The oldest rocks are 2.7 billion years old and are found in Ireland, Wales and the north-west of Scotland.[13] During theSilurian period, the north-western regions collided with the south-east, which had been part of a separate continental landmass. The topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards.Ben Nevis, the highest mountain, rises to only 1,345 metres (4,413 ft),[6] andLough Neagh, which is notably larger than other lakes in the island group, covers 390 square kilometres (151 sq mi). The climate is temperate marine, with cool winters and warm summers. TheNorth Atlantic drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C (20 °F) above the global average for the latitude. This led to a landscape that was long dominated by temperate rainforest, although human activity has since cleared the vast majority offorest cover. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period ofQuaternary glaciation, by 12,000 BC, when Great Britain was still part of a peninsula of the European continent. Ireland was connected to Great Britain by the British-Irish Ice Sheet before 14,000 BC,[14] and was not inhabited until after 8000 BC.[15] Great Britain became an island by 7000 BC with the flooding ofDoggerland.[16]
TheGaels (Ireland),Picts (northern Great Britain) andBritons (southern Great Britain), all speakingInsular Celtic languages,[17] inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Much of Brittonic-occupied Britain wasconquered by the Roman Empire from AD 43. The firstAnglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century, and eventually they dominated the bulk of what is now England.[18]Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements and political change, particularly in England. TheNorman conquest of England in 1066 and the laterAngevin partial conquest of Ireland from 1169 led to the imposition of a new Norman ruling elite across much of Britain and parts of Ireland. By theLate Middle Ages, Great Britain was separated into the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland, while control in Ireland fluxed betweenGaelic kingdoms,Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominatedLordship of Ireland, soon restricted only tothe Pale. The 1603Union of the Crowns,Acts of Union 1707 andActs of Union 1800 aimed to consolidate Great Britain and Ireland into a single political unit, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining asCrown Dependencies. The expansion of the British Empire and migrations following theIrish Famine andHighland Clearances resulted in the dispersal of some of the islands' population and culture throughout the world, and rapid depopulation of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after theIrish War of Independence and the subsequentAnglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with six counties remaining in the UK as Northern Ireland.
As a term, "British Isles" is ageographical name and not a political unit; nevertheless, there areobjections to its usage[8][19] in relation to Ireland due to the political interpretation of the word "British".[20] TheGovernment of Ireland does not officially recognise the term[21] and its embassy in London discourages its use.[22] "Britain and Ireland" is used as an alternative description,[20][23][24] and "Atlantic Archipelago" has also seen limited use in academia.[25][26][27][28] In official documents created jointly by Ireland and the United Kingdom, such as theGood Friday Agreement, the term "these islands" is used.[29][30]
The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of seafarers from the ancient Greek colony ofMassalia.[31][32] The original records have been lost; however, later writings, e.g.Avienius'sOra maritima, that quoted from theMassaliote Periplus (6th century BC) and fromPytheas'sOn the Ocean (around 325–320 BC)[33] have survived.
In the 1st century BC,Diodorus Siculus hasPrettanikē nēsos,[34] "the British Island", andPrettanoi,[35] "the Britons",[32] describes Julius Caesar as having "advanced the Roman Empire as far as the British Isles" (Greek:μέχρι τῶν Βρεττανικῶν νήσων,romanized: mékhri tôn Brettanikôn nḗsōn),[36] and remarks on the region "about the British Isles" (τὸ περὶ τὰς Βρεττανικὰς νήσους,tò perì tàs Brettanikàs nḗsous).[37] According to Philip Freeman in 2001, "it seems reasonable, especially at this early point in classical knowledge of the Irish, for Diodorus or his sources to think of all inhabitants of the Brettanic Isles asBrettanoi".[38]
Strabo used Βρεττανική (Brettanike),[39][40][41] andMarcian of Heraclea, in hisPeriplus maris exteri, used αἱ Πρεττανικαί νῆσοι (the Prettanic Isles) to refer to the islands.[42]
According toA. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith in 1979 "the earliest instance of the name which is textually known to us" is inThe Histories ofPolybius, who referred to them as:αἱ Βρεταννικαί νήσοι,romanized: hai Bretannikai nēsoi,lit. 'the Brettanic Islands' or 'the British Isles'.[43] According to Rivet and Smith, this name encompassed "Britain with Ireland".[43] According toThomas O'Loughlin in 2018, the British Isles was "a concept already present in the minds of those living in continental Europe since at least the 2nd–cent. CE".[44]
Historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from nativeCeltic-language names for the archipelago.[45] Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί (Priteni orPretani).[32][46] The shift from the "P" ofPretannia to the "B" ofBritannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar.[47]
Other names used to describe the islands include theAnglo-Celtic Isles,Atlantic archipelago (a term coined by the historianJ. G. A. Pocock in 1975[56][57][58]),British-Irish Isles,[59]Britain and Ireland,UK and Ireland, andBritish Isles and Ireland.[60] Owing to political and national associations with the wordBritish, the Government of Ireland does not use the termBritish Isles[21] and in documents drawn up jointly between the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is referred to simply as "these islands".[29] British Isles is the most widely accepted term for the archipelago.[29]
