Irish, or British or both: Citizenship, identity and Brexit 

@Jack The Film Fanatic And then there's just the Irish.

Jack The Film Fanatic if your Irish you would never be British if your born in Ireland your Irish the sooner the better them fools in the north cop on or go home you won’t be missed

@Jack the Film Fanatic Identity means you can identify as being Japanese even though you're not in anyway. Most northern unionists have probably never even been to Britain.

Yeah think it’s more complex than that mate.

Irish citizens in NI (70% of people in NI hold Irish passports, all those born there are entitled including unionists) remain EU citizens after brexit regardless of how the UK exits. However they lose the protection of EU courts which have provided oversight of the legal system and historically sectarian government which in the past has discriminated against the nationalist community (~50% of the population now). NI exists in part because of a British policy of dividing former colonies in order to weaken them and in part because of a large population of armed unionists (those in favor of remaining in the UK) in three particular counties in the north of Ireland (the Ulster Volunteers). In 1920, during the Irish war of independence (the year before the anglo-irish peace treaty), Northern Ireland was created as an explicitly sectarian state intended to become a dominion (much like canada was at the time). The three counties with a unionist majority (which also happened to contain most of Ireland's industrial infrastructure) were not considered to be viable as an independent state, so three neighboring counties with nationalist (pro-irish independence) majorities were added. However the demographics were still biased in favor of an unassailable unionist majority. NI's first prime minister James Craig, adopted as his motto "a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people", and established an apartheid state which systematically stripped political and economic power from the nationalist (and mostly catholic) minority. Three years after the foundation of NI, proportional representation voting was abolished and constituencies were gerrymandered to ensure a single party state under the Ulster Unionist Party. In 50 years of the existence of the NI parliament, the only piece of legislation written by a catholic ever passed was a measure protecting wild bird habitats. All NI prime ministers, all but one senator and 95% of unionist elected officials during the 50 years were members of a protestant-supremacist organization called the Orange Order. In the early-mid 1960s, inspired by the civil rights movement in the US, nationalists in NI began peaceful protests against discrimination in housing, employment and policing (the police were over 95% unionist and had powers to arrest and imprison without trial, ban public assemblies and censor publications). Police and unionist gangs responded with violence, attacking protestors and firebombing catholic-owned homes and businesses. An exclusively unionist reserve "police" force called the B-Specials was called up, armed with british army weapons and basically let loose on nationalist areas. With increasing negative media coverage and the Irish army mobilising at the border, in 1969/70 the UK government in London dissolved the NI parliament, disbanded the B-Specials, taking direct control of the government in NI. Army troops were deployed from Britain to restore order. The British Army were initially welcomed by nationalist communities but relations deteriorated rapidly as Army units begane to see their role as reinforcing the sectarian RUC police force and faced infiltration by unionist paramilitaries. British army troops began enforcing curfews in nationalist areas and participating with arrests of people to be imprisoned without trial. In 1972, at a peaceful civil-rights march in Derry against internment without trial, british army parachute regiment troops opened fire on the crowd, killing 14 unarmed civilians. Provisional and Official IRA used the massacre to cast themselves as the only defenders of the nationalist community and recruitment soared. What followed was nearly 30 years of violence between the two communities in NI, the british army and attacks on civilians in the Republic and UK. In 1998, a peace agreement was reached which gave the Republic a greater role in NI affairs, provided for NI residents to freely choose their identity and citizenship, set conditions for a future referendum for NI to rejoin Ireland and removed the British Army presence in day-to-day policing. The existing police force (RUC) was abolished and a new Police Service of Northern Ireland created. In exchange the IRA groups decommissioned their weapons and stood down from active resistance and the republic removed our territorial claim to NI from our constitution. The agreement (and associated legal changes) was passed by referendum in the republic (94% - 6%) and NI (71% - 29%). A new government was established with fair PR-STV voting and redrawn constituencies and a community veto system prevented sectarian votes from passing the NI assembly. Unionists were still in majority for elections from 1998 to 2016 but shared power with the largest nationalist party acting as minority government partner. And this is where we get to Brexit. The UK leaving the EU without an agreement that allowed NI to stay in the single market would mean imposition of a customs border between NI and the Republic (a border so sensitive the last time a few signs were put up saying "Welcome to Northern Ireland" they were all either removed or shot to pieces) and stripping people in NI of EU jurisdiction for civil rights cases against the government etc. The nationalist community was almost universally for remaining in the EU and the largest unionist parties campaigned to leave. Remain won in NI (55.8% to 44.2%). Shortly following the referendum the NI assembly collapsed in a corruption dispute, an election was held in March 2017... and for the first time in NI history unionist parties got less than 50% of the seats. Unionist politicians refused to form a government within the deadline provided for by the good friday agreement and in June 2017 direct rule from London was again imposed. So there's your NI history primer... :D Now we're all waiting on the british to figure out what they're going to do before deciding a response.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_border

@@cros13 They won't lose protection of the CJEU in terms of directly effective EU rights and rights under the EU treaties. That'll be the beauty of being an Irish citizen post brexit. Your tax money won't be going to Europe, but you'll still get all the EU benefits

@@user-qi5jw2hg1c Actually I'm in the republic. So I'll have to pay for coverage of my fellow citizens north of the border for EHIC coverage etc (not that I'm in any sense unwilling). We also offered to give the two additional MEPs we gain post-brexit to NI, but EU law currently prevents that.

cros13 lad u put way to much fuckin effort into that

Save your tears, the Irish government is doing its job representing Irish interests - Irish membership of the EU has 92% support in the republic; the Belfast Agreement was carried by 94% in a referendum in the republic. There is consensus in Ireland - its against Brexit and its casual attitude toward peace in NI where there is a majority to remain Accept that fact.

@Jack The Film Fanatic Absolutely true. But then truth is hardly likely to deter some of our more cynical politicians, and media people, from trying to scare people into further unnecessary division and more unnecessarily longstanding and immature hatred.

@@taintabird23 the Irish people do not accept mass migration and replacement of the Irish people.

@@Tomas-ml9nv This is only true it you consider Justin Barrett and his travelling band of acolytes to be the only people living in Ireland.

how is Northern Ireland being occupied ...????? I am from Northern Ireland and we are part of the UK based on the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, the Irish government accepts this honestly i have never read so much crap before

He wasn't born on the Island of Britain. He's Irish with UK citizenship weather he likes it or not.

yermanoffthetelly you can be British and Irish, Ireland is in the British isles.

@@daniellamont3439 The "British Isles" is not a term recognised any more. Its archaic. Your royal family even acknowledged this on their last trip to Ireland. Its in the dustbin of history along with the British-american colonies and Rhodesia. Do keep up.

yermanoffthetelly ok then Northern Ireland is British

yermanoffthetelly plus how exactly is the British isles not recognised anymore?

None of us want you subhuman hun bastards, you are a drain on the country, I wouldn't wish you lot on the Irish either.

WE HAVE A BRIT HERE

The Belfast Agreement protects you from it - you should fight to preserve it like the Irish government are.

Why would they waste their time taking back a money pit of sectarian hatred 😂

p We really want all those game of thrones locations since thats all you have to offer that and a sunken ship,but seriously the GFA enshrines the principle of consent.