British Isles (terminology)
Encyclopedia
Various terms are used to describe the different (and sometimes overlapping) geographical and political areas of the island
s of Great Britain
, Ireland
, and surrounding islands. The terminology is often a source of confusion, partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used, but also because they are often used loosely. The purpose of this article is to explain the meanings of and relationships among those terms.
In brief, the main terms and their simple explanations are as follows.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the official full title of the state. This name appears on official documentation such as British passports. For convenience, the name is usually shortened to United Kingdom, UK, Great Britain or Britain.
The United Kingdom is a sovereign state
. Its four constituent countries are sometimes considered to be of different status. This view may be supported by the existence of devolved
governments with different levels of power in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (see Asymmetrical federalism). Wales is also often erroneously described as a principality
of the United Kingdom (Prince of Wales
is a title usually given to the heir apparent
to the British throne but has no political or other role in respect of Wales). Northern Ireland
is sometimes described by United Kingdom
citizens as a province
of the United Kingdom, which derives from the Irish province
of Ulster
, of which Northern Ireland
is a part. Northern Ireland also had, until 1972, a far greater degree of self-government than the other constituent parts of the UK.
Great Britain is both a geographical and a political entity. Geographically, it is one island, but politically it also contains the islands that belong to its constituent nations – England, Wales and Scotland (most notably England's Isle of Wight
, Wales' Anglesey
and Scotland's Inner Hebrides
, Outer Hebrides
, Orkney Islands
and Shetland Islands
).
The abbreviation GB is sometimes officially used for the United Kingdom, for example in the Olympics
, or as the vehicle registration plate country identification code for UK-registered cars (see also British car number plates
). The GB code is not always accepted, and unofficial alternatives are sometimes used for protest (such as SCO in Scotland, CYM for Wales (Cymru) NI in Northern Ireland, or ENG for England).
The internet code ".gb
", although allocated to the UK, is virtually unused and UK web domains use ".uk
".
The four constituent parts of the UK are also known, particularly in sporting contexts, as Home Nations
or the "Four Nations". The BBC refers to its UK-wide broadcasting operation as Nations and Regions ("regions" referring to the Regions of England
). Thus the UK naming conventions tend towards describing distinct regions or nations which exist within a single sovereign state.
In sport, the UK Nations mostly have their own separate national teams – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, for example in football
. Sporting contests between the Four Nations are known as "Home internationals" (an example is the British Home Championship
in football).
The governing body for football in Northern Ireland is called the Irish Football Association
(the IFA), having been in existence since some forty years before Partition
. Its counterpart in the Republic (plus Derry City FC) is the Football Association of Ireland
(the FAI). The Northern Ireland national team
retained the name "Ireland" for some fifty years after partition. Since around 1970 the two teams have been consistently referred to as "Northern Ireland" and "Republic of Ireland
" respectively.
UK teams in the Olympics have competed under several different names – most recently in Beijing the athletes were presented at the Opening Ceremony under a banner which said simply Great Britain, rather than the full Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Olympic athletes from Northern Ireland may choose whether to represent the UK or the Republic of Ireland
.
Since the Good Friday Agreement (the G.F.A.), and the subsequent implementation legislation, sporting organisation (and several other organisations, e.g. tourism, Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots language boards) on the island of Ireland has increasingly been cross-border.
Citizens of the UK are called British or Britons. The term Brits may also be used, sometimes pejoratively, for example by supporters of Scottish independence
when referring to supporters of the Union
. Some older slang names for Britons are Tommy (for British soldiers), Anglo and Limey. Anglo
properly refers only to England, but it is sometimes used as a broader reference as an element in compound adjectives: for example, "Anglo-French relations" may be used in newspaper articles when referring to relations between the political entities France
and the United Kingdom. Anglo-Saxon may be used (particularly in Continental European languages) when referring to the whole English-speaking world, the Anglosphere
, although ethnically very few of the world's one billion English-speakers are of Anglo-Saxon
origin.
Since the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland
in 1937, Ireland
has been the English name of the state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland
. The name Éire
is used when writing in Irish.
Since the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, the term "Republic of Ireland" is the term used as the additional description of the state. This term is useful in avoiding ambiguity between the name of the island and the name of the state. However, the term "Ireland" is always used in formal diplomatic contexts such as the European Union
or the United Nations
. The passport of the Republic of Ireland bears the name Éire – Ireland.
Before the introduction of the 1937 constitution and the new name, the Irish Free State
occupied the same territory as the modern state of Ireland. The Irish Free State became an autonomous dominion
of the British Empire
in 1922 when it seceded from the United Kingdom through the Anglo-Irish Treaty
. The King ceased to be its Head of State in 1936 and the state ceased to be a Dominion and left the Commonwealth in 1948.
Traditionally, the island of Ireland is divided into four province
s – Leinster
, Connacht
, Munster
and Ulster
, with each of the provinces further divided into counties. The Republic of Ireland takes up 83% of the island, twenty-six of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland takes up the remaining area, six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster.
On the island of Ireland the naming of places often raises political issues. The usage of "Ireland" as the official name
of the state causes offence to some Unionists in Northern Ireland
, who believe it implies that the state still
has a territorial claim to the whole island – the terminology of "Republic of Ireland" or "Éire
" is much preferred by Northern Irish unionists when referring to that political state. Similarly, some Nationalists in Northern Ireland also prefer to reserve the usage of "Ireland" to refer to the whole island.
In Northern Ireland, Irishness is a highly contested identity, with fundamentally different perceptions of national identity between unionists (who generally perceive themselves as being British) and nationalists (who generally consider both communities to be part of the Irish nation).
The Republic of Ireland is often referred to by the Nationalist and Republican communities by the term "the Twenty-six Counties", with the connotation that the state constituted as such forms only a portion of the ideal political unit of the Irish Republic
, which would consist of all of the thirty-two counties
into which the island is divided. Additionally, the term "the Six Counties" (in reference to Northern Ireland's six counties) is also used. Other Nationalist terms in use include: "the North of Ireland" and "the North". These latter are terms also used by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ
. More extreme terms for Northern Ireland include "the occupied six counties" or "occupied Ireland", which are often used by people who reject the idea of Northern Ireland as a separate entity from the Republic of Ireland.
The Irish passport
is available to Irish citizens and can also be applied for abroad through Irish Consular services and the local Irish Embassy. As per the Irish nationality law
, any person born on the island of Ireland before 2005, or otherwise a first generation descendant of such a person, is allowed to apply for an Irish passport. As such, people born in Northern Ireland and their children may be Irish citizens and hold an Irish passport if they choose.
Under the Interpretation Act 1978 of the United Kingdom, the legal term British Islands (as opposed to the geographical term British Isles) refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Crown dependencies: the Bailiwick
s of Jersey
and of Guernsey
(which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney
, Herm
and Sark
) in the Channel Islands
; and the Isle of Man
. On the front of passports issued to residents of the Crown dependencies, the words "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" are replaced with "British Islands" followed by the name of the issuing state or island.
writings. Though the original texts have been lost, excerpts were quoted or paraphrased by later authors. Parts of the Massaliote Periplus
, a merchants' handbook describing searoutes of the 6th century BC, were used in translation in the writings of Avienus
around AD 400. Ireland was referred to as Ierne (Insula sacra, the sacred island, as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of Hiberni" (gens hiernorum), and Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albion
s". Several sources from around 150 BC to AD 70 include fragments of the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas
around 320 BC, which also used the terms "Albion and 'Ierne." and have been described as referring to the British Isles, including Ireland, as the Pretanic Islands. Greek writers used the term αι Βρεττανιαι, which has been translated as the Brittanic Isles, and the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοι, Priteni or Pretani. These names derived from a "Celtic language
" term which is likely to have reached Pytheas from the Gaul
s who may have used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.
The Romans called the inhabitants of Gaul (modern France
) Galli or Celtae. The latter term came from the Greek name Κελτοι for a central European people, and 17th century antiquarians who found language connections developed the idea of a race of Celt
s inhabiting the area, but this term was not used by the Greeks or Romans for the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland, nor is there any record of the inhabitants of the British Isles referring to themselves as such. Nevertheless, Roman administration would later incorporate the province of Britannia into the praetorian prefecture of Gaul
, in common with Hispania, which had Celtiberians. Armorica
, where the Bretons would settle, was part of Gallia Celtica, so there were tertiary relations between the Britons and Gallic Celts at least. In addition, the Parisii of Gallia Celtica are thought to have founded Aldborough in Britain. Belgae
and Silures
also came from Gallic areas, although not strictly "Celtic", but from Gallia Belgica and Aquitainia.
Priteni is the source of the Welsh language
term Prydain
, Britain, and has the same source as the Goidelic
term Cruithne. The latter referred to the early Brythonic
speaking inhabitants of the Scottish highlands
and the north of Scotland, who are known as the Cruithne in Scottish Gaelic, and who the Romans
called Picts
or Caledonians
.
