Ah you're a Catholic!

You've also mentioned your Portuguese friend and a few others. I was thinking that being non-religious seems to be quite a strong feature of your personal identity - hence your annoyance at the incorrect assumption.

That in itself would be quite unusual in England, we don't care because we aren't pushing against anything.

Most people affiliate with Catholicism in Ireland now not just in the past.

The church my dad attended has a fair sized group of parishioners of Pakistani descent.

No one expects RC Pakistanis.

I don't think you understand just how differently religion is viewed in Ireland compared to England.

For example on paper I tick the 'Christian' box, reason being is my family had me baptised in order to help secure a school place as that's what was done back then and once you're written into the Catholic registry that's where you stay for life so I'm on record as a Christian despite never actually being one.
Many (if not a majority) of Irish are 'paper Christians'(Catholic/Protestant/other on paper only), which heavily skews statistics. I know very few people of any background who actually believe in a god/gods or religious doctrine.
Despite neither believing or practicing a religion many Irish still tick (Christian) on forms, census and have church weddings/funerals out of cultural habit/convenience/aesthetic etc.. rather than any genuine religious conviction.

We appear religious to people on the outside looking in who don't understand our cultural nuance but reality is for all the religious iconography and churches we have their attendance is very sparse and far less than UK, we're at the point foreign missionaries are coming here trying to convert people as a result and our priests are dying out with no replacements which few people seem to care about either.

Like your work colleague I could give you a detailed description of Irish funeral rites and customs, I could word for word recite the prayers and blessings in both Gaeilge, English and partial Latin, you'd also likely see and hear me make religious references/sayings day to day yet I don't believe in any of it. It would simply be out of habit and while Irish people would be able to tell I'm not religious an English person would likely mistake me for very religious.

I'm not suggesting that because of course the right wing press are whipping up hre division over people with perceived Muslim heritage but usually that is accompanied with a racism based upon skin colour. As you probably know it is pretty bad in Ireland for this kind of racism. The idea that kids would know enough about the history of Ireland, from hearing your accent but seeing you are white (?) and dish out a load of racism is truly surprising.

Even so, you seem to have a livelier interest in religion than most English do. You've mentioned four or five people you know, maybe more, with the religion of their families and whether they were baptised or raised without religion.

I have zero clue about the religious backgrounds or affiliations of anybody I know in real life, with the exception of a few observant Jews and one Muslim (because she was fasting when we met).

How do you know? To me this completely alien, I work with all different nationalities, including Spanish, Germans, Swedish, Dutch, we have world food days, we go to the pub together. I have family and friends from all of the Scandinavian countries, I just don't see this hostility at all, it reads like hyperbolic gutter press headlines, that like to whip up division, for what end, well who knows.

It's not really a surprise that people don't want to come to the UK, there isn't exactly a bouyant economy at the moment!

Kids have anti racism classes. So you live in an area of England were English kids know enough about Irish history to be racist towards you?

Yes mutual in France. The perception of the UK is not high in Spain, Germany, France - obviously Brexit has not helped.

According to Ipsos.
The UK achieves the lowest rank for attractiveness among young people in Ireland (twelfth), and highest in Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Ukraine, where it ranks in first place.

Yes, three currently. Why?

Yes, I am surprised but I obviously don't live in the kind of areas where people are shocked to hear a different accent or to live amongst people that look and sound the same as me.

I think that is a mutual exchange. Is it that bad still.

It just isn't the case that the British are perceived in this way by all of Europe. I have family and friends from most Northern European countries and it just isn't the perception at all - sorry to disappoint!

I don't think a French person would meet abuse in the same way, or less likely to. Largely because the Napoleonic Wars were back in the 1810s and even then, France, was a feared adversary rather than a dehumanised colonial subject.

The UK are quite hostile towards the French too.
It isn't just reserved for the Irish.

Ultimately you have chosen to live in a country where this is not uncommon. You aren't going to educate a nation so you have to either accept it or remain bemused by it.