shipyards famous for building luxury liners,cruisers, aircraft carriers , first line warships and merchant vessels.
He replied "There will be enough work building fishing boats for use around the Irish coast" Let the Germans and French build the ocean greyhounds, all an Irish man wants is shrimps for tea! Nothings changed!
the silver lining here is that the ordinay people of north and south are mingling with eachother more than ever before. this can only be for the good.
I have family who live very near the border. You almost don't notice that there is a border now.
My Irish relatives have always crossed back and forth daily, or close to it, such is the nature of the area.
And they'll surely be buying their petrol in the north and taking advantage of the good prices.
On a (not nearly) unrelated point, I live in Brooklyn, NY and often travel to New Jersey where much of my family and some friends live. There's a big difference in the price of gas (petrol) between because NY taxes it heavily by US standards, while NJ taxes it less.
Yesterday, I bought gas in NJ at $1.72 a gallon, after passing by the NY stations who were charging $2.42 or so a gallon.
I haven't bought gas in NY in years. The thieving politicians in NY get enough of my money- I enjoy depriving them of these sums.
What county do your family live in, Phantom, if I may ask?
A lot of us seem to have family near the border (possible venue for next ATW summit)
BTW, that interview on your website was a bit risque, don't you think? :)
$1.72 a gallon? Holy you know what.
They're all over- Monaghan, Donegal, and one in Cavan.
mahons
Had I been quick enough to notice the "cash only " price, I would have paid $1.64!!
There are huge variations in the price in NJ, as the prices have fallen so rapidly, that some places are passing along older (higher) prices that the gas station owner had paid from the wholesale vendor.
Noel
Risque interview on my website? Would love to take credit for one, but suspect you are confusing me with another.
>>$2.42 <<
Even that is nothing (EUR 0,63 /litre). Last month I was paying the equivalent of $ 7.70 per gallon.
Noel - basically he is saying wherever the caravan parked for the night.
Phantom - stunning prices, almost like a time warp. If they checked your oil and tires and wiped your windshield I couldn't be more suprised.
A short time ago, I was impressed to see $2.99 a gallon. The drop in prices has been astonishing in its speed.
While I love to see the low prices on one hand - nice value for me now, might aid in the first steps of an economic recovery--I'm concerned that the fickle public and politicians will think that the problem has been solved, and that support will wane for offshore drilling,and more importantly the development of alternative fuels and "energy independence"
Fundamentally, the situation has not changed at all, and we can't forget this.
>>Risque interview on my website? Would love to take credit for one, but suspect you are confusing me with another.<<
Phantom, I meant this one.
Oh, a blast from the past!
Well, just as a baseball team will often trade for a player, and then send him back if they're not pleased with him, I decided to return Andrew back to ATW.
All the time I had him, he failed to show up for work even once!
'Stop laughing at your own jokes Andrew, bad manners!'
The joke is, and always has been, the idea of fusing two separate jurisdictions into one state on the island of Ireland.
They're already fused. Both entities are subject to the EU and must obey all instructions from Brussels.
They're in a single state right now.
I'm hearing that the UK is thinking about joining the Euro also.
There is no meaningful border anymore.
"The joke is, and always has been, the idea of fusing two separate jurisdictions into one state on the island of Ireland."
That's a great joke Andrew!!!