And will report back. In fact, we're staying two nights in Portrush, then one in Belfast.
As to your questions as I understand it, yes, the neighborhoods are still Balkanized in the larger cities (Belfast, Derry, etc.), which they weren't so much before the Troubles started in 1969. And some cities and towns have been one side or the other practically forever. But many rural areas and small towns aren't as much for various reasons.
Case in point: Portrush. It's in Antrim, a heavy Protestant majority county. But the town (of about 6,000) is a quarter Catholic.
On the Troubles, the violence has stopped and the paramilitaries have laid down their arms, thank God and the the Good Friday Agreement, but there are still the stupid marches, bonfires etc. Which we're avoiding like the plague. I purposely scheduled the trip around it, and we're crossing into the north the day after the last march, the Apprentice Boys March in Derry that takes place that takes place this year on August 10. I have absolutely no interest in seeing anything relating to the Troubles, like wall murals and that crap. There are tours of such things. No thank you, it's not to be celebrated.
Would that more people be like the three major-winning golfers from Northern Ireland (McIlroy, McDowell and Clarke) who want no part of the divisions and stay completely out of politics. McIlroy is Catholic, Clarke is Protestant, and McDowell is the Protestant son of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. And they are all close friends. Clarke in fact was asked yesterday who he thinks is going to win this week. His answer? "Obviously Rory."