UK, Ireland - the boring details (OT)

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 738

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Neil Ward <neilward at d...> wrote:

> - 'Great Britain' has referred to the union of England, Scotland 
> and Wales since 1707.  The term excludes Northern Ireland, the Isle
> of Man and the Channel Islands.
> 
> - 'The British Isles' is a geographical term encompassing Great 
> Britain, Northern Ireland and all the surrounding isles, including
> the aforementioned ones and Scottish islands, such as the 
> Shetlands, but excluding the Republic of Ireland.
>
> - 'The United Kingdom is a political term, as Simon said, shorthand
> for 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.  It
> does not usually include the smaller islands.

Oh, dear! If the political-entity names (Great Britain and United 
Kingdom) don't include the Isle of Man (altho' I've never heard of it 
being ruled by a different government -- I have heard of some Channel 
Islands (a phrase that anywhere else means to me Catalina, San 
Nicolas, and the other Santa Barbara Channel Islands!) still being 
ruled by dictat of their feudal lords), then why isn't Man enough of 
an entity to rate its own National Team for Quidditch (and Muggle 
soccer football, but I think that tailless cats and being named after 
the god Mananaan would lead to a higher porportion of wizard folk in 
the population of Man than in some other places)? 

If I say in future that Hogwarts is the wizarding school for the 
whole islands of Britain and Ireland, are people going to get on 
my case about the little isles?  
> 
> - 'Lewisham' is the region where I live.  It is a component of
> London, England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, the British 
> Isles, the European Union, Europe, the World, the Earth, the Solar
> System, the Milky Way, the Universe.

I gather you've been reading up on James Joyce, who is said by Joseph 
Campbell to have a 'wall' them in FINNEGAN'S WAKE deriving from 
Stephen Dedalus having written his info (as yours above) on the fly 
page of a (primary school?) textbook and then stared at it wondering 
what about the Universe as the final term: does it go on forever or 
does it come to an end; what could be next to the end of the univrse, 
a WALL around it?