Up North - Down South - Back West - Back East ?

A

ajapale

Guest
"Is it always down South and up North?" .. this question arose in another unrelated thread.

Here's my tuppence worth

In the days before maps were understood by most people the concept of Up = North and Down = South did not exist. So it was common for people to travel down to Belfast from Clones.

To the present day it is common for Munster people to speak of travelling down to Cork. Most people still speak of travelling up to Dublin regardless of their geographic location.

Also in Tralee we speak of going back to Dingle and over to Killarney or abroad in the field.

ajapale
 
and from the Pale

we would always go "down the country" even if it was Sligo you were headed to. So we'd be going "down to Sligo for the weekend". But always "up the north" for Ulster, well for the six counties and Donegal anyway.

And going "into town" always meant into Dublin. If you said you were going into town and then toddled off to Dun Laoghaire it just wasn't right at all. :b
 
Re: and from the Pale

Best reason I've come across was to do with railroads and Dublin being the hub of the rail network. Nothing to do with the geographics of the land.
 
hither and thither

I understood one always travels UP to the capital, regardless of the geography.

This tallys with the earlier post re 'up to Dublin'.

The converse would mean travelling from the capital entails 'down to Sligo' etc, but it sounds laboured to state travelling 'down to Donegal' from Dublin, even though many do.

Thus (from Dublin):

Across/over > to Galway, Sligo, Mayo...
Down > to Cork, Waterford, Kerry...
Up > to Fermanagh/Monaghan/Donegal...
 
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