Attack of the Clones

The other Saturday we took a little trip to the Belleek Pottery to see what it's like. We received quite a lot of Belleek items as wedding presents, and thought it would be good to see where they had been made, and how they were made. Sadly the only guided tours on Saturdays are for privately booked tour buses, so we had to content ourselves with the 'museum' which was tiny and the gift shop, which was all geared towards the American market.

While there, though, we were accosted by a representative of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Having been asked where we had travelled from (er, just down the road...), he did a quick survey trying to discover demographics of visitors and all that. He also took my email address, as some participants would be invited to join a further web-based survey to garner reflections once the holiday/trip had been completed.

The email popped up yesterday, and I settled down to complete it. And it was then that I discovered a most remarkable fact: the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has shifted. Northern Ireland must now be six and a bit counties:


Fermanagh now includes Clones, according to the map and the detailed list. I wonder when this border incursion occurred? Or perhaps we're seeing the start of the border expanding and including the estranged 26?