British Isles

The term "British Isles" can be confusing and is objectionable to some people. See the Terminology section below for details of the controversy.

Location of the archipelago often labelled as the "British Isles".

Great Britain, Ireland and several thousand smaller surrounding islands and islets form an archipelago off the northwest coast of continental Europe which is most commonly known as the British Isles.

From 1801 to 1922, the majority of the archipelago formed the the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.Though the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom on 6 December 1922 the name of the United Kingdom was not changed to reflect that until April 1927, when Northern Ireland was substituted for Ireland in its name. In 1922, 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland ceased to be a part of the United Kingdom. Thus there are now two sovereign states on the isles: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The islands also include the Isle of Man, a crown dependency. Both states, but not the Isle of Man, are members of the European Union.

The islands encompass an area south to north from Pednathise Head to Out Stack, Shetland in the United Kingdom, and west to east from the Tearaght Island in the Republic of Ireland to Lowestoft Ness in the United Kingdom, containing more than 6,000 islands, amounting to a total land area of 315,134 kmÂ² (121,674 sq. miles). The islands are largely low lying and fertile, though with significant mountainous areas in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the north of England. The regional geology is complex, formed by the drifting together of separate regions and shaped by glaciation. The history of the islands is one of emergence of nations, and tends to be considered on a national basis.

As the adjective, "British" can mean "of Great Britain" or "of the United Kingdom", it is often mistakenly interpreted to imply that the Republic of Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. Official Irish government documents and the Irish media rarely use the term. The term has also been used either not to include the island of Ireland at all in the definition, or else to include just Northern Ireland.

Geography

Satellite Image of the British Isles (excluding the Shetland Islands) and part of northern Continental Europe.

The archipelago is made up of more than 6,000 islands, the two biggest being Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain, to the east, covers 216,777 kmÂ² (83,698 sq. miles), over 2/3 of the total archipelago; Ireland, to the west, covers 84,406 kmÂ² (32,589 sq. miles). The other larger islands are situated to the north-west of the archipelago, in the Hebrides and Shetland Islands.

The islands that constitute the archipelago include:
*Great Britain
** Northern Isles (including Orkney, Shetland and Fair Isle)
** Hebrides (including the Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides and Small Isles)
** Islands of the lower Firth of Clyde (including the Isle of Arran and Bute)
** Anglesey (in Welsh Ynys MÃ´n)
** Isles of Scilly
** Isle of Wight
** Portsmouth Islands (including Portsea Island and Hayling Island)
** Islands of Furness
** Isle of Portland
** See also:
*** List of islands of England
*** List of islands of Scotland
*** List of islands of Wales
*Ireland
**Ulster: Arranmore, Tory Island
***Northern Ireland: Rathlin Island
**Connacht: Achill Island, Clew Bay islands, Inishturk, Inishbofin, Inishark, Aran Islands
**Munster: Blasket Islands, Valentia Island, Cape Clear , Sherkin Island, Great Island
**Leinster: Lambay Island, Ireland's Eye
**See also: List of islands of Ireland
*Isle of Man
**See also: List of islands of Isle of Man

The following islands are sometimes also included, though officially are not geographically part of the archipelago:
*Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are included here by convention. Many geographers do not consider them part of the archipelago, as they are closer to France than to Great Britain.
*Faroe Islands
*RockallRockall is not on the same segment of continental shelf as that of the archipelago, but is regarded in Britain as included. Its status is disputed, with the Republic of Ireland also claiming ownership.

The islands are at relatively low altitudes, with central Ireland and southern Great Britain particularly low lying. The Scottish Highlands in the northern part of Great Britain are mountainous, with Ben Nevis being the highest point on the archipelago at 1,344 m (4,409 ft). Other mountainous areas include Wales and parts of the island of Ireland, but only seven peaks in these areas reach above 1,000 m (3,281 ft). Lakes on the islands are generally not large, although Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is an exception, covering 381 kmÂ² (147 sq. miles); the largest freshwater body in Great Britain is Loch Lomond at 71.1 kmÂ² (27.5 sq. miles). Neither are rivers particularly long, the rivers Severn at 354 km (219 miles) and Shannon at 386 km (240 miles) being the longest.

