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Isle Of Man

Isle of Man

:For the native Isle of Man Cat, see Manx Cat. The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin in Manx) or Mann (Mannin in Manx), is a self-governing democracy located in the Irish Sea at the geographical centre of the British Isles. Although it is not part of the United Kingdom, it is a Crown dependency.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the Isle of Man The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles, an archipelago off the north-western coast of mainland Europe. The island lies in the Irish Sea, approximately equidistant between England, Scotland and Ireland. Approximately 48 km (32 miles) long and between 13 and 24 km (8 and 15 miles) in breadth, the island has an area of around 572 km² (221 square miles). Hills in the north and south are bisected by a central valley. The extreme north is exceptionally flat, consisting mainly of deposits built up by gradual deposition of material by the sea. It has only one mountain higher than 2000 feet, Snaefell, with a height of 621 m (2,036 ft). According to an old saying, from the summit one can see seven kingdoms: those of Mann, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Heaven and Neptune. :See also: List of islands of Isle of Man

People

Main article: Demographics of the Isle of Man According to the 2001 census, the Isle of Man is home to 76,315 people, of whom around 25,347 reside in the Island's capital, Douglas (Doolish). This gives the island a population density of 345 people per square mile, or 133 per square kilometer.

Culture

The culture of the Isle of Man is strongly influenced by its Celtic and Norse origins. It is currently enjoying a revival of the Goidelic Manx language (Gaelg). Although the last original native speaker died in 1974 small children are once again being brought-up speaking Manx. There are now 27 known native speakers and 650 other speakers. Manx is closely related to the Scottish Gaelic and Irish languages. See music of the Isle of Man.

Government

Main article: Politics of the Isle of Man

Structure

The Isle of Man is a self-governing crown dependency. The head of state is currently HM The Queen, her title on the Island is Lord of Mann. She is represented by the Island's Lieutenant Governor. The United Kingdom is responsible for the Island's defence and for representing the Island in international forums, while the Island's own parliament has competence over almost all domestic matters. The Island's parliament is the Tynwald (Tinvaal) , which dates from 979 A.D. Tynwald is a bicameral legislature, comprising the House of Keys (directly elected by universal suffrage) and the Legislative Council (consisting of indirectly elected and ex officio members). There is a Council of Ministers, which is headed by the Chief Minister, currently Donald Gelling. As of 2005, the Island's system of government is under review — there are plans to transform the Legislative Council into a directly-elected chamber, echoing the push for reform in the UK's House of Lords and the abolition of indirectly elected Conseillers in Guernsey. In October 2005 Tynwald accepted a proposal to change the title of the Lieutenant Governor to Crown Commissioner or Barrantagh y Chrooin in Manx (the title would also be "Barrantagh ny Benrein," or "Queen's Commissioner"; when there is a King it will be "Barrantagh ny Ree," or "King's Commissioner"). It now has to go London for approval, but the United Kingdom Department for Constitutional Affairs indicated early in 2005 that this was likely to be given.

External relations

A common misconception exists that Mann forms part of the United Kingdom. Under British law it does not, although the United Kingdom takes care of its external and defence affairs. The Isle of Man had a dispute with the European Court of Human Rights in the 1970s because it was reluctant to change its laws concerning birching (corporal punishment for male offenders). The law on sodomy might have also led down this road had it not been changed in the early 1990s. The Isle of Man holds neither membership nor associate membership of the European Union, and lies outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Nonetheless, Protocol Three of the [http://www.bmdf.co.uk/ukaccessiontreaty.pdf treaty of accession of the United Kingdom] permits trade for Manx goods without non-EU tariffs. In conjunction with the Customs and Excise agreement with the UK, this facilitates free trade with the UK. While Manx goods can be freely moved within the EEA, people, capital and services cannot. There is no Manx citizenship. Manx people are classed as British citizens but those defined as Manx under Protocol Three have a special endorsement placed in their passports preventing them from freely living or working in EU states. This is anomalous in that the treaty establishing the EU (formerly EEC) clearly states that all citizens of member states will also be citizens of the EU. Travel to the Isle of Man is regulated by the local government laws. Visitors from countries who require a UK visa may also require a special Manx visa, obtainable from a British diplomatic mission. All non-Manx, including UK citizens, are required to obtain a work permit to take up employment on the Island.

