Ah you're a Catholic!

Isn’t Mohammad the most popular baby name in the UK. It’s diverse alright.

And the fact it’s bit easier for a rich powerful nation to “move on nicely”

I think there is a bit of a difference between going to war for a few years and being occupied for centuries and having your language and culture forcefully repressed. The Great Famine caused Irelands population to drop by 25%, can you even begin to imagine that? The fact that you would even compare the two is quite telling about how much you grasp about the longterm damage done to Ireland by British rule.

Yes, I agree, I don't want to offend people but I don't think many people in this day and age would have a clue.

My teens are very much into the Black British music that is celebrating cultural and social cohesion at the moment. It emphasises shared cultural experiences of being British rather than exclusion and how that makes you British identity. It's a challenge to devisive narratives that the media like to whip up, like seen on this thread. There is a deliberate attempt to misunderstand people's lived experiences as a Brit on this thread, you have to wonder why!

My family surname is Irish. Growing up an old lady opposite us referred to us as ‘The Catholics’ which we just found funny - we are not even Catholic

Well in Ireland itself people assume you are Catholic even when you don’t practice . Like if you say a child is in second class it’s “aah so you’ll have the communion this year “. It really irks me seeing as most of them never go to mass and have their party and bouncy castle communions.

Yes but also it is alien to me and many others in British life where blended heritage is just the norm. Like I stated last night I have an Irish married surname but my DH has other ethnic heritage that he identifies with more than the Irish side. In fact he doesn't know much about Irish history at all! I am from London and grew up with an integrated diverse group of friends, I have Northern European heritage but I am British like the people I grew up with with an array of heritage. Ironically, a poster on this thread that is a U.S. Citizen has the cheek to reference the the intolerant nature of the Brits and even the Reformation FFS! 😂

How strange. We are an Irish family, and I have never had this. We lived in London and then moved to the middle of the sticks to a little village, now back in a different city and no one has ever said anything about being Catholic.

Thinking about it the only time we were asked was when we were living in Germany a few years ago.

Of course they don’t . I don’t. What generational trauma do English people have, as a nation?!

are you seriously suggesting you don’t understand there is (make clearer to observe, being more recent) generational trauma in the north of Ireland?

IMO it’s very odd to make such remarks, but I’d have thought that many people in the U.K. do tend to assume that Irish people are usually Catholics, even if just ‘nominally’ nowadays, not in the strict fashion* of former generations.

*An Irish friend of mine (same age as me) once shocked me by telling me that she and friends of 14 or so were once walking through their town, when they saw the door of the Protestant church standing open.

One of them said, ‘Dare we go inside?’
The others were appalled at the mere idea - surely they’d be struck dead?

But one of them did go in. They watched her fearfully, waiting for the thunderbolt, but she just stood there, saying, ‘Oh, it’s just like our church!’

From then on, friend (educated solely by nuns) said the ‘spell’ was broken.
But having been brought up so very differently, I was so shocked that anyone of my own age could have been so brainwashed.

Not this again.

Everyone has generational trauma.

Thankfully most people choose not to live in it.

Well, a million Brits were slaughtered by the Axis powers less than 100 years ago, their cities were destroyed but they seem to have moved on from that nicely.

I think in some ways they’re almost offended that truly most English people don’t really think about or care about past grievances with Ireland. They want to carry on the grudge at all costs, because it’s so defining to their identity they’re not sure who they are without it.

Most Irish people I know are thankfully not at all like this.

Also i don’t think other countries are better at moving on- like who?

It’s not exhausting though. It’s generational trauma

Sorry what's justified deep rooted hatred between who and who?

I find the idea of living like that exhausting. I can’t imagine defining my identity by hating another nation. It’s all quite sad. Other countries seem quite resilient in terms of moving on from past events.

That’s just because of the deep rooted (justified) hatred of the British. It’s not like the way the English and French have an affectionate hate relationship it’s genuine hate. Like the Pakistanis and Indians or Taiwan and China. A local, ancient hatred. We just all live with it in our bones now although of course it’s outwardly greatly reduced in recent decades

My Canadian relatives visited me in Ireland late 2024 and were trying to source a Conor McGregor hoodie for their daughter. I told them not to! If anyone needs information then Google is your friend although the details are deeply awful.
I was in England for most of the 1980s. I had a friend from Cavan who worked in a big hospital...lots of research related to university and lots of staff from all around the world. There was a coffee morning advertised as for 'staff from Ulster ' so she went along. In reality it was for people from Northern Ireland and not Donegal Cavan and Monaghan.
Im from Belfast but don't have a strong accent. In work I was known as the Scottish girl. And because I didn't yell like Ian Paisley it was assumed I was Catholic.

I agree as well as the constant reference to the Europeans loving the Irish but hating the British which is always the same old trope about the Spanish/French hating the drunk, Boorish Brits but romanticising the Irish character which in itself is a tale of clichés and surely perpetuates Irish stereotypes. On this Brit bashing threads they never want to hear about your loved experience with colleagues from all over Europe and the world, they never want to hear that Europeans includes Northern Europe and IME with family and friends from Scandinavian countries, they don't have this attitude at all.

Irish history education in the uk is woeful (shouldn’t be surprised as all colonial historyis) and we were fed British propaganda throughout the troubles. I can safely say very few people knew about segregated housing etc. as I say, I had Irish grandparents and extended family living in the south throughout and even I didn’t know- they never spoke of it.

I do have to say I think talking about the uk as Christian now or 30 years ago is a little misguided- it has never been comparable to catholism in Ireland. The baby groups etc… churches are used as venues for hire. The church schools- the schools historically were built on church land. I don’t want to be offensive but cofe is generally “lightweight” as a religion and isn’t the same as say Protestants of Ulster. Regular worship isn’t even common (ie my nan went to mass every evening, most cofe church goers go on Sunday)

He’s a rapist. And sadly popular among far right types in Ireland.

What’s he done to be locked up out of interest? I know him as an MMA fighter but not much else about him

I studied History A level back in the late 90s and Irish History was a whole module, taught by an Irish teacher no less but that was then, this is now and I'm genuinely shocked that British people on the scale the OP has found, have any idea about the history let alone practice these prejudices. I certainly don't think any young people would have a clue unless they studied it. Equally, I live in one of the most secular places in the UK and diversity is not a catch phrase, heritage is interwoven and blended. I think that's not the case in Ireland and there is lots of projection going on here. Segregation in small English/British towns may happen but IME it isn't even deliberated!

sorry for multiple posts Mn is playing up and won’t let me edit