The islands have a temperate marine climate, the North Atlantic Drift ("Gulf Stream") which flows from the Gulf of Mexico brings with it significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 degrees Celsius above the global average for the islands' latitudes. Winters are thus warm and wet, with summers mild and also wet. Most Atlantic depressions pass to the north of the islands, combined with the general westerly circulation and interactions with the landmass, this imposes an east-west variation in climate. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

Geology

An interactive geological map is available.

The British Isles lie at the juncture of several regions with past episodes of tectonic mountain building. These orogenic belts form a complex geology which records a huge and varied span of earth history. Of particular note was the Caledonian Orogeny during the Ordovician Period, ca. 488-444 Ma and early Silurian period, when the craton Baltica collided with the terrane Avalonia to form the mountains and hills in northern Britain and Ireland. Baltica formed roughly the north western half of Ireland and Scotland. Further collisions caused the Variscan orogeny in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, forming the hills of Munster, south-west England, and south Wales. Over the last 500 million years the land which forms the islands has drifted northwest from around 30Â°S, crossing the equator around 370 million years ago to reach its present northern latitude. Ibid., p. 5.

The islands have been shaped by numerous glaciations during the Quaternary Period, the most recent being the Devensian. As this ended, the central Irish Sea was de-glaciated (whether or not there was a land bridge between Great Britain and Ireland at this time is somewhat disputed, though there was certainly a single ice sheet covering the entire sea) and the English Channel flooded, with sea levels rising to current levels some 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, leaving the archipalego in its current form.

The islands' geology is highly complex, though there are large amounts of limestone and chalk rocks which formed in the Permian and Triassic periods. The west coasts of Ireland and northern Great Britain that directly face the Atlantic Ocean are generally characterized by long peninsulas, and headlands and bays; the internal and eastern coasts are "smoother".

History

See also: History of the Isle of Man, History of the Orkney Islands.

The islands have a long and complex shared history. While this tends to be presented in terms of national narratives, many events transcended modern political boundaries. In particular these borders have little relevance to early times and in that context can be misleading, though useful as an indication of location to the modern reader. It should also be noted that cultural shifts which historians have previously interpreted as evidence of invaders eliminating or displacing the previous populations are now, in the light of genetic evidence, perceived by many archaeologists and historians as being to a considerable extent changes in the culture of the existing population, often brought by groups of immigrants or invaders who at times became a new ruling Ã©lite.

Prehistory

At a time when these lands were still joined to continental Europe, Homo erectus brought Palaeolithic tool use to the south east of the modern archipelago some 750,000 years ago followed (about 500,000 years ago) by the more advanced tool use of Homo heidelbergensis found at Boxgrove. It appears that the glaciation of ice ages successively cleared all human life from the area, though human occupation occurred during warmer interglacial periods. Modern humans appear with the Aurignacian culture about 30,000 years ago, famously with the "Red Lady of Paviland" in modern Wales. The last ice age ended around 10,000 years ago, and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers spread to all parts of the archipelago by around 8,000 years ago, at a time when rising sea levels now cut off the islands from the continent.

Around 6,500 years ago farming practices spread to the area with the Neolithic Revolution and the western seaways quickly brought megalithic culture throughout the islands. The earliest stone house still standing in northern Europe is at Knap of Howar, in Orkney which also features such monuments as Maes Howe ranking alongside the Callanish stone circle on the Isle of Lewis, Newgrange in Ireland, and Stonehenge in southern England along with thousands of lesser monuments across the isles, often showing affinities with megalithic monuments in France and Spain.British Archaeology Magazine - People of the Sea article by Barry Cunliffe Further cultural shifts in the bronze age were followed in the iron age with numerous hill forts being built, and increased trade with continental Europe.

Pretani, Romans and Anglo-Saxons

The oldest surviving historical records of the islands preserve fragments of the travels of the ancient Greek Pytheas around 320 BC and describe Britain and Ireland as the islands of Prettanike with their peoples the Priteni or Pretani, a name which may have been used in Gaul. A later variation on this term as the Cruithne would come to refer to certain groups. Ireland was referred to as Ierne (the sacred island as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of Hiberni", and Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albions". These terms without the collective name appear in the 4th century writings of Avienus which preserve fragments of the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC.Encyclopedia of the Celts: Pretani Later scholars would associate these tribal societies with the Celts the Ancient Greeks reported in what is now south west Germany, and their Celtic languages subgrouped into the Brythonic languages spoken in most of Britain and Goidelic in Ireland and perhaps the west of modern Scotland. In the Scottish highlands northwards the people the Romans called Caledonians or Picts spoke a language which is now unknown.

