# "Northern Ireland" is a separate country, its not a description. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 1, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901 "2012-07-01T14:45:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/21 "2012-07-02T04:44:01Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > There’s the [Northern Territory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory) and [Western Australia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australia). Or Western Samoa, though that’s now just Samoa. Or [the Turkish Republic of] Northern Cyprus. New South Wales… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/22 "2012-07-02T04:56:35Z")
But rebellious Scots are still being crushed, right? ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/23 "2012-07-02T05:24:50Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > New South Wales… [Southern Rhodesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Rhodesia)… [Northern Rhodesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rhodesia)… ---
**Author:** ![Melaleuca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Melaleuca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melaleuca)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/24 "2012-07-02T06:02:10Z")
There is the occasional story in the local press of northern hemisphere tourists booking flights to Sydney, and their consternation as their connecting flights are in smaller and smaller planes, until they end up in Sydney, Nova Scotia. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/25 "2012-07-02T06:12:18Z")
The name of the fucking sovereign nation is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. How dumb are people? I’m American and even I know that much ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/26 "2012-07-02T06:48:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > To be fair, the word “northern” usually is a description. I can’t think of any other examples where “Northern” or “Southern” or “Eastern” or “Western” (as opposed to “North” or “South” or “East” or “West”) is part of the official name of a political entity (like a country, state, or city). North Carolina South Carolina North Dakota South Dakota West Virginia ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/27 "2012-07-02T08:26:51Z")
North Marianas North Korea (there used to be North Vietnam too) ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/28 "2012-07-02T08:32:18Z")
Mr. Boink said “as **opposed** to North or South. . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/29 "2012-07-02T08:32:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not bad, but it leaves out Man and the Channel Islands. Try [this one.](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/British_Isles) > > In our next class, we’ll try to figure out [Europe.](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/European_Union) Fuck it, just [let CGPGrey explain it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10). ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/30 "2012-07-02T10:39:19Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > To be fair, the word “northern” usually is a description. I can’t think of any other examples where “Northern” or “Southern” or “Eastern” or “Western” (as opposed to “North” or “South” or “East” or “West”) is part of the official name of a political entity (like a country, state, or city). There’s also the Western Sahara\* \*_May not technically exist as a country, depending who you talk to._ ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/31 "2012-07-02T10:46:15Z")
> [@Encinitas](#): > > North Carolina > South Carolina > North Dakota > South Dakota > West Virginia Didn’t bother reading the entire sentence you quoted, did you? ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/32 "2012-07-02T11:10:29Z")
> [@Encinitas](#): > > North Carolina > South Carolina > North Dakota > South Dakota > West Virginia You missed the “as opposed to North, South, East, West” part of the sentence, eh? ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/33 "2012-07-02T12:00:58Z")
The way I heard it (for waaaay over 20 years) is the US is a real big country and so there just isn’t room for news about foreigners and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/34 "2012-07-02T12:17:31Z")
My friend emigrated to England a few years ago and was annoyed that plenty of people he met there didn’t realise that all of Ireland isn’t in the UK and that the Republic uses the Euro. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/35 "2012-07-02T15:22:21Z")
Try explaining to a good Orangeman that you’re from Derry, not Londonderry. Or, for that matter, to a fenian that your father threw rocks at the guys stationed a few roads down and the London accent doesn’t make me a “posh twat hun”. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/36 "2012-07-02T15:28:18Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > The way I heard it (for waaaay over 20 years) is the US is a real big country and so there just isn’t room for news about foreigners and stuff. Pakistan is in the US now? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/37 "2012-07-02T16:16:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not bad, but it leaves out Man and the Channel Islands. Try [this one.](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/British_Isles) That link lumps England and Wales into one subset, but doesn’t name that subset; then lumps in Scotland and calls it Great Britain. What is that small subset of just England and Wales properly called? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/38 "2012-07-02T16:21:48Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > In Pakistan, but Qatari. I dunno. Would the average person in Northern Ireland know whether they needed to get a Visa from Dubai or the UAE to visit Dubai? I suspect not knowing the distinctions between the various bits of the UK, the British Isles and Britain with all their devolved parliaments and so on and so forth only seems stupid if your an anglophone whose education included the history and politilcal structure of the UK and Ireland. Someone born in Qatar probably knows what an Emirate is and what degree of sovereignty an eremite has within the UAE and why they all got United in the first place, but to someone born further away in a different culture (including me) would have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/39 "2012-07-02T16:29:40Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > That link lumps England and Wales into one subset, but doesn’t name that subset; then lumps in Scotland and calls it Great Britain. What is that small subset of just England and Wales properly called? England and Wales. The Roman province of Brittania roughly approximates modern England and Wales but nobody calls it that. The area is referred to as England and Wales in the 16th century Acts of Union, and has remained so. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/40 "2012-07-02T16:29:43Z")
I agree that it being called “North **ern** ” instead of “North” might be a big part of why people don’t know it’s a political entity. Is there a reason behind it not being called “North Ireland”? Not that there really has to be one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901.md?page=3)