Keith, can't you see Jim's point: nobody thought of Northern Ireland as a state until a majority of the Irish people was shown to be in favour of independence. At which point a line was drawn to create a cut-off area in which Protestants were the majority. This line was also DELIBERATELY drawn to ensure that an exploitable minority- always excluded from the political top table- was included. Why? Because the Protestant majority was divided by class- Maexist class I'm talking about here- and they needed the Protestant working class to be set against the permanent minority Catholic working class to neutralise them.

If you think this is fanciful, think about James Connolly- the brilliant if flawed leader of Irish working people of any or no religion.

The last great battle of the Protestant state- we'll have words about what Protestantism meant to the Curragh mutineers later- was triggered not by nationalism but by the oppression of the deliberately- enclaved Catholics, and the vicious reaction of both the Stormont government and the (reactively embattled) Protestant working class. The British army- brought in to protect Nationalist areas (ghettos) against NI state violence (B Specials mobilised) had only a Schlieffen plan that had Us on one side, and the Rebels on the other. That's what the squaddies were told, that's what they are still saying (still uncomprehending pawns) today.