The Irish protocol.

The funny thing is that anyone could have crossed into ni pre brexit. They're only worried about it now?

This post was quite reasonable until it got to the point where you said that unionists absolutely are Irish. They are not, they are what they want to be, what they claim to be, and in the GFA, we have accepted that we share this island with non-Irish, and that doesn't just include British, it also includes those invested in a Northern Irish identity.

If they say they are British, then they are British.

You can get an Irish passport as of right too downcow, many of your community have too.

Not I.

The 'we are British only' stuff is a recent affectation largely to do with insecurity. The more insecure a Unionist, the louder the 'I am British' shout is.

People of Ian Paisley's generation, including the old bigot himself, had no issue with being Irish. Trimble the same.

I never had any issue accepting that Ian's identity was British, nor anyone else for that matter. The 'I am British only' shout is intended as an insult IMO even if it is a silly and insecure one.

I wasn't particularly referencing you downcow. More the insecure type that have to paint their areas red white and blue, need a flag flying 365 days a year and who blow gaskets if they are called Irish. If that cap fits, fair enough.

*By the way, I haven't seen a single post here that has an issue with your 'identity', care to post one as back-up?

Up to now UK and IRL visa requirements for the rest of the world have been closely aligned. If somebody from Teapotistan needs, and has, a visa to enter Ireland, then they likely would need, and would qualify for, a visa to enter the UK, and vice versa. Thus the opportunities for entering via one country in order to evade the visa requirements of the other were limited, and the CTA could be maintained without imposing checks on IRL-UK or UK-IRL travel. Alignment wasn't perfect, and there was scope for some leakage, but it was manageable.

This changes following Brexit and the UK's decision to require an ETA for EU citizens (other than Irish citizens) entering the UK. That's about 440 million near neighbours of both the UK and Ireland who will require an advance permit to enter the UK but not to enter Ireland, so we can no longer say that the two regimes are "closely aligned", or that the open border creates no scope for leakage.

What the UK are essentially saying is that requirement for (non-Irish) EU citizens to have an ETA to enter the UK will apply to those who enter across the IRL/NI border; you can't avoid the legal requirement to have an ETA by entering that way.

But they have no intention of policing this by any kind of checks or controls on the border. In practice a (say) German tourist visiting Donegal can go to Derry without getting an ETA. The UK authorities are not really bothered by this. For having entered the UK without an ETA our tourist will be liable to a substantial fine, but the UK authorities will not be unduly bothered about enforcing or collecting it, so the likelihood of having to pay is modest. What would worry the authorities is if, having entered the UK in this way, he then sought to work or settle there. But they expect they would detect/deter that through employment checks, rental checks, that kind of thing.

So, there will not be patrols or checks aimed at catching non-Irish EU citizens as they cross the border.

This doesn't mean that the measure will have no impact. While in practice our hypothetical German tourist can visit Derry without getting an ETA, he will break UK law by doing so and expose himself to liability for fines. Tour operators and organisers are going to be reluctant to put their customers in the position of having to apply (and pay) for an ETA or break the law; there is likely to be an adverse impact on organised cross-border tourism. And this is madness; there is supposed to be a consolidated all-Ireland tourism strategy operated under Tourism Ireland, a north-south body established under the GFA.

It would make far more sense to say that non-Irish EU citizens don't need to have an ETA to enter NI, but they do need one to enter GB. This wouldn't require any checks on NI-GB travel, for the reason already given. And it would respect the GFA and the all-Ireland tourism strategy that exists under it. It wouldn't undermine an all-UK tourism strategy because there isn't one, and never has been; VisitBritain's remit has only ever extended to GB.

The GFA is clear about identity.

Their citzenship is for them to decided. But if a person is factually from a place called X you can use the demonym of X to describe them. It is not against any law including the GFA. If Dowcow or any other person from Ireland wants to sue me for referring to them as Irish by that fact they would be wasting their time and money.... I will refer to anyone from Ireland as Irish whether they like it or not.

Where have Irish people excluded those who identify as British or the British themselves?

The value is in recognising why you are insecure...it isn't the fault of the Irish that they feel insecure, equality makes some of these people insecure.

Who's fault is that?

Quite simply the attitude that you have displayed on a continuous basis, sneering at what you call partitionists and extreme unionists is a clear example of the exclusion that the poster is talking about.

Your insistence that everyone born on this island is Irish, whether they like it or not, is another example of the exclusionary nationalist ideology at its worst.