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I think you touch upon something relevent here, Anne - There probably is some cultural rivalry left, so to speak, between Irish and English. It's sad, but we will not change entire populations overnight.

There is something not entirely different going on here - it's not like there's a great love affair going on between francophones and anglophones in Canada either, though relations have improved a lot in the last couple of decades. I think Canadians have begun to realize that, ultimately, we all do share very similar values and principles, and that we are mainly different in how we express ourselves. Still, everynow and then, an individual will throw in a disparaging remark, but I'd rather focus on the progress achieved and the fact that a majority of people these days actually get along rather well with all of their fellow Canadians regardless of their mother tongues. I wish we extended that a bit more to Natives, which are still, in many ways, discriminated against by both francophone and anglophone canucks, though this too is improving.

But I have to agree with trench about the subtle differences in race, ethnicity and nationality. Race has, itself, been redefined a lot over the years and is usually understood to denote phenotypical differences now. Ethnicity and Nationality deal more in cultural heritage and place of birth. In some odd way, all are social constructs as well (humans did decide where the borders were going to be) and no country or nation is actually entirely culturally homogenous (though small countries; with no long history of mass immigration and centralized populations; like Norway or Iceland for example; are probably more culturally united this way).