Poll: Are you British or English/Scottish etc?

[x0ny]

British is nationality, English is ethnicity?

 

[Dark Link]

I say Scottish because it pisses me off when Americans think that British means English, and I want to show them that Britain encompasses four different countries. Others do it too, but it's mostly Americans.

 

[Amnestic]

Also, Jesus there's a lot of people with Irish descent on this!

Ahem, 43 members

Descent. Not from Ireland.

Apparently 20% of English people have direct Irish heritage, which is interesting. Including all the members of The Beatles, Oasis and The Smiths.

I doubt you do though Cuthbo, you're probably a direct descendant of King Arthur.

Everyone who's English is.

We also all are on speaking terms with The Doctor. We take turns on our time travel trips.

And we all live in castles.

 

[Hotshots]

Ah yes,my cousin-in-law Billy has stuff like UDA and taigs out tattoos,i have no idea what it means but he hates me (for being Italian i guess).
What does that stuff mean? What is the UDA a branch of the IRA, and "taigs out" WTF does that mean?

Ooh, I love explaining this.

Spoiler: Warning, text!

Ok, the reason he hates you is because Italians are by and large Catholics, and he is Protestant, Irish are also Catholics mostly.
Basically, I'll start at the beginning. About 800 years ago Britain invaded Ireland (it's actually a lot more complicated, but I'll simplify it)

Over time they assimilated Ireland into the Empire, but oddly enough, even though it was the closest colony to them, it gave them the most trouble. There were many failed rebellions. The British were very harsh rulers, they killed hundreds of thousands of people and during The Great Famine of the 1840's, they refused to stop exporting food from the country, and rather than hand out food for free, they made people work very hard for it. Over 1.5 million people died, and 1 million emigrated.

During that time, they began a series of 'plantations', which meant paying British people (usually Scottish) to come over to Ireland and take control of the land. Effectively making sure that the only people with any power were loyal to England. These plantations didn't really work except in the Province of Ulster, which is the North of Ireland.
In 1916, however, a small amount of Irish nationalists took control of the General post Office in Dublin , during what is called the Easter Rising. They held it for a week, and most of Dublin was destroyed in the fighting. The leaders were executed, and this created massive support for Irish freedom.

Finally in 1921, after a brutal Guerrilla war between the British Army and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Ireland gained independence from Britain, but on Britain's terms. Ireland would be able to make it's own decisions and have it's own government, but it would still be part of the British Empire, and the North of Ireland would remain in the UK.

You see, Northern Ireland had a majority of Protestants, with Catholics in the minority, unlike the rest of Ireland, which is the reverse.

South Ireland than had a civil war between the pro-treaty and anti-treaty IRA. The anti-treaty wanted to keep fighting Britain and win better terms, but the Pro-treaty wanted to stick with what they had achieved. The Pro-treaty side won and the pro-treaty IRA became the Irish Army. The anti-treaty IRA stayed the IRA, but were made illegal in Ireland.

After the war, both Britain and Ireland stabilized. In Northern Ireland however, things were bad for the Catholics, they were abused by the mostly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and were denied voting, housing and employment rights by the Northern Irish government (Known as Stormont).

After years of sporadic fighting and rioting, huge riots engulfed the Province in 1969. The RUC were totally overwhelmed, and took the step of calling in the British army to deal with the riots.

The British Army however, had to face a new threat in the form of a new branch of the IRA, the Provisional IRA. They fought the British army for 29 years, from 1969 to 1998, leading to mass casualties on all sides, and bombs every day. The IRA conducted bombings in Britain and ambushed the Army on a regular basis. Massacres of civilians by all sides were common.

This period was known as The Troubles

Also part of the violence were Protestant groups, like the Ulster Defense Association (UDA, which your cousin in law supports) and UVF (Ulster Volunteer force). They typically shied away from all out combat, preferring to randomly target Catholic civilians. They were responsible for such things as the 1974 Dublin bombings, which killed 35 people, and the Shankhill Butchers, who killed up to 50 innocent Catholics by torturing them to death.

The conflict was finally brought to and end by the Good Friday agreement in 1998. While it didn't make Northern Ireland independent from Britain, it gave strong powers to Catholics as well as Protestants.
However, it's not over yet, groups like the Real IRA split from the Provisional IRA in protest at the supposed 'sell out'.

I myself had the misfortune of seeing one of their attacks, where they shot 2 British soldiers earlier this year.

Believe it or not, thats actually as simplified as I can make it. I hope you can understand it.

Heres some links

The Troubles
1919-21 Anglo Irish war
1916 Easter Rising
1922-23 Irish Civil War
Irish Famine of 1845-52

Wow,that was a excellent read thank you.
That does explain a lot,sorry about what you seen with the soldiers,i imagine that would be pretty shocking to see.
Thant does shed light on Jaid's family,epically Billy.
Thanks again for that.

 

[LeonLethality]

I'm Irish Canadian so uh... yeah.... but I just call myself Canadian

 

[MrGseff]

im welsh... go me?

 

[Boba Frag]

Wow.... non-Uk and non-Irish people should perhaps google stuff like that...

The UDA (Ulster Defence Association) are an extremist loyalist paramilitary organisation.
"Taig" is an extremely offensive thing to call someone from a Catholic background.

The IRA (and all its splinters) were not the only terrorists in Northern Ireland.

"When people are divided, the only solution is agreement. "
-John Hume

 

[Quoth]

I'm a citizen of the British Commonwealth and of English descent.

 

[Ocelot GT]

mum is english, dad is australian with welsh heritage

 

[Fingerprint]

Half English (or as the locals where I am now would say, "pom") and half Welsh (or as almost all of the world says, "taff"). In sporting terms I'm, as far as I'm concerned, Welsh when it comes to rugby but as there's no Welsh cricket team for that I have to say English.

What's with this obsession with nationality on the Escapist? It's not where you're from, it's where you're going.

Well in that case I'm a Kiwi.

But I see what you mean, there have been quite a few threads recently asking about nationality.

 

[Wadders]

I think my Avatar speaks for itself...

More specifically, I'm English, from the West Midlands. Both my parents are English. Dad's from Manchester with Irish heritage, Mum's from Cambridge.

 

[Kiefer13]

British. While if someone called me Scottish they would not be incorrect (though if they called me English, they would) I much prefer British. Really, all this petty nationalism between our constituent countries is just irritating and quite frankly, pathetic.

 

[Mrselfdestruct]

I'm Welsh, but I'm living in Manchester right now. I'm such a traitor....

 

[fletch_talon]

I would say I'm Venezuelan, then laugh because I'm Australian.

 

[vamp rocks]

I'm not sure...

lol i was born in england... but then lived from 4 to 14.. i have lived in Scotland for 3 years now...

i think i consider scotland my home...


but for the Brttish vs eng/scot/etc ...

i dont really care... lol ill say either.. just depends..

 

[Matt-Sama]

I just say I am English I find it easier.

 

[waterhazard]

British as I am quarter Irish and other part English. (thankfully not the super pale irish part)