Politics

Most Manx politicians stand for election as independents rather than as representatives of political parties. Though political parties do exist, their influence is not nearly as strong as is the case in the United Kingdom. Consequently, much Manx legislation develops through consensus among the members of Tynwald, which contrasts with the much more adversarial nature of the UK parliament. One political party, Mec Vannin, advocates the establishment of a sovereign republic. A Manx Labour Party also exists, unaffiliated to the UK Labour Party. The island formerly had a Manx National Party and a Manx Communist party. There are Manx members in the Celtic League, a political pressure group that advocates greater co-operation between and political autonomy for the Celtic nations. The main political issues include the Island's relationship with the finance sector, housing prices and shortages, and the Manx language. The vast majority of the members of the House of Keys are non-partisan (19), with two representatives from the Manx Labour Party and three from the Alliance for Progressive Government. The next scheduled election is in 2006.

Sheadings and parishes

The Isle of Man is divided into six administrative districts, called sheadings. The six sheadings are Ayre, Glenfaba, Garff, Michael, Rushen and Middle. The sheadings form the basis of some constituencies and each has a Coroner. This office must not be confused with the Coronor for Inquests, a role usually fulfilled by the High Bailiff. A person may fulfil the role of coroner for more than one sheading at the same time. The term 'sheading' is thought to be a Norse word for 'ship division'; each district was believed to be responsible for producing a certain number of warships. It could also be a Celtic word meaning 'sixth part'. Each sheading is divided into a number of parishes It has 24 local government areas [http://www.gov.im/dlge/local/welcome_noflash.xml] including 4 towns, 2 districts, 3 villages and 15 parishes. The towns are Castletown, Douglas, Peel and Ramsey. The districts are Michael and Onchan. The parishes are Andreas, Arbory, Ballaugh, Braddan, Bride, German, Jurby, Lezayre, Lonan, Malew, Marown, Maughold, Patrick, Rushen, Santon. The villages are Laxey, Port Erin, and Port St Mary.

Economy

Offshore banking, manufacturing, and tourism form key sectors of the economy of the Isle of Man. The government's policy of offering incentives to high-technology companies and financial institutions to locate on the Island has expanded employment opportunities in high-income industries. As a result, agriculture and fishing, once the mainstays of the economy, have declined in their shares of gross domestic product (GDP). Banking and other services now contribute the great bulk of GDP. Trade takes place mostly with the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man has access to European Union markets. Since 1999, the Isle of Man has received electricity through the world's longest submarine AC cable, the 90 kV Isle of Man to England Interconnector.

History

Ancient times to present

The Isle of Man became a Viking outpost/kingdom from circa AD 700 to AD 900. The Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles was created by Godred Crovan in 1079. The Isle of Man came under the control of the Scottish crown in 1266, as dictated in the Treaty of Perth. The Island came under English control in the 14th century and to the British crown in 1765.

The Tynwald

The Island arguably has the oldest continuous parliament in the world, the Tynwald, nominally founded in 979 AD (both the Icelandic parliament and the Faroese parliament are older, but they were abolished between 1800 and 1845, and 1816 and 1852 respectively).

The Triskelion

1852 For centuries, the Island's symbol has been the ancient Triskelion: three bent legs, each with a spur, joined at the thigh. The Triskelion does not appear to have an official definition — Government publications, currency, flags, the tourist authority and others all use different variants. Most, but not all, preserve rotational symmetry. Some run clockwise, others anticlockwise. Some have the uppermost thigh at 12:00, others at 11:30 or 10:00, etc. Some have the knee bent at 90°, some at 60°, some at closer to 120°. Also the degree of ornamentation of the leg wear and spur vary considerably. The three legs relate directly to the island's motto — Quocunque Jeceris Stabit, which translates to Whithersoever you throw it, it will stand. Interpretations of the motto often stress stability and robustness in the Manx character. Many schools on the island have adapted the motto to promote perseverance and hard work. Triskelion Variations on the Triskelion are still in use on the coats of arms belonging to the different branches of the ancient Norwegian noble family that ruled Mann up until the 13th century. This particular version belongs to the Skancke branch of the Skanke family. The name stems from skank, the Norwegian version of the word shank. The kinsmen of Magnus III and Godfred Magnuson emigrated to Norway after the failure of the 1275 uprising against the Scots and became knights, landlords, and clergy under the Norwegian Crown.