Caesar's invasions of Britain
brought descriptions of the peoples of what he called Britannia pars interior, "inland Britain", in 55 BC. Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo
is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans loosely to refer to the islands as a group – a common generalisation used by classical geographers. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, …οι νοτιώτατοι των Βρεττανών βορειότεροι τούτων εισίν ("…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this"). He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century.
Pliny the Elder
writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. ("Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment"). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.
In his Geography written in the mid 2nd century and probably describing the position around AD 100, Ptolemy
includes both Great Britain (Albion) and Ireland (Hibernia) in the island group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of as Hibernia, Island of Britannia, and Chapter 2 as Albion, Island of Britannia.
The name Albion for Great Britain
fell from favour, and the island was described in Greek as Πρεττανία or Βρεττανία, in Latin
Britannia, an inhabitant as Βρεττανός, Britannus, with the adjective Βρεττανικός, Britannicus, equating to "British". With the Roman conquest of Britain
the name Britannia
was used for the province of Roman Britain
. The Emperor Claudius
was honoured with the agnomen Britannicus as if he were the conqueror, and coins were struck from AD 46 inscribed DE BRITAN, DE BRITANN, DE BRITANNI, or DE BRITANNIS. With the visit of Hadrian
in AD 121 coins introduced a female figure with the label BRITANNIA as a personification or goddess of the place. These and later Roman coins introduced the seated figure of Britannia which would be reintroduced in the 17th century.
In the later years of Roman rule Britons who left Latin inscriptions, both at home and elsewhere in the Empire, often described themselves as Brittanus or Britto, and where describing their citizenship gave it as cives of a British tribe or of a patria (homeland) of Britannia, not Roma. From the 4th century, many Britons migrated from Roman Britain across the English Channel
and founded Brittany
.
While Latin remained the language of learning, from the early mediæval period records begin to appear in native languages. The earliest indigenous
source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the Life of Saint Columba, a hagiography
recording the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba
among the peoples of what is now Scotland. It was written in the late seventh century by Adomnán
of Iona
, an Irish monk living on the Inner Hebridean island. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is Oceani Insulae meaning "Islands of the Ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition), it is used sparingly and no Priteni-derived collective reference is made.
Another early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
of Bede
written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. He stated that Britain "studies and confesses one and the same knowledge of the highest truth in the tongues of five nations, namely the Angles, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins", distinguishing between the Brythonic languages
of the "ancient Britons" or Old Welsh speakers and other language groups.
Early Celt
ic, Saxon
and Viking
kingdoms such as Rheged
, Strathclyde
and Wessex
amalgamated, leading to the formation of Scotland
, England
and Wales
. In Norman Ireland
, local lords gained considerable autonomy from the Lordship of Ireland
until it became the Kingdom of Ireland
under direct English rule.
Abraham Ortelius
makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "A representation of England, Scotland and Ireland, or Britannica's islands." Additionally many maps from this period show Wales and Cornwall as separate nations, most notably those of Mercator.
Maps of the Mediæval, Renaissance and later periods often referred to Albion
. This archaic term was originally used by Ptolemy
and Pliny
to mean the island of Great Britain. In later centuries its meaning changed to refer only to the area we now call Scotland (Albany
, or Alba
in Gaelic
). Albion has survived as a poetic name for Britain but it is not in everyday use.
Following the Acts of Union 1707
, a fashion arose, particularly in Scotland, for referring to Scotland and England as North Britain
and South Britain
respectively. These terms gained in popularity during the nineteenth century. The most lasting example of this usage was in the name of the North British Railway
, which became part of the London and North Eastern Railway
in 1923, and in the name of the North British Hotel, built by the railway in Edinburgh in 1902, which retained the name until it reopened in 1991 as the Balmoral Hotel.
The diagram on the right gives an indication of the further evolution of kingdoms and states. In 1603 the Scottish King James VI
inherited the English throne as "James I of England". He styled himself as James I of Great Britain, although both states retained their sovereignty and independent parliaments, the Parliament of Scotland
and the Parliament of England
. (The term "Great Britain" itself reportedly dates from as early as 1474, and was in common usage from the mid-16th century onwards.)
The 1707 Act of Union united England and Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain
under the Parliament of Great Britain
, then in 1800 Ireland was brought under British government control by the Act of Union
creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
. Irish unrest culminated in the Irish War of Independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State
, which later became a republic with the name Ireland. The majority Protestant northeast
continued to be part of what became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
.
British overseas territories
such as Bermuda
, Gibraltar
, Hong Kong
, the Falkland Islands
, and the British Antarctic Territory
have (or have had) various relationships with the UK. The Commonwealth of Nations
, initially formalised in 1931 (the British Commonwealth until 1949), is an association of independent states roughly corresponding to the former British Empire
. (This has no connection with the Commonwealth of England
, a short-lived republic
replacing the previous kingdoms during the English Interregnum
(1649–1660).)
In the absence of a single adjective to refer to the United Kingdom
, British is generally used to refer to the United Kingdom
as a whole. However, in a specifically physical geographical sense, British is used to refer to the island of Great Britain
. Members of the Unionist
communities in Northern Ireland might describe themselves as British even though they are not on the island of Great Britain, as this reflects a political and cultural identity.
The cumbersome adjective Great British is very rarely used to refer to Great Britain
, other than to contrive a pun
on the word great, as in "Great British Food".
Irish, in a political sense, is used to refer to the Republic of Ireland
. Northern Ireland
, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom
, would be included within the umbrella of the political term British, though many Unionists in Northern Ireland also consider themselves Irish. In order to be more specific, Northern Irish is therefore in common usage. Members of the Nationalist
communities would not describe themselves as British and would only use the terms Irish, or specifically Northern Irish where needed.
The term Ulster can also be used as an adjective (e.g. "Royal Ulster Constabulary
"), but this is more likely to be used by Unionists and has political connotations in the same fashion as its use as a proper noun (because only six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster
, namely Antrim
, Armagh
, Down
, Fermanagh
, Londonderry
and Tyrone
, are included in Northern Ireland with the remaining three counties Cavan
, Donegal
and Monaghan
forming part of the Republic). The term Ulsterman (or Ulsterwoman) is common and holds no such political connotation. Likewise, Nationalists
might describe, say, a lake in Northern Ireland as Irish.
Note that the geographical term Irish Sea
thus far appears to have escaped political connotations, even though territorial control of the waters of the Irish Sea is divided between both the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and also includes a British Crown dependency
, the Isle of Man
—as yet there appears to be no controversy with the term’s usage to mirror that of "British Isles". The North Channel
is found off the east coast of Northern Ireland and it stretches the length of roughly two-thirds of Northern Ireland's eastern coastline.
The "Northern" in "Northern Ireland" is not completely accurate. The most northerly point on the island, Malin Head
, is in the Republic of Ireland — in County Donegal
's Inishowen
Peninsula.
Scottish, English and Welsh are self-explanatory but the term English is often incorrectly used to mean British as well. Americans and Europeans often use the term in this fashion.
is that it is a geographical term that refers to the whole of Ireland
and Great Britain
as well as the surrounding islands. It is sometimes incorrectly used as if identical to the UK; or to refer to Great Britain
and the surrounding islands, excluding the island of Ireland
entirely. The BBC
and The Times
have style guides that mandate the dictionary definition but occasional misuse can be found on their web sites.
The term British Isles
can also be considered irritating or offensive by some on the grounds that the modern association of the term British with the United Kingdom
makes its application to Ireland inappropriate.
The term British Isles
can also be considered to imply a proprietary title on the entire archipelago.
The policy of the government of the Republic of Ireland
is that no branch of government should use the term, and although it is on occasion used in a geographical sense in Irish parliamentary debates, this is often done in a way that excludes the Republic of Ireland. In October 2006, The Times quoted a spokesman for the Irish Embassy in London as saying that they would discourage its use.
During a stop-over visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1989, the leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev
, indicated that he assumed Ireland's head of state
was Queen Elizabeth II, given that she was the British Queen and his officials said that Ireland was a part of the British Isles.
In Northern Ireland
, some nationalists
reject the term and instead use these islands, these isles or "Britain and Ireland" as an alternative.
There have been several suggestions for replacements for the term British Isles. Although there is no single accepted replacement, the terms Great Britain and Ireland, The British Isles and Ireland and Britain and Ireland are all used.
The word "England" is often used colloquially and incorrectly to refer to Great Britain — or the United Kingdom as a whole — causing offence to those from the non-English parts of Britain. In a similar way, references to England as an island, to an "English passport", or to Scottish or Welsh places as being in England are examples of incorrect use of the term "England".
There are historical instances of patriotic references to "England" which are actually intended to include Scotland and Wales as well. For a long time it was common for fans of the England football team
to wave the British Union Flag
— with the use of the specifically English St George's Cross
flag only gaining popularity at the Euro 96 tournament.
The colloquial usage of "England" as a synonym for "Britain" is still widespread outside the UK. In Germany
, the term "England" is often used to mean Great Britain or even the entire United Kingdom. In many other languages, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, the word for "English" is synonymous with "British" — see the article on Alternative words for British for more detail.
