"British Isles" - while politically contentious - predates Britain as a state and has been in common use for centuries. "Irish Isles" is neither accurate nor commonly used, and is virtually certain to be misunderstood.
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Except Britain has never applied to Ireland before any political nation state. Britain is Britain, and Ireland is it’s own thing. North Atlantic Archipelago is getting more common but honestly, what’s wrong with Britain and Ireland?
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Ptolemy referred to the two major islands as "megale Bretannia" and "mikra Bretannia." Much later "Britain" came to be used politically to describe the nation that made up the majority of the islands.
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Ptolemy is hardly a good basis for any terminology, and that wasn’t widespread use anyway.
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My point is that the islands were both called British long before the term was applied to the English, Welsh and Scottish peoples. I fully accept that the term "British Isles" is now value-laden to some people.
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No, Ptolemy called them that, and then later called them Iouernia and Albion. Then Hibernia for Ireland, at least from the Romans. But they may have been based on local terminology. So he changed how he referred to them later which was possibly based on new knowledge.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @funkyderek and
In any event, it’s clear that Ireland was not widely referred to as Little Britain, and Ptolemy might not be based that on wide usage anyway.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @funkyderek and
And when we refer to places we should use the terms that the people who lived there used.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip @funkyderek and
I’ll amend what I said: it was used once, as far as we know, and then very soon was jettisoned because it was inaccurate, and therefore has no bearing on calling Ireland part of Britain.
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It’s not about feelings you goon, it’s geography. Piss off.
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