I mean he never said which part of Ireland he was from, wait, do you always say Ireland for non UK Ireland and Northern Ireland for the UK part ? I don’t find travellers here distinguish but maybe they’ve just given up. Honestly decided to leave it as UK because mostly it’s the English that bug me. The Irish are normally pretty jolly but also never really bother say which part they’re from.
We'd always say Ireland for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for the UK part, yeah. But actually, it can be kind of confusing, because Ireland can also be used to refer to the island of Ireland (i.e. both countries, only one of which is in the UK), and then of course you have people in the North who identify as Irish and others who identify as British... So I can understand why people wouldn't know the difference, even if it makes me twitch a bit.