Séamas O'Reilly: Many of the tropes of standard Irishness are not universally applied both sides of the border

Every single pale and freckled ancestor of mine since 1800, Irish farmers to a soul, was born and raised in something called the United Kingdom. This is true for a large number of Irish people in the North.

Séamus O'Reilly: "When, this week, the Telegraph printed a rabidly scaremongering report that “White British people will be a minority in 40 years”, they clarified this cohort as “the white British share of the population — defined as people who do not have an immigrant parent."

You might be expecting me, a topical columnist, to give you, the schoolchildren of Ireland, a timely pep talk about the Leaving Cert exams you’ve just started, perhaps with a stirring tale from my own experience. Sadly, I can’t do that because I never did the Leaving Cert. 

I was raised in Derry, and thus the British school system, so I did A-levels. They are, I’m sure, similar enough to the Leaving Cert that much of my advice would still be relevant, but still different enough that it wouldn’t really make much sense to apply them directly to the exams you’re sitting now.