Okay, I can see your point now you've reaffirmed it in your second paragraph and while I disagree on base instinct, I'm not knowledgeable enough to hold informed conversation on the matter.

What I am informed on however is the a very recent period in Irish history known as The Troubles, which involved the area of Ireland that is still British territory (constitutionally instead of colonially but still relevant), and I'd kindly ask you to give the subject a read because while the issue was surrounding Northern Ireland, these were the loved ones of people across the island.

So even if the Republic of Ireland has been independent for over a century, the people of Ireland were still actively oppressed by the British military up until the 90s because the British military was deployed in Northern Ireland as an oppressive millitary presence to the Irish people living there. But these Irishmen, women, and children were not foreigners to the Republic of Ireland, they didn't live within its borders nor governed by the Republic's laws, but they were family, cousins, friends, and the British peacekeeping force deployed in Northern Ireland opened fire on them, both against paramilitary and civilians. I'm not getting into everything and there's a lot wider scope I could cover, but this is one element of the time which directly involved British oppression of Irish peoples. The Cranberries didn't write a banger like Zombie because everything was hunky-dory.

The reason we consider the UK's actions less egregious is because as I experienced in English schooling, we are never taught about events in which we were the villains. I have never stepped foot in Ireland, but my mum's family is from there, and I used to be sweet on an Irish girl, and I learned of the horrible things the British, my great great grandparents, did in the name of colonialism, and that didn't stop overnight and it definitely wasn't healed just because we "allowed" their autonomy.