People who still think Ireland is part of the UK

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

So what is the alternative name you have? Or is it just an attempt again of dissociating from GB yet again.

Britain and Ireland
British and Irish Isles if you're afraid of leaving out Isle Man et Al
North Atlantic Arcepaleo


I mean it's nt exactly impossibe to resolve. If humanity can split the atom and put a man on the moon I think we can come together to create a better more appropriately name for these islands.

WesternZulu wrote: »

But you see the name British Isles was created by John Dee for the very reason to be political and to claim ownership of Ireland. He also called the North Atlantic all the way up to Iceland the British Sea for the same reason.

Considering the history between the two islands it can't be seen as anything but a political term. I don't understand why people are dismissive of ceasing its use when one of the two sovereign nations in its jurisdiction has a major problem with its use and actively discourages it.

No one is claiming we're not in the same group of islands. We just need a better name.

The British are not immune themselves to geographically sensitive terms and renamed the German Sea the North Sea after the World Wars.

In any case it only serves to add to confusion whether we're part of the UK and/or British.

The word Britain comes from the Romans when they conquered Britain. The geographical name stuck. Do you infer from the naming being Britain today that Rome is still claiming dominance over the island.... of course not. The point is the archipelago is a geographical feature that will have a name. If a Welsh mathematician first coined the the name in the 1500's and it has stuck since then I dont see the problem.

Granadino wrote: »

I doubt most Irish would be able to point out Laos on a map, so why would we be surprised if a lot of Asians haven't heard of Ireland.

I reckon a fair few could. Laos gets loads of Irish backpackers who arrive crossing the border with Vietnam.

ittakestwo wrote: »

The word Britain comes from the Romans when they conquered Britain. The geographical name stuck. Do you infer from the naming being Britain today that Rome is still claiming dominance over the island.... of course not. The point is the archipelago is a geographical feature that will have a name. If a Welsh mathematician first coined the the name in the 1500's and it has stuck since then I dont see the problem.

You don't see the problem considering all that has happened historically wise between Britain and Ireland that Ireland doesn't favour its use?

As for your point about Rome and naming Britain, why would Britain have a problem, it doesn't share the same historical baggage with Rome as Ireland does with Britain.

You're right that the islands are a geographical feature that should have a name but the term The British Isles is conceivably the worst name you could call the islands. It infers ownership and has historical weight no matter how many times someone says its only a geographical term.

As I mentioned previously it only adds to confusion about Ireland and Irish people. For instance, the nationality of someone from the UK is British, the name of the islands is The British Isles, therefore many people in Britain and further afield have a real difficulty in distinguishing if Irish people are British or not.

on the other hand, in the olden days when we could have holidays, every attraction in Portugal and Spain have a "and where do you come from?" visitors questionnaire.

Northern Ireland just doesn't appear.

STRICTLY speaking to keep their stats right we'd eventually cave and say UK.

our island has it's own issues and identities and folk far away have their own problems.

I have a mate who's really keen on American wrestling. He thinks I should be interested, but frankly?

I care about as much as an underpaid Spanish till jockey cares about Irish affairs

VinLieger wrote: »

Because Tesco Ireland along with every other supermarket operator spent the last 4 years adjusting their supply chains so they weren't as dependent UK suppliers or transit via the UK landbridge anymore.

They were assisted in this by the Irish Government adding several new high capacity RoRo routes between us and Europe.

Tesco Ireland sources products locally, in addition to what cane through the UK. For NI, they were probably not given enough time to adapt by the lack of certainty caused by the UK negotiations.

Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Address all complaints to Mr. B. Johnson and Ms. A. Foster.

So what you're saying is that the UK is a hair's breath from being in Ireland?

Hamsterchops wrote: »

so people in other countries can be forgiven if they make the odd slip up and presume we too are part of the UK.

They should be but its not an easy thing to forgive

Hamsterchops wrote: »

I think we forget sometimes just how small we are on the world stage. People from all over the globe see this island as part of this group of islands, which is mostly associated with the UK, we even speak the same language, intermix and interbreed, we're so interconnected with the UK, we even share part of this island with the UK, so people in other countries can be forgiven if they make the odd slip up and presume we too are part of the UK.

And of course we were, although even though we're now politically independent, were still a hair's breathe away from being in the UK - Geographically speaking.

We look out from here and presume everybody knows we're not part of the UK, but it's just not that obvious to some...

I really find so much wrong with this.

I remember being a curious young kid and looking at political maps of the world and the different colours clearly identified and made it easy to see the different countries.

Whilst it doesn't teach you about cultures and languages it teaches you quickly about different places.
I could see that USA & Canada where different countries despite being on the same land mass and I knew they both spoke English.
Same as learning from the map that Corsica is France and Sardinia is Italy.

I even saw that Papua New Guinea (That's been mentioned here) despite being on the same island is not part of Indonesia.

You can look at the same map and see quickly that Haiti and Dominican Republic share on island but are two entities. Does anybody think that they're the same political entity? Don't think so.

I don't believe that people in other countries don't look at the same political map and see the same thing.

As for the posters point here that we intermix and interbreed. What a load of rubbish. That's common in all countries. I don't actually see how Irish and UK intermix that much and if they did I don't see how it diminishes Irish identity or nationality.

As for being a hairs breath from being in the UK? What rubbish is that?
Are Bangladesh or Pakistan a hair's breath from being in India.
Is Austria a hair's breath from being in Germany?
People don't have a problem all the countries in South America despite most of them speaking Spanish.

It's strange how many think Ireland is part of the UK and I wonder about education in other countries. I remember learning about other countries in geography in school, and was shocked when I moved to Holland and how many people there just refer to Britain and Ireland as "England" and think we're all the same and one country but don't have the same problem with other neighbouring countries. It's really bizarre.

As for being small on the work stage, I think we're bigger that countries of similar size in terms of business, arts and influence (look how popular Patrick's Day is ) so there's no need to put Ireland down.

murpho999 wrote: »

was shocked when I moved to Holland and how many people there just refer to Britain and Ireland as "England"

Oops :pac:

know

dd973 wrote: »

A lot of English people have barely travelled around their country, many have rarely visited London, many London residents have never been to Birmingham or Manchester, add to that their parents/grandparents all being from there if that is the case and many automatically and lazily ball park Ireland North and Republic into the Scotland and Wales category.

A bit like the 'British Isles' term rolled out about English speaking non contiguous Europe, I wouldn't expect all U.K people to be au fait with the events of 1922 or 1949. They don't regard us as foreign because of familiarity, proximity and common language.

I have lived in England for the past 11 years and I am definitely more about England than the English I meet. I can safely say my geographical knowledge of England far outstripes anyone I know here.

Most English I meet talk about 5 miles down the road like it's some far off distant alien country. They can be surprisingly insular. Perhaps it is because in Ireland we have more of history of moving around and emigrating. People tend to move to England rather than the other way around.