MemeMachineGo!

Since getting my Irish citizenship, I’ve been surprised and distressed to find that a lot of Americans think it means UK citizenship. Um, no. There have actually been various troubles involving issues related to the distinction.

This Wikipedia entry on British Isles terminology includes an Euler diagram of the political and physical geography of the British Isles that should help clear things up. Also useful is its directed graph of the history of how we got from the Kingdom of England, the Principality of Wales, the Kingdom of Scotland, and the Lordship of Ireland to the modern-day Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the full name of the UK.) And, to no surprise, “British Isles” is, itself, contentious.

What I didn’t know before I researched this entry is the weird status of Guernsey and Jersey (the Channel Islands,) and the Isle of Man. They’re not a part of the UK (and, thus, not a part of the EU,) but Crown Dependencies. The UK is responsible for their defense, but they’re responsible for their own customs and immigration. Each of the three issues its own money and passports, and has its own vehicle registration code and top-level Internet domain. Their citizens are counted as UK citizens for the purposes of UK nationality law, but acts of the UK Parliament don’t apply to them without an Order-in-Council, legislation formally made in the name of the Queen.

The details are much more complicated than all that sounds, and I don’t pretend to have any less superficial understanding of them than I’ve presented here. UK lawyers involved in these jurisdictional issues must have their work cut out for them.

Finally, the adjective for things related to the Isle of Man is “Manx.” Manx cats originated there.