During the first century the Roman conquest of Britain established Roman Britain which became a province of the Roman Empire named Britannia, extending on the island of Britain to Hadrian's Wall, with tribes forming friendly buffer states further north to around the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth, and military expeditions beyond that into Caledonia. The interaction of the Romans with Ireland appears to have largely been limited to some trade. Roman Britain was subjected to raids from within the archipelago and from across the North Sea. From the 4th century, many Britons migrated across the English Channel and founded Brittany.

The departure of the Romans around 410 left numerous kingdoms across the islands, with Sub-Roman Britain increasingly coming under the rule of Anglo-Saxons whose Heptarchy of kingdoms came to rule much of England and south-east Scotland which was included under Northumbria, relegating native language and culture to Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria and Strathclyde. To the north, the Irish Dalriadans, also known by the name Scotti expanded their influence to western Scotland.

Vikings and Normans

Having settled in Orkney and Shetland, Vikings expanded their influence with Viking Age raids on Lindisfarne and Iona being recorded in the 790s. These invaders took hold of the Western Isles, Caithness, Sutherland and the Isle of Man, and settled in Galloway and in various places around Ireland, most significantly Dublin. Under these pressures the Darlriadan Scots amalgamated with Pictland to form the Kingdom of Alba. Vikings from Denmark captured Northumbria in 867 then formed the Danelaw in eastern England. Resistance from Wessex led to formation of the Kingdom of England which succeeded in pushing back the Danes and reached a deal ceding half of Northumbria to Alba giving it southern borders similar to modern Scotland. England was dealing with another Danish invasion when dealings with Viking descendants in Normandy brought further change.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought England under Norman rule and their 1072 foray into Scotland began a series of arguments as to whether the Scots accepted the English kings as overlords. Normans soon invaded Wales and by the end of the century appeared to have control, but revolts united Wales and it was not until 1283 that Wales fell under English control. Scotland remained independent but came under Scoto-Norman rule by 1150. Ireland came under Norman English attack from 1167, resulting from 1184 in the Lordship of Ireland under nominal English rule. The Hiberno-Norman lords adopted the Irish language and customs, becoming known as the "Old English", and the Irish kingdoms effectively remained independent outside an area of English authority around Dublin called the Pale. In the medieval period England made a series of attempts to seize control of Scotland which were thwarted, notably during the Wars of Scottish Independence, as well as repeatedly being involved in wars on the continent, often with France. Scotland gradually gained control of Norse areas, formally annexing the earldom of Orkney and Shetland from Norway in 1472.

Protestant Reformation and civil wars

The Protestant Reformation brought changes throughout the isles. Following his imposition of the English Reformation, Henry VIII arranged in 1541 for the Parliament of Ireland to assent to the lordship becoming the Kingdom of Ireland. Following military interventions from England and France, the Protestant Church of Scotland was established in defiance of the monarch. As a result, James VI of Scotland was Protestant and well positioned to inherit the English throne as James I of England, unifying the countries under the Union of the Crowns. While the governments of England and Scotland remained separate, King James proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" on October 20 1604. James expanded an existing policy of Protestant English settlers in Ireland, adding Lowland Scots and creating the "Plantation of Ulster" at the expense of the existing Roman Catholics, both the native Irish and the "Old English". His attempts to control the Church of Scotland were escalated by his son Charles into the Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms, with the Irish Confederate Wars involving rebellion, massacres and conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and the English Civil War culminating in the execution of Charles and the brief republican rule of the Commonwealth of England over all of the archipelago; Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship was particularly brutal in the conquest of Ireland.

