One of my fears in moving to Ireland was the constant presence of clouds and their effect on my open prairie based psyche. So I'd watch the weather reports a bit more then normal. As it turns out the clouds aren't that bad. There are a lot to be sure, but it's not as tough to deal with as I expected.

But there was something interesting going on as I watched the forecasts and weather maps on English stations. They regularly ignore the Irish Republic. They'll cover the North, and both the British and Irish isles are in the maps, but there's no mention (or markings on the map) for Ireland.

Sheesh, talk about sore losers. It does make me rather proud to be a child of two countries that rejected England though. :)