Frank McNally on A History of Northern Ireland in 100 Euphemisms

about 3 years in The Irish Times

 1.The Irish Problem
2. The North
3. The South
4. The Troubles
5. The Crossness
6. The Clones Affray
7. B Specials
8. Unapproved Road
9. Concession Road
10. The Monaghan Salient
11. Drummully Polyp
12. Éire
13. The Six Counties
14. The Wee North
15. The Black North
16. The Occupied Territories
17. Our Wee Country
18. Ulster
19. The Province
20. The Mainland
21. Fenian
22. Taig
23: Themmuns
24. Black Orangemen
25. Big House Unionist
26. Lundy
27. A cold house for Catholics
28. “The Northern Disease […] at the present […] safely confined in its Ulster quarantine.” (George O’Brien, 1936)
29. Norn Iron
30. The dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone
31. Puckoon
32. The Patriot Game
33. Border Campaign
34. Only our rivers run free
35. Nordies
36. Mexicans
37. El Paso
38. P O’Neill
39. “Óglaigh na hÉireann”
40. Officials & Provisionals
41. We will not stand by
42. Vanguard
43. Free Derry
44. Free Stater
45. Free Presbyterian
46. The Men Behind the Wire
47. Romper rooms
48. The disappeared
49. Bandit Country
50. “Soldiers briefly entered the Republic due to a
map-reading error.”
51. Stroke City
52. Foyleside
53. Tiocfaidh ár lá
54. Stoops
55. The Condom Train
56. The Peace Train
57. A suspect device on the line near Newry
58. Q. Are you Catholic or Protestant? A. I’m an atheist, thank God.
59. Q. A Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?
60. On the blanket
61. Haitch Blocks
62. Aitch Blocks
63. “It’s gonna happen, happen, happens all the time/It’s gonna happen, happen, till you change your mind”.
64. As British as Finchley
65. A failed political entity
66. Third Force
67. Legitimate target
68. “Loyal”
69. Peter the Punt
70. Slab.
71. “I pondered on the churches of England and Rome/Hadn’t paid the rent for my spiritual home.”
72. Walk the Queen’s Highway
73. Traditional route to church
74. Peace wall
75. Garda X
76. Stakeknife
77. Humespeak
78. Creative ambiguity
79. Confidence Building
80. Sunningdale for Slow Learners
81. “I feel the hand of history on my shoulder.”
82. “I hate to leave” (George Mitchell)
83. Never! Never! Never! Never! (Oh, all right)
84. The Chuckle Brothers
85. They haven’t gone away, you know
86. “I have not been and am not a member of the IRA”
87. Put beyond use in the presence of two
clergymen.
88. Whataboutery.
89. Curry My Yoghurt
90. The Derry Girls blackboard
91. Our Precious Union
92. Backstop
93. Seamless technological solutions
94. Get Brexit Done
95. Oven-Ready Deal
96. The Northern Ireland Protocol
97. “Boris Johnson has assured unionists…”
98. Feasibility studies for a proposed bridge across the Irish Sea
99. The Lanark Way interface
100. “They are an embarrassment to Northern Ireland and only serve to take the focus off the real law breakers…”

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