The British Isles lie at the juncture of several regions with past episodes of tectonic mountain building. Theseorogenic belts form a complex geology that records a huge and varied span of Earth's history.[61] Of particular note was theCaledonian orogeny during theOrdovician andearly Silurian periods, when thecratonBaltica collided with theterraneAvalonia to form the mountains and hills in northern Britain and Ireland. Baltica formed roughly the north-western half of Ireland and Scotland. Further collisions caused theVariscan orogeny in theDevonian andCarboniferous periods, forming the hills ofMunster, south-west England, and southern Wales. Over the last 500 million years the land that forms the islands has drifted north-west from around 30°S, crossing theequator around 370 million years ago to reach its present northern latitude.[62]
The islands have been shaped by numerous glaciations during theQuaternary Period, the most recent being theDevensian.[63][64] As this ended, the centralIrish Sea was deglaciated and the English Channel flooded, with sea levels rising to current levels some 8,000 years ago, leaving the British Isles in their current form.
There are about136 permanently inhabited islands in the group, the largest two being Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is to the east and covers 83,700 sq mi (217,000 km2).[65] Ireland is to the west and covers 32,590 sq mi (84,400 km2).[65] The largest of the other islands are to be found in theHebrides,Orkney andShetland to the north,Anglesey and the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland, and theChannel Islands near the coast of France. The most densely populated island isPortsea Island, which has an area of 9.5 sq mi (25 km2)[66] but has the third highest population behind Great Britain and Ireland.[67]
The islands are at relatively low altitudes, with central Ireland and southern Great Britain particularly low-lying: the lowest point in the islands is theNorth Slob inCounty Wexford, Ireland, with an elevation of −3.0 metres (−9.8 ft). TheScottish Highlands in the northern part of Great Britain are mountainous, withBen Nevis being the highest point on the islands at 1,345 m (4,413 ft).[6] Other mountainous areas include Wales and parts of Ireland, although only seven peaks in these areas reach above 1,000 m (3,281 ft). Lakes on the islands are generally not large, althoughLough Neagh in Northern Ireland is an exception, covering 150 square miles (390 km2).[citation needed] The largest freshwater body in Great Britain by area isLoch Lomond at 27.5 square miles (71 km2) andLoch Ness is the largest by volume whilstLoch Morar is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles, with a maximum depth of 310 m (1,017 ft).[68] There are a number of major rivers within the British Isles. The longest is theShannon in Ireland at 224 mi (360 km).[69][70] Theriver Severn at 220 mi (354 km)[71] is the longest in Great Britain.
Climate
Theclimate of the British Isles is mild,[72] moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. It is defined as a temperate oceanic climate, orCfb on theKöppen climate classification system, a classification it shares with most of north-west Europe.[73][74] TheNorth Atlantic Drift (Gulf Stream), which flows from the Gulf of Mexico, brings with it significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C (20 °F) above the global average for the islands' latitudes.[75] Most Atlanticdepressions pass to the north of the islands; combined with the generalwesterly circulation and interactions with the landmass, this imposes a general east–west variation in climate.[76] There are four distinct climate patterns: south-east, with cold winters, warm and dry summers; south-west, having mild and very wet winters, warm and wet summers; north-west, generally wet with mild winters and cool summers; and north-east with cold winters, cool summers.[77][78]
The islands have a mild climate and varied soils, giving rise to a diverse pattern of vegetation. Animal and plant life is similar to that of the north-westernEuropean mainland. However there are fewer numbers of species, with Ireland having even fewer. All nativeflora andfauna in Ireland is made up of species that migrated primarily from Great Britain. The only window when this could have occurred was prior to the melting of theice bridge between the two islands 14,000 years ago, approaching the end of the last ice age.
As with most of Europe, prehistoric Britain and Ireland were covered with forest and swamp. Clearing began around 6000 BC and accelerated in medieval times. Despite this, Britain retained its primeval forests longer than most of Europe owing to a small population and later development of trade and industry, and wood shortages were not a problem until the 17th century. By the 18th century most of Britain's forests were consumed for shipbuilding or manufacturing charcoal and the nation was forced to import lumber from Scandinavia, North America and the Baltic. Most forest land in Ireland is maintained by state forestation programmes. Almost all land outside urban areas is farmland. However relatively large areas of forest remain in east and north Scotland and in southeast England. Oak, elm, ash and beech are amongst the most common trees in England. In Scotland pine and birch are most common. Natural forests in Ireland are mainly oak, ash,wych elm, birch and pine. Beech andlime, though not native to Ireland, are also common there. Farmland hosts a variety of semi-natural vegetation of grasses and flowering plants. Woods,hedgerows, mountain slopes and marshes hostheather, wild grasses,gorse andbracken.
