News Item

UK Ousts Ulster... From Monopoly

By Matthew McCreary, The Belfast Telegraph

"The idea of a united Ireland may still be a thorny issue among many people living here - unless you're a Monopoly fan, it seems. A new UK-wide version of the board game has been launched this week, with members of the public being asked to vote for the locations they would most like to see represented on the board.

But the majority of voters from Northern Ireland seem to have forgone the idea of remaining part of the UK and instead voted for inclusion in an all-Ireland version of the board.

'We did a search for a UK edition of the board and an all-Ireland version of the board, so the people from Northern Ireland had the choice to vote for either or even both versions,' said a spokesman for Monopoly publishers Hasbro. 'If they voted for the all-Ireland version, they voted for a county; for the UK edition they voted for a town, city or village in Northern Ireland.

'What seems to have been the overwhelming reaction is that they decided to vote for the all-Ireland edition rather than the UK edition, which has resulted in them not being represented on the board, with the exception of the airport.

'The airport was already set on there anyway, so it wasn't based on votes.'"