The Irish protocol.

It’s good, but it’s no Teenage Kicks. (Jake Burns has been eating a few pies, hasn’t he ?)

They are still at it...this from 5 minutes ago.

Just as NI has no flag, it also has no anthem. And for similar reasons; there isn't a sufficiently coherent, distinctive Northern Ireland identity to allow for the adoption of symbols of that identity which can command broad assent.

Matter are complicated by the fact that the great bulk of those who do claim a "Northern Irish" identity do so instead of, rather than as well as, claiming a "British" or "Irish" identity. So presumably they wouldn't be happy with something like GSTQ as an anthem for that identity, or the red hand flag of the 1922-73 unionist regime as a suitable flag. (Similarly, they presumably wouldn't accept anthems or flags with nationalist/republican associations.) They might feel that someone - no names, no pack-drill - arguing for GSTQ and the red hand flag to be used to symbolise/represent Northern Ireland was attempting to Briticize/unionize their identity, and they might not be too happy about that.

I'm reminded of something I read by Alan Paton, the South African author of the mid-twentieth century. He recalled that South African supporters of the apartheid regime generally favoured Die Stem van Suid Afrika] (which exists in two versions, English and Afrikaans) as an anthem, while White liberal opponents preferred God Save The King, and non-White or more radical opponents favoured Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. At meetings at which cross-community goodwill prevailed or was supposed to prevail, all three songs were sung, including both versions of Die Stem. This took up quite a lot of time. As Paton drily noted, "Perhaps fortunately, such meetings were rare".

So using your logic the national anthems of Wales and Scotland are not Flower of Scotland or Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, grand so you should probably go tell them then?

Show me where GSTQ is officially listed as being the national anthem of NI specifically and not just the UK or England. Is it any wonder your so woefully informed about how things work down here like believing Leo Varadkar is somehow in charge of the IRAs actions but not even knowing that NI, where you live, doesn't have an official anthem or flag then it all makes sense.

Because the two cases are not the same.

As regards the land border, when their were controls on it, they regularly came under attack. It's hardly "threatening violence" to point this out.

By contrast, there have been checks at seaports for many years, and they never came under attack. And if those checks need to be increased in order to accommodate a hard Brexit, when the politicians warning that violence may result are the very same ones who have been enthusiastically backing hard Brexit, in complete disregard of the wishes and interests of NI, the impartial observer is likely to think that their motivation for warning about violence is not quite the same as Varadkar's. They didn't let their concerns about violence stop them from backing Brexit, and from throwing their weight behind the campaign for hard Brexit.

GSTQ was played at Belgium 1998 because Damon Hill was, and is, English. The norm when the driver and constructor are racing under the same flag is to play the anthem once, which I think confused people.

Yes, but because Hill was English (despite living in Ireland at the time!) they played GSTQ for the winning driver. People at the time thought the single anthem had been played because Jordan were being treated as British, when in fact the organisers didn't have a copy of Amhrán na bhFiann. If Ralf had won and they have only played Deutschlandlied it would have been clearer what the mistake was. (Though as a Hill fan I was happy with the result.)

Absolutely. Quite apart from any political considerations, Ireland’s call is an abomination.