Newson Emerson: Simon Harris was right. Many Southerners do know London or Paris better than Belfast

. But only a quarter of people in Britain have visited Northern IrelandEveryone could get to know each other better, 'on this island and these islands', as Harris rather queasily put it. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Imagesmust be taken aback by the reaction to his comment that he is “of a generation where people are more familiar now with London and Berlin and Paris than they might be with Belfast or Derry”.

found 51 per cent of people in the Republic had not made a day trip or overnight visit to Northern Ireland in the previous five years. Another 19 per cent had visited once, while just 7 per cent had visited “lots of times”. These figures suggest a substantial share of the southern population may never have been north of the Border.

For northern Protestants, the correlation showed up more as apathy towards the union than as active support for unification, although nationalists could still consider that progress. Building up personal relationships through cross-Border tourism, trade and education could ultimately be a meaningful unifying force, even if this message has become tedious with repetition and nationalists are frustrated with the pace of change.

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