Sports

The Isle of Man is famous for its TT Motorbike racing event, which began in 1904 as a motorcar race. This event is now a series of races held each year in May and early June. Basketball is popular in the Isle of Man, with a number of promising players. Football is also popular, with the Isle of Man Football Association running an football league of 27 clubs in two divisions, as well as an football combination for the reserve teams of the league clubs. There is also an national football team, although it does not participate in UEFA or FIFA tournaments. There are many Manx hockey teams, with mixed, mens' and ladies' leagues. See [http://www.manxhockey.com Manx hockey website]. The Isle of Man Cricket Association broke their affiliation with the Lancashire Cricket Board in 2004 to become affiliate members of the International Cricket Council and compete as a national team in their own right. There are a number of Rugby Union clubs that participate in the English rugby scene, such as Castletown R.U.F.C.; Douglas R.U.F.C.; Southern Nomads R.U.F.C.; and Vagabonds R.U.F.C..

Famous residents

The British racing driver Nigel Mansell lived on the Isle of Man together with his family until moving to the USA. Jonny Longrigg of the Newcastle upon Tyne-based post rock collective Peace Burial at Sea is known to holiday on the island regularly. Sir Norman Wisdom, comedian and actor, is a long term resident. The Bee Gees were born on the Island. [http://beta.manxradio.com/presenters/berniequayle/beegees-index.shtml] Jeremy Clarkson has a home near Castletown. Rick Wakeman has lived on the island for a number of years. Singer Christine Collister grew up on the Isle of Man.

See also


- Communications on the Isle of Man
- Transport on the Isle of Man
- List of Kings of the Isle of Man
- Calf of Man & Chicken Rock — island and rocks housing a lighthouse.
- St Mary's Isle (Conister Rocks or Tower of Refuge) — Douglas bay islet.
- St Michael's Isle (Fort Island) — connected to Langness by causeway.
- St Patrick's Isle (Peel Castle) — one of the smallest islets in the Irish Sea but probably the most historic. Now connected to the mainland by causeway.
- Loaghtan sheep
- Manx cat
- Towns in the Isle of Man
- Tynwald Day
- Isle of Man coins
- Cremaster 4 a film by Mathew Barney filmed on the isle.
- List of not fully sovereign nations
- Ubuntu - a Linux distribution that is distributed by Canonical, headquartered in the Isle of Man - [http://www.canonical.com/]

References


- CIA World Factbook 2000

External links


- [http://www.iomguide.com/ Isle of Man Guide ] Large website about the island
- [http://www.manxies.net/forums Manxies.net forums ] The Talk of the Island.
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=54.201050,-4.550400&spn=0.522537,0.764923&t=k&hl=en Google Maps Satellite Photo]
- [http://www.manxforums.com Manx Discussion Forums ] The busiest Manx forum.
- [http://www.isle-of-man.com/places.shtml Information on places in the Isle of Man]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IsleofMan/ IsleofMan Email group ]with Photographs, Files and Links to information about the Isle of Man
- [http://www.gov.im Manx Government Website] A comprehensive site covering many aspects of Manx life from fishing to financial regulation
- [http://www.tynwald.org.im Tynwald.org] Hansards, Order Papers and Background to the Manx Government.
- [http://www.manxradio.com/ Manx Radio] The Government/commercial funded radio station for the Isle of Man
- [http://www.corpun.com/manx.htm Birching in the Isle of Man 1945-1976] Article about the use of the birch as a judicial punishment in the Isle of Man.
- [http://www.manxscenes.com/ Manx Scenes.com] Extensive photographic library.
- [http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/ Manx Notebook] Manx History Archive.
- [http://www.isleofmanaccommodation.com/ Isle of Man Accommodation]
- [http://www.manxradio.com/webcammap.aspx Isle of Man Webcams] Via Manx Radio Website.
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/im.html The World Factbook listing for the Isle of Man]
- [http://travel.holidays.com/#isleofman Travel to and from the Isle of Man - Links] Category:European dependencies Category:Islands of Isle of Man Category:Special territories Category:Former Norwegian colonies zh-min-nan:Mannin ko:맨 섬 ja:マン島

