More than two-thirds of people agreed with the statement that “society is too politically correct’, according the latest ‘Sign of the Times’ survey by Behaviour & Attitudes. Prof Ian Robertson, emeritus professor of psychology at Trinity College, suggested that the frustration with political correctness expressed in the survey might be a reflection of current debates around language and identity politics.

Other findings included that sixty one per cent of people agreed “everything is changing too quickly”.

The poll also shows that only fifty-four per cent of the 1,000 adults surveyed agreed that they felt pride in the result of the same-sex marriage referendum, even though 62 per cent of voters actually voted in favour of same-sex marriage in 2015.

Ian McShane, executive chairman of B&A, said the discrepancy might be explained by those who voted in favour of it based on human stories. “In the lead-up to the referendum, I happened to do a lot of research among older rural voters who would say ‘I’m not going to vote’ or ‘my granddaughter explained it all to me and I’m voting yes’, or ‘So and so from ‘Ballymagash’ down the road is gay, so I’ll probably vote yes’. I can see those people saying ‘No, I didn’t take pride in the result, but I voted yes’.”

In the referendum, 38 pc of voters voted No, while almost 40 per cent of the electorate did not vote at all.