" may be used in one of several different contexts by British and Irish people: either to refer to the whole of the European continent, to refer to only to Mainland Europe, sometimes called "continental Europe" or simply "the Continent" by some people in the archipelago. Europe may also be used in reference to the European Union
.
in modern-day France
. One historical term for the peninsula
in France that largely corresponds to the modern French province is Lesser or Little Britain. That region was settled by many British immigrants during the period of Anglo-Saxon
migration into Britain, and named "Little Britain" by them. The French
term "Bretagne" now refers to the French "Little Britain", not to the British "Great Britain", which in French is called Grande-Bretagne. In classical times, the Roman
geographer Ptolemy in his Almagest
also called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain). At that time, it was in contrast to the smaller island of Ireland
, which he called Mikra Brettania (Little Britain). In this later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Great Britain as Albion and to Ireland as Iwernia
. These "new" names were likely to have been the native names for the islands at the time. The earlier names, in contrast
, were likely to have been coined before direct contact with local peoples were made.
as Ulster whereas the nationalist
community refer to the traditional Irish province
of Ulster
, which is a nine county entity that incorporates the three counties of Donegal
, Cavan
and Monaghan
(which are in the Republic) along with the counties of Armagh
, Antrim
, Down
, Fermanagh
, Londonderry
and Tyrone
in Northern Ireland.
Thus, the word Ulster has two usages:
s of the Channel Islands are Crown dependencies; that is, non-sovereign nation
s, self-governing but whose sovereignty is held by the British Crown
. They control their own internal affairs, but not their defence or foreign relations. They are not part of the United Kingdom nor part of the European Union
.
in the region. Each have names for the islands and countries of the British Isles. They are divided into two branches:
Some of the above are:
Note: In Irish there are actually several terms for Northern Ireland: An Tuaisceart, meaning "the North", is usually used, but a more recent term for official use is Tuaisceart Éireann.
The English word Welsh is from a common Germanic
root meaning "Romanised foreigner" (cognate
with Wallonia and Wallachia
, and also cognate with the word used in Mediaeval German to refer to the French and Italian
s).
The English names Albion
and Albany
are related to Alba and used poetically for either England or Scotland, or the whole island of Great Britain.
English Erin
is a poetic name for Ireland derived from Éire (or rather, from its dative form Éirinn).
Earlier dictionaries give Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa as the translation, literally meaning West European Isles. Today the most common term Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór is used, meaning literally as Ireland and Great Britain, as provided by terminological dictionaries.
is a slang word for Britain derived from the Hindustani
word bilāyatī ("foreign"). Depending on the user, it is meant either affectionately or archly. It was often used by British soldiers abroad in the First World War to refer to home.
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and surrounding islands. The terminology is often a source of confusion, partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used, but also because they are often used loosely. The purpose of this article is to explain the meanings of and relationships among those terms.
In brief, the main terms and their simple explanations are as follows.
- Geographical terms:
- The British IslesBritish IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
is an archipelagoArchipelagoAn archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
consisting of the two large islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and many smaller surrounding islands. By tradition, it also includes the Channel IslandsChannel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
, although they are physically closer to the continental mainland. - Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
is the largest island of the archipelago. - IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
is the second largest island of the archipelago and lies directly to the west of Great Britain. - The full list of islands in the British Isles includes over 1,000 islands, of which 51 have an area larger than 20 km².
- The British Isles
- Political terms
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the constitutional monarchyConstitutional monarchyConstitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
occupying the island of Great Britain, the small nearby islands (but not the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands), and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland. Usually, it is shortened to United Kingdom or the UK, though Britain is also an officially recognised short form. 'Great Britain' is sometimes used but technically incorrect as a short form. The abbreviation GB is frequently used for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in international agreements, e.g. Universal Postal UnionUniversal Postal UnionThe Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...
and Road Traffic Convention, as well as in the ISO 3166ISO 3166ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization . It defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions . The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation...
country codes (GB and GBR). - IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
is the sovereign republic occupying the larger portion of the island of Ireland. However, to distinguish the state from the island, or to distinguish either of these from Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, it is also called "the Republic of Ireland" or simply "the Republic". Occasionally, its Irish-languageIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
name, ÉireÉireis the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
(or Eire, without the diacritic), will be used in an English-language context to distinguish it from "Northern Ireland", even though the word "Éire" directly translates as "Ireland". - EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
are the four countries of the United KingdomCountries of the United KingdomCountries of the United Kingdom is a term used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These four countries together form the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is also described as a country. The alternative terms, constituent...
though they are also referred to as the constituent countries or, especially in sporting contexts, home nationsHome NationsHome Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. - England and WalesEngland and WalesEngland and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom. - Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
means the countries of England, Wales and Scotland considered as a unit. - British IslandsBritish IslandsBritish Islands is a term within the law of the United Kingdom which since 1889 has referred collectively to the following four states:*the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ;...
consists of the United Kingdom, the Channel IslandsChannel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and the Isle of ManIsle of ManThe Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
. These are the states within the British Isles that have the British monarch as head of state.
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the constitutional monarchy
- Linguistic terms
- The two sovereign states in the region, the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the Republic of IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, are frequently referred to as countries. So too are EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and, to a lesser extent, Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
as is the whole island of Ireland. - British is an adjective pertaining to the United Kingdom; for example, a citizen of the UK is called a British citizen.
- Anglo- is often used as an adjectival prefix referring to the United Kingdom (notwithstanding that its original meaning is "English") particularly in the field of diplomatic relations.
- Wales is sometimes called the Principality of WalesPrincipality of WalesThe Principality of Wales existed between 1216 and 1542, encompassing two-thirds of modern Wales.It was formally founded in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi, and later recognised by the 1218 Treaty of Worcester between Llywelyn the Great of Wales and Henry III of England...
, although this has no modern constitutional basis. - Northern Ireland is often referred to as a province or called Ulster, after the traditional Irish provinceProvinces of IrelandIreland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
of UlsterUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
in which it is located.
- The two sovereign states in the region, the United Kingdom
- Sport
- Forms of national representation vary from sport to sport. England, Scotland and Wales often compete separately as nations. In some sports – such as rugbyRugby footballRugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and cricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
– the island of Ireland competes as a nation; in others, most notably association football, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland field separate teams. In these contexts England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland/Northern Ireland are sometimes described as the home nationsHome NationsHome Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...
. - Rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
players from both Ireland and Great Britain play for British and Irish LionsBritish and Irish LionsThe British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
representing the four "Home Unions" of EnglandRugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union was founded in 1871 as the governing body for the sport of rugby union, and performed as the international governing body prior to the formation of the International Rugby Board in 1886...
, IrelandIrish Rugby Football UnionThe Irish Rugby Football Union is the body managing rugby union in Ireland. The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where Irish rugby union international matches are played...
, ScotlandScottish Rugby UnionThe Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. It is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873, as the Scottish Football Union.-History:...
and WalesWelsh Rugby UnionThe Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales, recognised by the International Rugby Board.The union's patron is Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandson Prince William of Wales became the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union as of February 2007.-History:The roots of the...
. - Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
is sometimes used to mean United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. For example, at the Olympic GamesOlympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, the team officially known as 'Team GB' (and often informally still called "Great Britain") represents, since 2004, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However, the "Ireland" Olympic team continues to represent the whole island of IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Athletes from Northern Ireland have, by virtue of their entitlement to dual nationality, the choice of participating in either the "Great Britain" team or the "Ireland" team. - In the majority of individual sports (e.g. tennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and athletics), at international level competitors are identified as GB if they are from Great Britain or Northern Ireland. A small number of sports (e.g. golfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
) identify participants as representing their constituent country. In the Commonwealth GamesCommonwealth GamesThe Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each compete as separate nations, as do each of the three Crown Dependencies.
- Forms of national representation vary from sport to sport. England, Scotland and Wales often compete separately as nations. In some sports – such as rugby
At a glance
Below is a visual reference guide to some of the main concepts and territories described in this article:Terminology in detail
- BritainBritain (name)The name Britain is derived from the Latin name Britannia , via Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne...
is a political and geographic term which can refer to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or the island of Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. - Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
is the largest island in Europe and the political unionPolitical unionA political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity...
of three nations, these being:
-
-
- England and WalesEngland and WalesEngland and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
is a political and administrative term referring to the two home countries of England and Wales, which share the same legal system. Between 1746Wales and Berwick Act 1746The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which created a statutory definition of "England" as including England, Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed. This definition applied to all acts passed before and after the Act's coming into force, unless a given Act provided an...
and 1967Welsh Language Act 1967The Welsh Language Act 1967 , is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which gave some rights to use the Welsh language in legal proceedings in Wales and gave the relevant Minister the right to authorise the production of a Welsh version of any documents required or allowed by the Act...
the term "England" did legally include Wales.
