It was pretty clear from the start that this thread was going to be hi-jacked from its stated purpose into yet another (in this case irrelevant) reiteration of the interminable "Ulster" argument. Bloody stupid thread title: sorry, Keith, but you really should have known better.

I wonder if Declan and our anonymous "guest" might consider the possibility that "Northern Ireland" was in part defined, not as a "Gerrymander" to ensure a Protestant/Unionist majority, but to ensure that only those counties in which there was already an inescapable Protestant/Unionist majority would remain in the UK? Nobody wanted them even then, but the threat of "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right" was enough to scare the politicians of the day (in Ireland as well as the UK) into backing down from the original intention of restoring independence to the whole of Ireland. Both countries are still stuck with the consequences of that decision; and, if we are all to be honest, there is probably only one country in the world that wants "Northern Ireland" less than does the UK; and that is Eire.

Perhaps we should agree to swap it for Gibralter?