Britishness in the periphery

[Fisherking]

When you stop cueing you have lost all Britishness.

Understatement is an English thing...I don't think it is becoming of the Scots or and the Irish.

However, apologies? I think the Canadians have the market cornered there... They will apologize to a table for passing too near.

Regionalism is only a family argument, and as one Irish proverb goes; so long as you have family, you will never want for enemies.

[Louis VI the Fat]

This year's Six Nations will turn out to be between France and England.

As a question to all of our Island-dwelling friends, whom do you support? At least, whose triumph would leave you least miserable - the English re-affirming their Divine Right to rule over the entire British Isles, or the frogs showing the Irish and Scots how to keep the rosbifs down?

[Rhyfelwyr]

I would support England of course, they have supported us often enough in the World Cup.

Well, I would if it was football at least, I couldn't care less about such a poor excuse for a sport as rugby.

[Pannonian]

When you stop cueing you have lost all Britishness.

Snooker isn't as popular as it once was, but a lot of pubs and bars still have pool tables, so cueing isn't likely to die out just yet.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

This year's Six Nations will turn out to be between France and England.

As a question to all of our Island-dwelling friends, whom do you support? At least, whose triumph would leave you least miserable - the English re-affirming their Divine Right to rule over the entire British Isles, or the frogs showing the Irish and Scots how to keep the rosbifs down?

Wel, as on Ingelischemon I wol cleve too mine fellow Engelonders.

I do so love mine own tongue!

[Furunculus]

This year's Six Nations will turn out to be between France and England.

As a question to all of our Island-dwelling friends, whom do you support? At least, whose triumph would leave you least miserable - the English re-affirming their Divine Right to rule over the entire British Isles, or the frogs showing the Irish and Scots how to keep the rosbifs down?

lol, england of course.

i do prefer the Lions games however.

[Subotan]

The British identity is a strange one. Waving the Union Flag or shouting "God Save the Queen" will get you funny looks from most Britons and the silent labelling of you by your community as a BNP member. It is most un-British to be vocal in your Britishness.

Multiple identities confuse the problem even more. It's OK to wave the Red Dragon or St. Andrew's Saltire, but it's more difficult with St. George's. That's a symptom of the root phenomenon mentioned in the initial post, the mistrust some English have with Celtic Nationalism.

To be English is to simultaneously be British; the two are near inseparable, and to denounce one is to denounce both. And yet in Scotland and Wales, there are British citizens expressing pride in their Celtic identity, seemingly at the expense of their British identity. Maybe some English are jealous of this, as to do the same to their English identity is impossible. Of course, there's probably a lot of "outsider" sentiment, as an English pensioner I met who disliked Scots for the sin of being Scottish clearly had.

British:
1) Stiff upper lip
2) Steely resolve in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds
3) When the chips are truly down, unity of effort among the diverse peoples - but in peacetime, loud and constant internal bickering
4) Seemingly DNA-level Inbred competition with the French
5) Quick wit

Stereotypes, I know. But I find at least 3 out of 5 applicable to every Brit I've met.

I identify with all of these (but then they may just be qualities that everyone likes to think he possesses). And yet I'm a half Catholic Irish, half Protestant Settler born in Belfast living in England. Does that make me British? Or does my background exclude me from being British? Or maybe I'm just half-British.

I've derived a series of identities for myself which I all consider myselef to be, and which are useful when dealing with the minefield that is extended Northern Irish Catholic family relations. I consider myself ethnically Irish but culturally British. I hold a passport for both (I hold the Irish one for the neutrality thing), and yet I identify primarily as a European, and that's how I answer when asked. Thanks to this complicated set up, I am hated by extremists of all the nationalities.

What of the British tradition of apologising when somebody else steps on your shoes?

Some of us are still carrying that particular torch.