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About LinkBacksI cannot find any statistics/polls on English support of a united Ireland. Is it really the case that the vast majority of English people are Unionists, or is there any kind of group in England that advocates a united Ireland?
I cannot find any statistics/polls on English support of a united Ireland. Is it really the case that the vast majority of English people are Unionists, or is there any kind of group in England that advocates a united Ireland?
After the troubles and all the lifes cash etc its cost and as well as all the scandels, the english are probably sick of the place and would support an united Ireland!!!
The vast majority don't give a toss and couldn't tell the difference between the Republic, the North, Belfast, Dublin, Republican, Loyalist, anything. It really isn't talked about. However, anecdotally, and bearing in mind I grew up in an Irish community in England, I rarely met anyone particularly pro-partition among the English, but did meet a fair few who seemed to think a united Ireland was an ultimate good. But it was always funny hearing about people from unionist backgrounds' reactions to being called 'Paddy'...
Most polls taken have shown a slimish but never the less real majiority of English people in favour of withdrawal but mostly for the reason that the Irish are crazies who should just be allowed to kill themselves. PSF is now feeding into that "analysis" by their accepting of the GFA.Originally Posted by Trmr09
A lot of English want England to be on its own.
Some want the Scots to leave them to it.
Wales is never really mentioned and northern Ireland is alreasy a completely different world as far as theyre concerned.
They wouldnt blink an eyelid if it left the UK.
I just dont think they care about our political situation atall.
The only time this place hits their TV screens is when there's a bomb or shooting.
Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers.
The vast majority of English people that I've known over the years (and I lived there for over a decade) couldn't give a curse about the Union insofar as it inconveniences them. I wouldn't say there's a huge ideological opposition as such, nor support for it either. I'd be amazed if there were much organised support for a United Ireland, bar the usual SWP-types and so on.
If there is Unionism at all, it is a very undeveloped and unthinking hankering back to the certainties of a much better time to be English than it is nowadays.
Especially NI is seen as a hopeless waste of tax money that they'd love to be shot of in the morning - and they have generally much more immediate things to worry about, such as political correctness gone mad, radical Islam and so on.
There is a long tradition of English support for a sovereign Ireland - Christopher Hill wrote about the same in the ranks of the Diggers and Levellers in ''A Nation of Change and Novelty''.
link - RHS Bibliography - A nation of change and novelty : Radical ...
I'd imagine that Chartism might have had a streak of this too, given the Irish influence in that movement.
Last edited by the impossibilist; 27th September 2009 at 02:13 AM.
Well if pop music is anything to go by then one would almost think the English are in favour of a United Ireland, e.g. John Lennon, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Paul Mc Cartney, Give Ireland Back To The Irish (both banned by BBC radio) and Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello amongst others.
They don't at all, in general. They know very little beyond U2 come from there and they think the Catholics and the Protestants were fighting some sort of religious war (which isn't entirely wrong on the part of some of the Prods...). Even most of the Irish-descent I grew up with didn't have the first clue about the place. Even among them I was part of a small minority who could actually point to Ireland on a map...
I think the Free Wales Army gave the English establishment quite a scare.
There weren't even two dozen of them.
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