Is Ireland a "home nation"?

Lucozade Sports ad has the tag "strictly for the home nations only" and shows rugby players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland...

http://youtu.be/TpSqEKpTLUI

Are we regarded as a home nation? It's a phrase I haven't heard in some time, and certainly haven't heard it used about Ireland. Or does the inclusion of NI in rugby mean it's valid?

Sheep Lover

No

Guy:Incognito

I was wondering how long this ****e was going to take to surface:rolleyes:

Taco Chips

Yes. There has to be some term to refer to the grouping of the UK and Ireland given their geography and shared history. People kick up enough fuss about terms like "The British Isles". There has to be some description, I think the Home Nations is a good one.

FrStone

Well considering Northern Ireland is part of the UK, which is a separate country to the Republic of Ireland, we are not a 'home country'.

However I'm sure there will be a load of people who will disagree with me as they don't like the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

NachoBusiness

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I was wondering how long this ****e was going to take to surface:rolleyes:

Wait a minute. So you knew about this already and didn't let us know??

kneemos

Oh no,they've included us in some vague way with Great Briton.

ancapailldorcha

I am outraged and offended at whatever this is about...

astrofool

FrStone wrote: »

Well considering Northern Ireland is part of the UK, which is a separate country to the Republic of Ireland, we are not a 'home country'.

However I'm sure there will be a load of people who will disagree with me as they don't like the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

The rugby team represents the entire Island, so in that sense, we're as much a home team as Wales and Scotland.

questionmark?

In terms of Rugby yes we are. That won't ever change unless Rugby stops been played when we get taken over by zombies.

Harry Palmr

Kinda tricky as the Ireland rugby team contains elements of UK in it. When the Lions play its 4 nations - the "home nations"

bpmurray

The term "Home Nations" refers to the UK countries, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and NI. However, as Wikipedia explains:

The term "Home Nations" is used in this second sense partly because Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have a unified association structure in certain sports, such as the Irish Rugby Football Union.

In other words, it's terminology and not a political land-grab so nothing to get your knickers in a twist over!

Guy:Incognito

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I was wondering how long this ****e was going to take to surface:rolleyes:

The time has come, the matter has surfaced..l

bpmurray

bpmurray wrote: »

In other words, it's terminology and not a political land-grab so nothing to get your knickers in a twist over!

Oh I appreciate it's just terminology and the English are not invading.

It just seems to me to to be wrong terminology.

pawrick

Home nations refers to the nation's who supplied the settlers to the British colonies originally in rugby terms as far as I knew so Ireland would be considered a home nation in that respect imo as we were a considerable part of the empire back in the day as regards supplying man power to the army and settlers by choice or not.

whiskeyman

Deleted User wrote: »

Lucozade Sports ad has the tag "strictly for the home nations only" and shows rugby players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland...

It obviously didn't do much good for England.

I want whatever the All Blacks are drinking!

:pac:

Sheep Lover

Why is there a constant want to be grouped with the UK? "Oh sure arent we part of the home nations and the British Isles"

Eh no, we're Ireland.

LDN_Irish

You'd swear Conor was some hardline republican with some of the responses on here.

kneemos

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Why is there a constant want to be grouped with the UK? "Oh sure arent we part of the home nations and the British Isles"

Eh no, we're Ireland.

It's due to our proximity to the mainland.

FunLover18

EDIT: I misunderstood the term and thought it referred to the fact we were playing at home which we clearly aren't.

As you were

Sheep Lover

kneemos wrote: »

It's due to our proximity to the mainland.

What about France? At least they've nice food and decent weather.

The Backwards Man

You never see any threads on boards.lu about Luxembourg being the arse end of the Benelux.

Stojkovic

Ive no problem with British TV calling us a home nation in sporting terms. Its a friendly term as all our players play there.

If they ignored us, people would still moan.
You cant win.

Note I said sporting terms not political.

