Region or country?

[ISeeMisledPeople]

I've just been to a UK government website. It suggests that the UK is made up of four countries, and each one contains regions.

AIBU to agree with this?

No you're not. Is this a trick question?

How can it be unreasonable to agree with facts? 😂

No, no trick. Just came across someone saying Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland were regions, because they aren't sovereign states.

I would have posted this on that thread but it's full now. Thought I would see what others thought.

Oh haha! Well that person probably needs to do some research 😂

They’re right that they’re not sovereign states but you can be a country and not an SS. I suppose it’s a bit if a unique situation.

England and Scotland have long been countries. Wales was a principality until very recently when it was upgraded to a country. Northern Ireland is a province.

The tradition is that England and Scotland were countries because they had kings. There was a King of Scotland and a King of England. The titles were merged when the Scottish King James also became King of England.

Wales never had a king, there was never a king specifically of Wales only. It was a mish-mash of tribal leaders and warlords controlling smaller areas. Only when it was unified under English rule was the whole of Wales under one ruler. It was "upgraded" to a country within the last 20 years or so for political reasons, a Labour attempt to shut Plaid Cymru up.

Northern Ireland is Ulster, a province of Ireland when Ireland was a region of the UK.

Is this that Welsh thread again. That's full? A thousand posts about whether or not someone is Welsh?

But it did prove that a lot of people don't understand this sort of thing.

Northern Ireland is a province.

No it fucking isn't! The province is Ulster, of which six counties are in Northern Ireland and two are in the Republic of Ireland.

@Dotjones
Same to you! Northern Ireland is not Ulster.

Honestly, two references to Northern Ireland in the thread so far and they're both wrong!

You are right.

There’s no debate here; the person calling them regions is simply factually incorrect.

A place can be a nation/country without being a sovereign state. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the four nations of the United Kingdom. They aren’t regions.

You got there before me @KrisAkabusi - but there are 3 counties of Ulster in ROI, not 2 - Cavan, Monaghan & Donegal.

Northern Ireland is part of Ulster, a province of Ireland*.
FIFY*

The OP has probably been banging her head against the wall on the Nationality thread.

I work in Nationality and after reading a few totally untrue "facts" on the thread, hid it.

No one ever thinks of Cavan 😏

Yep they're countries.

Posters get things wrong.

Is anyone else getting twitchy due to the lack of capitals on proper nouns on the linked website? I.e Wales, England etc.

That is really weird actually. Yet North Antrim got capitals! Must be deliberate because it's on all of them.

@Dotjones

Northern Ireland is comprised of 6 of the 9 counties of the historic Irish province of Ulster, an ancient region of the island of Ireland which predated the development of counties that occurred with the establishment of the Normans.