Do Anglophone countries(UK, USA, Australia, etc) know that the term British Isles is not what it appears to be

Question

There is massive controversy over the term British Isles.

The Irish Government does not use the term.
Folens an educational book firm no longer uses the term on atlases and maps in Ireland.
UK media organisations, BBC, Guardian, Times are indecisive and confused about using the term.
Oxford University Press even uses the term British Isles and Ireland when describing the archipelago contradicting its Oxford English Dictionary definition of the British Isles.

Do people outside of Ireland realise how politically charged this term is and what are you thoughts, what would you call it if or would you continuing using the term even though it is highly politicised term?

Actually buddyxlee, politicised is spelt correctly. Americans spell it with a -z Hiberno-English and British-English speakers spell it with -s.

Answer 1

I never use the term and because of questions I posted here regarding the Isle of Mann, the Channel Islands and Manx, I got a much clearer picture of the government structure of the U.K. and the semi-autonomous regions. I certainly do not consider Ireland part of the U.K--even Northern Ireland. I suspect the British domination of Northern Ireland will decrease continuously and ultimately cease. I've also referred to Scotland and Wales as distinct from England. Do we know there is an internal controversy? Probably not. Do we know about Ireland and its fight for independence? Absolutely. We are also aware of the Scottish independence movement. I'd like to know more about the politics of Wales and the rather unique governments of some of the smaller islands. I live in a U.S. state with 22 Indian tribes, which are sovereign nations. We have a good understanding of the ability of a country to be united in international affairs but still have separate and distinct internal governments within a larger whole.

Answer 2

First of all learn how to spell politicized. Alright, British Isles huh? Nope never heard the term but if I had to imagine it would be Ireland / Scotland and other islands surrounding U.K. Could Irish and Scottish citizens be offended. Yeah I can see why. That's like U.S. calling Cuba and Puerto Rico American Isles.

Answer 3

We have enough worries here in the U.S. I could not care less what the Irish and British call the Isles.

Answer 4

no idea, dude. but speaking as an american, we don't realy use the term british isles. we refer to them as the UK and ireland. its just better that way. also we dont care.

Answer 5

Hello,

I am an American and this issue is not on our radar at all. I am afraid I know nothing of it. What exactly is the controversy?

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