[grumpymouse]

Yes, historically 50% or above of people in NI have wanted to be part of the uk and considered themselves British (often to the point of marching around waving Union Jacks etc). Over time that number has gone down relative to people who consider themselves Irish but the numbers are still fairly equal.

[dontbenebby]

>historically

But wasn’t that back when residents of Ireland and Northern Ireland and other areas were all EU residents, so a lot of these types of arguments were largely academic?

(Versus a post Brexit world where someone could be very suddenly trapped in interactions with a government they don’t consent to live under, but cannot as easily flee?)

Can you understand why cutting off someone’s escape, for lack of a better phrasing, could radicalize them?

[petesergeant]

Anyone born in Northern Ireland can claim both a British and Irish passport, and therefore, all people born in Northern Ireland can claim EU citizenship.

Separately, people with British passports can live and work in Ireland without a visa, and vice versa, because both are part of the CTA.

[kelipso]

Aren't most of those people waving Union Jacks genetically/ethnically Anglo? As in they are descendants of people from England.

[grumpymouse]

Some from an English background, some from a Scottish background. Parts of the north of Ireland were colonised by Britain in the early 1600s - have a look at the Wikipedia articles for ‘Plantation of Ulster’ and ‘Ulster Protestants’

[moloch-hai]

Similarly to descendants of Russians in Donbass or Transnistria.

Or the elective majority in North America. Descendants of the people displaced and oppressed are still here, in radically reduced number.

The same story has played out all over the world, for tens of millennia. It is not less objectionable for that.