The furious and incredulous reaction to Melanie Phillips’s claim that Ireland isn’t a real nation

FAKE NEWS!

You've probably seen some rumblings on social media this morning and if not, you're bound to hear it being blasted on the airwaves for the rest of the day. In a piece for The Times  entitled “Britain is the authentic nation in this battle”, Melanie Phillips has said that Ireland has a “tenuous claim to nationhood”. Phillips said: "The claim to unite Ireland is tenuous since Ireland itself has a tenuous claim to nationhood, having seceded from Britain as the Irish Free State only in 1922." She went on to state that Britian is an authentic, unitary nation by comparison. The type of thinking it requires to draw that conclusion is simply astounding. https://twitter.com/momahony_/status/839061985945874433 Obviously there was a strong reaction to her article online... https://twitter.com/ianprior/status/839033554273185792 https://twitter.com/garside66/status/839082580813185024 https://twitter.com/JonLFoster/status/839081870788866048 https://twitter.com/mermayden/status/839081129999273984 https://twitter.com/dmcbfs/status/839078760217460736 https://twitter.com/GavanTitley/status/839078285946597376 https://twitter.com/Jos21Bell/status/839077765471154176 https://twitter.com/anniewestdotcom/status/839076779755253760 https://twitter.com/helenmallam/status/839077310259167232 https://twitter.com/OrlaDoherty/status/839083503845273601 https://twitter.com/DeanFaccini/status/839083332008833024 Although not everyone felt the same way... or were being controversial for the sake of it, rather like the original article. https://twitter.com/MisterSoAngry/status/839079621052219392