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When I made the move from Omagh to Glengormley, I found it very noticeable how everyone in Belfast pronounces words like "flower" "tower" and "power" as if they were spelled "flar" "tar" and "par". Of course, being the only ex-Omaghite in Glengormley all my friends regarded my pronunciation as the weird one.... even asking me to say sentences containing these words, rather like how Irish people in America are often asked to "say something, say something"!

This is all well and good as far as it goes. Different accents in different places. But the other day I noticed myself saying that such-and-such was "par for the course", and I realised that while that might be quite unambiguous in Omagh, in Belfast there is no way to distinguish between the words "power" and "par" other than through the context. Similarly, I could point out a "tower" over there, or the "tar" over there and be understood quite fine in Omagh, but in Belfast everyone would be at a loss to know which you meant.

These are serious problems. The fear of mixing up my towers and my tar is almost enough to make me want to up stick and move back to Omagh.