-
- EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(see also the historical Kingdom of EnglandKingdom of EnglandThe Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
). - WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
(see also the historical Principality of WalesPrincipality of WalesThe Principality of Wales existed between 1216 and 1542, encompassing two-thirds of modern Wales.It was formally founded in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi, and later recognised by the 1218 Treaty of Worcester between Llywelyn the Great of Wales and Henry III of England...
).
- England
- ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(see also the historical Kingdom of ScotlandKingdom of ScotlandThe Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...
)
- England and Wales
-
- The historical Kingdom of Great BritainKingdom of Great BritainThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
is Britain for the period 1707–1801. - Britannia is the Roman province of BritainRoman BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, or a poetic reference to later Britain, or a personification of BritainBritanniaBritannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
. - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually shortened to the United Kingdom (abbreviation UK), is the sovereign stateSovereign stateA sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
comprising Great Britain plus Northern Ireland since 1927. (The Partition of Ireland took place in 1922, but the consequent change in the official title of the UK was only made by Act of Parliament five years later.) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is often shortened to Britain, even on official websites. A proposal to rename the political entity as the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and UlsterAlternative names for Northern IrelandThere are a number of alternative names used for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties of Ireland, and remains part of the United Kingdom following the secession of the other twenty-six counties to form the Irish Free State in 1922...
" was formally recommended by civil servants to the Cabinet in 1949 but ultimately rejected. - The historical United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
was Great Britain plus Ireland, for the period 1801 to 1922, although the name change after the secession of the Irish Free State only took place in 1927.
- N.B.: While "United Kingdom" is normally abbreviated UK, the official ISO 3166ISO 3166ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization . It defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions . The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation...
two-letter country code is GB and the three letter code is GBR (UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
has the two letter code UA and the three letter code UKR). Due to a pre-existing convention originating in the UK's JANETJANETJANET is a private British government-funded computer network dedicated to education and research. All further- and higher-education organisations in the UK are connected to JANET, as are all the Research Councils; the majority of these sites are connected via 20 metropolitan area networks JANET...
academic computer network, the UK's Internet top-level domainCountry code top-level domainA country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
is .uk.uk.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
, a break from the TCP/IP practice of following ISO 3166 (a .gb.gb.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain , it was never widely used...
domain has also been used to a limited extent in the past but is now defunct). GB is also used on car number plates to indicate the United Kingdom.
- See also United Kingdom (disambiguation)United Kingdom (disambiguation)The term United Kingdom usually refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state to the north-west of mainland Europe, but may refer to the following:-British Isles:...
for other united kingdoms and UK (disambiguation)UK (disambiguation)UK is a common abbreviation for the United Kingdom , an island country in northwestern Europe....
for other meanings of the abbreviation.- IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(in IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, Éire) refers, geographically, to the island of Ireland, or to any of the following:
- Ireland
- Historically:
- The Kingdom of IrelandKingdom of IrelandThe Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
was Ireland for the period 1541–1801. (The King of IrelandKing of IrelandA monarchical polity has existed in Ireland during three periods of its history, finally ending in 1801. The designation King of Ireland and Queen of Ireland was used during these periods...
remained Head of State in the Irish Free State and Ireland/Éire until the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 abolished that status). - The Irish RepublicIrish RepublicThe Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
, established by the Irish Declaration of Independence, was a 32-county republic encompassing the entire island, during the period 1919–22—though its de facto rule did not encompass all of the island. During this period, according to British law, Ireland remained part of the UK though its independence was recognised by RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. - Southern IrelandSouthern IrelandSouthern Ireland was a short-lived autonomous region of the United Kingdom established on 3 May 1921 and dissolved on 6 December 1922.Southern Ireland was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 together with its sister region, Northern Ireland...
was a proposed Home RuleHome ruleHome rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
26-county state under the Government of Ireland Act 1920Government of Ireland Act 1920The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which partitioned Ireland. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or as the Fourth Home Rule Act.The Act was intended...
. It never came into practical existence, being superseded by: - The Irish Free StateIrish Free StateThe Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
is Ireland excepting Northern Ireland during the period 1922–37.
- The terms Irish Republic, Southern Ireland, the Irish Free State and Éire (in English-language texts) have been used synonymously with the Republic of Ireland. Of these, Southern Ireland and Irish Free State, in particular, are seen as outdated. "Eire" (spelt without the Irish fadaFadaFada is the capital of the Ennedi Ouest department of Chad, lying in the Ennedi Plateau. It has a population of 23,786 .It is known for the surrounding cave paintings and rock formations, while the Guelta d'Archei and a wood growing in a wadi are local attractions.It is the birthplace of the...
) was the British legal spelling from the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938The Eire Act 1938 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 17 May 1938. It was the British implementing measure for the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreements which were signed at London on 25 April 1938 by the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom...
until the Ireland Act 1949Ireland Act 1949The Ireland Act 1949 is a British Act of Parliament that was intended to deal with the consequences of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 as passed by the Irish parliament...
, and informally for some years after.
- The Kingdom of Ireland
- Present:
- Ireland (in IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, ÉireÉireis the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
) is the political entity consisting of the island of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1937–present. This is the name of the state according to the Irish ConstitutionConstitution of IrelandThe Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...
and the United Nations. - The Republic of IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
is a sometimes used description of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1949–present. It is also the name used by the international Association Football team. - Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
1922–present. That part of the island of Ireland north of the line of partition of 1922, and which is still part of the United Kingdom. Various alternative namesAlternative names for Northern IrelandThere are a number of alternative names used for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties of Ireland, and remains part of the United Kingdom following the secession of the other twenty-six counties to form the Irish Free State in 1922...
have been used or proposed for Northern Ireland. It is sometimes referred to as "the North of Ireland", "the Six Counties" or (in extremist usage) the "occupied six counties", especially by Irish NationalistsIrish nationalismIrish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
. - UlsterUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
The name of one of Ireland's four traditional provincesProvinces of IrelandIreland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
. The area contains nine northeastern counties, six of which make up Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and three of which are part of the Republic of IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. It is also often used to refer to the smaller Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Though UlsterUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
has not been a political entity since the ancient Gaelic provincial Kingdoms, it remains associated with a geographical area and is used in sporting and cultural contexts. See Ulster (disambiguation)Ulster (disambiguation)Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland.Ulster may also refer to:-Places:* Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom formed in 1921 from six of the nine counties that made up the Irish province at that time...
.
- Ireland (in Irish
- In sport
- In Gaelic gamesGaelic gamesGaelic games are sports played in Ireland under the auspices of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The two main games are Gaelic football and hurling...
, no distinction is recognised between the counties of the Republic and those of Northern Ireland. County teams play in their provincial championships (where the six counties of Ulster within Northern Ireland and three within the Republic all play in the Ulster championship) and the winners of these play in the All-Ireland championship (which has been recently complicated by the introduction of a back-door system). Even within Northern Ireland, a tricolour, the flag of the Republic of IrelandFlag of IrelandThe national flag of Ireland is a vertical tricolour of green , white, and orange. It is also known as the Irish tricolour. The flag proportion is 1:2...
, is flown at all games. At bigger games, where an anthem is played, it is always the national anthem of the RepublicAmhrán na bhFiannis the national anthem of Ireland. The music was composed by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney, and the original English lyrics were authored by Kearney. It is sung in the Irish language translation made by Liam Ó Rinn. The song has three verses, but the national anthem consists of the chorus only...
. In the case of the International RulesInternational rules footballInternational rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....
series against Australia, an Irish national team is chosen from all thirty-two counties. - In Association Football, the teams correspond to political entities: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In accordance with UEFAUEFAThe Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
and FIFAFIFAThe Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
's rules, each of these countries has its own football league: the Irish League and the League of IrelandLeague of IrelandThe League of Ireland is the national association football league of the Republic of Ireland. Founded in 1921, as a league of eight clubs, it has expanded over time into a two-tiered league of 22 clubs. It is currently split into the League of Ireland Premier Division and the League of Ireland...
respectively. - In rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, rugby leagueRugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, field hockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, cricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, boxingBoxingBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, golfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, athletics and others the Ireland team is drawn from the whole island (ie. both the Republic and Northern Ireland). Many sports organisations are subdivided along provincial lines e.g. Gaelic Athletic AssociationGaelic Athletic AssociationThe Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...
, golfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. - The British IslesBritish IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
is a term used to mean the island of Great Britain plus the island of Ireland and many smaller surrounding islands, including the Isle of ManIsle of ManThe Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
and, in some contexts, the Channel IslandsChannel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
(GuernseyGuernseyGuernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
and JerseyJerseyJersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
). See British Isles naming disputeBritish Isles naming disputeThere is disagreement over the term "the British Isles", particularly with relation to Ireland. The term is defined in dictionaries as referring to Great Britain, Ireland and adjacent islands. However, the association between the word "British" and the United Kingdom causes the term to be regarded...
for details of the conflict over use of this term. - Great Britain and IrelandGreat Britain and IrelandGreat Britain and Ireland are two neighbouring islands situated in the north-west of Europe.As a phrase, Great Britain and Ireland or Britain and Ireland can refer to either two separate entities being discussed together due to the close cultural and historical links between the islands, or can...
