The
British Isles are a group of
islands off the northwest coast of
continental Europe that include
Great Britain,
Ireland and over six-thousand smaller islands.
["British Isles," Encyclopædia Britannica] There are two
sovereign states located on the islands: the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and
Ireland. The British Isles also include the
Crown Dependencies of the
Isle of Man and, by tradition, the
Channel Islands, although the latter are not geographically part of the island group.
The term
British Isles is
controversial in relation to Ireland,
[ Myers, Kevin; The Irish Times (subscription needed) 09/03/2000, Accessed July 2006 "millions of people from these islands - oh how angry we get when people call them the British Isles".] where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word "British" with Ireland. The
Government of Ireland discourages its use, and in relations with the United Kingdom the words "these islands" are used. Although still used as a geographic term, the controversy means that
alternative terms such as
"Britain and Ireland" are increasingly preferred.
Etymology
The first references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of travellers from the
ancient Greek colony of
Massalia.
[Foster, p. 1.] These writings have been lost, but later writers quoted from the
Massaliote Periplus (sixth century BC) and from
Pytheas'
On the Ocean (circa 325–320 BC), providing several variations referring to the geographical area of the British Isles, including Britain and Ireland, which have survived. In the 1st century BC
Diodorus introduced the Latin form Πρεττανια (
Prettania) from Πρεττανικη (
Prettanike)
[Allen, p. 172-174.],
Strabo (1.4.2) has Βρεττανία (
Brettania) and
Marcian of Heraclea in his
Periplus maris exteri describes αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι (
the Prettanic Isles). The historian
Norman Davies states that "though the details are debatable, the main derivations looks pretty solid". They believe that the peoples of these islands of
Pretanike were called the Πρεττανοι (
Priteni or
Pretani),
names derived from a
Celtic term which probably reached travellers like Pytheas from the
Gauls, who may have used it as their name for the inhabitants of the islands.
The replacement of the "P" of "Pretannia" to the "B" of
Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of
Julius Caesar. In classical Latin the plural term
Britannicae insulae was sometimes used.
The earliest citation of the phrase "Brytish Iles" in the
Oxford English Dictionary[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"] is dated 1577 in a work by
John Dee.
In modern
Welsh, the term
Prydain ac Iwerddon ("Britain and Ireland") is common.
Ynysoedd Prydain ("British Isles") usually refers to the territories of England, Scotland and Wales: it does not include Ireland, north or south.
Alternative names and descriptions
Several different names are currently used to describe the islands. Dictionaries, encyclopaedias and atlases that use the term
British Isles define it as Great Britain and Ireland and adjacent islands – typically including the
Isle of Man, the
Hebrides,
Orkney and
Shetland. Some definitions include the Channel Islands. Commonly used alternative names are
British-Irish Isles,
Britain and Ireland,
Great Britain and Ireland,
British Isles and Ireland, or
UK and Ireland. However, these may be ambiguous regarding the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
UK media organisations such as the
The Times and the
BBC have style-guide entries to try to maintain consistent usage.
Encyclopædia Britannica, the
Oxford University Press (publishers of the
Oxford English Dictionary) and the
United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (publisher of Admiralty charts) have all occasionally used the term
British Isles and Ireland. The
Economic History Society style guide suggests that use of the term
British Isles should be avoided.
Some international publications no longer use the term
British Isles. In early 2008, it was reported that
National Geographic said it would use the wording
British and Irish Isles instead of
British Isles. In 2006,
Folens, an Irish publisher of school text books, decided to stop using the term in Ireland while continuing to use it in the United Kingdom. Since 2001 the rugby union team the
British Isles or
British Lions are now named the
British and Irish Lions.
Geography
Satellite image of the British Isles, excluding
Orkney (obscured by cloud) and
Shetland (out of frame).
