"but your comments don't always appear to be consistent."
Not really Nigel
The underlying intention of Ireland has always been to remove a partition that was forced upon them- pride of nation is part of the psyche of the Irish people
Since Independence (of sorts) in 1922 the Irish have been dependent on friendly nations with its nearest neighbour, mainly as a plane to emigrate to with a practial chance of returning home easily, so they adopted a 'don't rock the boat' pragmatism
An example of this is the fact that up to twenty years ago there has only been one major work Ireland's greatest disaster - the Famine, which was written in the 1960s by an Englishwoman - no point of rubing our neighbour's noses in what they did
The blossoming of the Irish Economy - 'The Celtic Tiger' (thanks to the E.U.) largely removed that dependency (the 150th anniversary saw a landslide of serious and uncomfortably frank books on Irish history under British rule.
These things are never straightforward
Now Brexit has made Britain a liability - hence the return to the old dream of a United Ireland
I am in no way a nationalist, but I hope I live to see that one
Jim Carroll