Kingdom of Great Britain

The Restoration of the Monarchy brought relief, but the Parliaments of England and Scotland would no longer accept a Catholic monarch and ousted James II and VII. His supporters rallied to Jacobitism in a series of risings commencing with the Jacobite war in Ireland which is now remembered as a victory for Irish Protestants. The 1707 Act of Union united England and Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain and widespread discontent led to further Jacobite Risings culminating in the Battle of Culloden and crushing of rebellious Scottish clans.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The risings had formed part of a series of wars with France, capped by the Napoleonic Wars during which a French-aided rebellion in Ireland in 1798 was defeated and Ireland was brought firmly under British government control by the 1800 Act of Union creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The wars were followed by widespread political repression and economic failures. Famine forced emigration from Ireland, and from the Scottish Highlands in the Highland clearances, with many migrating to lowland Britain as the industrial revolution brought new prosperity and an increasing identification with Britishness and the British Empire.

Republic of Ireland, and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Irish unrest continued, and while Britain was weakened by World War I the Irish War of Independence led to the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State, later becoming the Republic of Ireland. The mostly Protestant northeast continued to be part of what was now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Inspired by the Irish movement, nationalist parties developed in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. The international influence of the UK was greatly reduced as an outcome of World War 2, during which the Republic of Ireland remained neutral. In the 1960s The Troubles brought renewed conflict between nationalists and unionists over the future of Northern Ireland which ended with the Belfast Agreement of 1998, but disagreements remain. Moves towards devolution in the UK have brought the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, each with a degree of home administration. Despite a petition Cornwall has not been granted any devolved power. The Northern Ireland Assembly has had devolved power, but at present is suspended.

Terminology

The term British Isles is in widespread use, and is defined as "Great Britain and Ireland and adjacent islands".Definitions from Dictionary.com However the term carries additional meanings; political, economic, cultural, geopolitical, legal and cultural, reflecting historical divisions and the fact that the British Isles in general coincided with the geographic area of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801—1922). The use of the term British Isles has on occasion been interpreted as implying a continued political association with Britain, a inference which causes the term to be both unacceptable and controversial to many people in Ireland An Irishman's Diary Myres, Kevin; The Irish Times (subscription needed) 09/03/2000, Accessed July 2006 'millions of people from these islands - oh how angry we get when people call them the British Isles' a sovereign state that became independent from the Britain some eighty years ago.

The term British has several different meanings. The Old English language prefix "Brit-" came from the Latin Britto of classical times, which itself derived from a Celtic language termDefinition, AskOxford.com: Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 25 June 2006, The Concise Oxford Dictionary and was used when describing the whole archipelago of islands. Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans loosely to refer to the islands as a group.For example, in Geography 2.1.18, â€¦Î¿Î¹ Î½Î¿Ï„Î¹Ï‰Ï„Î±Ï„Î¿Î¹ Ï„Ï‰Î½ Î'ÏÎ·Ï„Ï„Î±Î½Ï‰Î½ Î²Î¿ÏÎ·Î¹Î¿Ï„Î·ÏÎ¿Î¹ Ï„Î¿Ï…Ï„Î¿Î½ Î·Î¹ÏƒÎ¹Î½ (â€¦the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this). Translation by Roseman, op.cit. Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. ("Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; we will speak of them in a moment."). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Ptolemy includes Ireland, which he calls Hibernia, as being part of the island group he calls Britannia. He titles Book II, Chapter 1 of his Geography as Hibernia, Island of Britannia.Ptolemy's Geography Since classical times, a meaning of "British" is to refer to the ancient Britons, and was used in this way by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (specifically excluding the English, Scots, Picts and Latin readers),General survey of Lothian through Early Modern times See William Shakespeare, King Lear III iv 189. to the present dayOxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Online Version (2000)

The classical name for all the islands associated with Great Britain and Ireland was used by continental mapmakers in Latin or French from the 16th century onwards, such as Gerardus Mercator (1512. Several of the maps can be seen on [1]. Accessed 18th July 2006] Ortelius makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "England, Scotland and Ireland, that I describe [to be] the British islands".[2]

However, also at the end of the 16th century British also came to mean as pertaining to the island of Great Britain The first mention is in 1587 in Holinshed's Chronicles where he refers to "Irish Scotishmen" and "British Scots", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Online Version (2000), and this use grew very quickly with the accession of James VI of Scots to the English throne. It was used in an Irish context to differentiate those from Great Britain from native Irish in 1641.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Online Version (2000) The first use in English of "British Isles" was by Peter Heylin (or Heylyn) in his Microcosmus: a little description of the great world in 1621,Peter Heylyn, Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Online Version (2000) a collection of his lectures on historical geography.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).

