West Brit

Who is G.C.?' answered Miss Ivors, turning her eyes upon him.

Gabriel coloured and was about to knit his brows, as if he did not understand, when she said bluntly:

`O, innocent Amy! I have found out that you write for The Daily Express. Now, aren't you ashamed of yourself?'

`Why should I be ashamed of myself?' asked Gabriel, blinking his eyes and trying to smile. `Well, I'm ashamed of you,' said Miss Ivors frankly. `To say you'd write for a paper like that. I didn't think you were a West Briton.'

A look of perplexity appeared on Gabriel's face. It was true that he wrote a literary column every Wednesday in The Daily Express, for which he was paid fifteen shillings. But that did not make him a West Briton surely.

--from Joyce's "The Dead"

Phrase used in Trinity College Dublin to describe a certain variety of upper-middle and upper class student who would perhaps be more at home in Cambridge or Oxford. Generally from established, anglican families that were members of the ruling elite before Ireland obtained its independance from the United Kingdom. Trinity College was originally founded as a protestant university in 1592 for the benefit of this elite, which explains their continued presence today, long after Trinity College has been overrun by catholics and other proles. (The name comes from the idea that West Brits would like to think of Ireland as just West Britain)