There are about
136 permanently inhabited islands in the group, the largest two being Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is to the east and covers 216,777 km
2 (83,698 square miles), over half of the total landmass of the group. Ireland is to the west and covers 84,406 km
2 (32,589 square miles). The largest of the other islands are to be found in the
Hebrides,
Orkney and
Shetland to the north,
Anglesey and the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland, and the
Channel Islands near the coast of France.
The islands are at relatively low altitudes, with central Ireland and southern Great Britain particularly low lying: the lowest point in the islands is
the Fens at −4 m (−13 ft). The
Scottish Highlands in the northern part of Great Britain are mountainous, with
Ben Nevis being the highest point in the British Isles at (4,409 ft). Other mountainous areas include Wales and parts of the island of Ireland, but only seven peaks in these areas reach above (3,281 ft). Lakes on the islands are generally not large, although
Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is an exception, covering 381 km
2 (147 square miles); the largest freshwater body in Great Britain is
Loch Lomond at . Some of the major rivers within the British Isles, are the rivers
Severn at and
Shannon at being the longest.
The British Isles have a
temperate marine climate, the
North 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. Winters are thus warm and wet, with summers mild and also wet. Most Atlantic
depressions pass to the north of the islands, combined with the general
westerly circulation and interactions with the landmass, this imposes an east-west variation in climate.
Geology
The British Isles lie at the juncture of several regions with past episodes of
tectonic mountain building. These
orogenic belts form a complex geology which records a huge and varied span of earth history. Of particular note was the
Caledonian Orogeny during the
Ordovician Period, ca. 488–444
Ma and early
Silurian period, when the
craton Baltica collided with the
terrane Avalonia 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 the
Variscan orogeny in the
Devonian and
Carboniferous periods, forming the hills of
Munster, south-west England, and south Wales. Over the last 500 million years the land which forms the islands has drifted northwest from around 30°S, crossing the
equator around 370 million years ago to reach its present northern latitude.
The islands have been shaped by numerous glaciations during the
Quaternary Period, the most recent being the
Devensian. As this ended, the central
Irish Sea was de-glaciated (whether or not there was a land bridge between Great Britain and Ireland at this time is somewhat disputed, though there was certainly a single ice sheet covering the entire sea) and the
English Channel flooded, with sea levels rising to current levels some 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, leaving the British Isles in their current form.
The islands' geology is highly complex, though there are large numbers of
limestone and
chalk rocks that formed in the
Permian and
Triassic periods. The west coasts of Ireland and northern Great Britain that directly face the
Atlantic Ocean are generally characterized by long
peninsulas, and headlands and bays; the internal and eastern coasts are "smoother".
Transport
Heathrow is the busiest airport of Europe in terms of passenger traffic and the Dublin-London route is the busiest air route in Europe. The
English Channel and the southern
North Sea are the busiest seaways in the world. The
Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994, links Great Britain to France and is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world. The idea of building a
tunnel under the Irish Sea has been raised since 1895, when it was first investigated. Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently the
Tusker Tunnel between the ports of
Rosslare and
Fishguard proposed by
The Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004. A rail tunnel was proposed in 1997 on a different route, between
Dublin and
Holyhead, by British engineering firm Symonds. Either tunnel, at , would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated €20 billion. A proposal in 2007, estimated the cost of building a bridge from
County Antrim in Northern Ireland to
Galloway in Scotland at £3.5bn (€5bn).
Demographics
Population density per km of the British Isles. Dublin and London, with respective population densities of 1,288 and 4,761 are shaded blue.
The demographics of the British Isles shows a generally high density of population in England, which accounts for almost 80% of the total population of the islands. In Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales high density of population is limited to areas around, or close to, their respective capitals. Major population centres (greater than one million people) exist in the following areas:
The population of England has risen steadily throughout its history, while the populations of Scotland and Wales have shown little increase during the twentieth century - the population of Scotland remaining unchanged since 1951. Ireland, which for most of its history comprised a population proportionate to its land area (one third of the total population) has, since the
Great Famine, fallen to less than one tenth of the population of the British Isles. The famine, which 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 an
Irish diaspora that numbers fifteen times the current population of the island
Political co-operation within the islands
Between 1801 and 1922, Great Britain and Ireland together formed the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, twenty-six counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom following the
Irish War of Independence and the
Anglo-Irish Treaty; the remaining six counties, mainly in the northeast of the island, became known as
Northern Ireland under the
Government of Ireland Act, 1920. Both states, but not the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, are members of the
European Union.