Guy:Incognito

Sheep Lover wrote: »

What about France? At least they've nice food and decent weather.

They talk funny.


and they smell.

Nodin

kneemos wrote: »

It's due to our proximity to the mainland.

"mainland" my sweaty gowel.

Dirty Dingus McGee

What exactly does Home nation mean?

What are they a home of/to exactly?

It's quite an odd phrase in my opinion.

It's juts another term that's used to lump us an brits in together when I think most people are quite happy with both countries being independent of each other and should be referred to in that way.

Eugene Norman

Nodin wrote: »

"mainland" my sweaty gowel.

Haha I hate that term two. Two islands off the biggest land mass on earth and one of them is a mainland.

Fog in English Channel. Continent cut off from mainland.

Eugene Norman

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

What exactly does Home nation mean?

What are they a home of/to exactly?

But unlike mainland home nations is perfectly fine.


home of the original rugby boards ( or soccer leagues) who played the first internationals long before other countries had leagues or associations. Belonging to a now defunct international league called the "home nations championship", precursor to the 5 and then 6 nations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_Home_Nations_Championship

The King of Moo

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

What exactly does Home nation mean?

What are they a home of/to exactly?

It's quite an odd phrase in my opinion.

It's juts another term that's used to lump us an brits in together when I think most people are quite happy with both countries being independent of each other and should be referred to in that way.

But like it or not, we're very similar culturally, we speak English as our main language, and we're literally isolated from the rest of Europe.
Like it or not, people lump us together when they think of us, even if they know Ireland is politically independent, so it makes sense to have a term to describe us and the UK together.

Banjoxed

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Why is there a constant want to be grouped with the UK? "Oh sure arent we part of the home nations and the British Isles"

Eh no, we're Ireland.

We'll stop playing rugby. That will solve it.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Eugene Norman wrote: »

But unlike mainland home nations is perfectly fine.


home of the original rugby boards ( or soccer leagues) who played the first internationals long before other countries had leagues or associations.

It's still a daft term as it means nothing really as what exactly is the "home" referring to. Ireland is only home to Irish people not people from Britain.

Dirty Dingus McGee

The King of Moo wrote: »

But like it or not, we're very similar culturally, we speak English as our main language, and we're literally isolated from the rest of Europe.
Like it or not, people lump us together when they think of us, even if they know Ireland is politically independent, so it makes sense to have a term to describe us and the UK together.

In that case we should be lumped in with all English speaking countries of the world.

UK and Ireland be just as good a term and more representative of the way most people see things.

Germany , Austria and Switzerland aren't lumped together with one term even though they speak the same language.

Nodin

The King of Moo wrote: »

But like it or not, we're very similar culturally, we speak English as our main language, and we're literally isolated from the rest of Europe.
Like it or not, people lump us together when they think of us, even if they know Ireland is politically independent, so it makes sense to have a term to describe us and the UK together.

No, it does not.

Avatar MIA

To not include Ireland among the term 'Home Nations' is to wipe out over a 100 years of history, as if Ireland never existed before 1922.

Revisionism at its finest.

FloatingVoter

Replace "Home Nations" with "Two Wet Rocks" ...far more descriptive.

Avatar MIA

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

It's still a daft term as it means nothing really as what exactly is the "home" referring to. Ireland is only home to Irish people not people from Britain.

I think you've forgotten the S in Home Nations

Dozen Wicked Words

I think it's seen as a home nation commercially, and in this day and age that's all that matters to them. Lucozade is probably GB and Ireland on packaging, Sony have GB and Ireland etc etc. It's just easy for lazy marketing people and cheaper. Why have 2 ads for countries speaking the same language. Dare say Austria has the same thing with Germany, Belgium with France or Holland, Canada with the USA etc etc.

Eugene Norman

There's nothing political, or economic or geographical about "home nations". It's merely a sporting term.

duchalla

kneemos wrote: »

It's due to our proximity to the mainland.

