I'm sorry for my part in steering the thread on to a track well worn in other threads. I preferred the religion v superstition banter.

I go along with most of Teribus's last post above. But he was wrong in an earlier post to deny that the Irish delegation signed under threat of war. This threat was explicit all along (see Frank Pakenham's book on the treaty, Peace by Ordeal). In my view L-G was genuinely desperate to avoid war, but was compromised by his dependence on the Tories. Dev's decision to oppose both the treaty and the parliamentary vote on it cost many thousands of lives, and probably set back by decades the cause of a united Ireland.

I'm also with Teribus on the argument that the H&W shipyard was never a factor. What certainly was a factor was the huge, and then recent, Irish losses in WW1; in particular Belfast losses at the Somme. L-G and Churchill, both members of the British negotiating team, felt honourbound to stand by those in Ireland who wanted to stay British.

This is not to say they were right. But by the time Craig had abused the opportunity, to create "a protestant parliament for a protestant people" (with which chilling phrase he reduced 40-odd per cent of the six-counties to non-people), Ireland had been kicked into touch at Westminster.

Teribus grandly referred to a "United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland." As I think he knows, the sovereign entity was, and is, the United Kingdom of Great Britain (which includes Wales) and Northern Ireland. The name of the nation should make it abundantly clear for Gareth's benefit that Northern Ireland is not part of Britain.

The best book on the work of the boundary commission remains Puckoon by Spike Milligan.