Many larger animals, such as wolves, bears andEuropean elk, are today extinct. However some species, such as red deer, are protected. Other small mammals, such asrabbits,foxes,badgers,hares,hedgehogs andstoats, are very common and theEuropean beaver has been reintroduced in parts of Scotland.Wild boar have also returned to parts of southern England following escapes from farms and illegal releases. Many rivers containotters andgrey andcommon seals are numerous on coasts. There are about 250 bird species regularly recorded in Great Britain and another 350 that occur with varying degrees of rarity. The most numerous species arewren,robin,house sparrow,woodpigeon,chaffinch andblackbird.[79] Farmland birds are declining in number,[80] except for those bred for “sport”, such aspheasant,red-legged partridge andred grouse. Fish are abundant in the rivers and lakes, in particular salmon, trout, perch andpike. Sea fish includedogfish, cod,sole,pollock and bass, as well as mussels, crab and oysters along the coast. There are more than 21,000 species of insect.
Few species of reptiles or amphibians are found in Great Britain or Ireland. Only three snakes are native to Great Britain: theadder, thebarred grass snake and thesmooth snake;[81] none are native to Ireland. In general Great Britain has slightly more variation and native wildlife, with weasels,polecats, wildcats, mostshrews,moles,water voles,roe deer and common toads also being absent from Ireland. This pattern is also true for birds and insects. Notable exceptions include theKerry slug and certain species of woodlouse native to Ireland but not Great Britain.
The population of England rose rapidly during the 19th and 20th centuries, whereas the populations of Scotland and Wales showed little increase during the 20th century; the population of Scotland has remained unchanged since 1951. Ireland for most of its history had much the same population density as Great Britain (about one-third of the total population). However since theGreat Irish Famine the population of Ireland has fallen to less than one-tenth of the population of the British Isles. The famine caused a century-long population decline, drastically reduced the Irish population and permanently altered the demographic make-up of the British Isles. On a global scale, this disaster led to the creation of anIrish diaspora that numbers fifteen times the current population of the island.
2.5 million years ago the British Isles were repeatedly submerged beneath an ice sheet that extended into the middle of the North Sea, with a larger ice sheet that covered a significant proportion of Scandinavia on the opposite side. Around 1.9 million years ago these two ice sheets frequently merged, essentially creating a land bridge between Scandinavia and northern Great Britain.[90] Further south there was a direct land bridge, now known asDoggerland, which was gradually submerged as sea levels rose.[16][91] However, the Irish Sea was formed before Doggerland was completely covered in water, with Ireland becoming an island roughly 6,000 years before Great Britain did.[92]
The first evidence of human activity on the islands dates from 840,000 or 950,000 years ago, based on flint tools found nearHappisburgh on theNorfolk coast of Great Britain.[93] In contrast, the earliest evidence of human activity on the island of Ireland dates from 12,500 years ago.[94]
At the time of the Roman Empire, about two thousand years ago, various tribes, which spokeCeltic dialects of theInsular Celtic group, inhabited the islands. The Romans expanded their civilisation to control southern Great Britain but were impeded in advancing any further, buildingHadrian's Wall to mark the northern frontier of their empire in 122 AD. At that time Ireland was populated by a people known as Hiberni, the northern third or so of Great Britain by a people known as Picts and the southern two thirds by Britons.
Anglo-Saxons arrived asRoman power waned in the 5th century AD. Initially their arrival seems to have been at the invitation of the Britons as mercenaries to repulse incursions by the Hiberni and Picts. In time, Anglo-Saxon demands on the British became so great that they came to culturally dominate the bulk of southern Great Britain, though recent genetic evidence suggests Britons still formed the bulk of the population. This dominance created what is now England and left culturally British enclaves only inthe north of what is now England, inCornwall and what is now known as Wales. Ireland had been unaffected by the Romans except, significantly, for beingChristianised—traditionally by the Romano-Briton Saint Patrick. As Europe, including Britain, descended into turmoil following the collapse of Roman civilisation, an era known as the Dark Ages, Ireland entered agolden age andresponded with missions (first to Great Britain and then to the continent), the founding of monasteries and universities. These were later joined byAnglo-Saxon missions of a similar nature.
Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements, particularly along the east coast of Ireland, the west coast of modern-day Scotland and the Isle of Man. Though the Vikings were eventually neutralised in Ireland, their influence remained in the cities ofDublin,Cork,Limerick,Waterford andWexford. England, however, was slowly conquered around the turn of the first millennium AD, and eventually became a feudal possession ofDenmark. The relations between the descendants of Vikings in England and counterparts inNormandy, in northern France, lay at the heart of a series of events that led to theNormanconquest of England in 1066. The remnants of theDuchy of Normandy, which conquered England, remain associated to the English Crown as the Channel Islands to this day. A century later the marriage of the futureHenry II of England toEleanor of Aquitaine created theAngevin Empire, partially under theFrench Crown. At the invitation ofDiarmait Mac Murchada, a provincial king, and underthe authority ofPope Adrian IV (the only Englishman to be elected pope), theAngevins invaded Ireland in 1169. Though initially intended to be kept as an independent kingdom, the failure ofthe Irish High King to ensure the terms of theTreaty of Windsor led Henry II, as King of England, to rule as effective monarch under the title ofLord of Ireland. This title was granted to his younger son, but when Henry's heir unexpectedly died the title ofKing of England and Lord of Ireland became entwined in one person.
James VI of Scotland (James I of England)
By theLate Middle Ages Great Britain was separated into the Kingdoms ofEngland andScotland. Power in Ireland fluxed betweenGaelic kingdoms,Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominatedLordship of Ireland. A similar situation existed in thePrincipality of Wales, which was slowly being annexed into the Kingdom of England by a series of laws. During the course of the 15th century the Crown of England would assert a claim to the Crown of France, thereby also releasing the King of England from beingvassal of theKing of France. In 1534 King Henry VIII, at first having been a strong defender of Roman Catholicism in the face of the Reformation, separated from the Roman Church after failing to secure a divorce from the Pope. His response was to place the King of England as "the only Supreme Head in Earth of theChurch of England", thereby removing the authority of the Pope from the affairs of the English Church. Ireland, which had been held by the King of England as Lord of Ireland, but which strictly speaking had been a feudal possession of the Pope since the Norman invasion, was declareda separate kingdom in personal union with England.
Meanwhile, Scotland had remained an independent Kingdom. In 1603 that changed when the King of Scotlandinherited the Crown of England and consequently the Crown of Ireland too. The subsequent 17th century was one of political upheaval, religious division and war. English colonialism in Ireland of the 16th century was extended by large-scale Scottish and English colonies inUlster. Religious division heightened, and the king of England came into conflict with parliament over his tolerance of Catholicism. The resultingEnglish Civil War orWar of the Three Kingdoms led to arevolutionary republic in England. Ireland, largely Catholic, was mainly loyal to the king, but by military conquest was subsumed into the new republic. Following defeat of the parliament's army, large-scale land redistributions from loyalist Irish nobility to English commoners in the service of the parliamentary army created a newAscendancy class, which obliterated the remnants of Old English (Hiberno-Norman) and Gaelic Irish nobility in Ireland. The new ruling class was Protestant and English, whilst the populace was largely Catholic and Irish. This theme would influence Irish politics for centuries to come. When the monarchy was restored in England, the king found it politically impossible to restore the lands of former landowners in Ireland. The "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 repeated similar themes: a Catholic king pushing for religious tolerance in opposition to a Protestant parliament in England. The king's army was defeated at theBattle of the Boyne and at the militarily crucialBattle of Aughrim in Ireland. Resistance held out, eventually forcing the guarantee of religious tolerance in theTreaty of Limerick. However the terms were never honoured and a new monarchy was installed.
The Kingdoms of England and Scotland wereunified in 1707 creating theKingdom of Great Britain. Following an attempted republicanrevolution in Ireland in 1798, the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain wereunified in 1801, creating theUnited Kingdom. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining outside of the United Kingdom, but with their ultimate good governance being the responsibility of the British Crown (effectively the British government). Although the colonies of North America that would become the United States of America were lost by the start of the 19th century, theBritish Empire expanded rapidly elsewhere. A century later, it would cover one-third of the globe. Poverty in the United Kingdom remained desperate, however, and industrialisation in England led to terrible conditions for the working classes. Mass migrations following theIrish Famine andHighland Clearances resulted in the distribution of the islands' population and culture throughout the world and a rapid de-population of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after theIrish War of Independence and the subsequentAnglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with the six counties that formed Northern Ireland remaining as an autonomous region of the UK.
