Where did you get that impression, Onion Cat? There seems to be a wide range of opinion represented here, including mine, which of course is the right one.

When have the English, as a national group, ever suffered systematic, enduring, deprivation and oppression?

It's true that between the mid 17th century and the late 18th century there were oppressive laws applied in Ireland, but note that these were targeted against Catholics, not the Irish as a "nation" (if an Irish nation existed at that stage. Outside these times, oppression was applied as much on a class basis as on nationality, and noblemen came and went from favour as they supported or opposed the government of the day.

As for oppression of the English as a group, you could (and people did) argue for the period from Edward the Confessor to about the mid 13th century, and from 1973 to date :)

Were the Scots ever oppressed "as a national group"? As for the mobilisation of English national feeling against the Irish, this kind of nationalism has been a given of almost all distinguishable groups for centuries, a useful tool for authority, and continues today. This divide- and- rule tactic has split many Northern towns, despite the interests of the white working class being identical to those of the Asian ancestry.