To want to shout at people who write Southern Ireland

[ParadiseCity]

THERE IS NO SUCH FUCKING COUNTRY! And if you really were as clever as you pretend to be, you might just fucking know that. Arrrgghhh.

I feel a bit better for that. Please feel free to add your own

While we're at it....

If one more person says Brexit I'm going to fucking lose it.

It's Ukexit.

Fuckers couldn't even be bothered to include NI.

Those who feel Ireland should be a united republic sometimes refer to "the north of Ireland" and "the south of Ireland"

No they most definitely do not.

Some NI athletes represent Ireland in the olympics, some represent GB (which is actually UK but 'Team GB' is more marketable )

I always thought that the rest of Ireland was called the Republic of Ireland or Eire? However, when the Republic is officially just called Ireland, which is also the name of the whole island, I can see why some people call it Southern Ireland

The country is called Ireland. If you want to say the whole island, you say The Island of Ireland. You can only use Eire if you are speaking or writing in Irish.
It is never, ever, called Southern Ireland.

Where's 7to25 when you need some more light relief.

It's not called Southern Ireland which is different to saying going down south power

My dh is always gobsmacked at the ignorance of Irish history over here. I'm from the other side of the world and have more knowledge than the average Brit

My brain is aching for the posters who weren't sure where NI is politically, and must have been baffled why we were shooting the arses off each other for years...

Can you imagine? Watching the TV through the 70s and 80s saying "Oh dear, another big parking dispute in Belfast, Bernard". 😂

Would it not be as easy (as well as so much nicer) to simply explain to people who say "Southern Ireland" that it doesn't exist so that they know for the future? Sometimes people make innocent mistakes and merely need to be made aware...

Reborn, is that not more because of the Ulster/NI confusion? (Although it would be reassuring that people from the Republic are confused about Irish geography too).

FadedRed

England, Scotland and Wales all have islands which are not part of Great Britain. Great Britain is a single island in the British Isles.

I always excuse my poor knowledge of the details of Irish history because when I was at school it was one question on each exam paper but took as long to revise as the rest of it as it was so very complicated. But, even I know "Ireland and Northern Ireland"

reallyanotherone

Northern Irish athletes can choose to compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics.

Would it not be as easy (as well as so much nicer) to simply explain to people who say "Southern Ireland" that it doesn't exist so that they know for the future?

Nope, because when you tell them they get all shirty with you and insist that they are right and you are wrong, and how dare you try and tell them different!
There was a thread on here when I mentioned you shouldn't use Eire in english and I was called all kinds of names, told to fuck off, told that it was just fine and that I didn't know what I was talking about....

Southern Ireland is bloody wierd.

I mean I get someone from NI saying "down south" cos everything bar Donegal is down south from up there. I say "Up North" when referring to NI.

But Southern Ireland is an imaginary place.

But then I never ever even hear anyone saying it. Who says it? British people? Well they're not known for their accuracy about anything to do with the island next door, frankly.

Is that the bit in the far north west of the Island of Ireland?

That's the one. I'm from Donegal, a lot of people here use North and South. To get "into" the North I have to head South South East, if we're being technical

I don't think using the words North and South cause annoyance/offence here, hopping over the border is daily occurance for a lot of people, it's often just used to differentiate between the two. IME people living farther away from the border get more annoyed by it.

Not sure what it is badtime. It's just a common turn of phrase on the border. In the north/in the south. Have never given it much brain space to be honest.

But yes, I have met people from counties past Dublin (i.e down South) who weren't sure if euros or sterling were used in the border counties. I didn't want to cause their brains to explode by saying, actually, a lot of places in these areas are dual currency due to their proximity to the border (but you'll be done on the exchange rate). It was easier to leave it at; yes it's euros in Donegal because it's in the South.

Thinking about it more, I even had a woman, again from past Dublin direction who couldn't understand why Amazon wouldn't deliver free to my address as they would to a UK address since I'm only a couple of miles down the road. Mind boggling really how people think. Or don't think for that matter.

My dh is always gobsmacked at the ignorance of Irish history over here. I'm from the other side of the world and have more knowledge than the average Brit

Could history between GB and Ireland have been 'ignored' in schools because it's difficult to teach in a politcally neutral way?

I don't remember anything about Ireland/Northern Ireland etc from school, but when I was at school, The Troubles was current affairs, not history.

Doesn't NI compete under GB though? For the olympics and such?

Both I think. GB or ROI

I've never seen that map before, and never stopped to think that the Isle of Wight or Anglesey and the Scottish Islands wouldn't count as Great Britain. There is the geographical entity of Great Britain, as opposed to Little Britain i.e. Brittany, and a political entity of Great Britain, which so very many people assume can also be called England. Grr.

In fact, I think one of the DUP demands for propping up the May government was something to do with scrapping 'Team GB' because it didn't explicitly include NI.

I don't think using the words North and South cause annoyance/offence here, hopping over the border is daily occurance for a lot of people, it's often just used to differentiate between the two

North and South, as in I'm going up North/down South etc are not at all the same thing as referring to the name of the country as Southern Ireland. Totally different.

Maisie- I can think of someone who, if asked, will say he is from the North of Ireland rather than Northern Ireland, he's Irish as far as he's concerned. We had a conversation about it a few months back. So there are definitely Northern Irish people out there who use the term.

In the last couple of years I have been to Dublin and Belfast on holiday from the UK. In both cases people asked me when I was "going to Ireland" and I think they were referring to the geographical land mass really rather than failing to distinguish.

Virtually all of Sinn Féin say 'the north of Ireland' when referring to Northern Ireland.

I know abigcupof - I probably didn't explain what I meant, but earlier in thread I thought PPs had asked if South was ok for Donegal

In NI you can choose:

• which passport to hold (or both but you rarely see this as they are mostly too 'political' on both sides to see how convenient it is)
• which country to represent in the olympics.