To think most people in the UK don't really care about NI

[Tooldemont]

Just that really, we don't seem to be a together nation and many people I know would just prefer Ireland to become one country on that landmass.

Maybe it's just my circles, but rings true here

I've always supported a united Ireland. Hiving off the six counties because of the way they voted in a referendum is as bonkers as Remain voting areas staying in the EU if the rest of the UK leaves.

YANBU

Honestly I don’t think people know much about it to really care either way and as such it’s not actually on people’s radar/they forget it exists when it comes to things like brexit that it could be terrible for NI.

From memory all that was taught at school was that it’s part of the UK, no history of how or why or anything about The troubles.

I probably care about NI as much as I care about London, in fact I care more about NI. More relateable to where I live. And struggle for jobs etc like the rest of the UK.

I'm in England and know very little about NI. Despite being old enough to hear about The Troubles on the news and having an A-level in History, my knowledge on the matter is shockingly lacking. I certainly could not explain why you say they are better separate while the person below you says the opposite. In my mind, there's more similarities between you than say North and South Korea.

I think the last two words in the title aren't needed.

I would support a united Ireland. It should be supported to happen for the benefit of all Irish citizens, not enforced due to stupid decisions by the British government. TBH, I suspect the Irish, on both sides of the border, would be a lot better off without the stupidity of our government. It's absolutely shameful what they're doing to this country.

Some of us do care about NI.

I’ve never been to NI (or further north than Milton Keynes tbh ) but we did do a whole topic on it at GCSE. I thought it was one of the mandatory ones.

You’re right in that we don’t seem to be together as a nation though. I don’t consider NI to be any more separate than Wales or Scotland.

What??? Totally disagree. Why would we not care about NI as much as we care about Scotland and Wales?

I cannot disagree with you there, Paddington.

Just that really, we don't seem to be a together nation and many people I know would just prefer Ireland to become one country on that landmass.

I'm hearing this too OP. People who vehemently argued against the a united Ireland now say "oh, I don't know why we don't just give it to them" now that NI has become a inconvenience to Brexit.

I care very much that civil war doesn't re-start there

I'm too ill informed to know whether there should be a United Ireland or not. Whenever I meet people from NI I'm always very surprised by how much they 'feel' British and even when they're talking to their Irish counterparts they both feel entirely differently.

That's so weird

Well, I think it's fair to say that the 52% didn't care or, more likely, didn't even give it a second's thought.

Because I fail to understand how we can leave the EU in any meaningful way without a hard border in the island of Ireland, which is simply unthinkable.

For me it is the biggest stumbling block to Brexit ever happening, there is no acceptable solution to the border, thus it can't happen, the end and the 'will of the people' can fuck right off.

I'm remembering the days when we were under attack from the IRA. There were several terrible bomb attacks and a lot of people were maimed or died. They came close to killing the Prime Minister in one bomb attack. I care about anything that disrupts the Good Friday Agreement and threatens to bring those days back.

I live in NI and I feel British enough not to want a united Ireland, it would be a culture shock really, no more pounds, metric system, loss of NHS, even the road signs, TV commercials etc, it would be hard to get used to. Sounds silly but there it is, it's amazing how you can live on a very small island and have significantly different cultures. I do appreciate my upbringing has probably tinged my view, had I been brought up on the other side of the city I might think differently, but I would find it hard to come to terms with a united Ireland l, but at the same time if it happens I will probably make my peace with it. Because I do think it's inevitable really.

But answering the aibu I agree that the general feeling is that neither UK or ROI want us tbh

My parents are both from NI but I grew up in England. My family see themselves as British and I can’t imagine for a second see them being happy being Irish.
However, I didn’t grow up in the middle of the troubles and I have applied for Irish passports for my children and me. It matters less to me as I didn’t first hand live with road blocks, the army patrolling the streets and people on both sides being murdered.

@LakieLady - I've always supported a united Ireland. Hiving off the six counties because of the way they voted in a referendum

The 6 counties were not hived off as a result of a vote. We had a bloody war of independence. The loyalists did not want to split from the UK and the UVF fought just as hard to stay part of the UK. The british knew they couldn't rely on the army to suppress the UVF (the Curragh Mutiny in 1914 being a case in point). The British government at the time decided to split the country in 2 in a way that maximised the landmass remaining but had a sufficient majority of loyalists to maintain its status. Thus, 6 of the 9 counties of Ulster remained in the UK while the other 26 counties eventually gained independence.

I'm Irish and we don't want a united Ireland under these circumstances. Imagine the DUP in the Dáil ...

I've visited NI once from the very southern tip of Ireland and I was surprised at the amount of God Save the Queen, union jack-ness in some places.
I've lived in south east England before and there was no such evidence of the patriotism to the UK as I saw in NI.

They overdo it in quite a creepy way when I know that the love is not reciprocated from the rest of the UK to NI.

As a republic of Ireland citizen, I would not like NI to become part of our country. For a start, I don't want all their crazy DUP members and hard core Sinn Feiner members sitting in our parliament. We have a few Sinn Fein members already and they spout a lot of uninformed, far left views which have little substance. I would not trust them in power, which could easily happen if they gained a higher seat count from adding on their constituencies.

A new, independent country of NI might be the answer. It would solve Brexit as Britain could let go of NI and NI can do its own thing and have their own vote if they are a new independent country.

YABU I don’t want to go back in time to the troubles and bombings that took so long to irradiate through the good Friday agreement

NI is part of UK and can stay that way as long as they wish, if that stance was to change then the matter would be different

The majority of people in NI are British and want to remain British. Are people seriously advocating essentially throwing nearly 2m people out of their own country just to make things more convenient for Brexit?

Its not just to make things more convenient for Brexit though, is it. Its the whole Good Friday agreement which is in jeopardy if a border is put in place.

I fail to understand how we can leave the EU in any meaningful way without a hard border in the island of Ireland, which is simply unthinkable.

With a any luck there will be a hard border in the island of Britain, just north of Carlisle within a few years.

It sickens me to hear - from experts who are in the know rather than lying politicians who are only interested in self preservation and party politics - of how we're blindly heading for a catastrophe. All the more devastating is that the people of Scotland are being dragged out against their will.

You're not wrong OP.

Before Brexit NI was hardly even mentioned on the news. It was a non entity. Would be so much easier id it was just given back. The UK should never have insisted on keeping it in the first place. What was the point? It's just an outpost now. A burden. It generated nothing but trouble and bad headlines.