Who Are These People?

According to the recent Census along with British and Irish there is a third identity here. People who live here and who call themselves Northern Irish. But what does that mean exactly? Northern Ireland is not a Independent Country. Do they have a shared history no they don’t they are mixture of Catholic and Protestant. The history of the North is a one party police state run by the Unionists for almost 50 years. Then the whole place erupted in violence in the 1960′s. British troops were sent in to protect the Catholics from Protestant mobs intent on burning every Catholic family out of Belfast. The undeclared Civil War went on for more than 30 years leaving thousands dead and even more injured. And then came the ceasefires followed by all party talks bringing about the Good Friday Agreement. Now we have a power sharing government up at Stormont with North/South bodies. If you are British you no doubt vote DUP or UUP or maybe even TUV. If you are Irish you can vote for Sinn Fein or the SDLP. But who do the Northern Irish vote for? Do they even vote at all? Are they happy to just sit in the middle or can they be pursuded to pick a side.