Forget the politics. Are Protestants British or Irish?
They think they re definitely British. The bulldog breed self-image may have come to a timely end on the British mainland, but its assumption of ethnic superiority lives on in Northern Ireland. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I and King James I gave many Unionist Scots ancestors lands confiscated from the rebel natives. Some still feel they are taming the wild Irish and have all the insecurity of the colonist. Unionists fought and died in their thousands for King and Empire in two world wars and feel an integral part of the British family. They find it hurtful in the extreme to be regarded as Irish when they visit the mainland .
