It is difficult to overstate the lack of interest there is among people in the Republic these days in Northern Ireland, and in relations between North and South. As somebody who works in the North and lives in the South, my experience in recent years, as the economic and financial crisis has come to dominate all public discourse, is that people in the Republic simply don't want to know. 'People in the South are utterly happy with its 26 county shape: their mental map is the 26 counties,' says a Southerner who has held senior public office in both jurisdictions. 'When there was active violence in the North, and people saw the Northern conflict on the television every night, their consciousness was more elevated. Now there is no longer a constituency of the concerned in the South.' There is a constituency -- it is difficult to know how large it is -- who would go further and say that after over 90 years of going their very different ways, the two are separate places, and that is the way to keep them. This view was articulated by the young woman  in the audience who attacked Martin McGuinness on the game-changing RTE Frontline programme during last October's presidential campaign in the following words: 'As a young Irish person, I am curious as to why you have come down here to this country, with all your baggage, your history, your controversy? And how do you feel you can represent me , as