Inspired by this tale.
Just wondering. I assume it’s a pretty small minority, but I was wondering if there were any holdouts, especially amongst older people.
(And I know the guy in the story may have thought so out of stupidity, but it struck me that some people might think so out of jingoism/patriotism or just plain inertia — the existence of those are the folks I wonder about.)
There is a bit of vagueness and confusion when someone says they’re going to Ireland, and generally it’s cleared up with a “Do you mean Ireland-Ireland, or Northern Ireland?” but given that story clearly specified Republic of Ireland, the Border guy was just thick.
A lot of Londoners seem to be amazingly ignorant of areas of the UK that aren’t south-east England though, I’ve had grown educated men arguing with me that Scotland does *not *have a separate legal and education system from England and Wales. Yeah, fine, whatever. :rolleyes:
I also once had someone try to tell me the BT at the beginning of Northern Irish postcodes stood for British.
Apart from young kids who are still learning all sorts of things about the way the world works, I’m not aware of anyone who makes this mistake - and certainly not out of any deliberate agenda.
Ireland is part of the British Isles, but that’s geography, not politics.
The border guard is obviously wrong that Ireland is part of the UK but there is a reason why a border guard in particular might get confused. The UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland form the common travel area. So Irish citizens automatically have indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
So this means they can enter the UK - no visas required - and stay as long as they want. Even live there. They can work, claim all the benefits etc. So the border guard might have been getting confused with this in his mind - because Irish people can just come straight into the UK with no immigration issues or border control
(He’s still an idiot though)
I’ve heard that one - someone saying it was an abbreviation of British Territory.
It’s not something I’ve ever come across. I suppose the Northern Ireland situation does confuse a few people, and there is a bit of a ‘technically a foreign country, but not properly foreign’ attitude, but I think that’s mainly just the fact that it’s English speaking in the main, has a long shared history with the UK, and has an open border with the UK. It’s common to run across things that are ‘UK and Ireland’- clubs, organisations…
It’s not really more culturally different than some of the traditional parts of Wales (offer not valid in Cardiff), which is part of the UK, and there’s a lot of Irish people living in the UK, so I guess people do get mixed. I don’t think it’s so much a jingoistic thing in the ‘they should be still under our control’ way, but maybe it is in a ‘these guys are more like us than foreigners’ way.
Not really excusable in a border agent though.
Some fanatical Irish nationalists wish the whole archipelago to be called, instead, the Islands of the North Atlantic – getting rid of the “British” connotation. I sometimes feel that, politics quite aside, that idea maybe has something to be said for it. Adopting the alternative name might reduce the amount of confusion which people from other parts of the world suffer – understandably – over the geographical / political specifics of the area.
When I worked in a call centre, there was a client whose procedures were different depending on whether it was MainUK, NI, or ROI. Several people in the office did not get the concept that the latter 2 were different countries.
I can see why there would be confusion though, if you had to guess at what it meant I bet most people would guess some variant of “British”. The fact that places like Fermanagh and Tyrone have postcodes beginning with a Belfast designation doesn’t really make much sense.
Makes as much sense as the Paisley PApostcode going out to the islands of Islay, Bute, Gigha, Jura, Colonsay, etc
/threadsplit
Only someone thawed out from the 1910s or complete dimbo-dumbos, I think. Ireland, or Dublin more specifically, is a popular tourist destination and the fact that you have to use different money there is a fairly massive clue.
Story linked in the OP bangs of either complete fabrication or at least didn’t happen the way described. My friends who have emigrated to England have had some sort of similar confusion though. One pal when sorting out financial affairs including his bank a/c back in Ireland had a bank clerk saying things like “The system is acting like it’s another country.” then rolling eyes and not getting the concept of the a/c being in €.
I find the story cited pretty hard to believe. Especially coming from a Border Guard.
You might just find a (Glasgow) Rangers fan who held that view of Ireland but then they have a very vocal minority of fans who are both highly bigoted and very stupid. But otherwise sounds unlikely.
Mind you there was a girl in my class who, upon hearing that the Falklands had been invaded, asked aloud what the Argentinians were doing off Scotland, so maybe anything is possible…
Yeah, I doubt he could have been employed in that role and make that kind of misunderstanding without being shortly rendered unconscious.
I think this is on the level of Americans who deny that New Mexico is part of the United States.
I’m from the US and travel to Ireland every year. Sometimes people ask if I am going to Ireland or Northern Ireland. I have to explain that Northern Ireland is a different country and is not what anyone, anywhere means when they say they’re going to Ireland. When they ask at the blood donation center if I’ve traveled outside of the US in the last 12 months I always say, “Yes, to the Republic of Ireland” so there’s no confusion.
Latin-American solidarity, of course; belated revenge for Scotland’s abortive attempt, 1698 – 1700, to set up a colony in Panama…
Except… the whole island is called Ireland, and I’ve certainly come across people referring to going to Northern Ireland as going ‘to Ireland’. “Ever been to Ireland?” “I’ve been to Belfast, never been out of the North though”.
Seriously? Because I can’t count the number of times I’ve read or heard British media describe Irish musicians, writers, actors, singers, whoever (U2, for example) as ‘British’.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I would prefer the fanatical Irish to declare that they are the British, and those Anglish over on the Big Island are half-German half-French.