Do you live on the Aran Islands?

Avatar MIA

duchalla wrote: »

Do you live on the Aran Islands?

Pretty sure he was baiting ye

Nodin

Avatar MIA wrote: »

To not include Ireland among the term 'Home Nations' is to wipe out over a 100 years of history, as if Ireland never existed before 1922.

Revisionism at its finest.

So we only existed since 1822?

padd b1975

It's just a lazy reference for this part of the world.

I doubt anyone outside of shinnerbots and barstool republicans see it as anything else.

Eugene Norman

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

It's still a daft term as it means nothing really as what exactly is the "home" referring to. Ireland is only home to Irish people not people from Britain.

I don't what evidence you want. Let me repeat.

It refers to the rugby unions who played in the Home Nations Championship. Home of rugby.

The term is never used politically.

Avatar MIA

Nodin wrote: »

So we only existed since 1822?

Of course not, but the term 'Home Nations' started around the 1800s.

The King of Moo

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

In that case we should be lumped in with all English speaking countries of the world.

UK and Ireland be just as good a term and more representative of the way most people see things.

Germany , Austria and Switzerland aren't lumped together with one term even though they speak the same language.

We are, by most non-English speakers.
But within Europe, people see us as being even closer to the UK.
Now I wouldn't expect "home nations" to take off as a phrase in general usage, but it makes sense in rugby terms: four similar teams, with one being made up of players from two states.
"The UK and Ireland" is fine but a bit awkward to say repeatedly, which is why people say "The British Isles" instead.

Nodin wrote: »

No, it does not.

It might not to lots of Irish people, but it does to foreigners who see everyone in the UK and Ireland being similar in a lot of ways, and don't know or care about our long shared history. And having spent some time in each "home country" it's fair to see we're broadly similarly culturally.

buried

The King of Moo wrote: »

We are, by most non-English speakers.
But within Europe, people see us as being even closer to the UK.
Now I wouldn't expect "home nations" to take off as a phrase in general usage, but it makes sense in rugby terms: four similar teams, with one being made up of players from two states.
"The UK and Ireland" is fine but a bit awkward to say repeatedly, which is why people say "The British Isles" instead.

That's a confusing mouthful alright

Eugene Norman

padd b1975 wrote: »

It's just a lazy reference for this part of the world.

I doubt anyone outside of shinnerbots and barstool republicans see it as anything else.

No. It's not used outside sport. If Obama visited Ireland, England, Scotland and then wales no commentator would say he visited the "home nations". They might say "British Isles", but that's a geographical term.

The term home championship also applied in soccer.


The British Home Championship (also known as the Home International Championship, the Home Internationals and the British Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the last of whom competed as Ireland for some of the competition's history). Starting during the 1883–84 season, it is the oldest international football tournament and it was contested until the 1983–84 season, when it was abolished after 100 years.


If the FAI didn't break away from the IFA then the Ireland soccer team would also be a "home nation".

Neither the shinners nor the "hand it back to the Queen" mobs need to get excited about a term used in sport.

walshyn93

It's a rugby term only. It's not about the United Kingdom at all, it's about the shared rugby heritage on both of these islands.

Eugene Norman

walshyn93 wrote: »

It's a rugby term only. It's not about the United Kingdom at all, it's about the shared rugby heritage on both of these islands.

Thank god! Another sane poster.

( but it's also used in soccer but doesn't include the Republic of Ireland soccer team)

DEFTLEFTHAND

Part of the north Atlantic archipelago known as the British Isles.

Very Bored

I don't like the fact that Ireland is partitioned and believe that it should be a united and independent country. However, our history is intertwined with Britain's and a lot of people in Britain look at us with affection. If they want to call us a home nation and get behind our team then I'm happy for them to do it. We are also part of the British Isles whether people like it or not. I wish people would grow up over this kind of thing. At the end of the day does it really matter?