, or variants like "Britain and Ireland" or "The UK and Ireland" are sometimes used as alternatives to the term British IslesBritish IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. - Anglo-Celtic Isles is an alternative term (in limited use) for the geographic region comprising Britain & Ireland, more commonly referred to as the 'British Isles'. 'Anglo-Celtic Islands' is a derivative of this. It is intended as a geographic term free of any political implication and uses the macro-cultural grouping term Anglo-CelticAnglo-CelticAnglo-Celtic is a term used to describe people of British and Irish descent. The term today is mainly used outside of Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia but also in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, where a significant diaspora is located....
, referring to the peoples from which the majority of the island group's population are descended—the Anglo-SaxonsAnglo-SaxonsAnglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
and the CeltCeltThe Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
s (it can also be inclusive of the Anglo-NormanAnglo-NormanThe Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
s). - Islands of the North AtlanticIslands of the North AtlanticIONA is an acronym suggested in 1980 by Sir John Biggs-Davison to refer to a loose linkage of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, similar to the present day British-Irish Council...
is another suggested replacement term for 'British Isles', without the same political connotations. However, its convolution and impracticality due to implying inclusion of fellow North Atlantic islands such as Iceland have made it unworkable and it has not come into common use. The term was used as part of the Strand 3 level of negotiations for the Belfast agreement. (Its acronym, IONA, is also the name of the small but historically important island of IonaIonaIona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
off the coast of Scotland.) - British IslandsBritish IslandsBritish Islands is a term within the law of the United Kingdom which since 1889 has referred collectively to the following four states:*the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ;...
(a legal term not in common usage) is the UK, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. - BrittanyBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, itself a corruption of 'Britain', and sometimes formerly known as 'Little Britain' is a historical DuchyDuchyA duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era . In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that unified either partially or completely during the Medieval era...
in the West of FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, now a French region; for this modern administrative sense, see Brittany (administrative region).
- In Gaelic games
The British Isles
 |
The British Isles British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and... is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area... off the coast of Continental Europe Continental Europe Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands.... . It includes Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... , Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles... , the Isle of Man Isle of Man The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is... , Shetland, Orkney, and thousands of smaller islands. Traditionally, the Channel Islands Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey... , near the coast of France, are included. The term is disputed (see British Isles naming dispute British Isles naming dispute There is disagreement over the term "the British Isles", particularly with relation to Ireland. The term is defined in dictionaries as referring to Great Britain, Ireland and adjacent islands. However, the association between the word "British" and the United Kingdom causes the term to be regarded... ). |
United Kingdom
| |
The United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... is the largest of two sovereign states in the British Isles. It includes the countries of England, Scotland and Wales, on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland, on the island of Ireland. Between 1801 and 1922, all of Ireland was a constituent country of the United Kingdom. Aside from the Republic of Ireland, the three other polities in the archipelago, the Isle of Man Isle of Man The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is... , Jersey Jersey Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and... and Guernsey Guernsey Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet... are dependencies of the United Kingdom. |
Great Britain
 |
Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles... is the largest of the British Isles. On Great Britain are located three constituent countries of the United Kingdom: Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... in the north, England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... in the south and east and Wales Wales Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²... in the west. There are also numerous smaller islands off the coast of Great Britain. |
England
 |
The name England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... is the largest constituent country of the UK. It occupies the south-eastern part of the island of Great Britain, and includes small islands off the coast, such as the Isle of Wight Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent... and the Isles of Scilly Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part... . Scotland and Wales, other constituent countries of the UK, are not in England, but border on it. Between 1746 Wales and Berwick Act 1746 The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which created a statutory definition of "England" as including England, Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed. This definition applied to all acts passed before and after the Act's coming into force, unless a given Act provided an... and 1967 Welsh Language Act 1967 The Welsh Language Act 1967 , is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which gave some rights to use the Welsh language in legal proceedings in Wales and gave the relevant Minister the right to authorise the production of a Welsh version of any documents required or allowed by the Act... , however, the term England in a legal sense did include Wales. |
Scotland
 |
Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... is the second largest constituent country of the UK, occupying the Northern part of the island of Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles... , and includes hundreds of small islands off the coast, such as Arran Isle of Arran Arran or the Isle of Arran is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, and with an area of is the seventh largest Scottish island. It is in the unitary council area of North Ayrshire and the 2001 census had a resident population of 5,058... , the Hebrides Hebrides The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive... , Shetland and Orkney. Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... borders England to the south and is bounded by the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea North Sea In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively... to the East. |
Wales
 |
Wales Wales Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²... is the third largest constituent country of the UK, occupying part of the western area of the southern half of the island of Great Britain, as well as some smaller islands. Wales has a land border with England, and adjoins the Irish Sea Irish Sea The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man... to the north, St. George's Channel to the west, and the Bristol Channel Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean... to the south. |
Ireland
 |
The second largest island in the archipelago is Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... . Most of the island is in the Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,... . The north east of the island (Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west... ) is part of the United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... . There are also numerous smaller islands off the coast of Ireland. |
Northern Ireland
 |
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west... is the smallest constituent part of the United Kingdom. Formerly, all of Ireland formed one constituent country of the United Kingdom. In 1921, the Ireland was partitioned Partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920... and Northern Ireland remained in the United Kingdom. |
Republic of Ireland
| |
The Republic of Ireland, officially Éire or Ireland, is a sovereign state. It is formed from the part of Ireland that succeeded from the Untied Kingdom Anglo-Irish Treaty The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of... in 1922 but remained within the British Empire British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the... as a British dominion. In 1937, the state declared itself completely sovereign Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected... and in 1949 it declared itself a republic Republic of Ireland Act The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 is an Act of the Oireachtas which declared the Irish state to be a republic, and vested in the President of Ireland the power to exercise the executive authority of the state in its external relations, on the advice of the Government of Ireland... . |
Isle of Man
 |
The Isle of Man Isle of Man The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is... lies between Great Britain and Ireland. It is governed as a British Crown dependency Crown dependency The Crown Dependencies are British possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.... , having its own parliament, but with the United Kingdom responsible for its defence and external relations. |
Channel Islands
 |
Although the Channel Islands Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey... are associated with the United Kingdom politically as Crown dependencies, they are an outcrop of the nearby French mainland, and historically they are the last remaining parts of the former Duchy of Normandy Duchy of Normandy The Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Norwegian, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 9th century... . |
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is a sovereign state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
. Its four constituent countries are sometimes considered to be of different status. This view may be supported by the existence of devolved
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
governments with different levels of power in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (see Asymmetrical federalism). Wales is also often erroneously described as a principality
Principality
A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
of the United Kingdom (Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
is a title usually given to the heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
to the British throne but has no political or other role in respect of Wales). Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
is sometimes described by United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
citizens as a province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
of the United Kingdom, which derives from the Irish province
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, of which Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
is a part. Northern Ireland also had, until 1972, a far greater degree of self-government than the other constituent parts of the UK.
Great Britain is both a geographical and a political entity. Geographically, it is one island, but politically it also contains the islands that belong to its constituent nations – England, Wales and Scotland (most notably England's Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, Wales' Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
and Scotland's Inner Hebrides
Inner Hebrides
The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than...
, Outer Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
, Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
and Shetland Islands
Shetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
).
The abbreviation GB is sometimes officially used for the United Kingdom, for example in the Olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, or as the vehicle registration plate country identification code for UK-registered cars (see also British car number plates
British car number plates
Vehicle registration plates are the mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in the United Kingdom since 1904...
). The GB code is not always accepted, and unofficial alternatives are sometimes used for protest (such as SCO in Scotland, CYM for Wales (Cymru) NI in Northern Ireland, or ENG for England).
The internet code ".gb
.gb
.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain , it was never widely used...
", although allocated to the UK, is virtually unused and UK web domains use ".uk
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
".
The four constituent parts of the UK are also known, particularly in sporting contexts, as Home Nations
Home Nations
Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...
or the "Four Nations". The BBC refers to its UK-wide broadcasting operation as Nations and Regions ("regions" referring to the Regions of England
Regions of England
In England, the region is the highest tier of sub-national division used by central Government. Between 1994 and 2011, the nine regions had an administrative role in the implementation of UK Government policy, and as the areas covered by elected bodies...
). Thus the UK naming conventions tend towards describing distinct regions or nations which exist within a single sovereign state.
In sport, the UK Nations mostly have their own separate national teams – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, for example in football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
. Sporting contests between the Four Nations are known as "Home internationals" (an example is the British Home Championship
British Home Championship
The British Home Championship was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the 1883–84 season until the 1983–84...
in football).
The governing body for football in Northern Ireland is called the Irish Football Association
Irish Football Association
The Irish Football Association is the organising body for association football in Northern Ireland, and was historically the governing body for Ireland...
(the IFA), having been in existence since some forty years before Partition
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
. Its counterpart in the Republic (plus Derry City FC) is the Football Association of Ireland
Football Association of Ireland
The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for the sport of association football in the Republic of Ireland. It should not to be confused with the Irish Football Association , which is the organising body for the sport in Northern Ireland.For the full history, statistics and records...
