Talking of ignorance of Irish History. I said the following and I will stand by it with the exception of three days in 1922:

"Northern Ireland is and always has been part of the United Kingdom." - Teribus

"For three days from midnight on 6 December 1922 Northern Ireland stopped being part of the United Kingdom and became part of the newly created Irish Free State. This remarkable constitutional episode arose because of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the legislation introduced to give that Treaty legal effect.

The Treaty was given effect in the United Kingdom through the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. That Act established a new Dominion for the whole island of Ireland but also allowed Northern Ireland to opt out. Under Article 12 of the Treaty, Northern Ireland could exercise its opt out by presenting an address to the King requesting not to be part of the Irish Free State. Once the Treaty was ratified, the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had one month to exercise this opt out during which month the Irish Free State Government could not legislate for Northern Ireland, holding the Free State's effective jurisdiction in abeyance for a month.

On 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State) the Parliament demonstrated its lack of hesitation by resolving to make the following address to the King so as to opt out of the Irish Free State:

" "MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Senators and Commons of Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled, having learnt of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922, being the Act of Parliament for the ratification of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, do, by this humble Address, pray your Majesty that the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland." "

On 13 December 1922 Prime Minister Craig addressed the Parliament informing them that the King had responded to the Parliament's address as follows:

" "I have received the Address presented to me by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in pursuance of Article 12 of the Articles of Agreement set forth in the Schedule to the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1922, and of Section 5 of the Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922, and I have caused my Ministers and the Irish Free State Government to be so informed."

As an exercise in pedantry MGOH I think I said that Northern Ireland has always been part of the United Kingdon, therefore your masterpiece above on when the United Kingdom came into being was a bit pointless and corrected me on nothing. Now had I said that Northern Ireland has always been a part of Great Britain you might of had a point, as it stands it is just so much pointless waffle.

On the same subject some incoming for you. In all the dates and times you mentioned there was no such entity politically as Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland only ever came into being when it was established as a distinct region of the United Kingdom on 3 May 1921 under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

Jim if you are going to quote me then quote me correctly, I did not say that 'people of Ireland' voted for partition, what I stated put in its corrrect context was:

"Northern Ireland is and always has been part of the United Kingdom. The people of Northern Ireland voted it that way, because they did not want to be part of an independent Ireland."

I take it that you now see the distinction "people of Northern Ireland" as opposed to "people of Ireland".

And just to put the record straight Jim-Lad the people of Northern Ireland have since that date solidly voted to remain within the United Kingdom and damn near every poll taken on the subject of leaving the UK and joining the South has resulted in a resounding confirmation in the status of Union with the UK.

You were as wrong about this as you were on some very weird perceptions you had with regard to the Royal Family, their rights, incomes and taxes.