"A plebiscite within Northern Ireland on whether it should remain in the United Kingdom, or join the Republic, was held in 1973. The vote went heavily in favour (98.9%) of maintaining the status quo with approximately 57.5% of the total electorate voting in support, but most nationalists boycotted the poll ...." - from memory I think this Wiki entry is fairly accurate.

Despite the boycott, this still means that 56.87% of the population voted to stay within the UK. That would seem to be a majority. Bearing in mind that over 40% of the country is Catholic, it also says that unless the Protestant-and-others turnout was nigh on 100% (highly unlikely) a certain amount of the Catholic community DID vote, and voted in support.

But I tend to agree that the real crime is that the songs are mainly crap - if ever I am subjected to the Foggy bleedin' Dew again .....

cheers, Terry