However, political cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland exists on some levels:
- Voting rights. No part of the British Isles considers a citizen of any other part as an 'alien'. This pre-dates and goes much further than that required by European Union law, and gives common voting rights to all citizens of the jurisdictions within the archipelago. Exceptions to this are presidential elections and referendums in the Republic of Ireland, for which there is no comparable franchise in the other states. Other EU nationals may only vote in local and European Parliament elections while resident in either the UK or Ireland. A 2008 UK Ministry of Justice report 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."
- Diplomatic. Bilateral agreements allow UK embassies to act as an Irish consulate when Ireland is not represented in a particular country.
- Northern Ireland. Citizens of Northern Ireland are entitled to the choice of Irish or British citizenship or both.
- The British-Irish Council was set up in 1999 following the 1998 Belfast Agreement. This body is made up of all political entities across the islands, both the sovereign governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom, the devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. It has no executive authority but meets biannually to discuss issues of mutual importance, currently restricted to the misuse of drugs, the environment, the knowledge economy, social inclusion, tele-medicine, tourism, transport and national languages of the participants. During the February 2008 meeting of the Council, it was agreed to set-up a standing secretariat that would serve as a permanent 'civil service' for the Council.
- The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body () was established in 1990. Originally it comprised 25 members of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament, and 25 members of the parliament of the United Kingdom, with the purpose of building mutual understanding between members of both legislature. Since then the role and scope of the body has been expanded with the addition of five representatives from the Scottish Parliament, five from the National Assembly for Wales and five from the Northern Ireland Assembly. One member is also taken from the States of Jersey, one from the States of Guernsey and one from the High Court of Tynwald (Isle of Man). With no executive powers, it may investigate and collect witness evidence from the public on matters of mutual concern to its members, these have in the past ranged from issues such as the delivery of health services to rural populations, to the Sellafield nuclear facility, to the mutual recognition of penalty points against drivers across the British Isles. Reports on its findings are presented to the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Leading on from developments in the British-Irish Council, the chair of the Body, Niall Blaney, has suggested a name-change and that the body should shadow the British-Irish Council's work.
History
A 1490 Italian reconstruction of Ptolemy's Geography based on surviving latitude and longitude descriptions, showing Ibernia Britannica Insula ("Hibernia, Island of Britannia", Ireland), Albion Insula Britannica ("Albion, Island of Britannia", Great Britain) and Mona Insula (Isle of Man) separated from the European mainland by Oceanus Germanicus ("Germanic Ocean", North Sea) to the east and Oceanus Britannicus ("Britannic Ocean", English Channel) to the south.
Languages
A combined
Venn diagram showing language branches, major languages and typically where they are spoken for
modern languages in the British Isles.
The ethno-linguistic heritage of the British Isles is very rich in comparison to other areas of similar size, with twelve
languages from six groups across four branches of the
Indo-European family. The
Insular Celtic languages of the
Goidelic sub-group (Irish,
Manx,
Scottish Gaelic) and the
Brythonic sub-group (
Cornish,
Welsh and
Breton, spoken in
north-western France) are the only remaining
Celtic languages - their
continental relations becoming extinct during the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries. The
Norman languages of
Guernésiais,
Jèrriais and
Sarkese are spoken in the Channel Islands, as is French. A
cant, called
Shelta, is a language spoken by
Irish Travellers, often as a means to conceal meaning from those outside the group. However, English, sometimes in the form of
Scots, is the dominant language, with few
monoglots remaining in the other languages of the region. The
Norn language appears to have become extinct in the 18th/19th century.
