Teresa May’s pay-off of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, in return for support for the deeply dovided and non- functional Conservatives in parliament, is not popular anywhere, and there are claims that it is stirring up old anti- Irish prejudices.
One thing I learned when I was doing consulting in Northern Ireland was that there are two Northern Irelands – the businessmen and the educated people, whose attitudes you couldn’t tell apart from their Southern opposite numbers (or anywhere else in Europe) and the people still living in the 17 Century. I also became aware of the chip that a lot of people there have on their shoulders. They think they are looked down upon by Brits, which is not true. There is no anti-Irish feeling left in England, just irritation about the silly amount of money being paid to NI at the expense of the National Health Service and other claimants.
The DUP are opposed to same- sex marriage and abortion and are tied up with the Orange Order, which deliberately provokes Catholics. Ordinary Irish citizens are as impatient with these old divides as are most English people. Indeed, they look forward to an influx of new jobs with companies fleeing a Britain soon (?) to be outside the EU.
Every year the media focus on the Apprentice Boy marches and the bowler hats and the old- fashioned prejudices (on both sides of the religious divide), and this gives NI a bad image, but if there is prejudice it is against the antidiluvian religion, not against the Irish per se. I do think there are a lot of people who, before the NI agreement that Clinton helped get, dearly wished NI could by carved off and floated away to a spot just south of Greenland. But then it was Cromwell and King Billy who caused the problem in the first place, so one somehow has to live with the tribal stuff.
(Provoked by an article by Gen Patterson, Irish Times, 28 June 2017 claiming that the English were becoming anti- Irish again)
Anti Irish sentiment was fairly common during the Troubles, when the Irish were often viewed as terrorists, similarly to how Muslims are sometimes viewed today. But you’re absolutely right that such feelings have nearly entirely disappeared. I don’t think the DUP deal will result in anti Irish prejudice returning. What it may do is increase ambivalence towards Unionism amongst the younger generation, who already lean to the left generally.
The DUP have a point when they claim that Northern Irish services are underfunded. The region is the poorest in the UK, so it’s needs are greater. But part of the reason why Northern Irish services have declined in quality is that under the Conservatives, government spending relative to GDP has declined everywhere. So it’s a bit rich for the DUP to bemoan austerity in Northern Ireland, only to get into bed with a Conservative Party implementing it everywhere else!
Moreoever, Northern Ireland’s economy is suffering from being in the UK. If it were in the Irish Republic, it would be more successful, because the Irish Republic is a better governed and more business friendly country than the UK. It also wouldn’t be facing leaving the EU against its will, with the possibility of a hard border, which the DUP supported. If the DUP were honest, they would say that being in the UK is worth any economic cost, because for them, Unionism is an identity and religious issue, not an economic one. They would also ditch any pretence to be fiscally conservative, and openly praise perpetual subsidies from Westminster, as opposed to the true fiscal conservatism of the Irish Republic.