I've lived in Ireland for many years now. It's only since the advent of Brexit that I've seen, read and heard a deep and well rooted vitriol towards the Brits .
The Irish I know and live amongst are warm hearted and very friendly but the country a a whole has an embedded dislike bordering on hatred for the Brits . This , I believe , is fueled by a constant drip feed of images , commemorations and reflections on the famine of 170 years ago . A period of 4 to 5 years that elevated the Brits to a position of disdain that even the Einsatzgruppen couldn't dream of. If you couple this with the events of 100 years ago where they achieved Sovereignty from Britain there is a reservoir of historical collective dislike easily tapped into as and when required.
The country , as a whole , is in a collective mess with desperate housing shortages, health service failings of a monumental scale , ongoing widespread police corruption , despictable deeds commited by the Catholic church upon the neediest of people but ignored by a state that goes hand in hand with the perpetrators , a political elite that believe they are world players fuelled by the over taxation of 4 million people and so much much more . You will not read of this in the UK because , well , because Eire doesn't matter to the UK in reality.
In the past the bufoon like leaders focused on their own post official wealth and prior to the advent of social media and the only alternative being two channel state TV, was nigh on impossible for the electorate to grasp what they were actually doing day to day.
Varadker is different , he has to divert attention from the morass that he and his fellow tribal trough eaters are slowly sinking into and now is his 15 minutes of fame .
My wife runs a company that sources a lot of their day to day products from UK . They have recieved some basic rudimentary instructions as to what is " advised " if a hard Brexit occurs . She mocked the simplistic and totally ineffective advice that some " department " sent them.
She doesn't want Brexit because it will make her job immensely more difficult . Taking that as an example it shows me that the rank and file of business Ireland see a huge headache looming and all down to the intransigence and pomposity of a little squeek.
They say that they want a united Ireland , I think they would shit themselves pink if that happened . To suddenly have an additional 1.8 million people ,who have had no experience of living the life of eire , become as one with their brethern in the south will be " interesting".
In fact , with the political savvy honed over generations in the North , it may be the rottweiler that eats the poodle , so to speak ......
PS I CBA doing a spellcheck so if my spelling has offended any of you petals , I don't care .