Irish and British...Thank you Mary.

It is possible to be both Irish and British, possible to be both Orange and Irish. We face into a landscape of new possibilities and understandings.

Mary McAleese has upset the usual motley crew of intolerant BNPers Little Irelanders on Slugger:

Anyway, when RSF and wee Mary catch a blue between them and grasp that the day that British nationalists within NI voluntarily renounce their British nationalism and embrace the Irish nation-state is the day when they will become Irish, being a loyal and committed member of the Irish nation. Until then they’ll remain as a bunch of contrary British nationalists ‘up north’ who are far more trouble to Ireland than they will ever be worth.

and...

Irishness cannot include Britishness because it is not an imperialist entity - and contains only nation.

Not forgetting those true definers of all things Irish, the RSF:

It is not possible for someone to give their allegiance both to Ireland and to Britain. Britain represents the denial of Ireland’s rights. Orangemen should instead be encouraged to recognise that they are exclusively Irish, and to work for the benefit of the Irish Nation rather than adhering to narrow sectarian Orange ideology.

To suggest that Unionists are anything other than Irish amounts to a tacit acceptance of Thatcherite claims that the Six Occupied Counties are ‘as British as Finchley’.

Ha! Ha! The day we have to ask permission from the ethno-fascists to celebrate both our British and Irish identity is the day that we’ll know we’ve truly lost the war, until then...tough luck, Irish and British we remain.