West Brit

Irish unionist MP Thomas Spring Rice (later Lord Monteagle of Brandon) said on 23 April 1834 in the House of Commons in opposing Daniel O'Connell's motion for Repeal of the Union, "I should prefer the name of West Britain to that of Ireland".

"[9] Daniel O'Connell himself used the phrase at a pro-Repeal speech in Dublin in February 1836:[10] The people of Ireland are ready to become a portion of the empire, provided they be made so in reality and not in name alone; they are ready to become a kind of West Britons, if made so in benefits and justice; but if not, we are Irishmen again.Here, O'Connell was hoping that Ireland would soon become as prosperous as "North Britain" had become after 1707, but supposed that if the Union did not deliver this, then some type of Irish home rule was essential.

[11] In 1907, Canon R. S. Ross-Lewin published a collection of loyal Irish poems using the pseudonym "A County of Clare West Briton", explaining the epithet in the foreword:[12] Now, what is the exact definition and up-to-date meaning of that term?

He misses the chief qualifications to the ranks of the "Irish best", if he remains an imperialist, and sees no prospect of peace or happiness or return of prosperity in the event of the Union being severed.

During his 2011 presidential campaign, Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness criticised what he termed West Brit elements of the media, who he said were out to undermine his attempt to win the election.

[19][20] Irish TV and radio presenter Terry Wogan, who spent most of his career working for the BBC in Britain, described himself as a West Brit: "I'm an effete, urban Irishman.

[22][23] Castle Catholic, a derogatory term first used in the mid-19th century including in the writings of John Mitchel,[24][25] is defined in some sources as equivalent to "collaborator".

[26] It has been applied, by some Republicans, to middle-class Catholics assimilated into the pro-British establishment, and refers to Dublin Castle, the main office of the British administration.

Speaking in 2020, the historian Donal Fallon suggested that the term has a "conspiratorial aspect" and that there is a "sharp edge to Castle Catholic that isn't really there in West Brit".

[33] On the RTÉ program The Live Mike between 1978 and 1982, sketch comedian Dermot Morgan satirised "Little Irelanders", by playing a bigoted Gaelic Athletic Association member who waved his hurley around while verbally attacking his pet hates.

[34] An antonym of jackeen, in its modern sense of an urban (and strongly British-influenced) Dubliner, is culchie, referring to an unsophisticated Irish person who resides in the countryside.