Barry: Our tender relationship with Northern Ireland

Sep 30 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LAST week my fellow columnist Denis Kilcommons related how a shop assistant in his village refused to accept a Northern Irish banknote as payment.

Denis – a frequent traveller to Ulster – asked if this young man was acting legally in not taking a “United Kingdom banknote.’’

Well, Denis, the answer is yes. Northern Ireland’s four banks all issue their own notes, but none of them are legal tender anywhere – even in Northern Ireland itself.

Of course, businesses – whether in Derry or Denby Dale – are perfectly entitled to take these notes as payment. But they’re also perfectly entitled not to.

So I’m afraid, Denis, that the young whippersnapper was within his rights to turn up his nose at your Norn Iron note.

When I return to my native land I enjoy seeing all the different notes again – particularly the Bank of Ireland fiver which has a picture of my old university on the back.

But, when it’s time to go back to England, I search through my wallet for any Northern Irish notes and exchange them for Bank of England notes with any family members who might have them to hand.

And, as I do so, I think of all those people on both sides of the Irish Sea who insist that Northern Ireland is part of something called the United Kingdom.