Ireland should join the Commonwealth immediately, and bring the USA in with them while they're it.
Well in that case any two reasonsbly-similar nationalities could be called the same thing, it really isn't as simple as what you want and don't wat. For me, the fact that the overwhelming majority of Irish people would consider themsleves as a distinct nationality from Britishness is enough to make it so. It really is a self-identification issue.
I decided that Ireland is part of Britain because I feel that it's a better way of looking at things. In making my opinion I gave no regard whatsoever to the opinions of the majority and don't see any reason why I should. If people always just thought what the majority thought, we'd still be living in mud huts and eating each other.
My wife is from Chiswick in London so believe me I'm not motivated by some stupid xenophobia. But This really is a subjective issue, and I'm estimating 95% of Irish people would consider themselves as distinct from British, and I bet about 80% of people from the island of Britain would consider Irish people as distinct from them, so to be honest I don't think both arguments hold equal weight.
Sorry if you thought I was accusing you of something as I wasn't at all. But what I mean is that people choose to view the two as separate, because they
want to and in Northern Ireland the reason for that is just hatred handed down through generations. In the rest of the world people view the two as separate because it seems natural to them and its how its always been. It doesn't need to be that way forever though.
That is hopelessly reductive IMO. Ireland had a distinct culture, language, legal system and way of life up until the Cromwellian settlement and even up to the 1840s famine the culture and language and way of life was almost totally at odds with Britain. Sure, we're anglophone(ish) but in many other respects we are quite different and closer to (say) the Spanish than the English.
I could also rhyme off the similarities and common history between Ireland and the rest of Britain. What it comes down to is simply whether you
want to define Ireland as being part of Britain. Just because more people want to regard them as being separate doesn't make that some sort of eternal truth. It's a subjective issue.
BTW, Why do you think Irish people are so similar to the Spanish?
The single overiding argument against including us with Britain is that it was tried and it was a disasterous failure. We are much better off with a "Good Neighbours" rather than a Sovereign-Subject relationship. That said; I'd be delighted to see us back in the Commonwealth.
It's not about the UK
owning Ireland, I'm just saying that to me Britain is a family of nations which includes Ireland. I don't suggest at all that Ireland should be part of the UK as there's no reason why they should be.
I think I should also point out that I have a very inclusive view of nationality in general- I think that the Austrians are German, the Walloons are French, the Flemish are Dutch and that Scandavia and possibly the USA are supernations like Britain. If the people there disagree with me, I don't really care. Nationality and all that are just one big flux, shaped by the currents of history. Identities don't stay still forever. What matters isn't where things are or have been but where they are going, and to me we all need to come together and stop all this petty balkanisation wherever necessary.
