# "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:** 2\ **Page:** 7
**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 7, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/121 "2012-07-07T02:25:13Z")
> [@Bilbo1967](#): > > I thought you meant public in the American sense. Apologies if that was an incorrect assumption. > [@kidchameleon](#): > > That really doesn’t answer my question at all. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are separate countries or nations. They’re not nation-states. For all practical purposes other than sport\*, they are administrative divisions within the nation-state called the United Kingdom. They are effectively the same as US states, except that they don’t have sovereignty; Parliament can theoretically dissolve their legislatures whenever it likes and administer them directly. That, and England doesn’t have its own legislature; it’s like DC. \*sports makes everything a million times more complicated. In association football, each country has its own team, but in rugby each country has its own team except Northern Ireland, which fields a joint team with the Republic of Ireland. In track and field (“athletics”, in the UK), Northern Irish competitors used to compete for “Ireland”, while English, Scottish and Welsh ones competed for “Great Britain”. Now Northern Irish competitors compete for “Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, except the ones who don’t, who compete for Ireland. In motorsports, drivers compete for “Great Britain”, [including the ones from Northern Ireland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Irvine), which is not part of Great Britain. Don’t ask me how that works. Oh, and then there are the Lions, who are a combined rugby team made up of players from England, Scotland, Wales, and the Irelands. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901/122 "2012-07-07T12:24:07Z")
> [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > All the public secondary schools do, as far as I know. One exception that I know of in [England](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarisbrick_Hall_School). > [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > I was correct on everything, you mean. Here’s what I was responding to (didn’t quote). > [@alphaboi867](#): > > Prayers may be involved in countries with a greater religious influence in public schools (England has alot of state-funded religious schools, Ontario as public Catholic school districts). He was using public as a synonym for “state school”. I attempted to mention in England, public and state schools were mutually exclusive, but managed to mangle that concept. As it happens, non-religious state schools in the UK are required to host a collective act of worship by [law](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/enacted), even if that law isn’t enforced. Relevant sections: > [@Legislation](#): > > equirements relating to collective worship(1)Subject to section 71, each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship. Voluntary, community and foundation schools encompass the [three types of state schools](http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/ChoosingASchool/DG_4016312). The provisions given in 71 refer to the requirement of the schools to take a child out of any religious worship a child’s parents did not wish them to attend and to provide suitable substitute religious worship. Wiki counts worship as a form of prayer, [as far as I can tell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer#The_act_of_worship). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-ireland-is-a-separate-country-its-not-a-description/626901.md?page=6)