Fair enough UDS but I still don’t have a problem with it 
We Irish don’t control all the Irish Sea but it’s still the Irish Sea 
Political and legal bodies aside, though, it’s a hugely accepted term thoughout the world, though (and even - grudgingly - by most people in Ireland). Just off the top of my google, Houghton Mifflin & Princeton University and the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (yes, I do note the irony of that name) both count Ireland as a member. There are countless others.
I’ve heard the term “North West European Isles” used by some halfwits.
I’m quite secure in my Irishness. I don’t feel the need to embark on a public information campaign every time someone fails to appreciate the intricacies of our terminology. If someone refers to me as British, I’ll probably correct them but I certainly won’t get offended. The south has been independent for over 80 years and I would like to think that we’ve gone beyond the stage of being touchy post-colonials.
Yes, I have to say I don’t get too exercised by it. If somebody refers to me as British I will usually point out the error. What annoys me is if they insist that they are correct, and point to the term “British Isles” to support their assertion that I am British. Don’ they see the circularity of this argument?
I ** suppose** we could all be WISE only having, in the interests of accuracy, to give up on “I” and substitute “highly debatable six counties located in the North of Ireland” might ruin the fun a bit.
Oh well. 
ESWFATDAD just lacks a nice ring to it, though.
Calling those 6 counties “Northern Ireland” is fine, because that is what they are called. Just don’t call them “Ulster”, because that is inaccurate.
Well, if you want to be really picky, the northernmost part of Ireland is in the Republic. The easternmost part of Ireland is, however, in Northern Ireland.
UDS, the name ‘the British Isles’ in a strictly geographical sense means Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, etc.
Great Britain is called ‘Great Britain’ because it is the largest island in this group.
The Romans were the ones who gave the whole archipelago a name (obviously a Latin form of ‘the British isles’), so the term pre-dates all of the various countries that occupy them.
Wrong. Great Britain is thus named to distinguish it from Brittany in France.
Of course, but this is a terminology that is acceptable in both the Republic and the UK, so let’s not confuse matters any more than they are already (and God they’re confusing enough already)…
Perhaps so, and the name was correct at the time. Both islands were inhabited by people of Brythonic culture, and the islands were called after the people. (Hence the term is cultural in origin, not geographical.) But that rationale, obviously, no longer holds good.
Events have moved on, and the meaning of the term has also moved on. In Roman times the term did not include the Channel Islands, but today it generally does, because of their political dependency on the UK. And if can be extended to include territory which becomes dependent on the UK, obviously it can be contracted to exclude territory which has ceased to be dependent on the UK.
The truth is that I don’t have any very strong objections to the term, if only because there is no satisfactory alternative. I do consider it anomalous because the term “British”, used in every other sense, does had political, legal and cultural connotations - British nationality, the British government, the British Army, the British Council, the British Union of Fascists, but “anomalous” does not mean “offensive”. What bothers me is people who fail to recognise that anomaly, and who argue that, because Ireland is part of the British isles, therefore Irish people must have a British cultural identity and can properly be described as “British”.
I do indeed understand your objections, UDS.
A NI Republican did indeed once suggest “Islands of the North Atlantic” (IONA) to me, but I reckon that would piss the Icelanders and Ionians off. Me, I favour North West European Archipelago. I’m a NWEAper, nice to meet you.
Possibly, but there is an alternative explanation. In both Irish and Manx Gaelic (and, I think in Scots Gaelic) Wales is called “Little Britain”. (Indeed, there is no other word for Wales.) Could Great Britain be so called to distinguish it from Wales?
I thought Scottish Gaelic for Wales was A’Chruimrigh
Maybe, though I’m guessing that since the etymology of “Britain” is from the Romans’ “Brittania”, the term “Great” is also derived from “Maximus” (or whatever the Latin ending is), rather than the Celtic languages.
I may be wrong, but that would mean Cecil is, too, and that’s heresy.
Well, I think that the previous postings have shown what a minefield this is. So… if you really want a “name for all peoples from the UK”, your only certain option is to say “U.K. subject” (not “citizen”, that’s another problem!):rolleyes:
And “all those from the British isles”? You’re far safer with the words English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh (and to show how careful you have to be, even that’s in alphabetical order!)
Just to prove that there really is no such thing as neutral terminology here, I’ll point out that “Northern Ireland” isn’t even completely acceptable - republicans generally reject the term. It’s the safest thing to call the place if you’re not sure what company you’re in, though.
Just so. And Britons are British. ‘British’ is an adjective and a collective noun (‘the British’), not a singular noun. This is in contrast to ‘American’, in which the adjective and noun have the same form.
Americans are American, but Britons are British. In some American usages Britishers are British, but in no usage are Britishes British. The British are British, but there is no such thing as a British.
Okay?
Agback
Nope. Great Britain is the island that the English, Scottish, and Welsh mainlands are on. It is not disjoint from Wales.
Regards,
Agback
As we have recently noticed with all the republican members of the Assembly renaming any government bodies under their control to remove the name ‘Northern Ireland’ from their title. i.e. DENI (The Dept Education for NI) became simply DE.
And it (DE) now has a Gaelic logo too, which less than 5% of NI can read, according to the latest survey. Not very ‘mainstream’ educational, eh? 
It Great Britain doesn’t have to be disjoint from Wales in order to be distinct from Wales. After all, you distinguish between Connecticut and the USA, don’t you?