CAT

:See also Cat (disambiguation) The acronym CAT may stand for: #Cable Avoidance Tool #California Achievement Test #Call Any Time #Calling All Troops #Camarillo Area Transit #Cambridge Antibody Technology, the UK biotechnology company #Canadian Association of Transplantation #Canby Area Transit, a public transportation bus service in Canby, Oregon #Canine Agility Team #Capital Acquisitions Tax #Capital Area Transit #Capsule Ariane Technologies #Carboxyatractyloside #Carburetor Air Temperature #Casual American Teenager #Catalan language #Catalonia #Catalunya #Catalyst #Catalytic Converter #Catamaran #Catapult #Cataract #Catastrophe #Catch Airboat Thieves #Catechism #Catenate #Caterpillar #CECOM Accreditation Team #Cellular Action Team #Center for Advanced Technologies #Center for Appropriate Transport #Central African Time #Central Alaska Time #Central Area Transit, the free bus transit system that running in Perth City. #Central Arizona Trails #Central Arkansas Transit #Central Artery-Tunnel #Centre for Alternative Technology, an eco-centre in Wales #Certified Automotive Technician #Change Agent Team #Channel Available Time #Charges, easy Access and fair Terms #Chemical Addition Tank #Chicago Area Theatres #Chromatic Adaptation Transform #Citizens Against Tolls #Citizens Area Transit, public transportation by bus in Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) #Citizens' Army Training #Civic Action Team #Civil Air Transport, the airline forerunner of Air America that was formed after World War II by General Claire Lee Chennault of the Flying Tigers #Civil Aviation Tribunal #Civilian Augmented Training #Clear air turbulence, a term in aviation #Clemson Area Transit #Cloud Arrival Time #Cockpit Automation Technology #Cognitive Ability Test #Coital Alignment Technique #Collaborative Access Team #College Ability Test #College of Advanced Technology #Combat AGE Team #Combat Aircraft Technology #Combat Aircrew Training #Combat Application Tourniquet #Combat Auto Theft #Combined Acceptance Trials #Combined Arms Team #Combined Arms Training #Command Action Team #Commodity Action Team #Common Admission Test, a graduate test in India, conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management or by Cochin University of Science and Technology #Common Aptitude Test #Common Authentication Technology #Communications Assist Team #Community Action Team #Compact Audio Technology #Competency Assessment Tool #Complementary Angle Theorem #Compliance Assessment Team #Component Advanced Technology #Computer-adaptive test, a type of test that dynamically adapts to the testee's ability level #Computer-aided tomography #Computer Aided Transceiver, a class of software application and communications interface used for the control of radio transmitting and receiving equipment, especially amateur (ham) radios. #Computer-aided technology #Computer-aided training #Computer-aided transcription #Computer-aided translation #Computer-assisted translation, a form of computer software used to help human translators #Computed axial tomography, a tomographical X-ray technique #Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope, the first telescope to measure fine details in the fireball from the Big Bang #Culture, Art, & Technology, the core writing courses that all Sixth College UC San Diego students are required to take. ja:CAT

Manx language

Manx (Gaelg or Gailck), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. It is a descendant of Middle Irish, particularly similar to the old Ulster and Galloway dialects.

