To point out that Ireland is a separate country?

[DrMantisToboggan]

Just that.

Ireland is a sovereign state, not part of the U.K. It hasn’t been part of the U.K. since 1922.

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It’s not part of Great Britain though.

Some people refer to Ireland as the Republic of Ireland, partly to differentiate it from Northern Ireland, but the legal name of the state is Ireland.

While I’m at it, the term “British Isles” is controversial and the product of colonialist geography (geography is not a value-free discipline obviously). The British Gov itself apparently has internal guidance not to use it. In joint documents the British and Irish Govs use the euphemistic phrase “these islands”, and other options include Western Atlantic Archipelago or Islands Of the North Atlantic.

There’s no such country as “Southern Ireland”. And “Eire” is also incorrect, unless you’re in the habit of referring to Germany as Deutschland or Spain as España.

Hmmm, well my mother always called it Eire, and as she was born there as the eldest of 12 in 1916, I and my family will continue to call it Eire in speech and written correspondence, go raibh maith agat.

With respect, OldBean, your mother was born over a century ago into a pre-independence, pre-Partition political jurisdiction that no longer exists. What she called the country of her birth, and how many siblings she had (which you seem to be suggesting is some kind of index of her 'authenticity' ) is entirely irrelevant to the correct nomenclature of Ireland in 2018.

I would have assumed that many people talk about southern (with a small s) Ireland to distinguish it from the bit at the other end, which seems fair enough to me.

It's inaccurate at best though. How could Donegal be considered part of southern (or Southern) Ireland?

Yeah, people go on hols to Mayo and say they went to 'Southern Ireland'. Argh!

This thread seems to be turning into a competition to see who can use the longest word.

My Irish aunts and uncles who live in England always put Eire on letters to Ireland.

In fact they say they went to 'County Mayo' in 'Southern Ireland'. Even worse!

Yes the only time I have seen Eire used is on letters, but I don't know if that's the thing now.

Writing letters is dying out.

And I have a white Zimbabwean friend whose parents, long living in Australia, still call it Rhodesia.

BaronessBlonde No significance. I just used that phrase as short hand. I'm not really into football, but I might say "our team" even though I don't own the team or 'our tesco'

I'm not any kind of nationalist so I don't take borders as seriously as some. They tend to have people on both sides of them.

Yes Ireland and Scotland's bond and history is similar, I thought everyone had watched Braveheart. When the English sent the Irish to fight the Scots first, the scene is funny if your Irish or Scottish.

On a happier note I do hope our English neighbours win the World cup.

Sorry not everyone, lots of people

No wonder these idiots can't work out how to deal with the border in the Brexit negotiations. They are too ignorant.

Some people refer to Ireland as the Republic of Ireland, partly to differentiate it from Northern Ireland, but the legal name of the state is Ireland.

Ahem. Republic of Ireland Act 1948. That's an Irish law, not a British one.
"An Act to repeal the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936, to declare that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland".

And your point is?

If Ireland passes a law to declare that "the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland" then who are you to correct people for using that term to describe it?

I didn’t correct anyone for using the term “Republic of Ireland”

I still get asked if I have a British passport .by what I would consider to be intelligent, educated people. I am Irish born and bred .
It makes me dislike the asker.

Some people refer to Ireland as the Republic of Ireland, partly to differentiate it from Northern Ireland, but the legal name of the state is Ireland.

I didn’t correct anyone for using the term “Republic of Ireland”

The correct name to describe the state is the Republic of Ireland. That's not 'some people' referring to it as that, that's how it should be described according to both Irish and British law.

And while we're on the subject can I just point out that Northern Ireland is not Ulster and Ulster is not Northern Ireland.

Ulster is a province of the island of Ireland with 9 counties. Northern Ireland is made up of 6 of those counties, the other 3 are in the Republic of Ireland.

As you were

The name of the state is Ireland as the description Republic of Ireland in the 1948 Act (of the same name), was not a constitutional amendment.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_Act_1948

"Notably, the Act did not change the official name of the state. It merely provided the description for the State.

The Constitution of Ireland provides that Éire (or Ireland in English) is the official name of the State and, if the Act had purported to change the name, it would have been unconstitutional as it was not a constitutional amendment.

The distinction between a description and a name has sometimes caused confusion. The Taoiseach, John A. Costello, who introduced the Republic of Ireland Bill in the Oireachtas, explained the difference in the following way:[10]

If I say that my name is Costello and that my description is that of senior counsel, I think that will be clear to anybody who wants to know. If the Senator [Helena Concannon] will look at Article 4 of the Constitution she will find that the name of the State is Éire. Section 2 of this Bill declares that "this State shall be described as the Republic of Ireland." Its name in Irish is Éire and in the English language Ireland. Its description in the English language is "the Republic of Ireland."

Reference
The Republic of Ireland Bill, 1948—Committee and Final Stages. Seanad Éireann debates. 15 December 1948. Vol. 36, p.323. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008

Teaching geography in a county where students are shocked that you've communted 6 MILES from the nearby city to get to work is an interesting perspective on some English sub-culture... Some people have an incredibly localised perspective on life, but that's not a characteristic unique to the English and does exist all over the world.

I have taught about the Northern Ireland peace process at GCSE, but it's not on the curriculum at KS3 or one of the most widely taught History GCSE units. Most people will emerge from their compulsory education in History with little knowledge of the processes that created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as we know it today.

In Geography, the curriculum has been skills based rather than fact based for over a generation, so by KS3, a description such as "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland" would be considered a low level skill as it id pure description. The focus is on building explanation, evaluation and analytical skills. Whether these basics covered much in primary school, I'm not sure, but certainly different primary schools differ in their success at teaching a broad curriculum in a culture of teaching to a SATs test for English and Maths to ensure the school's survival against OFSTED and academisation. Many y7s turn up in secondary school with very limited general knowledge despite apparently decent SATs results

Unfortunately this approach does leave huge factual gaps in people's knowledge. It also doesn't help that terminology changes, some of the geographical terms used to describe the UK and surrounding area are quite verbose and specific to different contexts of physical and political geography and end up being shorthanded to other terms distorting what is said from what is intended as well as differing cultural interpretations and preferences. No wonder so many people balls up!

The problem with what you don't know is that you don't know you don't know it

Yes Ulsters province is shared. Only Unionists use the term Ulster to describe NI.

Surely this is something you just know. Like General Knowledge. Like Paris is the capital of France. You shouldn't have to rely on schools to teach it.

Whatever its legal name, the way it should be described is the 'Republic of Ireland'. Therefore the correct way to 'refer' to it is 'Republic of Ireland'.

This discussion is an interesting revision of my 1980's history Leaving Certificate studies.

However, my interpretation is that the name of the state is Ireland. It may be described as the Republic of Ireland, in order to differentiate from Northern Ireland, rather than should be en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Irish_state.