AnEuler diagram of the subdivisions of the British Isles. Geographical subdivisions are in green, political subdivisions in blue.Relations within the British Isles include bothpolitical andeconomic arrangements[a]
There are two sovereign states in the British Isles:Ireland and theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Ireland, sometimes called the Republic of Ireland, governs five-sixths of the island of Ireland, with the remainder of the island forming Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually shortened to simply "the United Kingdom", which governs the remainder of the archipelago with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The Isle of Man and the two Bailiwicks of the Channel Islands,Jersey andGuernsey, are known as theCrown Dependencies. They exercise constitutional rights of self-government and judicial independence;[95] responsibility for international representation rests largely with the UK (in consultation with the respective governments); and responsibility for defence is reserved by the UK. The United Kingdom is made up of fourconstituent parts: England, Scotland and Wales, forming Great Britain, and Northern Ireland in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Of these, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland havedevolved governments, meaning that each has its own parliament or assembly and is self-governing with respect to certain matters set down by law. For judicial purposes, Scotland, Northern Ireland andEngland and Wales (the latter being one entity) form separate legal jurisdictions, with there being no single law for the UK as a whole.
Ireland, the United Kingdom and the three Crown dependencies are allparliamentary democracies, with their own separate parliaments. All parts of the United Kingdom returnMembers of Parliament (MPs) toparliament in London. In addition to this, voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland return members to adevolved parliament in Edinburgh andin Cardiff and anassembly in Belfast. Governance in the norm is by majority rule; however, Northern Ireland uses a system ofpower sharing wherebyunionists andnationalists share executive posts proportionately and where the assent of both groups is required for theNorthern Ireland Assembly to make certain decisions. (In the context of Northern Ireland, unionists are those who want Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom and nationalists are those who want Northern Ireland to join with the rest of Ireland.) TheBritish monarch is the head of state of the United Kingdom, while in the Republic of Ireland the head of state is thePresident of Ireland.
Ireland is the only part of the isles that is a member state of theEuropean Union (EU). The UK was a member between 1 January 1973[96] and 31 January 2020, but the Isle of Man[97] and the Channel Islands were not.[95][98] Since thepartition of Ireland, an informal free-travel area has existed across the island of Ireland. This area required formal recognition in 1997 during the course of negotiations for theAmsterdam Treaty of the European Union, and (together with the Crown dependencies) is now known as theCommon Travel Area. As such, Ireland is not part of theSchengen Area, which allows passport-free travel between most EU member states, and is the only member state with an opt-out from the obligation to join the Schengen Zone.[99]
Reciprocal arrangements allow British and Irish citizens specific voting rights in the two states. In Ireland, British citizens can vote in General and local elections, but not in European Parliament elections, constitutional referendums or presidential elections (for which there is no comparable franchise in the United Kingdom). In the United Kingdom, Irish andCommonwealth citizens can vote in every election for which British citizens are eligible.[100] In the Crown dependencies, any resident can vote in general elections,[101][102][103] but in Jersey and the Isle of Man only British citizens can run for office.[104][105] These pre-date European Union law, and in both jurisdictions go further than what was required by European Union law (EU citizens may only vote in local elections in both states and European elections in Ireland). In 2008, aUK Ministry of Justice report investigating how to strengthen the British sense of citizenship proposed to end this arrangement, arguing that "the right to vote is one of the hallmarks of the political status of citizens; it is not a means of expressing closeness between countries".[106]
In addition, some civil bodies are organised throughout the islands as a whole. TheRoyal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity that operates a lifeboat service, is organised throughout the islands as a whole, covering the waters of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.[107]
TheNorthern Ireland peace process has led to a number of unusual arrangements between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. For example, citizens of Northern Ireland are entitled to the choice of Irish or British citizenship or both, and the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom consult on matters not devolved to theNorthern Ireland Executive. The Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland also meet as theNorth/South Ministerial Council to develop policies common across the island of Ireland. These arrangements were made following the 1998Good Friday Agreement.
Another body established under the Good Friday Agreement, the British–Irish Council, is made up of all of the states and territories of the British Isles. TheBritish–Irish Parliamentary Assembly (Irish:Tionól Pharlaiminteach na Breataine agus na hÉireann) predates the British–Irish Council and was established in 1990. Originally it comprised 25 members of theOireachtas, the Irish parliament, and 25 members of theparliament of the United Kingdom, with the purpose of building mutual understanding between members of both legislatures. Since then the role and scope of the body has been expanded to include representatives from theScottish Parliament, theSenedd (Welsh Parliament), theNorthern Ireland Assembly, theStates of Jersey, theStates of Guernsey and theHigh Court of Tynwald (Isle of Man).
