Talk:Ireland

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Ireland article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16: 90 days

Please stay calm and civil while commenting or presenting evidence, and do not make personal attacks. Be patient when approaching solutions to any issues. If consensus is not reached, other solutions exist to draw attention and ensure that more editors mediate or comment on the dispute.

This article is written in Hiberno-English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, realise, travelled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Ireland was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 15, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
October 13, 2008	Good article reassessment	Delisted
October 30, 2008	Good article reassessment	Not listed
April 7, 2010	Good article nominee	Listed
November 11, 2019	Good article reassessment	Delisted
Current status: Delisted good article

Ireland Top‑importance

	Ireland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ireland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IrelandWikipedia:WikiProject IrelandTemplate:WikiProject IrelandIreland articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Celts Top‑importance

	Ireland is within the scope of WikiProject Celts, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the ancient Celts and the modern day Celtic nations. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article or you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks or take part in the discussion. Please Join, Create, and Assess.CeltsWikipedia:WikiProject CeltsTemplate:WikiProject CeltsCelts articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Islands

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Islands, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of islands on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IslandsWikipedia:WikiProject IslandsTemplate:WikiProject IslandsIslands articles

UK geography Top‑importance

	United Kingdom portal This article falls within the scope of WikiProject UK geography, a user-group dedicated to building a comprehensive and quality guide to places in the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you wish to participate, share ideas or merely get tips you can join us at the project page where there are resources, to do lists and guidelines on how to write about settlements.UK geographyWikipedia:WikiProject UK geographyTemplate:WikiProject UK geographyUK geography articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Shane Hegarty (2021-01-10). "Wikipedia at 20: Did you know Will Ferrell was once not killed in a paragliding incident?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-01-13. Its entry on "Ireland" is typical: "The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onward." And so on. It reads like it was put together by committee, although this is sort of the point.

Discussions relating to the naming of Ireland articles can be found at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ireland Collaboration and its archives

Ireland is not a "British" isle

the term is a colonial and outdated one having been dug up from (by even then) archaic sources by one John Dee - an advisor to Elizabeth I of England, and who advocated for the colonisation of Ireland. Today it has no official standing and has no more relevance to Ireland than the term British East Africa has to modern day Kenya. And as such needs to be be kept in the dustbin of history where it belongs 109.78.105.250 (talk) 12:17, 10 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is a geographical term for a group of islands. Nothing colonial here. The Banner talk 12:34, 10 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The now archaic term as detailed is colonial both in origin and use from the 1600s onwards. Denial doesn't change that regardless 51.37.111.212 (talk) 10:57, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Denial doesn't change the fact that it's absolutely a common geographical term, still in use in Ireland and elsewhere. Bastun^{Ėġáḍβáś₮ŭŃ!} 11:04, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Best we keep using it. GoodDay (talk) 13:23, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

yes 2402:E000:60A:656B:0:0:0:1 (talk) 19:15, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Best according to whom exactly - the same small number of self serving editors? 64.43.20.57 (talk) 01:42, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, these people. Bastun^{Ėġáḍβáś₮ŭŃ!} 12:41, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Best we keep using it. Denisarona (talk) 06:14, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

British Isles is an internationally recognised geographical term. It is used in educational textbooks in Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand etc.

It's also in common use in Ireland, ignoring those whose lives revolve around politics

Celebrity Cruises.IE

https://www.celebritycruises.com/ie/destinations/european-cruises/british-isles-cruise

AirBnB Ireland

https://www.airbnb.ie/british-isles/stays/islands

I could go on but I can't be bothered.

It's common use in Ireland and ubiquitous use outside of Ireland. And, mind you, the 'revolt' against the term hasn't begun until Sinn Fein's recent electoral successes. 145.40.150.167 (talk) 22:28, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Republic of Ireland which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 13:34, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Island"

This article is very clearly about the Irish nation as a whole, not merely the largest island of Ireland (the Irish mainland), so the lede's current wording of "Ireland is an island" is obviously incorrect. I fixed this with this edit, but @Canterbury Tail: reverted the edit, claiming that the fix was "confusing" with no explanation as to how, and suggested discussing it on the talk page.

So I have to ask- if not "nation", then what other term should be used to describe the whole nation of Ireland, consisting of all 32 Irish counties (including areas both on the Irish mainland and offshore islands)? Chessrat ^{(talk, contributions)} 18:03, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article is about the island and what is on it (plus subsidiary islands as is normal with any large island). It's not about the people, they're secondary. This isn't about the counties, it's about the landmass and all that exists and has existed on it. If it was about a nation we'd need to excise half the article as the concept of Irish as a nation is relatively new in historical terms and the geography, flora and fauna of it don't subscribe to this nationhood. Canterbury Tail talk 18:20, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think this is missing the point- this article is about all of Ireland, not just about the Irish mainland, so beginning the article with "Ireland is an island" is factually incorrect. It would be correct to say "Ireland has hundreds of islands"; it would not be correct to say "Ireland is an island consisting of hundreds of islands".

By contrast, the Great Britain article makes it clear in the lede that Great Britain is an island but also that the term "Great Britain" can also refer to the political territory of England, Scotland and Wales, which includes their offshore islands. Chessrat ^{(talk, contributions)} 19:16, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And this article also makes it clear that is also refers to the political territory of Ireland (Republic of) and Northern Ireland. But the article is pretty clear it's about the island and that there are other surround islands. It's perfectly normal in the world to discuss small islands surrounding larger ones in the same context, or those in rivers, lakes etc. Are we disputing that Ireland is an island now? Canterbury Tail talk 19:29, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And mention of other islands can be removed if we feel necessary. Canterbury Tail talk 22:01, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Languages

BSL is also used in NI 81.98.11.143 (talk) 21:24, 4 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Population

As of 2024, population of island would be just over 7.3 million with 5.38m in the Republic and 1.92m in the north. 2A02:8084:1A1:D600:7409:BB4D:E074:6AC5 (talk) 23:50, 27 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How do you know that? Bazza 7 (talk) 12:05, 28 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]