Historians have started referring to the Atlantic Isles to sidestep all of these bruised egos, don’t know why they bother quite frankly (seems as pointless as changing BC to BCE so it’s not technically Christian any more - still the same calendar though).
That would explain why our bad weather always came from the west.
IMO, they need to grow up. When I lived in Ireland I heard someone suggesting “IONA” (islands of the north Atlantic) instead. Meh. It’s not a political term, and it goes back to Pytheas and Ptolemy the Greek; get over it. That bucketybuck has never heard that term doesn’t surprise me though, as the Irish educational system does seem to avoid such questions.
I wouldn’t imagine it is “most”. A significant minority, I’d suggest.
AIUI any citizen of NI with an Irish or British parent can hold an Irish passport.
WRT the politicisation of a geographic term you may say meh but you’re not Irish, as much experience as you have living here and as much valid and illuminating info you offer on your experiences in and of this country what you say does not invalidate what i stated.
No, but it does add to the reason why we don’t feel the need to explain that the term is offensive. If even someone who has lived in Ireland can’t be bothered to care, why should we?
I also agree with SciFiSam: I knew most of that already. The rest I didn’t know because I didn’t care.
I have to say that I think ‘meh’ to IONA, too - because where do you draw the arbitrary northern border? Shetland? The Faroes? Iceland?
Hey I’ve no alternative, it was just a comment on that presentation, which seems aimed at a primarily North American audience who might find it useful to know that factoid about the term British Isles. 
Free for our family when Dad came over all nationalistic and ordered a batch of Irish passports for us
I hold both, applied for the Irish one mainly because I’d heard rumours that they were tightening up the rules and thought I may as well have it. Good job as my British passport ran out a couple of years ago (note to self, get it renewed!)
I’ve been surprised on more than one occassion when an acquaintance of the Unionist ilk turned out to also hold an Irish passport, I think that, the upsurge in dissident violence not withstanding, people in Northern Ireland are getting more relaxed about the whole identity thing.
However in my job I occassionally have to ask what nationality people consider themselves as (for governmental statistical purposes) and its not unusual to have people answer, “Catholic” and so on. Bit of confusion creeping in there…
btw I find it interesting that citizens of the Republic of Ireland can join the UK Armed Forces with pretty much no problems.
The Ulsterman I live with says most people in NI have British passports, as jjimm suggested, and those with Irish ones are a significant minority.
That’s not peculiar to Ireland, though. Even leaving aside the Ghurkas, there are a lot of foreign nationals serving in the UK Armed Forces. Mostly from the Commonwealth, of course, but there are a surprisingly large number of Fijians, for some reason.
So, the crown claims a slice of Antarctica, does it?
Are those same Irish opposed to the naming of the Irish Sea? 
A lot of countries do, including the United States.
Going from memory … Norway, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina …
Actually the US does not appear to claim any antarctic territory.
Nor does Russia. But both Russia and the US reserve the right to.
(BTW, to add to Qadgop’s list (though I know it was just from memory and deficiencies are to be expected), France and Chile were missed. (This is also from my memory, but I’m a geography geek … )
Yes, people need to stop calling it the Atlantic. :mad:
He didn’t say most people do he said most people can which I think is an accurate statement.
I calls it a moat.
I said they can not that they do as TruCelt has pointed out above but it does raise the interesting question as to how many people in NI carry one, other or both passports. It’s probably for another thread though.