(the FAI). The Northern Ireland national team
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
retained the name "Ireland" for some fifty years after partition. Since around 1970 the two teams have been consistently referred to as "Northern Ireland" and "Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland national football team
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....
" respectively.
UK teams in the Olympics have competed under several different names – most recently in Beijing the athletes were presented at the Opening Ceremony under a banner which said simply Great Britain, rather than the full Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Olympic athletes from Northern Ireland may choose whether to represent the UK or the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Since the Good Friday Agreement (the G.F.A.), and the subsequent implementation legislation, sporting organisation (and several other organisations, e.g. tourism, Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots language boards) on the island of Ireland has increasingly been cross-border.
Citizens of the UK are called British or Britons. The term Brits may also be used, sometimes pejoratively, for example by supporters of Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
when referring to supporters of the Union
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
. Some older slang names for Britons are Tommy (for British soldiers), Anglo and Limey. Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
properly refers only to England, but it is sometimes used as a broader reference as an element in compound adjectives: for example, "Anglo-French relations" may be used in newspaper articles when referring to relations between the political entities France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the United Kingdom. Anglo-Saxon may be used (particularly in Continental European languages) when referring to the whole English-speaking world, the Anglosphere
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
, although ethnically very few of the world's one billion English-speakers are of Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
origin.
Ireland
Constitution of Ireland
The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...
in 1937, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
has been the English name of the state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The name Éire
Éire
is the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
is used when writing in Irish.
Since the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, the term "Republic of Ireland" is the term used as the additional description of the state. This term is useful in avoiding ambiguity between the name of the island and the name of the state. However, the term "Ireland" is always used in formal diplomatic contexts such as the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
or the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. The passport of the Republic of Ireland bears the name Éire – Ireland.
Before the introduction of the 1937 constitution and the new name, the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
occupied the same territory as the modern state of Ireland. The Irish Free State became an autonomous dominion
Dominion
A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
in 1922 when it seceded from the United Kingdom through the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
. The King ceased to be its Head of State in 1936 and the state ceased to be a Dominion and left the Commonwealth in 1948.
Traditionally, the island of Ireland is divided into four province
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
s – Leinster
Leinster
Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...
, Connacht
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...
, Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
and Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, with each of the provinces further divided into counties. The Republic of Ireland takes up 83% of the island, twenty-six of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland takes up the remaining area, six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster.
On the island of Ireland the naming of places often raises political issues. The usage of "Ireland" as the official name
Constitution of Ireland
The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...
of the state causes offence to some Unionists in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, who believe it implies that the state still
Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland introduced changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution required by the 1998 Belfast Agreement . Prior to 1999, Articles 2 and 3 made the controversial claim that the whole island of Ireland formed one single "national territory"...
has a territorial claim to the whole island – the terminology of "Republic of Ireland" or "Éire
Éire
is the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
" is much preferred by Northern Irish unionists when referring to that political state. Similarly, some Nationalists in Northern Ireland also prefer to reserve the usage of "Ireland" to refer to the whole island.
In Northern Ireland, Irishness is a highly contested identity, with fundamentally different perceptions of national identity between unionists (who generally perceive themselves as being British) and nationalists (who generally consider both communities to be part of the Irish nation).
The Republic of Ireland is often referred to by the Nationalist and Republican communities by the term "the Twenty-six Counties", with the connotation that the state constituted as such forms only a portion of the ideal political unit of the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
, which would consist of all of the thirty-two counties
Counties of Ireland
The counties of Ireland are sub-national divisions used for the purposes of geographic demarcation and local government. Closely related to the county is the County corporate which covered towns or cities which were deemed to be important enough to be independent from their counties. A county...
into which the island is divided. Additionally, the term "the Six Counties" (in reference to Northern Ireland's six counties) is also used. Other Nationalist terms in use include: "the North of Ireland" and "the North". These latter are terms also used by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
. More extreme terms for Northern Ireland include "the occupied six counties" or "occupied Ireland", which are often used by people who reject the idea of Northern Ireland as a separate entity from the Republic of Ireland.
The Irish passport
Irish passport
Irish passports are issued by the Consular and Passport Division of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, Ireland.-Physical appearance:...
is available to Irish citizens and can also be applied for abroad through Irish Consular services and the local Irish Embassy. As per the Irish nationality law
Irish nationality law
Irish nationality law is the law of the Republic of Ireland governing citizenship. A person may be an Irish citizen through birth, descent, marriage to an Irish citizen or through naturalisation. Irish nationality law is currently contained in the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship...
, any person born on the island of Ireland before 2005, or otherwise a first generation descendant of such a person, is allowed to apply for an Irish passport. As such, people born in Northern Ireland and their children may be Irish citizens and hold an Irish passport if they choose.
British Islands
Bailiwick
A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
s of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
and of Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
(which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney
Alderney
Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
, Herm
Herm
Herm is the smallest of the Channel Islands that is open to the public and is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Cars are banned from the small island just like its Channel Island neighbour, Sark. Unlike Sark, bicycles are also banned...
and Sark
Sark
Sark is a small island in the Channel Islands in southwestern English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. It is a royal fief, geographically located in the Channel Islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population...
) in the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
; and the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
. On the front of passports issued to residents of the Crown dependencies, the words "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" are replaced with "British Islands" followed by the name of the issuing state or island.
Origins of terms
The earliest known names for the islands come from ancient GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
writings. Though the original texts have been lost, excerpts were quoted or paraphrased by later authors. Parts of the Massaliote Periplus
Massaliote Periplus
The Massaliote Periplus or Massaliot Periplus is the name of a now-lost merchants' handbook possibly dating to as early as the 6th century BC describing the sea routes used by traders from Phoenicia and Tartessus in their journeys around Iron Age Europe...
, a merchants' handbook describing searoutes of the 6th century BC, were used in translation in the writings of Avienus
Avienus
Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. According to an inscription from Bulla Regia, his full name was Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius.He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi...
around AD 400. Ireland was referred to as Ierne (Insula sacra, the sacred island, as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of Hiberni" (gens hiernorum), and Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albion
Albion
Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba...
s". Several sources from around 150 BC to AD 70 include fragments of the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas
Pytheas
Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...
around 320 BC, which also used the terms "Albion and 'Ierne." and have been described as referring to the British Isles, including Ireland, as the Pretanic Islands. Greek writers used the term αι Βρεττανιαι, which has been translated as the Brittanic Isles, and the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοι, Priteni or Pretani. These names derived from a "Celtic language
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
" term which is likely to have reached Pytheas from the Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
s who may have used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.
The Romans called the inhabitants of Gaul (modern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) Galli or Celtae. The latter term came from the Greek name Κελτοι for a central European people, and 17th century antiquarians who found language connections developed the idea of a race of Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
s inhabiting the area, but this term was not used by the Greeks or Romans for the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland, nor is there any record of the inhabitants of the British Isles referring to themselves as such. Nevertheless, Roman administration would later incorporate the province of Britannia into the praetorian prefecture of Gaul
Praetorian prefecture of Gaul
The praetorian prefecture of the Gauls was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided.- History :...
, in common with Hispania, which had Celtiberians. Armorica
Armorica
Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast...
, where the Bretons would settle, was part of Gallia Celtica, so there were tertiary relations between the Britons and Gallic Celts at least. In addition, the Parisii of Gallia Celtica are thought to have founded Aldborough in Britain. Belgae
Belgae
The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain, and possibly even Ireland...
and Silures
Silures
The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe of ancient Britain, occupying approximately the counties of Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorganshire of present day South Wales; and possibly Gloucestershire and Herefordshire of present day England...
also came from Gallic areas, although not strictly "Celtic", but from Gallia Belgica and Aquitainia.
Priteni is the source of the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
term Prydain
Prydain
Prydain is the modern Welsh name for Britain.-Medieval:Prydain is the medieval Welsh term for the island of Britain . More specifically, Prydain may refer to the Brittonic parts of the island; that is, the parts south of Caledonia...
, Britain, and has the same source as the Goidelic
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
term Cruithne. The latter referred to the early Brythonic
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
speaking inhabitants of the Scottish highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
and the north of Scotland, who are known as the Cruithne in Scottish Gaelic, and who the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
called Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
or Caledonians
Caledonians
The Caledonians , or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Romans referred to their territory as Caledonia and initially included them as Britons, but later distinguished as the Picts...
.
Romans
Caesar's invasions of Britain
In his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC. The first invasion, made late in summer, was either intended as a full invasion or a reconnaissance-in-force expedition...
brought descriptions of the peoples of what he called Britannia pars interior, "inland Britain", in 55 BC. Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans loosely to refer to the islands as a group – a common generalisation used by classical geographers. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, …οι νοτιώτατοι των Βρεττανών βορειότεροι τούτων εισίν ("…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this"). He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century.
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. ("Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment"). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.
