to wish people would use the correct name for my country?

[Buttercup2926]

I love living in the UK but I do wish people were better educated about the country right next door. Particularly its name.

The Constitution of Ireland sets out that there are two official names for the country, Ireland and Éire. Éire should only be used when speaking in the Irish language. Therefore it is correct for people in the UK to say Ireland when talking about that fab country next door!

Northern Ireland is a seperate place and is part of the UK.

Republic of Ireland is a description as opposed to a name. For political reasons FIFA forces the football team to use this name.

The term 'Southern Ireland' is very offensive and should not be used ever. It has strong historical connotations and was used by the English government as a way to avoid recognising the independence of Ireland. I understand that people genuinely do not know this and don't always mean to be offensive as so many people in England use it so casually.

I often see on here people referring to Irish accents and sayings as 'regional'. This is incorrect, Ireland is not a region of the UK no more than France or Spain are.

Nauticant, I think you're being deliberately obtuse there.Clearly the OP means she gets annoyed in situations where, for example, a thread comes up asking "Which UK regional accent do you love?" and someone replies "Poppy I love a lovely soft Irish accent.Sooooooo sexy". And so on. (people very rarely specify a northern Irish accent)

Elle ROI isnt just a footy thing. Its just FIFA require the team to be known as Republic of Ireland rather than Ireland. Republic of Ireland is used in lots of other contexts to describe the country but it is not the official name.

Of course ireland has regions. Im from cork, the real capital, its different to dublin in its accents and its sayings and traditions. Same as any other county.

Op another one who is offended for the sake of being offended. Give over, go address it with the people who say it. Its not offensive just because you say so.

Apologies. I have NO idea where "Poppy" came from

I get that you prefer it a certain way, but it's just not that important to the rest of us. There is no malice in it, but if we say 'Ireland' then someone will say "do you mean Northern Ireland" and so we say "No, Southern Ireland".

As for regional accents that is incorrect (if they mean a region of the UK), but do people actually speak of people from Ireland as having a regional accent or are they referring to people from Northern Ireland.

Really the problem is that to have two places called Ireland and Northern Ireland makes no sense.

Is this what the row was the other day? I never saw the thread, just people accusing everyone of being racist.

I'm laughing

They use ROI on all sorts of things don't they?

Bloody hell! Give the OP a break! She/He is merely making a point about something, not threatening to skin a cat alive.

but Hester doesn't that come up for any country? Like the Scottish accent or Welsh or French or German... infact, when would someone specify regional accents, don't people just say accents?

(that was to filthyfeet by the way)

Republic of Ireland isn't just a footy thing - it was set out in the 1948 Act that that was what the country would be called. But I guess that's why some people are uncomfortable with it - if the country was "Ireland" before, why not simply "Ireland" again?

Not something to get your knickers too much in a twist about though. Oh, and by the way it's British Government, not English Government. Matters of foreign policy are not devolved to regional government and the British Government is still the relevant entity for matters of foreign policy. For now at least. If you're going to complain about the incorrect use of terminology, you should at least make sure you get it right too.

Just to be clear, it is South or Northern Korea isn't it? There's no North Korea and just Korea? People often say Korea and I say South Korea, but I used to say Southern Ireland, so I'm thinking I may have been wrong?

I get that you prefer it a certain way, but it's just not that important to the rest of us.

So it's ok for you to cause offence through your own ignorance then is it?

(and please don't tar us all with your brush, it is important to me)

The Constitution of Ireland can't decide what I want to refer to the country as. The OP refers to living in the UK rather than giving the UK its full and correct title. RoI is useful shorthand, and avoids confusing Ireland the political entity with Ireland the geographical term. For what it's worth, I have in friend in Ballymena who consistently refers to his southern neighbours as Mexicans.

It's actually South Korea, and The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Normally called the DPRK)

i.e. no such place as North Korea

Well I for one am glad you posted this buttercup i have been confused sometimes about the eire bit & now i know. Would be lovely if others with similar bits of information could enlighten us MNetters without silly boring comments being posted too.

Perhaps you should lead the way by using the correct name for the country you live in first?

OP wrote "English government"?

Well the South is actually called the Republic of Korea, so if we're just talking about North or South I can call the South South can't I?

Well I am writing about a book that covers the island of Ireland from 1910-1945

The sheer amount of explaining that is needed in a relatively short piece about this specific topic (which draws heavily on law and politics)

At various points the author makes reference to the island of Ireland along with:

1900 - 1922 Whole of Ireland under British rule
1922 - 1937 Irish Free State and Northern Ireland
1937 - 1950 Ireland and Northern Ireland

My mind is getting rather frazzled.

I will argue that the term Republic of Ireland is a useful descriptor. to make it clear that you are talking about something relevant only to the 26 counties. Whereas if you are talking about 'transport links in Ireland' that cross the border or the 'Irish rugby team' (which is drawn from the whole island) you are talking about the geographical formation.

I agree referring to Ireland as 'southern Ireland' is a colonial hangover and offensive. However some republicans will refer to NOrthern Ireland as 'the NOrth of Ireland' of 'the North.'

Whatever the rights and the wrongs of Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK refusing to acknowledge its existence by a deliberate linguist slight of hand is absurd.

Yes, and I call the north 'North Korea' too, although it is wrong. (I spend quite a lot of time in that neck of the woods and am never corrected and don't think I've offended anyone)