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

Well done leavers. You’ve really shit on your own doorstep.

Especially the (44.22%) Leave voters in NI, presumably.

there's a lot of bitterness and hatred of the English. Your polemic is precisely the reason it appears to me that England and apparently all the English are damned if we do and damned if we don't

Don’t put words in my mouth. I have absolutely NO problem with English people. I do have a problem with the bigots on this page telling the people of NI what they should do. I also have a problem with the leavers, including the ones that live in NI, for the shit show they’ve landed us in. You would rather pretend that you think I hate the English, than face up to what the leavers have done to the UK and especially NI.

Sorry Irish and northern Irish people but no, most people on the mainland without ties there dgaf. I'm sick of hearing about the fecking backstop!

I think that many people on the mainland (obviously not all) are not too bothered about NI - or Gibraltar for that matter. Sad but true.

I think there is a great deal of apathy but I don't necessarily think it stems from a malicious sentiment iyswim?

That said, given some of the views that have been aired by some politicians wrt Ireland/NI and Brexit I certainly think there is a disregard for Ireland/NI altogether and indeed some people would benefit greatly by picking up a history book.

I care very much that women in NI don't have the same bodily autonomy as the women in the England, Scotland and Wales. I think it's utterly shit. And it is embarrassing that gay marriage isn't universal for all.

It's really shit that the conservatives have their noses so far up the DUP that the government can't push for changes for you.

@IndianaMoleWoman - I think it just seems so alien that people there are so divided by which church you go to.

The divisions have nothing to do with religion per se. It just so happens that the majority of unionists are protestant and the majority of nationalists are catholic.

Some of our most famous nationalists were protestant e.g. Wolfe Tone, Parnell, Isaac Butt, Robert Emmet, Sam Maguire (of the All-Ireland football cup fame), Erskine Childers, Constance Markievicz etc.

Frank Carson (the comedian) was a Catholic unionist as was John Gorman, a member of the UUP.

@PositivelyPERF Fair enough - I didn't intend to misrepresent you - but the issue surely is that if NI is part of the Uk then it gets caught up in whatever the UK does. I respect the view that the UK (and specifically England) has historically really screwed over the whole island - but I am not sure how (other than the rather obvious step of not electing a government that delivered the referendum) the UK can deal with that - especially given that a significant proportion of support for leaving came from NI. Just like in the rest of the UK, there is no answer that won't piss off a significant proportion of the population, is there?

Well Karen Bradley the Northern Ireland Secretary said, upon taking up the role, that she didn't realise that nationalists vote for nationalist parties and unionists vote for unionist parties! I think that level of pig ignorance, from the bloody NI Secretary no less, sums up most people's knowledge of NI.

I grew up during the eighties, and deliberately turned a blind eye to the Irish situation out of disgust at the IRA campaign of violence. When I did start to read up on it at the age of thirty, I was shocked by some of the things I learned, including that the Loyalists had actually murdered more civilians than the Republicans.

Sorry Irish and northern Irish people but no, most people on the mainland without ties there dgaf. I'm sick of hearing about the fecking backstop!

Oh you poor love, what can I say?

Tough titty, that's what. You're going to continue to keep hearing the word BACKSTOP for a long time to come. So settle in, baby.

Thoughts and prayers xxx

Pig ignorance is right from Karen Bradley. Every time I think a NI Sec can’t sink any lower, a new one comes along and plumbs ever more astonishing depths.

Still reckon Teresa Villiers is the most outrageous disgrace of an NI Sec of State though.

I live in NI, I’m english but have no intention of leaving NI, and my husband and daughter are northern Irish. Quite frankly I find the apathy and general attitude towards the country and people terrible, I’ve heard ‘we should just give it back’, ‘money pit’ many many times. I believe that this attitude abounds partly because of racism towards Irish people generally, who NI people are often bracketed with, some people not even knowing they are a separate country, and also due to the fact that the industry has left NI - steel, ship building and linen. I note that nobody seems to describe the East Midlands as a money pit or too expensive, even though essentially it is the same situation - industry has left and the area is receiving extra funding as a result. I live here. It is a beautiful, welcoming place with a lot going for it. The tech and film industries are gathering ground. Extremism exists in all countries, most people here are not extremists.

