@XLilliputian @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD Perhaps so. The reaction here to Ireland’s longtime rejection of the term ‘British Isles’ doesn’t bode well for a unifying project tbh!
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Conguill
10.8K posts
@Conguill @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD Maybe it's time for a culturally unifying project to celebrate how much we have in common across this archipelago and undo past divisions.
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La Manche Channel is also just a geographical name, used by Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, etc. Guess what it’s called in Britain?
Marley@FightHypocrisy1
The British Isles don’t belong to Britain the same way the Irish Sea doesn’t belong to Ireland. It’s just a geographical name. The insecurity around it is off the charts.
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@XLilliputian @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD If the Scandinavians objected to the term, I would accept it. Similarly, when I went to Finland, I was informed firmly that Finland was Scandinavian & I accepted that willingly
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@XLilliputian @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD The difference is that one was part of the justification of a colonial project which resulted in the premature deaths of millions & destruction of culture whilst the other was a cultural unifying project between three countries who saw themselves as having a lot in common
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@XLilliputian @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD It certainly is. The Finns are often lumped in with Scandinavia but object and most reasonable ppl accept that they are Nordic but not Scandinavian. The word ‘Nordic’ means ‘of the North’ and so, it does not suggest nor was it ever intended to justify ‘ownership’
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@Conguill @Jayalynd @Alonso_GD It's no more ambiguous than Scandinavia or the Nordic countries (does that imply ownership by Norway?).
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So, another good reason to reject a united Ireland!! Currently you can buy all canned & bottled drinks up north with none of the RE-TURN hassle, just dispose of them in recycle bin. Reject buying ALL bottled/canned drinks in Rep of Ireland till Irish govt remove Re-Turn machines.
Disco Reaper@DiscoReaper
One of the bigger point you have missed @Nick_Delehanty , is that domestic bin charges have increased because of re-turn ! Domestic bin operators normally operated a green bin as part of each domestic package, this bin was a source of ♳ PET & Aluminium, both of which they could sell and make revenue from, as a result of the loss’s of this revenue due to the Re-Turn scheme, domestic households now get hit with increased bin charges as operators increase charges to maintain their P&L So now …. Not only do we lose time going to the Re-Turn machines to try recoup the deposit tax ( which always seems to have a few bottles it refuses to accept) , we also have an increased cost on our bin charges. Only in éiRe could the make a dogs bollix of a recycling system ….then again it has Eamon Ryan’s handprints all over it
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@SPENCE_JOHN @FightHypocrisy1 Doubt it somehow. Unless they were targeting the Reform voters directly. Commercial operators tend to be a bit smarter & more nuanced than the jingoistic cultural warriors on here
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@Conguill @FightHypocrisy1 And British & Irish isles is fine if that’s what you prefer. it’s also for others to call it them the British Isles.
It you were booking a cruise stopping at various points in GB, Ireland, Isle of Man etc it would very likely be called British Isles Cruise
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@RepealTCPA1947 I don’t think this is correct. It’s also not consistent with Ireland’s strong support for the UK throughout. Thought the real reason was that Dev did not believe that UK would follow through (let’s be honest, they wouldn’t have)
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The Irish never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity
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In 1940 Britain offered Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland in exchange for joining them in WW2 or allowing Britain to use Irish ports. De Valera refused because he thought Britain would lose the war
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@CptHastings1916 I wonder if that explains part of the reason it is/was so popular. Most people are more socially conservative than either our externally stated positions or media/culture would suggest. Like marriage & kids is a normative goal for most people, whether that quite transpires for us
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@SPENCE_JOHN @FightHypocrisy1 That’s not quite right or at least not consensus. But as a perfect example of what I have been talking about, if you say that you want to call your island Great Britain & not Britain, that is fine with me
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@Conguill @FightHypocrisy1 Britain isn’t an island, Great Britain is an island - again geography.
Britian today is a short form for the UK. In ancient times Britian covered most, but not all of modern England and Wales, plus a sliver of southern Scotland.
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@FortressLugh They don’t, by themselves, define or maintain a nation but a successful economic system is required to achieve the things that do.
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Almost the only thing anyone loves about Ireland came from its Pre-Christian past or its period as a powerhouse of Western Christianity.
In a thousand years are there going to be bardic verse extolling glorious Micheál Martin? Oh how great he was, for the growth of the per capital GDP!
If the Gaels survive, stories will be told about how, like Bres, the false rulers made an accord with the Fomors, inviting them to settle the bright lands of Ireland, holding the whip hand over the sons of Míl.
Economically, maybe Irish people are better off, but nobody really cares about "global Ireland" and paper per capita GDP growth. Nor do these things define or maintain a nation.
Finn Murphy@FinnMurphy12
oh noooo take me back to the catholic theocratic ethnostate impoverishment - Ireland embracing the world was the best thing to ever happen to the country and its people
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@SPENCE_JOHN @FightHypocrisy1 I would use British & Irish Isles if it was necessary but I rarely find it the case that I’m actually talking about something that covers each of Ireland, Britain, Isle of Man, Shetlands, Channel Islands, etc
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@SPENCE_JOHN @FightHypocrisy1 It has not been in use for thousands of years. The alternative depends on what’s being spoken about; I usually find that UK & Ireland or GB & Ireland covers it more precisely.
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@GarrethAspinall Also if you’re a city break person, C has Dublin, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Malmo, Wroclaw, Kyiv, etc
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@GarrethAspinall D has the Alps, Paris, Vienna, Loire Valley, Prague, Switzerland… Did I mention the Alps?!
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Don’t understand why you would go anywhere but E…….
Josh Barzon@JoshuaBarzon
You just won a 2-week, all-expenses-paid vacation. But there’s a catch: you have to stay within one region the whole time. What are you picking?
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Pray tell, how are the British supposed to despise the English when the English are also British?
McGuffin@GuffyNicola
We certainly are not “England”. Even the British despise the English. But there once was an idea of a British North America worth preserving. (If we blind eyed the English.)
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@SPENCE_JOHN @FightHypocrisy1 It is true. There is a big difference between the naming of landmasses in which ppl live and the naming of bodies of water in which they don’t. Especially since, contrary to ‘Gulf of America’ example, the Irish are not seeking to impose some proprietorial name to the archipelago.
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@Conguill @FightHypocrisy1 Even if what you said was true ( it isn’t) some people in Ireland deciding they won’t any longer use that name, doesn’t change the name that others use, , any more than the Gulf of America changes its historic/geographic name.
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@consumerofmonch @ht_9944 Disagree. Suspect large part of Reform’s support considers themselves English and are only weakly attached to Britain at large. Not so true for Labour & Tories.
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@Jayalynd @Alonso_GD Point on Chausey Islands is that they geographically are same as Channel Is - part of continetal platform, formed in same way, v close to each other & France but they’re never included in the term British Isles but the UK Chanel islands are. Difference is politics not geography.
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@Jayalynd @Alonso_GD With the greatest of respect, that’s not being anal, it’s just being wrong. The Channel Islands are simply not part of the same island group as Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, etc
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