The boozy but stellar movie star Richard Harris used to tell a tale about two newspaper headlines that encapsulated a British double standard about his national identity. “Drunken Irish actor in brawl”, one headline sneered after a hell-raising night on the town by the Limerick native. “Talented British actor...” bragged the other headline after he won an award.

Ireland might laugh, but it can be just as hypocritical about who it regards as authentically Irish. Ask this country’s citizens living north of the Border. Their tales may not be as amusing, but the identity bias they detect from the Republic is no less real.

When Northerners bring home a haul of Irish medals from the Olympics they are hailed as national heroes, but heaven forfend we might let them vote for our president. Patrick Kielty and the Derry Girls live in our sittingrooms, but they get no say in referendums shaping the country.

With talk of reunification slowly cranking up, the constant message rammed home to Irish citizens in Northern Ireland is they simply must go on living with partition, indefinitely. Their circumstances play second fiddle to the priority that unionists must be reassured about prospective unification.

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© The Irish Times