to ask everyone to get the name of my country right?

[runnybottom]

Its not "Eire" unless you are speaking/writing in Irish, its Ireland. Its definitely not Southern Ireland. Its not even "Republic of Ireland"

Its just Ireland.

PS> Yes I do realise there a bigger things to worry about, just bugs me a teeny bit is all.

thumbwitch...the Derry question is a whole thread in itself!

thought it might be...

depends on who you want to piss off.

thumbwitch - depends on whether you are sending it to aProtestant or a Catholic.

My dad was a journo in Derry. To get around the Derry/Londonderry problem he used to call it 'The Maiden City'. It was also often called Stroke City (after Derry Stroke Londonderry) .

I'm Irish. I address post home to Ireland, I would never ever refer to Eire. As for Southern ireland - well sorry I'm not from Cork or Kerry but don't pull people up on that, just chalk it down to people being stupid, enough Irish people call the whole of the UK England to make up for that one

As for the Free State? Eh yeah sure, fine if you want to tell the whole world you're an Orangeman and that Ulster Says NO!

Dh's horrid uncle once laid into a customs officer who, in an effort to make polite conversation during the process, said "Is that an Irish accent I hear?" (dh et al are from NI) and he went off on a huge rant shouting "No. It's a British accent ..." PILs with whom he was going on holiday were mortified.

Surely it's not even British. They're part of the United Kingdom, not Britain. Britain is a geographical term surely, referring to the land mass. Where as the UK refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so by that reasoning they must be seperate, otherwise it would all just be called Britain and no need for the term UK>

I know her well and she is from Donegal originally - very lapsed Catholic so I'm guessing I'll be using Derry from now on (I usually do anyway)

I know I am skipping loads of posts but just wanted to add (pointlessly ) that my calendar states Public Holidays as blah blah Eire, blah blah.

I have never had to send post and usually refer to the Isle as Ireland.

I come from Norn Iron. Down South? We don't say 'down South' we say 'over the border.'

Never write 'Londonderry' if you want to keep friends.

"The Mainland" drives me demented.

'The Mainland', referring to England do you mean?

Gosh, haven't heard that for years.

expat in theory, you shouldn't need to write 'NI' or 'Northern Ireland'. However, dh has family in a town which is a duplicate name to a welsh town, and if we don't specify NI the post ends up in Wales, in spite of the postcode being on there.

And when we post stuff home from the USA, the local guy in the PO advised us to write in full 'United Kingdom' as not everyone in the US postal service would understand 'UK'. So, sending stuff home to dh's family, i now have to write out BOTH place names in full.

Now, can anyone resolve our dilemma about the correct way to address something going to Guernsey?

Referring to Britain, Monty. Accuracy when naming countries is all

It's not so common any more but not entirely extinct yet.

Wukter - lol

Devolution must be confusing for posties.

In say, a Spanish sorting office, who's going to know what Cymru means??? Or would they. Same as Eire really isn't it??

What is Gaelic for Scotland???

What is the correct name for the whole island mass of Ireland and N. Ireland? Anyone know?

If I want to refer to the chunk of land containing England, Scotland and Wales, I think its Great Britain. But what do we say for the land mass across the Irish Sea?

Well, the front of your passport reads, 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.

So I guess NI is just NI?

Should I be writing Northern Ireland on post there?

I've just been putting a postcode on it and it's been getting there.

I can see now that posting to Ireland and Northern Ireland can be a fraught affair.

However, I would like to know why trafficone would expect the people at HER local sorting office to know that Norge is Norway if she is to send me a post card!

By doing that, my post card may take a detour to the famous wine region Norgeuax in France, if the card happens to find itself in the hands of somebody with a preference for Bordeaux.....

olderandwider its called "the island of Ireland".

Its not semantics and its not even politics. It is so difficult to get the name of a country right? I think its just rude to insist it doesn't matter, when it clearly does to a lot of people.

Well, I would always write Ireland but I do think you are being unreasonable to expect people from other countries to know about legal judgements about whether RoI is an acceptable term or not.

I live in England but I do not expect people from other countries to know the difference between England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norn Iron.

Of course it's not rude not to know details of another country.

runnybottom - thank you.

Its not on the other side of the world or anything. You don't think you should be able to accurately name the country next to the one you live in?

Fair enough. I didn't realise that standards were so low in the English education system.

Oh and BTW, newer maps in Irish schools show the name as "Western European Isles" since the term "British Isles" is deemed to be outdated and colonial.