B for Britain

 

When you go to Spain, you say you go to Spain. When you go to Poland, you say you go to Poland, when you go to Italy, you say you go to Italy. Simple, eh? Well, things aren’t so simple when it comes to this part of the world and for many reasons. So I’ve decided to write something about the multitude of different names that are used with these islands, this island, this country and this country (yes, twice :P). Sometimes, using the wrong name can cause offence to the person you’re talking to or expose your ignorance/lack of knowledge about the inhabitants of these North European islands. I shall start with the name with the broadest meaning, namely:

the British Isles

This is a strictly geographical term, not a political one and it refers to the archipelago comprised of two main islands: Great Britain and Ireland and thousands of smaller islands. You don’t usually say you’re going to the British Isles unless your destination are both of the main islands and maybe some smaller ones. I wouldn’t advise to use in contexts other than the weather or geography. The Irish from the Republic of Ireland aren’t too keen on the name as prefer calling the archipelago ‘Britain and Ireland’, 'the British and Irish Isles', ‘these islands’ or ‘these isles’ but that’s their problem :P

So far, we’ve established that there is a group of islands in the north of Europe inhabited by people and that these islands are usually called the British Isles. Now, does this mean that their inhabitants are called the British? Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes because the people living on the biggest island, aptly called Great Britain are called British and no, because those living on other islands are not necessary British. The reason being that they prefer to be called by their nationality (and preferably by their first name :P) And this brings us to the next matter, what countries are there in the British Isles? Basically speaking, there are two independent countries: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island and the Republic or Ireland.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

(fortunately, this is usually abbreviated to the UK) is the country occupying the whole of Great Britain, the northern part of Ireland, Outer and Inner Hebrides, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and the Isle of Wight. It is a (parliamentary) monarchy and the head of state is Queen Elisabeth II (long live the Queen!). The people who live there are called the British (even if some live outside of the island, such as those in N Ireland) and they are all citizens of that country and subjects of the Queen. Now, to complicate this already complicated matter, they refer to their country as the UK, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britain and, occasionally, as Blighty.

Ireland

is the other independent state. It occupies most of the island of Ireland with the exception of the north (called Northern Ireland or Ulster) which is part of the UK. As you should have gathered by now, Ireland in the geographical sense is not the same as Ireland in the political sense (the former covering a bigger area). To distinguish the country from the island, you can call the country the Republic of Ireland (ROI).

Now back to the UK. Europeans from the Continent often make the awful mistake of calling the British citizens English. While it’s true that the majority of them are English, it is not polite (and sometimes even dangerous) to refer all of them as English. The UK, which is a country itself, is further divided into four countries or Home Nations. Thus we have

England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland,

all of which have varying degrees of autonomy but are not independent. You can’t to, for example, Scotland and call the locals English, just as you wouldn’t go to Germany and call them Bavarians or to Spain and call them Andalusians. If you find it so hard to remember that the people of Scotland are called Scottish, of Wales are Welsh and so on, then what you can do is to call them collectively British. Very few people would mind that. However, because of the political situation in Northern Ireland, I think you should be careful and not to refer to a republican/nationalist as British, but as a foreigner you should be forgiven. The safest bet is to call the people N Ireland Irish, no matter what part of the island they’re from. Just don’t call them English, for goodness sake! Another faux pas that some people make is calling the Scottish people Scotch. You can call them Scottish or Scots but never do you refer to them as Scotch! This is only used for food and drinks of Scottish origin.

In addition to all these peoples and places, there are a few islands which can cause even more trouble to an unsuspecting visitor or anyone what thinks about them for a second. For political reasons, they are considered part of the British Isles in geographic terms (God, this is confusing) but are neither part of the UK nor independent states and are known as the Crown Dependencies (the UK is responsible for their representation on the international stage and their defence):

the Isle of Man is one of the British Isles as it lies between Great Britain and Ireland and

the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) are not a political entity and are independent of each other. They lie off the coast of France but because of their close ties with the UK they are usually considered part of the British Isles.

Here’s a small table with different names and their adjectives to explain everything once again:

 

Geographical entity
Name	Adjective	Notes
British Isles	British	only when talking about British wildlife, climate, geology and the like
Great Britain	British	same as above
Ireland	Irish
Channel Islands
Political Entity	Vehicle registration code	internet domain
United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Great Britain, Britain	British	It should never be referred to as England	GB	.uk .eu
England	English (also Englishman, Englishwoman for people)	British can be used as a generic term	ENG (unofficial)
Wales	Welsh (also Welshman and Welshwoman for people)	British can be used as a generic term	CYM (unofficial)
Scotland	Scottish, Scot	Scotch is only used for products British can be used as a generic term	SCO (unofficial)
Northern Ireland	Irish	British can be used as a generic term	NI (unofficial)
Ireland, Republic of Ireland	Irish		IRL	.ie .eu
Isle of Man	Manx		GBM	.im
Jersey			GBJ	.je
Guernsey Alderney			GBG GBA	.gg

 

Ouffou...

What I’ve written so far is far from exhaustive so in my next notes I will try to write about different languages spoken on these islands, different money and politics.

If you find any inaccuracies, mistakes or you think that something could be added, email me or leave a comment below.