Signs and symbols

While checkpoints and roadblocks are the most obvious evidence of the existence of a political border, its existence is also inscribed in the landscape through a variety of official and unofficial signs and symbols. Some of these are the road signs that correspondence to the standard official format of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Since January 2005 crossing the border from Northern Ireland to the Republic is marked by new speed limit signs in kilometres. Similarly the national speed limit road signs of the UK are situated just over the border in Northern Ireland. Additional signs remind those crossing the border that speed limits are in kilometres in the Republic and in miles in Northern Ireland. Older road signs warned drivers with cars registered in the Republic about the need for appropriate insurance if driving in Northern Ireland. Because of road signage regulations, drivers entering Ireland from Northern Ireland even on small country roads are reminded to drive on the left, despite this also being the rule in Northern Ireland.

Along the border, the road signs welcoming drivers into a new county mark not only a crossing from one county to another but also from one political unit into another. New signs now explain the funding of new improved main roads by ‘peace money’ - the EU grants devoted to improving infrastructure, economy and community relations in Northern Ireland and in the border counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth in the Republic.

Alongside these official signs are a range of unofficial signs and symbols that express local support or challenges to the existence of the border and to the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland. Graffiti near the border can mark resistance to what the border represents. The blanked out road signs that still can be found along minor roads in south Armagh were meant to confuse the security forces navigating the lanes that criss-cross the border. But the border has also lost its overt political connotations as it has been incorporated into the names of shop fronts or bars. The words ‘border’ and ‘borderlands’ and references to smuggling have become part of its new visual iconography.

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