There are lots of strange issues that are assigned to the troubled Emerald Isle, though in fairness, they had less to do with the Irish and more to do with the extension or preservation of percieved British national interests. I suspect too that the Kaiser's generosity towards the Carsonites had more to do with Germany's colonial ambition than any empathy with the North.
Consider also the mass recruitment of over 700 serving RIC men and Auxiliaries in 1920 for the British Gendarmerie in Palestine. That went well! And when it all turned to the brown stuff the solution was to appoint a former head of the RUC to try to sort it out. Guess what he did? He built a series of reinforced joint Police and Army Forts across what is now Palestine and parts of Israel ......... bet you thought these were invented in South Armagh in the 70s/80s. Nothing like a failed blast from the past being presented as a 'new' investment in Ulster's security.
The late Roy Jenkins of Lib/Lab and SDP fame once made the point much more truthfully than anyone......."Although the British government can claim great expertise in the world of politics, solving the problems of Ireland isn't part of it."