Is Ireland a Classless Society?

Discuss the contention that Ireland is a classless society.
'Class' is what happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared) feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs.' (E.P. Thompson, 1968)
One hundred years ago I might have been able to agree with the title of this essay, I might have been passionately arguing with the ideologists of the time who took pleasure in lauding Ireland as 'classless society'. …