The Irish are **** suckers who should die...

[Elok]

Hence their Civ5 trait, "'Ere, 'ave a spot of tea, mate RIGHT IN THE COBBLERS!"

Er, or some such cockney/lower-class-British slang. I don't know how those people actually talk, I'm just borrowing crap I heard on the Simpsons once.

[Ghaladh]

It's when Athelstan became king. And England stopped building burghs and started seriously kicking Scots, Welsh, Danish and Cornish arse. Culminating in the the Battle of Brunnanburh in 937AD, when England took on the Scots, Welsh, Dublin Danes and even some Icelanders simultaneously- and bummed the lot of them.

"Conquering" is not a synonym of "Civilizing". The vanquished populations would have reached prosperity and civilization even without the "help" of the Brits. Beyond that, to have a better army is not necessarily a sign of civilization. The Roman Empire was founded by ignorant rapist shepherds and only thanks to the Greeks they evolved into the "refined" Latin culture, so to speak.
I love England and English people as well, but surely it would be hypocritical to gloss over the British expansionist attitude with the mere excuse of "bringing civilization".

Said that, I seriously doubt that people in Northern Ireland are happy to remain with the UK; of course, you have to consider that most of the NI population is composed by the offspring of the conquerors: surely, being they English by culture and origins, they feel themselves more as citizens of the UK rather than rightfully Irish, but what about the Irish natives? Many of them fleed in the Eire and left their land to the English. If something will change, more likely NI will obtain total independence by both Eire and UK, as like what happened in South Africa, because the natives are just a minority and the newborn Northern Irish generations have a brand-new national identity.

And about the song that opened this thread... the IRA surrendered to the Brits.

[MOBIUS]

Who is this pointless little man?

[MikeH]

Said that, I seriously doubt that people in Northern Ireland are happy to remain with the UK

[DaShi]

Who is this pointless little man?

He's you from another universe.

[Provost Harrison]

I still think the US occupation of the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas should be stopped and the lands reverted to Mexican control. It's an illegal occupation. You deserve bombings by the Mexicans over this!

Discuss.

[MikeH]

"I seriously doubt that people in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are happy to remain with the US."

That's actually more true than the Northern Ireland statement!

[Ghaladh]

I am speaking about the native Irish minority. Of course the English natives are happy with the current situation, but still is not their land. Northern Ireland is Irish, not British.

[Provost Harrison]

Because? It depends on the will of the current occupiers of the land, ie, the Northern Irish.

[Barnabas]

What would happen if in 5 of the 6 counties Unionists became the majority to the point that in a "national" Northern Irish election the option of joining the rest of Ireland would win?

Would the English let that happen? Or would they let those 5 counties join Ireland while keeping the sixth one as a kind of Gibraltar colony?

I bet the second option would happen. The British colonial empire nowadays exists the tabloid reading underclass + many tories get nationalistic kicks out of owning little parts of far away countries that remind them of their XIX century Importance.

The will of the current occupiers doesn't matter, the English will never completely leave Ireland in spite of all the suffering they have caused there (Population going from 8 million to slightly over 4 million in the XIX century when the rest of the world had a population boom).

I bet Provost supports Turkish Cyprus.

[MikeH]

I am speaking about the native Irish minority. Of course the English natives are happy with the current situation, but still is not their land. Northern Ireland is Irish, not British.

On that basis Poland is German/Russian, Italy and Spain are French etc.

[Provost Harrison]

What would happen if in 5 of the 6 counties Unionists became the majority to the point that in a "national" Northern Irish election the option of joining the rest of Ireland would win?

Would the English let that happen? Or would they let those 5 counties join Ireland while keeping the sixth one as a kind of Gibraltar colony?

I bet the second option would happen. The British colonial empire nowadays exists the tabloid reading underclass + many tories get nationalistic kicks out of owning little parts of far away countries that remind them of their XIX century Importance.

The will of the current occupiers doesn't matter, the English will never completely leave Ireland in spite of all the suffering they have caused there (Population going from 8 million to slightly over 4 million in the XIX century when the rest of the world had a population boom).

I bet Provost supports Turkish Cyprus.

Well Provost doesn't support people who apply situations that are centuries out of date to present day situations.

So when are you going to give those southern states back to Mexico?

[MikeH]

We can't leave even if they wanted us to.

[MikeH]

Just for perspective, my family is Irish, from Kinsale.

[Provost Harrison]

That's probably the most ironic thing is that the Americans go on about their Irish ancestry, I bet we probably, on average, have more Irish ancestry than they do...we just don't bang on about it.