What a fabulous reaction! Excellent. The nice thing about the 'Irish' Irish is that they always react so predictably; smack their bottoms and they always bounce nicely.

I'm amused to hear that the English are 'jealous' of the Irish. That's a little like Chelsea being 'jealous' of Danby United isn't it? We just like to tease you that's all.

As for the English/Britsh thing: I am English first and British second. Until I heard of the absurd and childish way so many Scots and Welsh still hate English people for things done by unelected governments hundreds of years ago, I always supported Wales and Scotland against any country but England at sports, for example. We've been through a lot, including two world wars, together, and to think that Scots or Welsh are not closer to us than, for example, Latvians or Croatians is absurd. That's what being British means to me.

The Irish will have to get over the fact that we do not choose to define ourselves with references to obscure goings on in their soggy country. Ireland is really not very interesting at all, excwept to the Irish.