History

Manx dates to around the 5th century and is called Yn Ghaelg / Yn Ghailck by Manx speakers. The language sharply declined during the 19th century and was supplanted by English. In 1848, J. G. Cumming wrote that "there are ... few persons (perhaps none of the young) who speak no English", and Henry Jenner estimated in 1874 that about 30% of the population habitually spoke Manx (12,340 out of a population of 41,084). According to official census figures, 9.1% of the population claimed to speak Manx in 1901; in 1921 the percentage was only 1.1%. Since the language had fallen to a status of low prestige, parents tended to fail to teach the language to their children, thinking that Manx would be useless to them compared with English. By the middle of the 20th century only a few elderly native speakers remained (the last of them, Ned Maddrell, died on December 27, 1974), but by then a scholarly revival had begun to spread to the populace and many had learned Manx as a second language. The first native speakers of Manx (bilingual with English) in many years have now appeared: children brought up by Manx-speaking parents. Primary immersion education in Manx is provided by the Manx government: since 2003, the former St. John's School building has been used by the Bunscoill Gaelgagh (Manx language-medium school). Degrees in Manx are available from the Isle of Man College, the Centre for Manx Studies and the University of Edinburgh. Manx-language playgroups also exist, and Manx language classes are available in island schools. In the 1991 census, 650 out of a population of about 71,000 claimed to have knowledge of Manx, although the degree of knowledge in these cases presumably varied. Manx is used by the Tynwald, with new laws being read out by Yn Lhaihder ('the Reader') in both Manx and English. Manx is recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It is also one of the regional languages recognised in the framework of the British-Irish Council. Some controversy has resulted over the omission of Manx culture from the Columba Initiative. The revival of Manx has been aided by the recording work done in the 20th century by researchers, notably the Irish Folklore Commission in 1948. There has historically been little secular Manx literature. Arguably, no trace of written Manx survives from before the 1600s, but the Book of Common Prayer and [http://www.gaelg.iofm.net/BIBLICAL/BIBLICAL.html Bible] were translated into Manx in the 17th and 18th centuries. A tradition of carvals, religious songs or carols, developed. Following the decline in the use of Manx during the 19th century, Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society) was founded in 1899. Today Manx is used as the sole medium for teaching at five of the Island's pre-schools by a group named Mooinjer Veggey, two primary schools; Bunscoill Ghaelgagh and Scoill Balley Cottier. Manx can be taught as a second language at all of the Island's primary and secondary schools and also at the Isle of Man College and Centre of Manx Studies. Manx is also taught at the University of Edinburgh.

Orthography

The spelling of Manx, unlike that of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, does not represent the Goidelic etymology, and more closely resembles an English speaker's attempt to write Gaelic, with a degree of Welsh influence evident from the use of 'y' and 'w'. This is because Manx developed without a written literature, and when attempts were made to introduce a standardised orthography for the language, the choice was made to spell the words in an English manner. For example, 'Isle of Man' in Irish would be written as Oileán Mhanainn or in Scottish Gaelic as Eilean Mhanainn, whereas in Manx it is written as Ellan Vannin. Although it is commonly said that Phillips, a Welsh-speaking bishop, introduced the writing system, it does appear to have some similarities with similar English based systems that have been found in Scotland. For example, the Book of the Dean of Lismore is written in Scottish Gaelic using such a system.

Initial consonant mutations

orthography welcome signs. Note here the consonant mutation of Doolish (Douglas) to Ghoolish.]] Like all modern Celtic languages, Manx shows initial consonant mutations, which are processes by which the initial consonant of a word is altered according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. The only productive mutation of literary Manx is lenition, though traces of the eclipsis found in Irish can also be found. In the late spoken language of the 20th century the system was breaking down, with speakers frequently failing to use lenition in environments where it was called for, and occasionally using it in environments where it was not called for.

Vocabulary

Key: SCO - Scottish Gaelic, IRL - Irish

Numbers

Notes

# Fourth International Conference on Minority Languages, Vol. II, Gorter et al, 1990, pages 59-60.

See also


- Ned Maddrell

External links


- [http://www.gaelg.iofm.net/EMENU.html Information about the language]
- [http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/history/manks/ isle-of-man.com language section]
- [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/search.html Gaelic Dictionaries]
- [http://homepages.enterprise.net/kelly/FRONT/INFO/info.html Manx Language resources] Category:Goidelic languages Category:Isle of Man Manx Category:Minority languages als:Manx ja:マン島語 nb:Mansk språk

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean (the Celtic Sea) by St George's Channel between the Republic of Ireland and Wales to the south and by the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland to the north-east. The Isle of Man lies in the middle of the Irish Sea. The sea is of high economic importance to regional trade, shipping and transport, fishing and power generation in the form of wind power and nuclear plants. There has been long discussion of building an 80km rail tunnel to link Britain and Ireland; annual traffic between the two islands amounts to over 12 million passengers and 17 Mt of trade.

