My little story goes back to my teens. I fell in love with a girl from Keady, Co.Armagh, who would spend her Summer in my hometown. Having moved to Dublin, my friend who had a car offered to drive me up there. We arranged to meet in the local pub. Keady is a village or at least was then. Sipping our pints and waiting for Siobhan to arrive, in come what seems like half the British army, heavily armed and looking for whoever had the car with the Southern registration. That was us. Thankfully all that happened was we were asked a few questions. For us Southerners though it was quite intimidating. Some years later I went back to the North. I was working for a Scandanavian company and travelling with a Swede. I let him do all the talking at checkpoints. In more recent years I went with my wife for a holiday in Ireland and started in Belfast. We had no problems whatsoever. However, whenever we were looking for a place to stop I would avoid all those places where there was Union Jack bunting plastered all over the streets. It felt quite unwelcoming.