Change to UK & Ireland?

Hey fellow Postcrossers,

As it can be seen I’m an Irish Postcrosser and I love to chat with other postcrossers about Ireland and other things I’m interested in.

One thing that irks me a little is the name of this section is British Isles. I know there are more Postcrossers from Great Britain than Ireland but I feel like a few Irish postcrossers won’t click on this section because they think it is only for postcrossers in Great Britain including me at first. I think changing the name of the section to UK & Ireland would make more Irish postcrossers aware that this section is also for them as well

Let me know your thoughts (also moderators if this is not allowed then you can delete it)

Best wishes,
Emily aka Oomiloo

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I would love that too. If I’m honest, ‘Britain’ and ‘British’ isn’t something that I connect too closely with either. I’d prefer UK.

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The British Isles is the geographical term for the group of islands we inhabit, so it makes sense from that perspective.

However, I think a name like ‘Ireland, UK & Dependencies’, or ‘Ireland, UK, Manx, & Channel Islanders’, could be more inclusive of Irish Postcrossers and those (me included) in the UK who don’t identify as British.

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I am probably one of the few who Identify as British…

…however I do agree with the previous posters, and that British Isles term is a little ‘Out of Date’

The ‘UK & Ireland’ would be sufficient, such as the popular UK & Ireland to the World - Tag

https://community.postcrossing.com/t/uk-ireland-to-the-world-tag/5478

Even the Meetup Section the UK and Ireland have separate sections.

*The Isle of Man & the Channel Islands would be included under the UK banner, even though they are effectively semi-autonomous territories.

Mind you I’ve never encountered a Crown Dependency Postcrosser here on the forum.

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I agree, it might be a good idea to mention the Channel Islands and/or Isle of Man too as they have their own postcrossing IDs iirc!

Interestingly about the geograpgical term it’s actually the opposite here - ‘UK and Ireland’ is considered the more formal geographic descriptor and ‘British Isles’ would be seen as more informal.

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I believe this is mainly about self-identity, but it seems like a story everyone heard before. :rofl: I’ll avoid further controversy by not quoting. :joy:

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I agree with @Maddymail UK & Ireland would be sufficient.

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I’m an American, and I think the name should be changed. I thought the Republic of Ireland would have it’s own section and wasn’t expecting to find it under “British Isles.”

I’m not Irish, I moved to Ireland a year ago and I had to google if Ireland is a part of British Isles before posting here. :joy: So yeah, I agree.

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The historian Norman Davies uses the term “Atlantic Isles”. That does have a ring to it, even if there are many other isles in the Atlantic.

That could be anywhere! :smile: The Faroes, Bahamas, Falklands.

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A visual guide to help us all understand.

As my previous post, I am all for a change to UK & Ireland

British & Irish Isles

However if you look at the forum regions, it’s primarily linked into Geographic regions, such as North America, Scandinavia, Former Yugoslavia, etc

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