Are you one of those who say now and then: "I wish I could do something to help on the North?" Well, there is something you can do. Go up and spend a few days of your holiday there. You get good value, even with the difference between the punt and the pound sterling. You get a welcome, and you see some of the most beautiful places in all of this beautiful island. The sense of isolation that now and then comes over people there was illustrated to a newspaper colleague and his wife some time ago when they went up to a function which included many people from the two sides of the political set-up. A man prominent in politics there, whom they knew, said with genuine emotion in his voice: "Thanks very much for taking the trouble to come up." What an indictment of southern lack of interest. For God's sake - only 100 miles from Dublin to Belfast.
Anyway, thoughts of booking immediately into a favourite hotel up there arose after leafing through a very plush, hugely illustrated magazine which came through the post. It's called Omnibus and is produced by the Northern Ireland Information Service. There are major articles to consider, but these being very cuisine-conscious times, let us start with a couple of eating and drinking places. First The Buck's Head in Dundrum Bay, Co. Down. It was to a now vanished hotel that Mrs Delaney, friend of Dean Swift, repaired one Sunday when her husband had become Dean of Down, and her party demolished "boiled leg of mutton, a sirloin of roast beef, six boiled chickens, bacon and greens, apple pies, a dish of potatoes, - all set on at once."
Today the Buck's Head has a brilliant choice of seafood to choose from: oysters in profusion, mussels, salmon and, indeed, more or less what you want from that very fish-conscious area. There is a pub/restaurant at Ravarnet, Co. Antrim, which is the largest thatched establishment of the kind in the country. It is descended from a pub that nearly wasn't. For the Victorian owners of the nearby mill objected to a licence in case their workers should descend into drunkenness. A long fight ensued and the publican, Mrs Nell Crossley, eventually won out. So she called her establishment The Perseverance Inn. Now it's The Tidy Doffer. No space to explain doffer. It's not a stripper. Splendid piece by Jonathan Bardon on 1798; an enigmatic profile of the Chairman of the BBC. Is Sir Christopher Bland a Kerryman? From an early age he lived in Co. Down: Kilkeel, Banbridge, Newcastle. Read Frank Delaney's profile of him. Masses more good material for another day. In the meantime, to those south of the Border: try going North. Y