I think Bloody Sunday and the run up to it - plus that fact that six counties still remain under British control - is example enough of Britain clinging on to the remnants of Empire and is prepared to use force to do so.

As far as I am aware Northern Ireland has been autonomous for as long as the Republic of Ireland. It was created by the will of the majority of the population who lived there, otherwise it would never have existed. Plain truth was that one third of the population of Ireland did not want any part of a United Ireland.

The creation of the Irish Free State resulted in an extremely bloody civil war in the Republic. The numbers involved were tiny and the civil war was mercifully short, had Northern Ireland's population been forced into a United Ireland in 1921 that civil war would have destroyed the entire country. As in most things political in this world a compromise was found, as with most compromises it was not perfect and it did not please everyone.

The entire population of Ireland was consulted in the run up to acceptance of the GFA and Eire's constitutional claim on Ulster was scrapped. The entire population of Ireland voted and backed the position that it is up to the people of Northern Ireland and the people of Northern Ireland alone to decide who governs them and how they are governed.