The Irish protocol.

“Us Brits” ffs 😆😂

Is the OP schizophrenic?

"You irish"..... still in denial about the fact your Irish, or was growing up in an apartheid to strong to ever admit your Irish. How can you admit to living in a place for over a 500 years but still can't use the demonym of that place to refer to yourself as.

See this is the problem. You say us brits have been in Ireland for over 500 years so we are in are own country. That is the same as saying we have been in Ireland for 500 so we are now Irish. It is the refusal to admit you are Irish even when accepting your ancestors have been in Ireland for 500+ years is the problem to yourselves. You can only infer from the refusal to call yourself Irish despite living in Ireland for 500+ years that you see yourself as foreign to Ireland.

I can't believe this thread, everyone in Northern Ireland is Irish, they can be wanna be English all they want with their poxy marching band practice

Ian Paisley, David Trimble both referred to themselves as Irish too.

Like 'Ulster Scots' it's a modern affection to insist on being called 'British. Probably as the inevitability of a UI grew.

Well, living on the island of Ireland is not really enough, it itself, to make someone Irish. If it was, we'd have to say that, e.g., Jeremy Irons, who lives in Cork, is Irish, and he's quite definitely English, by birth, breeding, ancestry and identification.

Which points to a clue to the answer to the wider question. If downcow not only lives in Ireland, but also comes from a long line of people who were born and lived in Ireland, most people (who knew nothing of how he himself identifies) would say yeah, he's Irish; that's pretty much how national demonyms like "Irish", "English", "French", etc. are generally understood.

And if people were told that downcow identifies as (among other things) "Northern Irish" that would reinforce their initial conclusion, since anybody (or anything) that is northern Irish is necessarily Irish; northern Irish is a particular kind of Irish in the way that northern English is a particular kind of English.

But nothing is ever as simple as we might think it should be. Downcow in fact identifies as British and is part of a large community of people who so identify, even though they are Irish (in the sense just described). And this isn't a random or meaningless identification; it has deep cultural and historical roots and is significant not only to downcow and the other members of his community, but also to their neighbours who do not identify as British.

And, of course, his right to identify as British, and his right not to identify as Irish, is recognised and safeguarded by the Good Friday Agreement. And people in this thread — no names, no pack-drill — who on the one hand say that the NI Protocol must be upheld because it sustains the GFA, and on the other hand themselves undermine the GFA by calling into question the validity or legitimacy of what it has to say about national identification are, um, perhaps not being entirely consistent.

Well, it may be nitpick, but I would say that Michael D Higgins identifies as Irish in exactly the same way that you identify as British. I'd say the same thing about myself, for what it's worth. I accept that in all three cases the identification is something inherited, not something we have independently constructed for ourselves, but, nevertheless, it's something we each accept and affirm. We could reject it or move on from it or develop it into something different, and in fact some people do. (For example, the identification "Northern Irish" is novel, relative to "Irish" and "British", and I think surveys show that the number of people who claim this identification, while small, is growing. Obviously it's not an identification which they all inherited.)

As for the bit about you being "essentially Irish", you may be confusing my post with another; I didn't use the term and, to be honest, I'm not sure I would know what it means.

I did say that anyone or anything Northern Irish is necessarily Irish; I meant is as a logical necessity; anyone or anything associated with the northern part of [place] is necessarily associated with [place]. Northern Ireland is so called because it is, in fact, in the northern part of Ireland, not because it lies north of Ireland. South America is so called because it is, in fact, the southern part of the Americas, not because it lies south of the Americas. Western Australia is so called because it is the western part of Australia, not because it lies west of Australia. You get the picture. Contrast Scotland, which lies north of England but is not called "northern England"; the USA, which is not called "northern Mexico"; and Norway, which is not called "western Sweden".

You don't have to hate Ireland in order to not identify as Irish; you just have to not feel that "Irish" is an identity that fits you. The leading global expert on whether downcow is Irish is downcow; if he says he's not Irish, well, you'd better pay attention. And while it might be interesting to explore with him why he doesn't identify as Irish, and why he does identify as British, it's not something he has any obligation to explore with you, if he's not minded to. So best to ask him nicely. Galloping in with an assumption that his reason for not identifying as Irish is a hatred of Ireland is probably not the best start.