Ah you're a Catholic!

Yes...this reminds me actually of a thread I did a few weeks ago on AIBU about why the SNP keep being voted in. Several posts noted that anti-English sentiment is one factor among others.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5483947-to-wonder-why-people-keep-voting-snp

I also listened to an interview with The Times Welsh former editor, Simon Jenkins, which mentioned anti-English sentiment in Wales being unhelpful (eg. Museums reluctant to promote castles built by the English)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gcwy

So anti-English sentiment is an issue to some degree across the UK...probably worse in Ireland due to the particularly fraught history into recent times.

I think wrongs done to Ireland in the past should be remembered, especially as there's more coverage of stuff like slave trade & Indian colonialism abroad, but stuff closer to home not covered. Scotland & Wales too.

More broadly, Scotland & Wales & Ireland should be taught about more in school history generally.

But keeping grudges & trauma emotionally alive is not helpful, nor directing it at modern people who bear no responsibility.

I think it is, sadly. I used to think it was a hatred of the British government (which would be more specific and understandable) but things like threads like these just prove otherwise.

Irish history is also my history, and the history of a lot of English people - so many of us have Irish blood/grandparents/ancestry.

I have actually watched a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books about the Troubles (and history leading up to) including the autobiography of Gerry Adams (which is a very controversial choice to many here). I consider myself far better acquainted with Irish history than most.

But truly, compassion fatigue sets in when there is this constant berating of English people, how awful they are, how they’re ’uneducated about history’, how we have ‘never suffered’ and so on. It’s relentless, and these threads are yet more thinly veiled opportunities to dig at English people and force us to engage with it all over again.

Let me ask you, what will be enough for some Irish people to start to move on from this issue? Britain has released virtually all IRA prisoners, Northern Ireland has complete autonomy over its future. Britain has issues public apologies, held extensive and very expensive inquiries into the Troubles, we negotiated the GFA. Ireland has prospered in the last decade and is doing very well, better than England in many ways, so no active harm remains.

You have to realise this level of hatred is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die. It’s not healthy at all

Is Irish hatred of the British really common though? I hope not.

Not everyone does but in England's past there certainly are traumatic events that effected huge numbers. The most recent would be WW2.

Yes, this BBC clip about Northern Ireland's Peace Babies is quite interesting on the divides that even now exist to some degree (much less though).

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DOYKBiAcTID0&ved=2ahUKEwj4j6OfqvWSAxWVYEEAHfpNIggQtwJ6BAgtEAE&usg=AOvVaw3wdohDItkLUJdyJOGUtJ0A

Yes, I see what you mean. This kind of aggressive one-sidedness doesn't help actual recognition of Irish historical grievances.

If I met an Irish person, I would presume they were Catholic just because they come from a majority Catholic country, yes. I wouldn't assume they were practising.

I'm from Wales. If you have any knowledge of Wales, you might presume I'm from a non-conformist/chapel background. You might also think I don't attend any church regularly. You'd be right on both counts.

You were the one who said they were shipped off for years, aren't they lucky they got to come home 😀
What are you talking about that I'm "utterly obsessed"? I posted ONE POST about my own history lol
You're the one who sounds "utterly obsessed" on this thread. Calm down love 😉

Not nice, is it? I obviously don’t feel any history is ‘mediocre’ but that’s what it feels like to be bombarded with disrespectful comments about your history by the same people who demand you respect theirs.

Is there? My impression was young Irish people are increasingly secular.

Irish historical grievances aren't 'mediocre'.

At the same time, belittling English suffering is completely wrong. What your family went through was terrible and it was horrible of the poster to dismiss it like that

‘Shipped off for a few years’

I feel zero duty to be polite and empathetic toward somebody who is so utterly obsessed by their own (mediocre) historical grievances that they are so rude and dismissive of children being forced from their parents for years for fear of being blown up.

No wonder the English are so utterly turned off by your history. You care nothing for anyone else’s, and don’t inspire compassion.

Yet I see no threads started by English people about ‘the problems with Irish people’, but many in the reverse.

Bit odd I guess. Whenever I tell people I have 5 siblings they assume my family are catholic, they are - but I think most of us are the result of my mum forgetting to take her contraceptive pill because my parents aren’t really deeply religious but my mum is deeply forgetful.

Irish folk get huge amounts of racism in the UK I'm afraid. This is just one example.

Heck... I was born here and I get people making crazy assumptions and being generally rude about me based on being Irish.

"Irish twins" and "Irish goodbyes" (both racial slurs), gypsies, comments about Catholicism, jokes about being stupid/thick, bad Irish accents talking about Crack, jokes about only eating potatoes... Sigh

Between 1845 and 1855, over two million people left Ireland to escape the Great Hunger, with a significant portion traveling on "coffin ships" to North America. It is estimated that at least 100,000 to 150,000 people died during these voyages due to disease, malnutrition, and overcrowded, poor conditions.
Yeah that's not as bad as been shipped out to the countryside for a few years for safety.
When people were leaving on the 'coffin ships' their families would have a 'wake' for them knowing that even if the did make it to America alive, they would likely never see them again.
Most didn't have the luxury of coming back a few years later as 'strangers' as you mentioned.
You really don't seem to have bloody clue!
Plus, you do realise that well over 125,000 irish soldiers fought alongside Britain in WW2? you don't have a monopoly on loss during WW2 you know

Oh, I know. But compassion fatigue eventually sets in.

Agreed. I can't imagine anyone saying that, unless it was part of a wider conversation. The OP must be meeting some strange people.

I watched that!!😂

He is from the same town! He recently shared a video he found of someone making a pie where everything was made out of potato from the crust to the filling to the topping. It looked like a lot of work but I bet it tasted amazing. I am more of a fan of a freshly boiled potato with a bit of butter and salt simply because it’s quicker than a pie!

To be fair, one of my favourite Youtubers, (Irish) Garron Noone, also eats a lot of potatoes 😂

Very strange. My optician is middle eastern, I wouldn’t say ah you must be a Muslim. Just a really odd thing to come out with.

My grandfather...I am ancient...was in the trenches and wounded. When he recovered he was staff in a prisoner of war camp. The only thing he ever said was that the Germans were just like 'us'. Which sums up most people really.
My aunt in Dublin had a dishwasher in the seventies but got a washing machine about 1980. Which she shared with her daughter in law!