Perspectives in Ireland

In Ireland the use of the name "British Isles" is highly controversial, because of the perception that its usage implies a continued constitutional relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, a relationship subsequently perceived as damaging and discriminatory to Ireland.

See Norman Davies, The Isles (Macmillan, 1999); FSL Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (Fontana edition); National Archives of Ireland, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (Institute of Public Administration); Garret FitzGerald, All in a Life (Gill and Macmillan, 1991); Oliver Macdonagh, States of Mind: Two Centuries of Anglo-Irish Conflict, 1780—1980 (Pimlico, 1983); Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic (Corgi, 1968), etc.On 18 July 2004 The Sunday Business Post questioned the use of British Isles as a purely geographic expression, noting:

[The] "Last Post has redoubled its efforts to re-educate those labouring under the misconception that Ireland is really just British. When British Retail Week magazine last week reported that a retailer was to make its British Isles debut in Dublin, we were puzzled. Is not Dublin the capital of the Republic of Ireland?...Archipelago of islands lying off the north-western coast of Europe?

Retrieved 17 July 2006 According to the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, British Isles is not an officially recognised or used term, and no branch of the Irish government, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in London, uses the term. "Written Answers - Official Terms", DÃ¡il Ã‰ireann — Volume 606 — 28 September, 2005. In his response, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs added that "Our officials in the Embassy of Ireland, London, continue to monitor the media in Britain for any abuse of the official terms as set out in the Constitution of Ireland and in legislation. These include the name of the State, the President, Taoiseach and others."

Because of the complexity, many bodies avoid describing the Republic of Ireland as being part of the British Isles. Some believe that Ireland left the British Isles when it left the United Kingdom in 1922.Norman Davies, op.cit p.xxii."Irish Genealogical Sources No. 25 - History of the Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin" uses the term "then British Isles" to refer to Ireland's relationship association with it prior to 1922. Rare mentions of the term "British Isles" do occasionally occur at governmental level in Ireland, with a cabinet minister, SÃle de Valera, delivering a speech containing the term, contrary to stated government policy, in 2002. SÃle de Valera, Minister for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, 31 March 2002. Department website.

The different Irish attitudes towards the usage of the term British Isles can be gauged in a conference held in mid 2005, on the complex relationships between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and between Britain and Ireland. Of the range of academics from North and South, only one, a political scientist from Queens University Belfast, used the term "British Isles" when describing their areas of expertise, in a monograph.Mapping frontiers, Plotting pathways: Routes to North-South cooperation in a divided island". June 2005. All the others avoided usage of the term, using terms like "Anglo-Irish relations" (the issues being discussed by Dr. McCall did not cover any other parts of the archipelago except the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Politicians from the Irish Unionist and Northern Ireland Unionist traditions do readily use the term "British Isles"Speech by Rt. Hon. David Trimble to the Northern Ireland Forum Retrieved 16 July 2006.Speech by Mr. David Trimble to the AGM of the Ulster Unionist Council, 20 March 1999. Retrieved 16 July 2006. The contrast between Unionist and Nationalist approaches to the term was shown in December 1999 at a meeting of the Irish cabinet and Northern Ireland executive in Armagh. The First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, told the meeting

This represents the Irish government coming back into a relationship with the rest of the British Isles. We are ending the cold war that has divided not just Ireland but the British Isles. That division is now going to be transformed into a situation where all parts work together again in a way that respects each other.The Irish Independent. 14 December 1999. Retrieved 16 July 2006.

In contrast, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, avoided any use of the term in his address to the meeting.ibid.

The sensitivity of many Irish people to the term was referred to a gathering of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body (15th plenary session, in 1998). Referring to a plan for a "Council of the Isles" which was being supported by both Nationalists and Unionists, British MP for Falkirk West Dennis Canavan was paraphrased by official notetakers as having said in a caveat:

He understood that the concept of a Council of the Isles had been put forward by the Ulster Unionists and was referred to as a "Council for the British Isles" by David Trimble. This would cause offence to Irish colleagues; he suggested as an acronym IONA-Islands of the North Atlantic.British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. 15th Plenary Session. 30 March 1998.