The Council does not have executive powers but meets biannually to discuss issues of mutual importance. Similarly, the Parliamentary Assembly has no legislative powers but investigates and collects witness evidence from the public on matters of mutual concern to its members. Reports on its findings are presented to the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom. During the February 2008 meeting of the British–Irish Council, it was agreed to set up a standing secretariat that would serve as a permanent 'civil service' for the Council.[108] Leading on from developments in the British–Irish Council, the chair of the British–Irish Inter-Parliamentary Assembly,Niall Blaney, has suggested that the body should shadow the British–Irish Council's work.[109]
The United Kingdom and Ireland have separate media, although British television, newspapers and magazines are widely available in Ireland,[110] giving people in Ireland a high level of familiarity with the culture of the United Kingdom. Irish newspapers are also available in the UK, and Irish state and private television are widely available in Northern Ireland.[111] Certain reality TV shows have embraced the whole of the islands, for exampleThe X Factor, seasons 3, 4 and 7 of which featured auditions in Dublin and were open to Irish voters, whilst the show previously known asBritain's Next Top Model becameBritain and Ireland's Next Top Model in 2011. A few cultural events are organised for the island group as a whole. For example, theCosta Book Awards are awarded to authors resident in the UK or Ireland. TheMercury Music Prize is handed out every year to the best album from a British or Irish musician or group.
Many globally popular sports had their modern rules codified in the British Isles, including golf,association football,cricket,rugby,snooker and darts, as well as many minor sports such ascroquet,bowls,pitch and putt,water polo andhandball. A number of sports are popular throughout the British Isles, the most prominent of which is association football. While this is organised separately in different national associations, leagues and national teams, even within the UK, it is a common passion in all parts of the islands.Rugby union is also widely enjoyed across the islands with four national teams fromEngland,Ireland,Scotland andWales. TheBritish and Irish Lions is a team chosen from each national team and undertakes tours of the Southern Hemisphere rugby-playing nations every four years. Ireland plays as a united team, represented by players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. These national rugby teams play each other each year for theTriple Crown as part of theSix Nations Championship. Also, since 2001, the professional club teams of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa compete against each other in theUnited Rugby Championship.Gaelic Football andHurling are the two most common sports in theRepublic of Ireland[112] and among the top sports inNorthern Ireland[113] and have their roots in ancientGaelic culture[114]
TheRyder Cup in golf was originally played between a United States team and a team representing Great Britain and Ireland. From 1979 onwards, this was expanded to include the whole of Europe.
London Heathrow Airport is Europe's busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, and the Dublin-London route is the busiest air route in Europe collectively,[115] the busiest route out of Heathrow, and among the top-20busiest international air routes in the world. TheEnglish Channel and the southernNorth Sea are the busiest seaways in the world.[116] TheChannel Tunnel, opened in 1994, links Great Britain to France and is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world.
The idea of building atunnel under the Irish Sea has been raised since 1895,[117] when it was first investigated. Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently the Tusker Tunnel between the ports ofRosslare andFishguard proposed byThe Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004.[118] A rail tunnel was proposed in 1997 on a different route, betweenDublin andHolyhead, by British engineering firm Symonds. Either tunnel, at 50 mi (80 km), would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated £15 billion (€20 billion). A proposal in 2007,[119] estimated the cost of building a bridge fromCounty Antrim in Northern Ireland toGalloway in Scotland at £3.5bn (€5bn).
^abCountry/Territory Index, Island DirectoryArchived 13 December 2018 at theWayback Machine, United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved 9 August 2015. Island FactsArchived 4 March 2016 at theWayback Machine, Isle of Man Government. Retrieved 9 August 2015. According to the UNEP, the Channel Islands have a land area of194 km2, the Republic of Ireland has a land area of70,282 km2, and the United Kingdom has a land area of244,111 km2. According to the Isle of Man Government, the Isle of Man has a land area of572 km2. Therefore, the overall land area of the British Isles is315,159 km2.
^The diplomatic and constitutional name of the Irish state is simplyIreland. For disambiguation purposes,Republic of Ireland is often used although technically not the name of the state but, according to theRepublic of Ireland Act 1948, the state "may be described" as such.
^Oxford English Dictionary: "British Isles: a geographical term for the islands comprising Great Britain and Ireland with all their offshore islands including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands."
^Alan, Lew; Colin, Hall; Dallen, Timothy (2008).World Geography of Travel and Tourism: A Regional Approach. Oxford: Elsevier.ISBN978-0-7506-7978-7.The British Isles comprise more than 6,000 islands off the north-west coast of continental Europe, including the countries of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. The group also includes the United Kingdom crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, and by tradition, the Channel Islands (the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey), even though these islands are strictly speaking an archipelago immediately off the coast of Normandy (France) rather than part of the British Isles.
^Woodcock, Nigel H.; Rob Strachan (2012).Geological History of Britain and Ireland. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 49–50.ISBN978-1-1182-7403-3.
