Irish or British?

Question

If you are/were from Belfast or anywhere else in Northeren Ireland. Would you class yourself as Irish or British?

Techinally Northeren Ireland isnt part of Great Britain, but part of the United Kingdom.

Great Britain and the United Kingdom are two different things. GB is part of The Uk " the united kingdom of great britain and northeren ireland"
Also i am from n.ireland and i dont have a British passport, i have an Irish one!

Answer 1

i'm from belfast and i am 100 percent irish the word british is foreign to me if called it i would consider it an insult. british people are a different race country and culture to true irish.

Answer 2

Northern Ireland is classed as part of Britain what do you think all the trouble was about , so thay are classed as British and not Irish thay have British passports and use sterling money , its southern Ireland that has euro and Irish passports. I think it should be handed back really how do you class something as British when there is water separating the two .

EDIT- technically it don't matter weather it belongs to British or united kingdom it should belong to Ireland ,

Answer 3

It's entirely up to your own personal opinions/beleifs/political feelings.

Personally, since N.Ireland isn't part of Great Britain but rather part of the UK, I'd not classify myself as British, but a British Citizen or a British subject. However, I don't classify myself as Irish either seeing how I do not belong to the Irish Republic.

In an ideal world, Northern Irish would be accepted as a nationality. Funnily enough, when you ask teh nationality of a pesron in England, they're English, Scotland -> Scottish, Wales -> Welsh, so very few peopel actually classify themselves as 'British'.

I stick with Northern Irish, best of both worlds.

Answer 4

Okay, first of all, I'm not from Northern Ireland, but many of my friends are from Derry, and I've done extensive studies on the paramilitary murals in the six counties.

I'm confused as to why so many people on here are insisting that Protestant Unionists from Northern Ireland consider themselves British. In my experience, that is completely wrong. Protestant Unionists consider themselves part of the United Kingdom (which, LEGALLY, they are) and part of Ulster, which is the northern region of Ireland. But they would call themselves "Orange" before "British," (even though Orange technically comes from Dutch) as a way to identify with William of Orange. Now, William of Orange was both Dutch and English and was fighting AGAINST James II, who was English through and through, but Catholic.

I know that makes things more confusing, but it boils down to this: in my experience, people identify as "Northern Irish," or "Orange" if they're Protestant Unionists, and "Irish" if they're Catholic Nationalists, because Nationalists do not recognize the existence of "Northern Ireland" as a separate political entity. They feel the entire island is Ireland, and that's the end of it.

Bottom line answer: If what you really want is a head count, I would repost this question in "polls and surveys," and tell people you would prefer straight, one word answers, only from people who live in the political region known as Northern Ireland.

Answer 5

Well, even if one wants to, you can't be British if you're from Northern Ireland. The island's name is Ireland so technically, everyone born on the island is Irish.

Unionists of course hate this logic, so the only other thing they can be is United Kingdomish - but British? No, that's impossible because Britain is the other island, to the east of Ireland.

Answer 6

People born in Northern Ireland are Irish but they are under British Rule.

Answer 7

Ta me ina chonai i contae Chill Mhantain and the majority of people living in Northern Eire are Prodestants but Ireland is Ireland And will always be. The Irish Government ploughed 800 million Euro into the development of nortern roads so we are not totally seperated any more

Answer 8

let me settle this for you plain and simple..
firstly..the united kingdom and great britain are the same thing
there are 2 main religions in northern Ireland, catholic and protestant..
catholics are nationalist/republican and see themselves as Irish
protestants are loyalist and see themselves as british

many Irish people in the republic ( where i'm from) take it as a big insult when people call us british, because we live on an island which the british call the 'british isles' many resent this

it is much the same as people in new zealand taking offence at being mistaken as australian or Canadians being mistaken as being american

so at the end of the day, your religion or upbringing will decide whether you class yourself as Irish or British

Answer 9

Who cares now. They are both Irish first and then British. People will not agree with me. Until the country unites they will be British then after Irish.

Good Luck to both sides...war is over!!

Answer 10

why dont you accept what your passport says or else change it to a British if thats what you want - I lived in N.I nearly all my life and considered myself British until I applied for a British passport and was refused as I was born in Dublin - lived there for 3 months and moved North - I was told i had to have an Irish passport first before they would change it - im now proud to be Irish