Originally Posted by Trollheart

Okay well here's the deal: right or wrong, we generally didn't consider Protestants (Proddies) Irishmen. They were the blow-ins, the johnny-come-latelies, the almost-as-English-as-the-English-themselves. So when I say every Irishman I don't include them. Plus, as I noted, I'm talking about the South, the Republic, and you got very few Proddies down here. The Republic was (perhaps obviously) more or less all republican, and certainly where I lived, and live now, it was a very Republican area. Now, I assume you realise that when I say Republican, I'm talking about a different Republican then your US ones. Yours is a party, ours is too but more an ideal: the reunification of all 32 counties under one Republic.

So almost everyone in the South was, overtly or at least tentatively, a Republican. You'd see things like "Up the RA" (short for IRA - yeah, only the Irish could need to shorten a three-letter word!) "Brits Out" and "Provos Rule", but then it's a lot easier to support a group or faction when you're not faced with their atrocities on a regular basis. Still, Ireland wanted its 6 counties back and it's always been a bone of contention that the Brits were up there. Also, we hated Thatcher (who didn't?) so that added to it. The internment camps, H-Block, The Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six all went to intensify that innate hatred of the British, which had been ingrained in us from school, given that the English had occupied and oppressed Ireland for 700 years.

Edt: Yes I saw Peaky Blinders. Did not like it personally. Might consider going back and trying it again. If you're looking for authentic though The Rising and The Treaty are good programmes that capture the feeling in pre-1916 Ireland.