What should be the symbol For Northern Ireland?

I am on holiday in Sligo this week. No trip down south is complete without a trip to Aldi. For reasons I could never discover, the German purveyors of reasonably priced foods has foregone setting up in Northern Ireland, which is surprisingly as Lidl does really well here.

Anyway as I was munching through my yogurt and granola breakfast I noticed that the yogurt was made by Clandeboye estate in County Down. They also make the Lidl Deluxe Yogurt and a fine job they make of it. It’s a lovely creamy yogurt made with natural ingredients and not too sugary.

Anyhoooo I noticed on the pack they use the Giants Causeway symbol for their produced in Northern Ireland badge. Lidl also use the Giants Causeway for their NI products.

It seems the marketers have spoken and the Giants Causeway has been selected to represent our wee country/occupied six counties (delete as appropriate).

What about the poor old red hand of Ulster? Is there no love for it? I should declare an interest here as the red hand is on the O’Neill family crest.

The obvious issue is NI is not Ulster as the good people of Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal will be quick to point out. You would also have the issue of people on social media going on about ‘UVF Yogurt’ or pancakes.

So it seems the Giants Causeway is the safe choice.

But still, it does not sit right with me. I bristle at a lot of this NI stuff. Our wee country, that’s us na, so it is, The Harland and Wolff cranes etc

The core issue aways comes back to the fact  that half of NI does not want to see the place exist at all so it’s hard to get behind any identity.

Do you have any suggestions for alternative symbols?

Here’s a nice photo I took at Rosses Point this morning.