Why do the British Media constantly refer to Irish people as british!

Shiva wrote:

Maybe if we offer to give them Bono they'll stop trying to steal the rest of 'em ?

Cant we just give Bono to the Brits, maybe Ryan Tubridy and Martin King also.

They have already taken Bono and Bob Geldolf, Bono was added to a list of the ''100 Greatest brits'' They are just glory seekers and would claim anyone once they were doing well, Movies music sport etc.

Reminds me of the few times when Eddie Irvine was successful in formula 1, he was British all of a sudden. When he was sh1te he was Irish again.

Well, during the 6 nations, while reporting from inside Croker, the BBc's John Inverdale reffered to England as "The Mainland", as if we were some sort of off-shore territory of some big important place.

</rant>

If they are mentioning us for a good reason, we are british. If it's a bad reason, we're Irish.

Stephen wrote:

Reminds me of the few times when Eddie Irvine was successful in formula 1, he was British all of a sudden. When he was sh1te he was Irish again.

Going back further, the same thing happened in the 80s with Barry McGuigan. When he was boxing well he was 'GB' on BBC league tables, then when his career started to fade, he was 'NI' He's not even from the 6 counties

Duggy747 wrote:

Heh, we'd last aprrox. 12 minutes. I hate it too when Irish people are referred to as Brits. I read in Total Film they referred to Cillian Murphy as British. Eddie Irvine "was" British though that changed in the British newspapers:

If he won / done good:
British driver Irvine does good in race

If he lost / done shíte:
Irish driver Irvine does crap in race

I think you'll find that the shift with Eddie Irvine happened when Loyalist paramilitaries threatened to murder his parents for having the Irish flag flown. Prior to his presence on the podium he was officially referred to as Irish because his racing license was Irish. He claimed that this was because it was cheaper to obtain when he started racing.

Once he started making the podium there was a threat to his family and the FIA made the decision that, as Northern Ireland is officially part of the UK, the Union Flag would be flown and GSTQ played.

Strictly speaking "British" and "Great Britain" are geographical terms and not a political one and Ireland is part of Britain, as is Brittany.

The country you refer to is most likely the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Finally, I don't think Eddie shared your concerns about what his nationality was defined as. He requested that a green shamrock on a white background and the Londonderry Air be played for an anthem.

I remember hearing somewhere that the term Britain came from a French/Belgian Celtic tribe called the Pritani (from which "Britain" is derived) who moved to the British Isle and Ireland, and that these then virtually disappeared in England with future invasions but remained in the other "Celtic" areas, technically making the Irish truer "Britons" than the English.

Don't know how true it is cos another time I heard that there never was a Celtic invasion of Ireland and it was instead the Celtic art and technology being adopted by indigenous Irish.