@Mike Reed The Irish most likely had the same general origins as the Welsh - the Celtic peoples of central Europe - but that common origin was long enough ago that the Irish and Welsh languages diverged away from being mutually intelligible before they even reached these islands (I learned Irish at school, and we received Welsh TV for years, but I could not make out even one word of Welsh). The Irish language is the longer established (arriving in Ireland around 500 BC from western France); Welsh is believed to be the last survivor of the pre-Roman British languages, which arrived in Britain from the Eastern side of the Celtic lands in around 400 BC.
Incidentally, the English names "Welsh" and "Wales" both come from the Saxon word for "foreigner", which I always thought was a bit rich of them; the Irish word for Welsh,
Breatnais, relates to the word for "British", and so still records who was there first. (In Irish, Wales is
an Bhreatain Bheag, or literally "Little Britain").
For context, I now live in Dublin, grew up in NI and lived in England for a long time. And what you say above is commonly cited, I do get that from many friends and family who still live in NI.
But it’s not really a balanced picture. Pensions, child benefit and unemployment benefits are much higher here than in the UK. For instance, we have 5 kids and get just over 800EUR a month in child benefit. About a third of the population get free GP access and treatment with a medical card. If you do pay for GP access, many people get private healthcare through their employer and get half of the cost back via the insurance and another percentage back via a tax rebate. There’s a ceiling on medicine costs, plus you get tax relief on this. And - unlike my experience in London - I get a GP appointment within 24h and can have as long as I reasonably need with them (30 mins+ on occasion), whereas I had 10 mins max in London and often had 2-3 days to wait for an appt. Third level fees are 3000EUR/year vs the 9000GBP/year in the UK. And, yes we have the much-hated VRT tax on new and imported cars, but it’s come down dramatically (usually <20% now) and our cheaper fuel costs offset much of that in any case.
Of course on top, the salaries in the Republic are much higher than in NI. Tax is higher too of course, but that impacts higher earners mainly, not so much those on average incomes.
I wasn't necessarily saying it was true, just that it is commonly believed.
For a long time, it was true that the Republic was a place where you paid high taxes and got no public services in return for them, while Northern Ireland provided a lot for a little (those in other parts of the UK may be surprised to learn that NI residents do not pay Council Tax). I'm not surprised that people still think that, because everything that has happened to change this situation is fairly recent: a revolution in the Irish economy from the early 1990s greatly increased the level of public services, but also, a later slow collapse of the value of Sterling has effectively reversed the economic spending power on either side of the border. Consumer prices have risen by 12% since 2011 in the UK, but by only 4.8% in the Republic, all while wage growth in the Republic has been higher than in Northern Ireland. For those who grew up with the mental formula of "1 Sterling = 1.25 Punt", it comes as a very big surprise to learn that its equivalent today is "1 Sterling = 0.90 Punt" (it was much worse, but Sterling has picked up a little in the last 3-4 months).
The cost of living here isn't just tax, though, it's lots of little things that sneak up on you, lihealth insurance, medicines, motoring charges, childcare, financial services, bin collection, dentistry, etc. On the other side of that, I do think we make a much bigger effort toward addressing inequality of income than the UK does, but that's probably down to a long history of electing centrist or centre-left coalition governments.