In his Geography written in the mid 2nd century and probably describing the position around AD 100, Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
includes both Great Britain (Albion) and Ireland (Hibernia) in the island group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of as Hibernia, Island of Britannia, and Chapter 2 as Albion, Island of Britannia.
The name Albion for Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
fell from favour, and the island was described in Greek as Πρεττανία or Βρεττανία, in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Britannia, an inhabitant as Βρεττανός, Britannus, with the adjective Βρεττανικός, Britannicus, equating to "British". With the Roman conquest of Britain
Roman conquest of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and...
the name Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
was used for the province of Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. The Emperor Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
was honoured with the agnomen Britannicus as if he were the conqueror, and coins were struck from AD 46 inscribed DE BRITAN, DE BRITANN, DE BRITANNI, or DE BRITANNIS. With the visit of Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
in AD 121 coins introduced a female figure with the label BRITANNIA as a personification or goddess of the place. These and later Roman coins introduced the seated figure of Britannia which would be reintroduced in the 17th century.
In the later years of Roman rule Britons who left Latin inscriptions, both at home and elsewhere in the Empire, often described themselves as Brittanus or Britto, and where describing their citizenship gave it as cives of a British tribe or of a patria (homeland) of Britannia, not Roma. From the 4th century, many Britons migrated from Roman Britain across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and founded Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
Mediaeval period
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the Life of Saint Columba, a hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
recording the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba
Saint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
among the peoples of what is now Scotland. It was written in the late seventh century by Adomnán
Adomnán of Iona
Saint Adomnán of Iona was abbot of Iona , hagiographer, statesman and clerical lawyer; he was the author of the most important Vita of Saint Columba and promulgator of the "Law of Innocents", lex innocentium, also called Cáin Adomnáin, "Law of Adomnán"...
of Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
, an Irish monk living on the Inner Hebridean island. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is Oceani Insulae meaning "Islands of the Ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition), it is used sparingly and no Priteni-derived collective reference is made.
Another early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
of Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. He stated that Britain "studies and confesses one and the same knowledge of the highest truth in the tongues of five nations, namely the Angles, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins", distinguishing between the Brythonic languages
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
of the "ancient Britons" or Old Welsh speakers and other language groups.
Early Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic, Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
and Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
kingdoms such as Rheged
Rheged
Rheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
, Strathclyde
Kingdom of Strathclyde
Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...
and Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
amalgamated, leading to the formation of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. In Norman Ireland
Norman Ireland
The History of Ireland 1169–1536 covers the period from the arrival of the Cambro-Normans to the reign of Henry VIII of England, who made himself King of Ireland. After the Norman invasion of 1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England...
, local lords gained considerable autonomy from the Lordship of Ireland
Lordship of Ireland
The Lordship of Ireland refers to that part of Ireland that was under the rule of the king of England, styled Lord of Ireland, between 1177 and 1541. It was created in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71 and was succeeded by the Kingdom of Ireland...
until it became the Kingdom of Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
under direct English rule.
Renaissance mapmakers
Abraham Ortelius
thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius (Abraham Ortels) thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius (Abraham Ortels) (April 14, 1527 – June 28,exile in England to take...
makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "A representation of England, Scotland and Ireland, or Britannica's islands." Additionally many maps from this period show Wales and Cornwall as separate nations, most notably those of Mercator.
Maps of the Mediæval, Renaissance and later periods often referred to Albion
Albion
Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba...
. This archaic term was originally used by Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
and Pliny
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
to mean the island of Great Britain. In later centuries its meaning changed to refer only to the area we now call Scotland (Albany
Albany (disambiguation)
Albany is a common place name. It is derived from Alba and its Latinisation, Albania. In older English it is used to mean Scotland generally, and in particular the part of Scotland north of the Firth of Forth and Firth of Clyde....
, or Alba
Alba
Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.- Etymology :The term first appears in...
in Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
). Albion has survived as a poetic name for Britain but it is not in everyday use.
18th and 19th Centuries
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
, a fashion arose, particularly in Scotland, for referring to Scotland and England as North Britain
North Britain
North Britain is a term which has been occasionally used, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, for either the northern part of Great Britain or to Scotland, which occupies the northernmost third of the island...
and South Britain
South Britain
South Britain is a term which was occasionally used in the 17th and 18th centuries, for England and Wales in relation to their position in the southern half of the island of Great Britain...
respectively. These terms gained in popularity during the nineteenth century. The most lasting example of this usage was in the name of the North British Railway
North British Railway
The North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...
, which became part of the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
in 1923, and in the name of the North British Hotel, built by the railway in Edinburgh in 1902, which retained the name until it reopened in 1991 as the Balmoral Hotel.
Evolution of kingdoms and states
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
inherited the English throne as "James I of England". He styled himself as James I of Great Britain, although both states retained their sovereignty and independent parliaments, the Parliament of Scotland
Parliament of Scotland
The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early 13th century, with the first meeting for which a primary source survives at...
and the Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
. (The term "Great Britain" itself reportedly dates from as early as 1474, and was in common usage from the mid-16th century onwards.)
The 1707 Act of Union united England and Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
under the Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...
, then in 1800 Ireland was brought under British government control by the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. Irish unrest culminated in the Irish War of Independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
, which later became a republic with the name Ireland. The majority Protestant northeast
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
continued to be part of what became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
British overseas territories
British overseas territories
The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...
such as Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, and the British Antarctic Territory
British Antarctic Territory
The British Antarctic Territory is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories. It comprises the region south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes and , forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole...
have (or have had) various relationships with the UK. The Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, initially formalised in 1931 (the British Commonwealth until 1949), is an association of independent states roughly corresponding to the former British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. (This has no connection with the Commonwealth of England
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
, a short-lived republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
replacing the previous kingdoms during the English Interregnum
English Interregnum
The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the Commonwealth of England after the English Civil War...
(1649–1660).)
Adjectives
The adjectives used to describe the contents and attributes of the various constituent parts of the British Isles also cause confusion.In the absence of a single adjective to refer to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, British is generally used to refer to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as a whole. However, in a specifically physical geographical sense, British is used to refer to the island of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Members of the Unionist
Unionism in Ireland
Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...
communities in Northern Ireland might describe themselves as British even though they are not on the island of Great Britain, as this reflects a political and cultural identity.
The cumbersome adjective Great British is very rarely used to refer to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, other than to contrive a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on the word great, as in "Great British Food".
Irish, in a political sense, is used to refer to the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, would be included within the umbrella of the political term British, though many Unionists in Northern Ireland also consider themselves Irish. In order to be more specific, Northern Irish is therefore in common usage. Members of the Nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
communities would not describe themselves as British and would only use the terms Irish, or specifically Northern Irish where needed.
The term Ulster can also be used as an adjective (e.g. "Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
"), but this is more likely to be used by Unionists and has political connotations in the same fashion as its use as a proper noun (because only six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, namely Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, Armagh
County Armagh
-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...
, Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
, Fermanagh
County Fermanagh
Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....
, Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...
and Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
, are included in Northern Ireland with the remaining three counties Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
and Monaghan
County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...
forming part of the Republic). The term Ulsterman (or Ulsterwoman) is common and holds no such political connotation. Likewise, Nationalists
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
might describe, say, a lake in Northern Ireland as Irish.
Note that the geographical term Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
thus far appears to have escaped political connotations, even though territorial control of the waters of the Irish Sea is divided between both the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and also includes a British Crown dependency
Crown dependency
The Crown Dependencies are British possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea....
, the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
—as yet there appears to be no controversy with the term’s usage to mirror that of "British Isles". The North Channel
North Channel (British Isles)
The North Channel is the strait which separates eastern Northern Ireland from southwestern Scotland...
is found off the east coast of Northern Ireland and it stretches the length of roughly two-thirds of Northern Ireland's eastern coastline.
The "Northern" in "Northern Ireland" is not completely accurate. The most northerly point on the island, Malin Head
Malin Head
Malin Head , on the Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal, is usually given as the most northerly headland of the mainland of Ireland . In fact, the most northerly point is actually a headland named Banba's Crown on the Inishowen Peninsula about 2 km to the northeast...
, is in the Republic of Ireland — in County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
's Inishowen
Inishowen
Inishowen is a peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. It is also the largest peninsula in all of Ireland. Inishowen is a picturesque location with a rich history...
Peninsula.
Scottish, English and Welsh are self-explanatory but the term English is often incorrectly used to mean British as well. Americans and Europeans often use the term in this fashion.
British Isles
The dictionary definition of British IslesBritish Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
is that it is a geographical term that refers to the whole of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
as well as the surrounding islands. It is sometimes incorrectly used as if identical to the UK; or to refer to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and the surrounding islands, excluding the island of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
entirely. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
have style guides that mandate the dictionary definition but occasional misuse can be found on their web sites.
The term British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
can also be considered irritating or offensive by some on the grounds that the modern association of the term British with the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
makes its application to Ireland inappropriate.
The term British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
can also be considered to imply a proprietary title on the entire archipelago.