^Chris D. Clark; Anna L.C. Hughes; Sarah L. Greenwood; Colm Jordan; Hans Petter Sejrup (2012). "Pattern and timing of retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet". Quaternary Science Reviews. 44: 112–146. Bibcode:2012QSRv...44..112C. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.07.019.
^Edwards, R.J.; Brooks, A.J. (2008). Davenport, J.J.; Sleeman, D.P.; Woodman, P.C. (eds.). "The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?".The Irish Naturalists' Journal:19–34.
^abDavies, Alistair; Sinfield, Alan (2000),British Culture of the Postwar: An Introduction to Literature and Society, 1945–1999, Routledge, p. 9,ISBN978-0-415-12811-7,Some of the Irish dislike the 'British' in 'British Isles', while a minority of the Welsh and Scottish are not keen on 'Great Britain'. ... In response to these difficulties, 'Britain and Ireland' is becoming preferred official usage if not in the vernacular, although there is a growing trend amongst some critics to refer to Britain and Ireland as 'the archipelago'.
^ab"Written Answers – Official Terms"Archived 6 October 2012 at theWayback Machine,Dáil Éireann, Volume 606, 28 September 2005. In his response, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that "The British Isles is not an officially recognised term in any legal or inter-governmental sense. It is without any official status. The Government, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, does not use this term. Our officials in the Embassy of Ireland, London, continue to monitor the media in Britain for any abuse of the official terms as set out in the Constitution of Ireland and in legislation. These include the name of the State, the President,Taoiseach and others."
^Sharrock, David (3 October 2006),"New atlas lets Ireland slip shackles of Britain",The Times, UK, archived fromthe original on 16 February 2007, retrieved24 April 2020,A spokesman for the Irish Embassy in London said: 'The British Isles has a dated ring to it as if we are still part of the Empire. We are independent, we are not part of Britain, not even in geographical terms. We would discourage its useage [sic].'
^Hazlett, Ian (2003).The Reformation in Britain and Ireland: an introduction. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 17.ISBN978-0-567-08280-0.At the outset, it should be stated that while the expression 'The British Isles' is evidently still commonly employed, its intermittent use throughout this work is only in the geographic sense, in so far as that is acceptable. Since the early twentieth century, that nomenclature has been regarded by some as increasingly less usable. It has been perceived as cloaking the idea of a 'greater England', or an extended south-eastern English imperium, under a common Crown since 1603 onwards. ... Nowadays, however, 'Britain and Ireland' is the more favoured expression, though there are problems with that too. ... There is no consensus on the matter, inevitably. It is unlikely that the ultimate in non-partisanship that has recently appeared the (East) 'Atlantic Archipelago' will have any appeal beyond captious scholars.
^"Guardian Style Guide",The Guardian, London, 19 December 2008, archived fromthe original on 24 May 2023,A geographical term taken to mean Great Britain, Ireland and some or all of the adjacent islands such as Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man. The phrase is best avoided, given its (understandable) unpopularity in the Irish Republic. The plate in the National Geographic Atlas of the World once titled British Isles now reads Britain and Ireland.
^Norquay, Glenda; Smyth, Gerry (2002),Across the margins: cultural identity and change in the Atlantic archipelago, Manchester University Press, p. 4,ISBN978-0-7190-5749-6,The term we favour here—Atlantic Archipelago—may prove to be of no greater use in the long run, but at this stage, it does at least have the merit of questioning the ideology underpinning more established nomenclature.
^Schwyzer, Philip; Mealor, Simon (2004),Archipelagic identities: literature and identity in the Atlantic Archipelago, Ashgate Publishing, p. 10,ISBN978-0-7546-3584-0,In some ways 'Atlantic Archipelago' is intended to do the work of including without excluding, and while it seems to have taken root in terms of academic conferences and publishing, I don't see it catching on in popular discourse or official political circles, at least not in a hurry.
^Kumar, Krishan (2003),The Making of English National Identity, Cambridge University Press, p. 6,ISBN978-0-521-77736-0,Some scholars, seeking to avoid the political and ethnic connotations of 'the British Isles', have proposed the 'Atlantic Archipelago' or even 'the East Atlantic Archipelago' (see, e.g. Pocock 1975a: 606; 1995: 292n; Tompson, 1986) Not surprisingly this does not seem to have caught on with the general public, though it has found increasing favour with scholars promoting the new 'British History'.
^David Armitage;Michael Braddick (2002),The British Atlantic world, 1500–1800, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 284,ISBN978-0-333-96340-1,British and Irish historians increasingly use 'Atlantic archipelago' as a less metro-centric term for what is popularly known as the British Isles.
