American novelist Bonnie Greer has said that some English people know "very, very little" about the UK's relationship with Ireland, which has been "embedded" by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Ms Greer, a columnist for the New European, explained that some people of the United Kingdom see Ireland as a "evil, treacherous entity".

Ms Greer's comments come after her appearance on BBC's Question Time during the week, where she told the audience that “Ireland owes the UK nothing” over Brexit.

She has been inundated with supportive responses online since the show aired on Thursday.

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"A lot of English are walking around actually stuck, not in 2019, but in 1939," she told Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

"People of the United Kingdom don't seem to have a lot of understanding about Ireland.

"That partly is because the conservative party, which has a stake in keeping a relationship with the DUP because their coalition partner doesn't choose to actually emphasise the fact that Northern Ireland is evolved, Northern Ireland voted remain, and for good reason I'm sure. None of this is on the table for the majority of British people who are very heavily dependent on the press," she explained.

"They go around looking at Ireland like it's some sort of evil, sneaky, treacherous entity, when Ireland is Europe, Ireland has enormous power, Ireland is a major trading power. I mean, how stupid can you be?" she said today.

She added that this attitude is " embedded by this pantomime, Victorian-esque, old Etonian, buffoon that we have as a Prime Minister who 98 pc of people in the United Kingdom had nothing to do with putting there."

"I think for all the British people who responded they said that they know nothing about Irish history, very, very little about the UK's relationship with Ireland. They know something about a two billion pound bail out. I said to them, you know, we're not talking about a mortgage, we're talking about a country," she said.

"Two billion pounds outside sounds like a lot of money but it's not in relation to if you look at what the United Kingdom owed the United States of America to help it get out of the end of World War II, and it took them 60 years to repay.

"These people here have been twisted and squeezed to the max. Referendum was the only way that they could push back, the only way that they could say no. If we had a unifier in the hands of government in the United Kingdom, then that person would turn around and say 'look, let's try this again.

"We found out some horrible stuff, we don't like it, let's put all that stuff on the table, let's put another deal on the table, let's have another go at this," she added.

Speaking as panelist on the BBC show earlier this week, Ms Greer said the potential deal, which would effect Irish trade, would not be welcomed in the US where "people are very serious about Ireland".

"Often at times, I hear people talking as if this country (UK) owns Ireland," she said.

"Ireland owes this country nothing. Ireland owes this country no concessions, it owes it no quarter, it owes it nothing.

"The Good Friday Agreement is a truce because the United State of America and the EU sat down with these countries to make it happen.

"We have to be more serious about this. The United States is Irish. Anybody thinks that they're going to get a deal through and have a trade relationship with the US that shafts Ireland, you've got another thing coming. It's not going to happen.

"I'm from Chicago, that's where I was born. Do you know what we do on St Patrick's Day? We dye the river green. People are very serious about Ireland in the US. Don't mess with it. Don't make it look bad," she added.

Online Editors