Rental Cars and Northern Ireland?

The plan for the upcoming (bank holiday!) weekend is to rent a car and drive (basically) completely across the island. In theory, 2 of my housemates and I will rent a car tomorrow morning and drive north with the stated goal of visiting Belfast, Derry, Donegal, Mayo, and Galway in roughly that order.

If that happens or not remains to be seen.
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A Token American in a Foreign Country on the Fourth of July

Today was the first time (and it may turn out to be the last time as well) that I have ever worked on the 4th of July. It was a Friday so it was a rather light day, but it still felt weird to be working on a day that (in many cases) is part of a four day weekend in America. Its also interesting to answer my coworkers questions about what the 4th is like in America. Just to give a general flavor of the questions, here is a sampling:

"So what do most people call it? Independence Day? The 4th of July?"

"Does everyone just....have fireworks?"

"Do English tourists get harassed on the day?"

For some reason, people seem to think that Independence Day is a very anti-British holiday. I don't know where they got this idea, but it seems to be fairly widespread. Everyone seems to think that the whole fireworks part is really cool, especially when I explain to them that fireworks are the only universal official celebration aside from what everyone chooses to do themselves. It was a rather curious experience to go to work today especially because the date seemed to emphasize the fact that I'm an American and, therefore, not Irish. That was an especially interesting feeling because generally in the United States 4th of July celebrations have quite an opposite effect.

Also, it has been raining (hard) today since about noon. Also something I'm definitely not used to on the 4th of July, although since I was at work I didn't notice as much as I would have normally as I was inside all day.
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