Some historical and poetic names

Country and People

Geographically speaking

Lying off the north-west coast of Europe, there are two large islands and several much smaller ones. Collectively, they are known as The British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The other large one is called Ireland.

Politically speaking

In the British Isles there are two states. One of these governs most of the island of Ireland. This state is usually called The Republic of Ireland. It is also called 'Eire' (its Irish language name). Informally it is referred to as just 'Ireland' or 'the Republic'.

The other state has authority over the rest of the British Isles (the whole of Great Britain, the northeastern area of Ireland and most of the smaller islands). This is the country that is the main subject of this book. Its official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland although it is usually known by a shorter name. At the Euro-vision Song Contest, at the United Nations and in the European Parliament, for instance, it is referred to as 'the United Kingdom'. In everyday speech this is often shortened to 'the UK'. In other contexts it is referred to as 'Great Britain'. This, for example, is the name you hear when a gold medal winner steps onto the rostrum at the Olympic Games. The stickers on cars ('GB') are another example of the use of this name. In writing and speaking that is not especially formal or informal, the name 'Britain' is used. The normal adjective, when talking about something to do with the UK, is 'British'.

Crown dependencies

There are two small parts of the British Isles which have special polit­ical arrangements. These 'Crown dependencies' are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Each has complete internal self-government, including its own Parliament and its own tax system. Both are 'ruled' by a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the British government.

Some historical and poetic names

Albionis a word used in some poetic or rhetorical contexts to refer to England. It was the original Roman name for Britain. It may come from the Latin word albus, meaning 'white'. The white chalk cliffs around Dover on the south coast are the first part of England to be seen when crossing the sea from the European mainland.

Britanniais the name that the Romans gave to their southern British province (which covered, approximately, the area of present-day England). It is also the name given to the female embodi­ment of Britain, always shown wearing a helmet and holding a trident (the symbol of power over the sea), hence the patriotic song which begins 'Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves'. The figure of Britannia has been on the reverse side of many British coins for more than 300 years.

The four nations

People often refer to Britain by another name. They call it 'England'. But this is not strictly correct, and it can make some people angry. England is only one of the four nations of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland). Their political unification was a gradual process that took several hundred years. It was completed in 1800 when the Irish Parliament was joined with the Parliament for England, Scotland and Wales in Westminster, so that the whole of the British Isles became a single state — the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. However, in 1922, most of Ireland became a separate state.

At one time the four nations were distinct from each other in almost every aspect of life. In the first place, they were different racially. The people in Ireland, Wales and highland Scotland belonged to the Celtic race; those in England and lowland Scotland were mainly of Germanic origin. This difference was reflected in the languages they spoke. People in the Celtic areas spoke Celtic languages: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. People in the Germanic areas spoke Germanic dialects (including the one which has developed into modern English). The nations also tended to have different economic, social and legal systems.

Today these differences have become blurred. But they have not completely disappeared. Although there is only one government for the whole of Britain, and people have the same passport regardless of where in Britain they live, some aspects of government are organized separately (and sometimes differently) in the four parts of the United Kingdom. Moreover, Welsh, Scottish and Irish people feel their iden­tity very strongly.