Have you considered it might be you, not us....

[davidgillon]

Utterly puzzled by this article in the Guardian:  The most effective cure for Northern Irish unionism? Attitudes in England, which itself is puzzled that Brits from the mainland keep thinking of Unionists as Irish.

It's perhaps summed up by this quote:

"This mainland indifference towards Northern Ireland was exemplified in a 2020 YouGov poll which showed that 54% of the British public would not be bothered either way by Northern Ireland leaving the UK.

This disconnection is partly the result of a lack of education and knowledge: pupils in England learn little to nothing about the Irish famine, the Irish war of independence, the creation of Northern Ireland, and the subsequent decades of violence."

There's apparently no consideration for even a moment that the problem might be Unionism itself, not the mainland Brits. I've got a pretty good understanding of all of those, did much of them in O Level history, learned more later, and Unionism doesn't come out of the 20th Century looking like anything the majority of the mainland wants a part of. And it hasn't gotten better since, if anything the media coverage of DUP shenanigans at Stormont probably massively exacerbates that tendency.

I'm really not sure what the point of the article is, or even whether it's aimed at mainland Brits or Unionists.

Comments

[redbird]

I think it's aimed at English people who think Unionism is a problem to be solved (or "cured"), and the author and editors seem to have forgotten--or decided to ignore--the existence of Scotland and Wales.

Similarly, I wonder whether the group surveyed in the cited poll was just people in England; all of the UK; or specifically England, Scotland, and Wales. Someone clearly decided to lump "I would like Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join the Irish Republic" with the "no opinion" group, but who? Was that the original poll (yes/no on being in favor of Northern Ireland leaving), or did someone decide to combine the "no opinion" and "I'd be happy either way" groups after the poll was finished?