^abcWorld and its Peoples: Ireland and United Kingdom, London: Marshall Cavendish, 2010, p. 8,The nomenclature of Great Britain and Ireland and the status of the different parts of the archipelago are often confused by people in other parts of the world. The name British Isles is commonly used by geographers for the archipelago; in the Republic of Ireland, however, this name is considered to be exclusionary. In the Republic of Ireland, the name British-Irish Isles is occasionally used. However, the term British-Irish Isles is not recognized by international geographers. In all documents jointly drawn up by the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is simply referred to as "these islands". The name British Isles remains the only generally accepted term for the archipelago off the north-western coast of mainland Europe.
^John Dee, 1577. 1577 J.Arte Navigation, p. 65 "The syncere Intent, and faythfull Aduise, of Georgius Gemistus Pletho, was, I could..frame and shape very much of Gemistus those his two Greek Orations..for our Brytish Iles, and in better and more allowable manner." From the OED, s.v. "British Isles"
^D. A. Coleman (1982),Demography of immigrants and minority groups in the United Kingdom: proceedings of the eighteenth annual symposium of the Eugenics Society, London, Academic Press, p. 213,ISBN978-0-12-179780-5,The geographical termBritish Isles is not generally acceptable in Ireland, the termthese islands being widely used instead. I preferthe Anglo-Celtic Isles, orthe North-West European Archipelago.
^Irish historical studies: Joint Journal of the Irish Historical Society and the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1990, p. 98,There is mug to be said for considering the archipelago as a whole, for a history of the British or Anglo-Celtic isles or 'these islands'.
^Pocock, J. G. A. (1975). "British history: a plea for a new subject".Journal of Modern History.47 (4): 601–21 (606).doi:10.1086/241367.S2CID143575698.We should start with what I have called the Atlantic archipelago – since the term 'British Isles' is one which Irishmen reject and Englishmen decline to take quite seriously.
British-Irish Isles, the (geography) see British Isles
British Isles, the (geography) A geographical (not political or constitutional) term for England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (including the Republic of Ireland), together with all offshore islands. A more accurate (and politically acceptable) term today is the British-Irish Isles.
^Jacobi, Roger; Higham, Tom. "12 - The Later Upper Palaeolithic Recolonisation of Britain: New Results from AMS Radiocarbon Dating".Developments in Quaternary Sciences. Elsevier.doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-53597-9.00012-1.
^Naldrett, Peter (2021).Treasured Islands: The Explorer's Guide to Over 200 of the Most Beautiful and Intriguing Islands Around Britain. [S.l.]: Conway.ISBN978-1-84486-593-2.OCLC1257549460.
^Ray, Michael."River Shannon".Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Retrieved11 February 2020.about 161 miles (259 km) in a southerly direction to enter the Atlantic Ocean via a 70-mile (113-kilometre) estuary below Limerick city
^Wallenfeldt, Jeff."River Severn".Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Retrieved11 February 2020.about 180 miles (290 km) long, with the Severn estuary adding some 40 miles (64 km) to its total length
^Waddel, John; Conroy, Jane (1999), Spriggs, Matthew (ed.), "Celts and Other: Maritime Contact and Linguistic Change",Archaeology and Language, vol. 35, London: Routledge, p. 127,ISBN978-0-415-11786-9,Continental Celtic includes Gaulish, Lepontic, Hispano-Celtic (or Celtiberian) and Galatian. All were extinct by the seventh century AD.
^Varner, Gary (2008),Charles G. Leland: The Man & the Myth, Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu Press, p. 41,ISBN978-1-4357-4394-6,Shelta does in fact exist as a secret language as is used to conceal meaning from outsiders, used primarily in Gypsy business or negotiations or when speaking around the police.
^J. M. Y. Simpson, R. E. Asher (1994),The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 5, Oxford: Pergamon Press, p. 2505,ISBN978-0-08-035943-4,Thus, apart from the very young, there are virtually no monoglot speakers of Irish, Scots Gaelic, or Welsh.
^Hindley, Reg (1990),The Death of the Irish Language: A Qualified Obituary, Oxon: Taylor & Francis, p. 221,ISBN978-0-415-04339-7,Three indigenous languages have died in the British Isles since around 1780: Cornish (traditionally in 1777), Norn (the Norse language of Shetland: c. 1880), Manx (1974).
^Hardisty, Jack (1990),The British Seas: an Introduction to the Oceanography and Resources of the North-west European Continental Shelf, London: Routledge, p. 5,ISBN978-0-415-03586-6,Not only are the English Channel and the Southern North Sea, in particular, the busiest shipping clearways in the world, but the seas are also sources of the European community's industrial wealth (fisheries, petroleum, aggregates, and power) and sinks for the disposal of refuse from its intensely urbanized and industrialized coats.
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