Shipping

Isle of Man Ireland is one of the last large inhabited islands in the world without a tunnel or bridge connection. Thus the vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. Northern Irish ports handle 10 megatonnes of goods trade with Britain annually, while ports in the south handle 7.6 Mt, representing 50% and 40% respectively of total trade by weight. Liverpool and Birkenhead port handles 32 Mt cargo and 734 thousand passengers a year ([http://www.merseydocks.co.uk/index2.htm]). Holyhead port handles most of the passenger traffic from Dublin and Dun Laoghaire port, as well as 3.3 million tonnes of freight. [http://www.maritimestatistics.org/pdfs/port%20traffic%20highlights%202002.pdf] Ports in the Republic handle 3,600,000 travelers crossing the Irish sea each year, amounting to 92% of all sea travel [http://www.cso.ie/statistics/passengermovementbysea.htm (CSO figures)]. This has been steadly dropping for a number of years (20% since 1999), probably as a result of low cost airlines. Ferry connections between Britain to Ireland via the Irish Sea include the routes from Swansea to Cork, Fishguard and Pembroke to Rosslare, Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire, Stranraer to Belfast and Larne, and Cairnryan to Larne. There is also a connection between Liverpool and Belfast via the Isle of Man. The world's largest car ferry, Ulysses, is operated by Irish Ferries on the Dublin–Holyhead route. :See also: Transport in Ireland, Transport in the United Kingdom, Transport on the Isle of Man

Origin and Environment

The Irish Sea has undergone a series of dramatic changes over the last 20,000 years as the last ice age ended and was replaced by warmer conditions. At the height of the ice age the central part of the modern sea was probably a long freshwater lake. As the ice retreated 10,000 years ago the lake reconnected to the sea, becoming brackish and then fully saline once again. The Irish Sea has been subject to heavy radioactive pollution by the first British weapons grade 239Pu nuclear production plant and power station at Windscale. An estimated 250 kg of plutonium have been deposited in marine sediments during the first decades of production. The Irish Sea Forum is an environmental forum concerned with the Irish Sea.

U-boat Alley

During the Great War the Irish Sea became known as “U-boat Alley”. After America entered the war in 1917, the U-boats moved their emphasis from the Atlantic to the Irish Sea. :External link: [http://uboat.net/maps/irish_sea.htm Uboats in the Irish Sea]

