ClancyWiggam

Why is England, and Scotland for that matter, listed as a country rather than a constituent country? I have looked on various countries official travel advice websites which list all countries in the world and England is not there. It has no passport, it has no parliament yet it is listed on the Wikipedia webpage as a country. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ClancyWiggam (talk • contribs) 16:15, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

As for that question, you may want to look at the article Countries of the United Kingdom. Most entities in the world that are called "countries" are also sovereign states, but not all, and not those that Great Britain consists of. Similarly, Russia consists of several entities called "republics", but they are not sovereign states either. The United States is, as the name implies, a union of "states" that are not sovereign states. It is understandably confusing to use such words, but those simply are the names of things. Gaioa (T C L) 13:40, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

November 2021

Hello, I'm Gaioa. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Names of the Irish state, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Gaioa (T C L) 13:31, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Hello Gaioa,

I tried to remove the terms Southern Ireland and the South from the wikipedia entry for Ireland. These are offensive colonial terms that British people use. I cannot provide citations for things not used. Suffice it to say if I listed Perfidious Albion as an alternative name for England I would not expect Wikipedia to publish it, even if I had many sources that described England thus.

Southern Ireland was a British territory that ceased to exist in 1922. It is akin to saying Zimbabwe is also known as Rhodesia. It might have been called this in the past but is not now. Similarly, calling Ireland the South is an extension of this nomenclature. Ireland is not South of Northern Ireland, it surrounds the six counties that comprise Northern Ireland on the South and West and the Irish mainland extends further North than Northern Ireland.

As an Irish person I find it offensive and ignorant to call my country, which is the dominant land mass on the island of Ireland, the South. South Of what, precisely? These are colonial British terms that have no place on a site that is designed to educate. If they must be mentioned it should be stated that these terms are not accepted in Ireland itself. When people say southern Ireland or the south to me I think of Cork.

Thank you for your time,

R ClancyWiggam (talk) 08:43, 18 April 2022 (UTC)