The policy of the government of the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
is that no branch of government should use the term, and although it is on occasion used in a geographical sense in Irish parliamentary debates, this is often done in a way that excludes the Republic of Ireland. In October 2006, The Times quoted a spokesman for the Irish Embassy in London as saying that they would discourage its use.
During a stop-over visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1989, the leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, indicated that he assumed Ireland's head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
was Queen Elizabeth II, given that she was the British Queen and his officials said that Ireland was a part of the British Isles.
In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, some nationalists
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
reject the term and instead use these islands, these isles or "Britain and Ireland" as an alternative.
There have been several suggestions for replacements for the term British Isles. Although there is no single accepted replacement, the terms Great Britain and Ireland, The British Isles and Ireland and Britain and Ireland are all used.
England
There are historical instances of patriotic references to "England" which are actually intended to include Scotland and Wales as well. For a long time it was common for fans of the England football team
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
to wave the British Union Flag
Union Flag
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...
— with the use of the specifically English St George's Cross
St George's Cross
St George's Cross is a red cross on a white background used as a symbolic reference to Saint George. The red cross on white was associated with St George from medieval times....
flag only gaining popularity at the Euro 96 tournament.
The colloquial usage of "England" as a synonym for "Britain" is still widespread outside the UK. In Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the term "England" is often used to mean Great Britain or even the entire United Kingdom. In many other languages, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, the word for "English" is synonymous with "British" — see the article on Alternative words for British for more detail.
Europe
The term "EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
" may be used in one of several different contexts by British and Irish people: either to refer to the whole of the European continent, to refer to only to Mainland Europe, sometimes called "continental Europe" or simply "the Continent" by some people in the archipelago. Europe may also be used in reference to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
Great Britain
The word "Great" means "larger", in comparison with BrittanyBrittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
in modern-day France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. One historical term for the peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
in France that largely corresponds to the modern French province is Lesser or Little Britain. That region was settled by many British immigrants during the period of Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
migration into Britain, and named "Little Britain" by them. The French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
term "Bretagne" now refers to the French "Little Britain", not to the British "Great Britain", which in French is called Grande-Bretagne. In classical times, the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
geographer Ptolemy in his Almagest
Almagest
The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...
also called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain). At that time, it was in contrast to the smaller island of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, which he called Mikra Brettania (Little Britain). In this later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Great Britain as Albion and to Ireland as Iwernia
Hibernia
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe , Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne . In his book Geographia Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of...
. These "new" names were likely to have been the native names for the islands at the time. The earlier names, in contrast
Exonym and endonym
In ethnolinguistics, an endonym or autonym is a local name for a geographical feature, and an exonym or xenonym is a foreign language name for it...
, were likely to have been coined before direct contact with local peoples were made.
Ireland
The word Ireland has two meanings.- It is the official name of the stateRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
that occupies five sixths of the island. - It is a geographical term for the whole islandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
; to avoid ambiguity, sometimes referred to as 'the island of Ireland', especially in politics.
Ulster
The terminology and usage of the name Ulster in Irish and British culture varies. Many within the unionist community and much of the UK press refer to Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
as Ulster whereas the nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
community refer to the traditional Irish province
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, which is a nine county entity that incorporates the three counties of Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...
and Monaghan
County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...
(which are in the Republic) along with the counties of Armagh
County Armagh
-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...
, Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, Down
Down
Down may refer to:* Relative direction, where down is the direction towards the centre of gravity of a celestial object.* Railroad directions, where down and up have locally significant meanings...
, Fermanagh
County Fermanagh
Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....
, Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...
and Tyrone
Tyrone
The name Tyrone can refer to:*County Tyrone, a county in Northern Ireland, roughly corresponding to the ancient kingdom of Tír Eogain*An Earl of Tyrone*A small steam train which runs between Bushmills and the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland-Places:...
in Northern Ireland.
Thus, the word Ulster has two usages:
- It is the name of oneUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
of the four Provinces of IrelandProvinces of IrelandIreland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
, consisting of the nine northern counties of the island, that was partitioned between the United Kingdom (six counties) and the Republic of Ireland (three counties). - It is an alternative name for Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, used by many in the Unionist community. It consists of the six north-eastern counties of the island that remain part of the United Kingdom.
Isle of Man and Channel Islands
The Isle of Man and the two bailiwickBailiwick
A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
s of the Channel Islands are Crown dependencies; that is, non-sovereign nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
s, self-governing but whose sovereignty is held by the British Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
. They control their own internal affairs, but not their defence or foreign relations. They are not part of the United Kingdom nor part of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
- The Isle of ManIsle of ManThe Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
is part of the British IslesBritish IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
, situated in the Irish SeaIrish SeaThe Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
between Great Britain and Ireland. - The Channel IslandsChannel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
consist politically of two self-governing bailiwickBailiwickA bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
s: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. They are the remnants of the Duchy of NormandyDuchy of NormandyThe Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Norwegian, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 9th century...
, which was once in personal unionPersonal unionA personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
with the Kingdom of England. They are sometimes, despite their location next to mainland FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, considered part of the British Isles. This usage is political rather than geographic. - The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are British IslandsBritish IslandsBritish Islands is a term within the law of the United Kingdom which since 1889 has referred collectively to the following four states:*the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ;...
in United Kingdom law.
Celtic names
There are five living Celtic languagesCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
in the region. Each have names for the islands and countries of the British Isles. They are divided into two branches:
- BrythonicBrythonic languagesThe Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
– which includes WelshWelsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and CornishCornish languageCornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate... - GoidelicGoidelic languagesThe Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
– which includes IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, Scottish GaelicScottish Gaelic languageScottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
and ManxManx languageManx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
Some of the above are:
| English | Cornwall | Wales | Ireland | Northern Ireland |
Republic of Ireland |
Scotland | Mann | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornish (Kernewek) |
Kernow | Kembra | Iwerdhon | Iwerdhon Gledh | Repoblek Iwerdhon |
Alban | Manow | Pow an Sawson |
| Welsh (Cymraeg) |
Cernyw | Cymru | Iwerddon | Gogledd Iwerddon | Gweriniaeth Iwerddon |
Yr Alban | Manaw | Lloegr |
| Irish (Gaeilge) |
an Chorn | an Bhreatain Bheag | Éire | Tuaisceart Éireann | Poblacht na hÉireann |
Albain | Manainn | Sasana |
| Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) |
a' Chòrn | a' Chuimrigh | Èirinn | Èirinn a Tuath | Poblachd na h-Èireann |
Alba | Manainn | Sasainn |
| Manx (Gaelg) |
y Chorn | Bretyn | Nerin | Nerin Hwoaie | Pobblaght Nerin |
Nalbin | Mannin | Sostyn |
Note: In Irish there are actually several terms for Northern Ireland: An Tuaisceart, meaning "the North", is usually used, but a more recent term for official use is Tuaisceart Éireann.
The English word Welsh is from a common Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
root meaning "Romanised foreigner" (cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
with Wallonia and Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, and also cognate with the word used in Mediaeval German to refer to the French and Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
s).
The English names Albion
Albion
Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba...
and Albany
Albany (disambiguation)
Albany is a common place name. It is derived from Alba and its Latinisation, Albania. In older English it is used to mean Scotland generally, and in particular the part of Scotland north of the Firth of Forth and Firth of Clyde....
are related to Alba and used poetically for either England or Scotland, or the whole island of Great Britain.
English Erin
Erin
Erin is a Hiberno-English derivative of the Irish word "Éirinn". ....
is a poetic name for Ireland derived from Éire (or rather, from its dative form Éirinn).
Terms for the British Isles in the Irish language
In Irish, the term Oileáin Bhriotanacha is a translation of the English term British Isles. Another translation is Oileáin Bhreataineacha, which was used in the 1937 translation from English to Irish of a 1931 geography book.Earlier dictionaries give Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa as the translation, literally meaning West European Isles. Today the most common term Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór is used, meaning literally as Ireland and Great Britain, as provided by terminological dictionaries.
Slang
BlightyBlighty
Blighty is a British English slang term for Britain, deriving from the Hindustani word vilāyatī , from Persian vilayet and ultimately from Arabic wilayah, originally meaning something like "province"...
is a slang word for Britain derived from the Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
word bilāyatī ("foreign"). Depending on the user, it is meant either affectionately or archly. It was often used by British soldiers abroad in the First World War to refer to home.
See also
- Alternative words for BritishAlternative words for BritishAlternative names for the British include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe the British people and more specifically English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish/Irish people.- Ang Moh :"Ang Moh" is a term to describe British and other...
- Subdivisions of the United KingdomSubdivisions of the United KingdomThe administrative geography of the United Kingdom is complex, multi-layered and non-uniform. The United Kingdom, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe, consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales...
- British-Irish CouncilBritish-Irish CouncilThe British–Irish Council is an international organisation established under the Belfast Agreement in 1998, and formally established on 2 December 1999 on the entry into force of the consequent legislation...
- British and Irish LionsBritish and Irish LionsThe British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
- British Overseas TerritoriesBritish overseas territoriesThe British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...