"Northern Ireland" is a separate country, its not a description.

[sisu]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

There’s the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Or Western Samoa, though that’s now just Samoa. Or [the Turkish Republic of] Northern Cyprus.

New South Wales…

[Bryan_Ekers]

But rebellious Scots are still being crushed, right?

[ticker]

@sisu

New South Wales…

Southern Rhodesia…

Northern Rhodesia…

[Melaleuca]

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.

[drewtwo99]

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

[Encinitas]

@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

[Johanna]

North Marianas
North Korea
(there used to be North Vietnam too)

[Kenm]

Mr. Boink said “as opposed to North or South. . . .”

[Jragon]

@BrainGlutton

Not bad, but it leaves out Man and the Channel Islands. Try this one.

In our next class, we’ll try to figure out Europe.

Fuck it, just let CGPGrey explain it.

[Martini_Enfield]

@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.

[Bear_Nenno]

@Encinitas

North Carolina
South Carolina
North Dakota
South Dakota
West Virginia

Didn’t bother reading the entire sentence you quoted, did you?

[Candyman74]

@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?

[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.

[An_Gadai]

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.

[gamerunknown]

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”.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@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?

[Sailboat]

@BrainGlutton

Not bad, but it leaves out Man and the Channel Islands. Try this one.

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?

[Simplicio]

@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.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@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.

[Revtim]

I agree that it being called “Northern” 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.