SOUTHERN IRELAND anyone?

Question

Now ive got your attention!....firstly im Irish and i live in Waterford.

Ive been reading questions here where people,mostly americans call the republic of Ireland " southern Ireland" and get really rude replies from people....can people not see that they are NOT totally wrong in saying this ?

every country has a north and south(east and west also )...and since "northern Ireland"is called that,can you not see why they get mixed up ?

after all it IS the south of the country after all! Just saying that there is no need to make such a big deal of it when people say this!

Answer 1

Of course I see how they get mixed up.  But it is wrong to call Ireland "Southern Ireland", so I don't see why I shouldn't correct people when they do that.

And Alan M, Northern Ireland and Ulster are not the same thing.  There are 9 counties in Ulster (which is a province) and only 6 of these make up Northern Ireland.

Answer 2

It can be very confusing for people.  I hope the weather is better down there.  Its wet and windy up here in the North.

Answer 3

I agree with you Ella - People from other countries aren't to know the difference, a lot of people from over here don't even know - the people who get on their high horse are just being pedantic - it's fine to politely point the error out but some people completely throw their toys out of the pram.

Answer 4

Quite agree Ella. The same people are happy to call the north northern Ireland rather than its other name Ulster. Yet they then refuse to see that with a nothern Ireland there must inevitably be a southern Ireland. Incredible !

Tzdean-noone  is calling Southern Ireland Ireland. You are confused again. It is meant by southern Ireland the part which is not northern Ireland. keep it simple!

Answer 5

Yeah, its fine when people mean southern with a small 'S', but quite often they don't, they think Ireland is some pretend pseudo-nation and the only ones allowed to think that are us Irish. And anyway, are we not all here to spread knowledge and have the occasional rant?

I'm usually fairly relaxed about this, but was quite shocked when I first worked in an English company at the level of ignorance most of my co-workers were in regarding the geographical and political make up of the island of Ireland. (I say English rather than British or UK, and I mean English; the Scots and Welsh I have worked with have always been pretty clued in). [EDIT: those co-workers were all university graduates, so no excuse for lack of exposure to education or people from other cultures].

There's only so many times that I can hear "oh but you're just the same as us" and "yeah, but its not a REAL country is it" and " what do you mean the Queen isn't your head of state" and "you don't use sterling?" and "but the Irish language is just English with a funny accent, innit? Like Terry Wogan, he speaks Irish" and "but you're still part of the UK, aren't you?" before the blood of my militant grandfathers starts rushing in my ears and I begin to see where it all went wrong and I suddenly start humming 'The men behind the wire' and I'm a pacifist goddammit and why do you insist on driving me to madness?????

So no, its NOT okay for people to get this wrong, especially when the people who get it wrong the most are our closest neighbours, the ones who are responsible for the confusion in the first place but who infamously don't teach their own defeats in History lessons, just endless recycled reports on the glories of the Battle of Britain and Wembley 1966.

But I agree, it is not nice to treat ignorance with hostility, but you can only correct someone so many times before you begin to go a little mad.

And as for our friends from other countries, they are totally allowed a little confusion. I still have no idea of the names of all the rebranded central African countries, I don't understand why there isn't an East Virginia and I definitely can't keep up with the moving capital cities of the former Soviet Republics, so I'll cut them some slack.

And its not about being PC, its about showing some interest in and respect for another country's culture. If your name was George but someone kept getting it wrong and called you Maurice, you'd get a wee bit tired of it after a while too.

And that's my rant. Goodnight and thanks.

Answer 6

i always say southern ireland very rarely do i say the republic but there are a few dimwitted factions up here(in ulster) that refuse to say northern ireland they'll say the north of ireland who cares!!

Answer 7

When Northern Ireland is discussed, most people understand it is the six counties within the UK, not the 9 counties of Ulster.  

The Republic of Ireland is not called Southern Ireland in any formal legal context and there is a vast deference between being the south part of the island of Ireland and Southern Ireland - Southern Ireland does not exist in law, the Republic of Ireland does.  

Edit:  Irish people, north & south, know the the difference, we're never allowed to forget.  My experience of dealing with people who want to visit Ireland is that they don't know the difference, some aren't even aware that there 'two' Irelands on the island. If you look at some of the questions that are asked here it's also quite clear that most people who live outside the island don't know the difference & really don't care one way or the other.

As an example, I was speaking with a colleague, her partner has a visa for the UK, they're quite restricted in where they can go.  She wanted to visit Dublin and was disappointed to learn his visa wouldn't cover it, she didn't know anything about the georgraphy or political make up of the island until she spoke to me.  She had chosen Dublin because there were cheap flights & it was close.

Answer 8

If we called America 'Canada' then we would get rude replies aswell.  It's not really the fault of people who come on here and post, they have been taught a different 'cleaned up' version of history.  Whereas we've got all the gory parts with no censoring or having events re-written to suit one side and put all the blame on the other side.

Answer 9

I dont really care because i know wat they mean, bu i HATE when people think Donegal is in northern Ireland. we are just as irish, and possibly more irish than other counties because it was Donegal (and Cavan and Monaghan) who fought back and stopped the ulster plantation.

Answer 10

Quite right Ella. They should say Eire or The Free State instead.