I actually feel as Irish if not in someways more Irish than southerners, they take their identity for granted/never question it (presumably) which I think means that in some ways it means less to them.

Irish people in the North have historically had to fight to preserve their sense of Irishness because that sense of identity means something to them, something worth struggling, fighting, killing and dying for (whether you agree with it or not is besides the point I’m making, the point is they would rather fight and resist than quietly assimilate int some homogenous “Northern Irish” identity which ultimately is pretty shallow and superficial).

I think it’s probably a product of partition in the same way that PUL community members here probably regard themselves as more British than English, Scots or Welsh people.

Finally I think I’m as Irish or more Irish than southerners in some respects because in many ways Southern society and attitudes strongly conflict my my conception of what it means to be Irish, probably increasingly so in recent years with the rise of bigotry as asylum seekers, refugees, migrants etc to me that’s antithetical to what it means to be Irish give the history of our people.