Irish mercenaries, unionist coat trailers and the Bard of Dunclug

[Main Street]

Well my rationale was that Great Britain and Britain aren't necessarily the same thing. The British Empire wasn't confined to GB and those countries and cities within the Empire were regarded as 'British', were they not?

I am not too hot on the history of British Empire, "Calcutta was a British city"  somehow doesn't ring any bells.

[nifan]

its another tiny issue that people are not going to agree on. Why worry about it?

[Hardy]

The country is called "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". It was called "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" when all of Ireland was part of it. To call it "Britain" is a lazy contraction that has been prevalent for centuries, as far as I can gather, and was/is typically dismissive and insulting to Ireland then and Northern Ireland now. It always surprises me that Northern unionists are happy to acquiesce in this casual insult to their identity and call themselves "British" when clearly that appellation is a nonsense in their case. 

You don't hear New Yorkers referring to the USA as "Washington" because that's the seat of power or Japanese people calling their country "Honshu" because that's the name of the largest of the islands that make up the political entity of Japan.

OK "UKish" is a bit cumbersome, but certainly there's no such countrtry as Britain. That's the name of one of the constituents of the UK. Therefore to call Belfast a British city is a nonsense.

Next sermon: on the arrogance of the USA in styling itself "America" in blithe dismissal of the remaining constituent entities of that continent.

[Zapatista]

They're great!!

[delboy]

Is ireland and the Uk mainland not known collectively as the British isles I suppose you could then argue that dublin and cork were british cities 

[Hardy]

You could, but you wouldn't expect to win the argument.

(And the British Isles are comprised of more than Ireland and the "UK mainland").

[nifan]

Is ireland and the Uk mainland not known collectively as the British isles

Thats been another can of worms as well

[delboy]

You could, but you wouldn't expect to win the argument.

(And what, pray tell, is the "UK mainland"?)

That would be the big chunk of land to the right of ireland between it and france but not including offshore places such as the isle of man etc.

[Hardy]

I have no problem with the British Isles as a geographic designation that has no political implications. It wouldn't be uncommon for a group of islands to be designated by the name of the biggest one. (Please don't ask me ...)

[nifan]

From the mighty wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:British_Isles_Euler_diagram.svg

[Hardy]

You could, but you wouldn't expect to win the argument.

(And what, pray tell, is the "UK mainland"?)

That would be the big chunk of land to the right of ireland between it and france but not including offshore places such as the isle of man etc.

As you see, I withdrew the question before you answered it because I couldn't pretend not to know what you meant. "Mainland" is an unusual name for a land mass that is itself an offshore island, but I'll concede that it's technically supportable as it is the largest single chunk of the UK.

[Hardy]

From the mighty wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:British_Isles_Euler_diagram.svg

That's pretty good.

[delboy]

I have no problem with the British Isles as a geographic designation that has no political implications. It wouldn't be uncommon for a group of islands to be designated by the name of the biggest one. (Please don't ask me ...)

Agreed, geography shouldn't be used to map out politcal boundaries.

[red hander]

I have no problem with the British Isles as a geographic designation that has no political implications. It wouldn't be uncommon for a group of islands to be designated by the name of the biggest one. (Please don't ask me ...)

Agreed, geography shouldn't be used to map out politcal boundaries.

No, and neither should ignoring the wishes of the vast majority of the Irish people in the 1918 general election

[Hardy]

I have no problem with the British Isles as a geographic designation that has no political implications. It wouldn't be uncommon for a group of islands to be designated by the name of the biggest one. (Please don't ask me ...)

Agreed, geography shouldn't be used to map out politcal boundaries.

Ehhh ... that's not what I said, so I'll take your sentence as two separate statements, the second of which is self evident (despite what Sarah Palin may think).