In a series of documents issued by the United Kingdom and Ireland, from the Downing Street Declaration to the Belfast Agreement, relations on the archipelago were referred to as the East-West strand of the tripartite relationships defined.Three sets of relationships were defined. (i) Within Northern Ireland. (ii) North-South for the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and (iii) East-West for relationships on the islands.

Alternative terms

There have been several suggestions for replacements for the term British Isles but no single one has yet won any wide acceptance. Sometimes, an ambiguous phrase such as "these Isles" or "the Isles" is used, thus utilising the same logic used when referring to the Persian Gulf as "the Gulf". "These Islands" was used in Strand Three of the Belfast Agreement to establish the British-Irish Council, and has been described as the favoured term of Irish politicans. in Linnean, Hugh; 'The Islands in the Stream'; The Irish Times; July 15, 2006' In cases where what is being referred to is just the two largest islands, the term "Great Britain and Ireland", The Royal Anthropological Institute. Website. Retrieved 25 June 2006 reflecting the names of the two largest islands, is generally used.

In the context of the Northern Ireland peace process the term Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA), a term initially created by then Conservative Party MP Sir John Biggs-Davison, Open Republic. Retrieved 5 July 2006. has been used as a neutral term to describe the "British Isles", but in a wider context the term might be misunderstood as including Iceland, Greenland, the Azores and other islands.

IONA has been used by among others the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

The Government are, of course, conscious of the emphasis that is laid on the East-West dimension by Unionists, and we are, ourselves, very mindful of the unique relationships that exist within these islands — islands of the North Atlantic or IONA as some have termed them.Statement by the Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fail, Mr Bertie Ahern, TD on "Northern Ireland:Political Situation and Developments" at the Forty-Second Plenary Session of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, Dublin Castle,Friday, 5 December, 1997.

Others have interpreted the term more narrowly to mean the Council of the Isles or British-Irish Council. Peter Luff MP told the British House of Commons in 1998 that

In the same context, there will be a council of the isles. I think that some people are calling it IONA — the islands of the north Atlantic, from which England, by definition, will be excluded. House of Commons. Vol.304. Col.663. 16 January 1998.

His interpretation, as Ahern's comment earlier shows, is not widely held, particularly in Ireland, where IONA is seen as a parallel to either the British Islands or the British Isles. Its increasing usage was shown in 1997 when the leader of the Green Party, Trevor Sargent, discussing the Strand Three (or East-West) talks between the Republic and the United Kingdom, commented in DÃ¡il Ã‰ireann:

I noted with interest the naming of the islands of the north Atlantic under the acronym IONA which the Green Party felt was extremely appropriate.DÃ¡il Debates. Vol.484. Col.466. 9 December 1997.

His comments were echoed by Proinsias De Rossa, then leader of Democratic Left and later President of the Irish Labour Party when both parties merged, who told the DÃ¡il "The acronym IONA is a useful way of addressing the coming together of these two islands."DÃ¡il Debates. Vol 484. Col.466. 9 December 1997.

'Anglo-Celtic Isles' has been used in academia for the isles. Dolley, Michael (1976-11-19). R A Hall ed. "The Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse coinages of York". Viking Age York and the North; CBA Research Report No 27, pp. 26-31, Council for British Archaeology. Retrieved on 2006-07-20. The British-Irish Council is a...potential shift of the geopolitical centre of gravity of the Anglo-Celtic isles Harvey, David C.; Rhys Jones, Neil Mcinroy, Christine Milligan (2001). Celtic Geographies: Old Culture, New Times. New York: Routledge, p. 241. This reflects the supposed ethnic make up of the islands of the 'Celtic' peoples â€" the Irish, Manx, Scottish, Cornish and Welsh â€" and the 'Anglo-Saxon' peoples, the English.

The British government currently uses British Islands (as defined in the Interpretation Act, 1978) to refer to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwicks of Jersey and of Guernsey (which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark) in the Channel Islands; and the Isle of Man.

