Ross Neill, a solicitor from a unionist background living in Dublin, is a valuable, articulate contribution to the debate on forging a new Ireland. Do read it. For Northern Protestants comfortably to call themselves Irish, what it means to be Irish must change also www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p... - ThreadSky

martindoyle.bsky.social • 83 days ago

Ross Neill, a solicitor from a unionist background living in Dublin, is a valuable, articulate contribution to the debate on forging a new Ireland. Do read it. For Northern Protestants comfortably to call themselves Irish, what it means to be Irish must change also
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2024/12/08/my-belfast-friends-can-buy-a-house-and-start-a-family-more-easily-than-those-in-dublin/

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belfastbrad.bsky.social•82 days ago

I’m not sure “what it means to be Irish must change” is correct.

For this proud Irishman, recognition that there’s no such thing as an indigenous Gael (who sprouted from the sod) and that down the annals of time all arrived here, settling into what is now our Island home, is appropriate, IMHO 😉

martindoyle.bsky.social•82 days ago

Perhaps, misguided and narrow preconceptions of what it means to be Irish would be more accurate

shellmccabe.bsky.social•82 days ago

Really good article, not what I was expecting tbh. I think the majority Nth & Sth are on the same page when it comes to defining ‘Irishness’ & degree it holds for them. It’s a loud minority who distort what it means to be Irish (RoI) & British (NI) by producing an almost clownish version of both.

belfastbrad.bsky.social•82 days ago

have to admit Michelle, some of the people I despair most at on this topic are persons, who wear the identity Irish Republican but their language + actions ooze supremacist. I’ve had some tell me that I can never be authentically Irish or Republican ‘cos I’m not a Gael or I’m not a Catholic etc.

shellmccabe.bsky.social•82 days ago

Had the same convo yesterday about how these knobs “wear the identity” when basically it’s just another show of purity thus supremacy. That’s not republicanism. Who cares about how anyone got here hundreds of years ago & I’ve no interest in finding out how I got here.

belfastbrad.bsky.social•82 days ago

I’ve done my paternal side, the O'Brolachán, who’ve been about since 1430. My father’s lineage to the clan converting to Protestantism during An Gorta Mor moving out of Donegal via Coagh to Belfast by 1903.

I smile when Republicans with very Scots or English names tell me I’m not “real Irish” 🙄

eleanormcgillie.bsky.social•82 days ago

I hail from Dungannon myself. Now living in the orchard county of Armagh! A good read!

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