The Unsound Language Syndrome...That's good!
We can use that in another episode, perhaps

No, but, really. The term 'Brit' is not a rascist remark. Well, not as I mean it. As there is no definate nationality being attacked, by definition, it can't be a rascist remark. 'Paddy', 'Paki', and the like, on the other hand do specify a nationality, and I would never utter such irreverences.
Being 'British' is a totally different ball game, altogether, and harks back to more halcyon times when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

English people are fine. To me a person is a person, no matter where he/she's from.
As they say 'It's not where you're from - it's who you are'.

But it is a singular trait of the 'British', i.e. the harker backers to to the 'Green and Pleasant Land' ethos, to be anti - ...anything that they can't control, whether it be the 'Irish problem', the 'Darkie problem', or simply not reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2000.

That is the 'true brit' spirit that I referred to earlier. I didn't think I needed to explain my usage of it, as I thought it was the most obvious of all stereotypes. I did put the term in bold type, at the start, but since nearly everything else is in bold, also, (forgetting closing brackets, etc - but thankfully not spelling, as I'm sure Fionn would have been quick to point out), I can see where my usage of the term could have caused confusion. I did use parentheses in any other usage. Didn't I Fionn?

Modern Ireland is a product of English foreign policy, which at once was territorial and expansionist. It is from this 'British Empire' that this 'British' pseudo-nationality sprang.

I at least have the cop-on to know the difference between the two.
And it saves me much un-necessary blanket hatred of everyone living within England's borders, relieving the general population, I'm sure, as they acquiesce in the knowledge that there's one less Irishman to worry about.

I don't hate anyone, and I doubt you'll find too many Irish people who un-reservedly hate the English, neither.
But you do get those English people who un-reservedly hate the Irish, and get in our faces about it all the time, and point their little sharp arrows into a few things that some of us hold dear, and provoke that drunken brawl that you so vividly painted for us, Dave.
And they call themselves 'British'

That's 'The Empire Syndrome', Dave, and in a way it is not the fault of your average English person that this state of affairs exists.
Everybody is subject to propaganda, whether it be from what brand of coffee you think you prefer, to what is decided is good for England at any given time.

I find it too simple an argument to say that England started this mess, with the Plantation of Ulster. But to ignore the fact, is to blind yourself to more than half the argument.

Were 'British', or indeed, English people subject to the rule of of a tyrannical master, I doubt they (as a people) would have acted any different from what you would call the 'atrocities' of the IRA.

We would have soon found out if the D-Day landings hadn't had succeeded.

Call us drunken brawlers, if you will, but that's only more of the same propaganda that has been fed into you since you were old enough not to know how public opinion is manipulated. The ones who upturn the empty whiskey glass on the bar counter, are not the Irish, despite what you've been told to believe.

You're a journalist, Fionn (I'm almost certain you are, anyway), you know the score (though you let on, sometimes, that you don't).

When you (as a people) get rid of this 'British' thing; this stereotyping, this dragon-with-wooden-swords-hunting, and this insistence on ultimate superiority, I think everything would just be hunky-dory.

Generally speaking, all this extraneous bullshit set aside, we would be fairly good neighbours, as countries go, I would think.

But the British have to end that war, first.

On a lighter note:

I changed planes at Manchester Airport, recently, on my way to Belfast City, Dave.
I cleared customs there.
After having shown my Irish passport to the official, I wended my merry way to 'The Causeway Lounge'.
Interesting place!

Anyway. There were two Special Branch men at a wee desk, and they sprang to attention when they saw me coming down the stairs.

"Good morning Sir" (I love the way they say that!)
"Detective Constable" I said with a deferential nod
"And what is the purpose of your visit?", he asked
"Purpose?", I said, "Purpose? What purpose do I need? It is my island. And I intend to travel it's length and breadth, and drink once again from its' cultured cup, so long since denied us. And me, only a child when it happened, too!."
"And how do you propose to pay for this piss-up of yours, ven?", he countered.
"Not a drop, Sergeant, not a drop. But I do have the old gold VISA to pay for the Hertz rental, and in case I have to find a decent Radisson in a hurry". I detected a momentary hesitation, there, and so I went on, "Will there be anything else?"
"Eh..eh. No, that's...that's fine." And, then, composure once again intact, he said something like, "Right, then, all the best"

But as I walked on through to the departure lounge, images were flodding my mind of yer man frantically ringing up his superiors wondering if there was such a beast as a Radisson 9mm!

LOL

(I'm an awful bastard, aren't I?)

B.