Some academics in the 1990s and early 2000s also used the term northwest European archipelago. David Armitage, "Greater Britain: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis?" in American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr., 1999) p.427. Usage however appears sporadic in historiography and rarely repeated outside it, to date.

While many terms are used primarily on one area (for example, IONA is used primarily in Anglo-Irish relations) the term British Isles and Ireland has been used in a wide variety of areas, being used in among others the BBC[http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/music/worldmusic/britishislesandirelandrev1.shtml BBC World Music site on occasion, sport,[www.infosci.org/MS-UK-MSSoc/race.html Multiple Challenge - Teesside Round British Isles and Ireland Yacht Race 1994.] religion,Prayer Association of British Isles and Ireland. nursing,Macey & Morgan, Learning on the road: nursing in the British Isles and Ireland (Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, 1988) zoological publications, Badham, M., and Richards, V. (1991). Gibbon Regional Studbook: British Isles and Ireland, 13th Edition, Twycross Zoo, East Midland Zoological Society, Twycross. academia,FOLK 547 640 Folklore of the British Isles and Ireland. A course in the University of Pennsylvania; British archaeology and other sources. This form of title is also used in some book titlesFor example, P. North, The Private International Law of Matrimonial Causes in the British Isles and the Republic of Ireland (1977). and in various legal publications.See "Law Society Gazette", Law Society of Ireland, July 2001. The precise reasoning for the use of such terminology is not typically set out where it is used, nor the intended definitions of either component made explicit. Some may be using British Isles as a synonym or near synonym of "British Islands". Or they may simply use the expanded term to avoid causing offence, without necessarily having a distinct meaning of "British Isles" in mind. This is particularly so in areas like charities, academia, publishing, nursing or law where information is supplied or documents sold Ireland or where their publications are used by Irish people, where simply using British Isles might be controversial.Each of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland follow common law, though it should be noted that Scots law comes under a distinctive system. British court rulings are sometimes referred to in Irish courts, meaning that British law textbooks are studied in Irish universities. The closeness of the two legal systems and their countries' geographic closeness means that some Irish barristers also have English law qualifications and practice in England also. Many Irish people also study, particularly at post-graduate level in British Universities while traditionally many Irish nurses received their training in British hospitals, particularly in Liverpool and Manchester, cities with large Irish communities.

The name "the West European Isles" is the translation of the islands' name in Irish "Oileain Iarthar Eorpa", Dinneen Irish–English Dictionary, Irish Texts Society, Dublin 1927 and Manx Gaelic."Ellanyn Sheear ny hOarpey", Fargher English-Manx dictionary 1979 It is worth noting that a somewhat similar usage exists in Iceland. "Westman" is the Icelandic name for a person from Ireland and Great Britain and "Western Lands" is the translation of the name for these islands in Icelandic. "Vest-madr", "Vestr-lond" R Cleasby & G. Vigfusson Icelandic - English Dictionary Oxford 1874

Use outside Great Britain and Ireland

"British Isles" can be used incorrectly to denote just Great Britain or even England, usually outside of Great Britain and Ireland. Examples include a website called Britannia.com which describes itself as "America's Gateway to the British Isles since 1996" and covers government, parliament, the law, the monarchy, the media and other topics with reference only to the UK, and only includes "English humour", a United States organisation called the Utah British Isles Association unambiguously equates the term British Isles with Britishness on its website even when in passing mentioning Ireland, with references to exclusively British symbols, including the Union Jack.

Footnotes

External links

*Belfast Agreement
*Archaic England: an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions, by Harold Bayley. Publisher: London, Chapman & Hall ltd., 1919
*Geograph British Isles - Creative Commons licenced, geo-located photographs of the British Isles
*Roman-Britain.Org
*Roman Britain at LacusCurtius (includes 3 complete books)
*The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy: Book II, Chapter 1
*Pliny, Book 4 section 102ff.
*Pliny excerpts
*Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio. - Ortelius, 1570
*Britannicarum Insularum Typus - Ortelius 1624
*Excerpt from Reeves edition of Life of Saint Columba.
*Excerpt from Bede in Latin
*Excerpt from Bede in English translation
*BBC Nations
*The British Isles

British Isles: Encyclopedia BETA

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