What a silly thread.

I've never met an average Brit. I've met English, Scots and Welsh people who sneer at Irish people, and also those who are too intelligent to sneer at any group of people or associate any supposed national qualities to any group including their own.

By the way, Northern Irish people no longer have the right to claim an Irish passport, as far as I know, since the claim to the Six Counties was removed by referendum from the Irish Constitution on the request of Northern unionists as a precondition to negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement.