What does Brexit mean for my Ulster Heimat?
Heimat? ‘In a sense it means home, the castle in a person’s heart, if you will …. but in truth there is no specific English translation,’ to quote a character in Patrick McCabe ‘s story, The Sisters, in the collection Dubliners 100. Heimat, often translated as “home” or “homeland”, is a shared cultural concept among German speakers, conveying a deep sense of belonging which is difficult to articulate. In her novel, Beautiful Pictures of a Lost Homeland, Mia Gallagher shifts between borders and flight, evoking a lost “Heimat”. Impending Brexit provokes me to dig deeper into my Ulster Heimat. What does belonging to Ulster mean to me?