Bingo!

I don't think Tír Chonaill was referring to you, stigweard (or indeed any of the people that want to explore this area); we have used the phrase 'non-thinker' and the like, referring to the ones here at Mudcat who don't want to think to any degree of depth on the subject. We are trying not to appear patronising, given the many ways this subject could be construed.

We have always been trying to discuss the term 'British' ('Brit), and hoping that you copped the differentiation between that and 'English'.

It is absurd to think of us as anti-English; no doubt there are many in Ireland who are. But as I once famously said to a Wexford man in a pub one night, that if anyone had the right to be anti-English, it is the ones who were left voiceless in 1921.... and we aren't.
Anti-British is a different matter altogether, and that emotion leans more towards the un-necessary coat-trailing and provocation the Establishment and their supporters (not confined to squaddies etc..)
In mitigation to Dave's mitigation, I would further contend that certain professions attract certain kinds of people, and not always for the sake of a deep sense of committment felt to serve the public.
Some do like the power such positions afford.

We have been on this train of thought all along, and have tried to avoid the sidesteps that the people who did not want to discuss the subject have put in our way.

Good man, Ted!