West Briton

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West Briton (Irish: Seoinín) (adjective West British) is a derogatory term for an Irish person who is alleged by the user of the term to have sympathies towards Britain. It is sometimes shortened to "West Brit".

It has its origins in 19th Century Ireland, and the term has evolved over the years. The term came to prominence in the land struggle, the journalist D.P. Moran in his early 20th Century periodical "The Nation" used the term liberally to describe those who he did not consider sufficently Irish, and was a synonym with those he described as "Sourfaces", those who he considered that mourned the death of the British Queen Victoria, a term that included virtually all Irish Protestants and those from the Catholic tradition that did not measure up to his definition of "Irish Irelanders". In the early years of Irish independence the term was used by some to indicate those who were deemed to have a subservient attitude towards the United Kingdom and by their subjective definition those who were afraid to cut the last ties. Later, less nationalistic persons were tarred with it by those who were not judged to be sufficently separatist in temprament. The term was applied mainly to Roman Catholics, as Protestants were expected by such to be naturally Unionist.

Castle Catholic was applied more specifically by purist Republicans to middle-class Catholics assimilated into the pro-British establishment, after Dublin Castle, the centre of the British administration.

"West Briton" is today used by some who call themselves Irish Republicans and who are intolerant of those who disagree with them to indicate perceived cultural cringe on the part of the person they are labelling, or a perceived lack of sympathy for Irish culture and language, those who are deemed by them to be against a United Ireland and reject their definition of Irish Republicanism.