Until perhaps 1950 the use of languages other than English roughly coincided with the major ethno-cultural regions in the British Isles. As such, many of them, especially the Celtic languages, became intertwined with national movements in these areas, seeking either greater independence from the parliament of the United Kingdom, seated in England, or complete secession. The common history of these languages was one of sharp decline in the mid-19th century, prompted by centuries of economic deprivation and official policy to discourage their use in favour of English. However, since the mid-twentieth century there has been somewhat of a
revival of interest in maintaining and using them. Celtic-language
medium schools are available throughout Ireland, Scotland and Wales to such an extent that it is now possible to receive all formal education, up to and including third-level education, through a Celtic language. Instruction in Irish and Welsh is compulsory in all schools in the Republic of Ireland and Wales respectively. In the Isle of Man, Manx in taught in all schools, although it is not compulsory, and there is one Manx-medium school. The respective languages are official languages of state in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales, with equal status with respect to English. In the Channel Islands French is a legislative and administrative language (see
Jersey Legal French). Since 2007, Irish is a working language of the
European Union.
During the last 60 years there has been a great deal of immigration into Great Britain (less into Ireland). As a result a number of languages not formerly found in the British Isles are in regular use.
Polish,
Punjabi, and
Hindustani (inc
Urdu &
Hindi), are each probably the first language of over 1 million residents, and a number of other languages are regularly spoken by substantial numbers of persons. Even in provincial areas it has become common for local government to publish information to residents in ten or so languages, and in the largest city, London, the first language of about 20% of the population is neither English nor an indigenous Celtic language.
Cornish and the Norman languages of Guernésiais, Jèrriais and Sarkese are far less supported. In Jersey, a language office (
L'Office du Jèrriais) is funded to provide education services for Jèrriais in schools and other language services, while in Guernsey there is a language officer and Guernésiais is taught in some schools on a volunteer basis. Of the four, only Cornish is recognised officially under the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and it is taught in some schools as an optional modern language. Guernésiais and Jèrriais are recognised as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish Council. Scots, as either a dialect of or a closely related language to English, is similarly recognised by the European Charter, the British-Irish Council, and as "part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland" under the Good Friday Agreement. However, it is without official status as a language of state in Scotland, where English is used in its place.
Shelta, spoken by the ethnic minority Irish Travellers, is thought to be spoken by 6,000–25,000 people, according to varying sources. Although evidence suggests that it existed as far back as the 13th century, as a
secret language, it was only discovered at the end of the 19th century. It is without any official status, despite being thought to have 86,000 speakers worldwide, mostly in the USA.
Culture
Sport
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. The
British and Irish Lions is a team made up of players from
England,
Ireland,
Scotland and
Wales that undertakes tours of the
southern hemisphere rugby playing nations every four years. This team was formerly known as the
British Isles and the
British Lions, but has been called the
British and Irish Lions since 2001. Ireland play as a united team, represented by players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. The four national rugby teams from Great Britain and Ireland play each other each year for the
Triple Crown as part of the
Six Nations Championship. Also since 2001 the professional club teams of Ireland, Scotland and Wales have competed together in the
Magners League.
The
Ryder Cup in
golf was 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.
Popular culture
The United Kingdom and Ireland have separate media, although British television, newspapers and magazines are widely available in Ireland, giving people in Ireland a high level of familiarity with cultural matters in Great Britain.
A few cultural events are organised for the island group as a whole. For example, the
Costa Book Awards are awarded to authors resident in the UK or Ireland. The
Man Booker Prize is awarded to authors from the
Commonwealth of Nations or Ireland. The
Mercury Music Prize is handed out every year to the best album from a British or Irish musician or group.
Many other bodies are organised throughout the islands as a whole; for example the
Samaritans which is deliberately organised without regard to national boundaries on the basis that a service which is not political or religious should not recognise sectarian or political divisions. The
RNLI is also organised throughout the islands as a whole, covering both the United Kingdom and Ireland.
See also