@chillpizza - I don’t understand why it’s such a violent, volatile place today. Today is a world away from the early 90’s. It seems ROI and NI are stuck in a time warp where nothing can ever change for fear of violence.

Seriously? It seems England (I'm presuming you're English) is stuck in a bubble where the inhabitants have no clue about what is happening on their doorstep or why.

Have to agree that too many people don't care, or didn't at least up until the utter hubris of the UK government meant that the issue of the border was forced to be looked at. It also worries me that so many people still don't really care and think "just give NI to ROI" is a legitimate solution.

Where I'm from we have strong historical connections with Ireland, so the border was a very significant concern for me. If I hadn't grown up hearing all about the home rule campaign, the proclamation, the troubles and the good Friday agreement in terms of how it affected those I know and care about I'm not sure how high up NI would have been a concern. I hope still high.

The whole thing smacks of NI being a political afterthought and the UK political parties should have known better.

Are you aware people have free will PERF? they dont need to start going around blowing up children because of where they fancy a border being placed on a map again.

The vast majority of people have NO clue about Gibraltar

I swear less than 5% would know about it

That’s the problem and I did say that in my first post. At school we are taught the place exists and that’s pretty much it. It pops up in the news but as I said only ever in a bad light. I started to look more into it before but then I had a baby so didn’t really get very far from reading a little about the good Friday agreement itself. It seems like a rather large rabbit hole you fall into. It should be taught in geography and history.

Republican organisations killed twice as any people as Unionists.

Are you aware people have free will PERF? they dont need to start going around blowing up children because of where they fancy a border being placed on a map again.

As I have already said, try educating yourself, because your ignorance is embarrassing.

Republican organisations killed twice as any people as Unionists.

Republican organisations don’t kill people. Republican terrorists do.

It is not Unionists that kill people, it is loyalist terrorists.

Loyalist terrorists have killed twice as many innocent civilians as The republican terrorists.

Both lots are murdering scum bags, as were some RUC and British soldiers.

Loyalist terrorists have killed twice as many innocent civilians as The republican terrorists

That’s not quite right. Loyalists paramilitaries killed about 160 more civilians than republican paramilitaries (878 to 721 according to Sutton), but nowhere near double.

Hopefully this pic of a Sutton table will upload

Just to rephrase that, lots of people in the UK car about ni when there are issues. But just the same as they do with north Korea or Venezuela. It feels just as connected as those two countries to me

I thinkYABU. I care about NI very much, my dad was a Belfast man and mum was from Limerick they both came to England and married and raised a family here. I see myself as part of all three countries and it annoys the fuck out of me to hear people slagging off and judging people from any of those countries, or Scotland and Wales, like they know anything about what people are thinking.there,
I’m sick of hearing it from all the countries in the UK and from regions within them actually, so much wringing of hands about how nobody likes them. There are huge numbers of people with family from all over the UK, I know very few families who are of generations who have never left the place they live in. I grew up in London and it makes me ‘laugh’ when I read comments about Londoners being rude and unfriendly, people living in London are from everywhere - I’m married to a Yorkshire man that I met there (although he is a miserable sod to be fair 😄).

I think most people don’t think much about places that they don’t know to be honest, theres nothing wrong with that, it’s not usually because they don’t like them or wish they weren’t part of the UK rather that they probably are busy getting on with dealing with the stresses in their own immediate lives for it to be at the forefront of their thinking.

For what it’s worth, most people I’ve spoken to DO care about what happens with NI and Brexit, no one wants to see a paramilitary resurgence nor difficulties for Ireland and NI generally, they just don’t know how the hell were going to sop it.

Sorry, LadyGregorysToothbrush, you’re correct.