Oil and gas exploration

East Irish Sea Basin With 7.5 trillion cubic feet (210 km³) of gas and 176 million barrels (28,000,000 m³) of oil estimated by the field operators as initially recoverable reserves from eight producing fields (DTI, 2001), the East Irish Sea Basin is at a mature exploration phase. Early Namurian basinal mudstones are the source rocks for these hydrocarbons. Production from all fields is from fault-bounded traps of the Lower Triassic formation, principally aeolian Sherwood Sandstone reservoir, top-sealed by younger Triassic continental mudstones and evaporites. Future exploration will initially concentrate on extending this play, but there remains largely untested potential also for gas and oil within widespread Carboniferous fluvial sandstone reservoirs. This play requires intraformational mudstone seal units to be present, as there is no top-seal for reservoirs subcropping the regional base Permian unconformity in the east of the basin, and Carboniferous strata crop out at the sea bed in the west. Caernarfon Bay Basin The Caernarfon Bay Basin contains up to 7 km of Permian and Triassic syn-rift sediments in an asymmetrical graben that is bounded to the north and south by Lower Paleozoic massifs. Only two exploration wells have been drilled so far, and there remain numerous undrilled targets in tilted fault block plays. As in the East Irish Sea Basin, the principal target reservoir is the Lower Triassic, Sherwood Sandstone, top-sealed by younger Triassic mudstones and evaporites. Wells in the Irish Sector to the west have demonstrated that pre-rift, Westphalian coal measures are excellent hydrocarbon source rocks, and are at peak maturity for gas generation (Maddox et al., 1995). Seismic profiles clearly image these strata continuing beneath a basal Permian unconformity into at least the western part of the Caernarfon Bay Basin. The timing of gas generation presents the greatest exploration risk. Maximum burial of, and primary gas migration from, the source rocks could have terminated as early as the Jurassic, whereas many of the tilted fault blocks were reactivated or created during Paleogene inversion of the basin. However, it is also possible that a secondary gas charge occurred during regional heating associated with intrusion of Paleogene dykes, such as those that crop out nearby on the coastline of north Wales. (Floodpage et al., 1999) have invoked this second phase of Paleogene hydrocarbon generation as an important factor in the charging of the East Irish Sea Basin’s oil and gas fields. It is not clear as yet whether aeromagnetic anomalies in the south-east of Caernarfon Bay are imaging a continuation of the dyke swarm into this area too, or whether they are instead associated with deeply buried Permian syn-rift volcanics. Alternatively, the fault block traps could have been recharged by exsolution of methane from formation brines as a direct result of the Tertiary uplift (cf. Doré and Jensen, 1996). The Cardigan Bay Basin The Cardigan Bay Basin forms a continuation into UK waters of Ireland’s North Celtic Sea Basin, which has two producing gas fields. The basin comprises a south-easterly deepening half-graben near the Welsh coastline, although its internal structure becomes increasingly complex towards the south-west. Permian to Triassic, syn-rift sediments within the basin are less than 3 km thick and are overlain by up to 4 km of Jurassic strata, and locally also by up to 2 km of Paleogene fluvio-deltaic sediments. The basin has a proven petroleum system, with potentially producible gas reserves at the Dragon discovery near the UK/Ireland median line, and oil shows in a further three wells. The Cardigan Bay Basin contains multiple reservoir targets, which include the Lower Triassic (Sherwood Sandstone), Middle Jurassic shallow marine sandstones and limestone (Great Oolite), and Upper Jurassic fluvial sandstone, the reservoir for the Dragon discovery. The most likely hydrocarbon source rocks are early Jurassic marine mudstones (Lias Group). These are fully mature for oil generation in the west of the UK sector, and are mature for gas generation nearby in the Irish sector. Gas-prone, Westphalian pre-rift coal measures may also be present at depth locally. The Cardigan Bay Basin was subjected to two Tertiary phases of compressive uplift, whereas maximum burial that terminated primary hydrocarbon generation was probably around the end of the Cretaceous, or earlier if Cretaceous strata, now missing, were never deposited in the basin. Despite the Tertiary structuration, the Dragon discovery has proved that potentially commercial volumes of hydrocarbons were retained at least locally in Cardigan Bay. In addition to undrilled structural traps, the basin contains untested potential for stratigraphic entrapment of hydrocarbons near synsedimentary faults, especially in the Middle Jurassic section. [http://www.og.dti.gov.uk/UKpromote/summary_UKCS_2003.pdf DTI Summary 2003]
- [http://www.visitorcentre-bhpbilliton.com/ BHP Oil Ltd Visitors Centre]
- [http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/ourBusinesses/petroleum/operations/liverpoolBay.jsp BHP Oil Liverpool Page] The Liverpool Bay Development is BHP Billiton Petroleum's largest operated asset. It comprises the integrated development of five offshore oil and gas fields in the Irish Sea:
- Douglas oil field
- Hamilton gas field
- Hamilton North gas field
- Hamilton East gas field
- Lennox oil and gas field Oil is produced from the Lennox and Douglas fields. It is then treated at the Douglas Complex and piped 17 kilometres to an oil storage barge ready for export by tankers. Gas is produced from the Hamilton, Hamilton North and Hamilton East reservoirs. After initial processing at the Douglas Complex the gas is piped by subsea pipeline to the Point of Ayr gas terminal for further processing. The gas is then sent by onshore pipeline to PowerGen's combined cycle gas turbine power station at Connah's Quay. PowerGen is the sole purchaser of gas from the Liverpool Bay development. First production
- Hamilton North 1995
- Hamilton 1996
- Douglas 1996
- Lennox (oil only) 1996
- First contract gas sales 1996
- Hamilton East 2001 Facility details The Liverpool Bay development comprises: Four offshore platforms. Offshore storage and loading facilities. The onshore gas processing terminal at Point of Ayr.

Proposed tunnel projects

Discussions of linking Britain to Ireland began in 1895, with an application £15,000 towards the cost of carrying out borings and soundings in the North Channel to see if a tunnel between Ireland and Scotland was viable. Sixty years later Montgomery Hyde, Unionist MP for North Belfast, called for the building of such a tunnel. [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2004/0207/3742943993DIFEB7.html Irish Times, Feb 2004] Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently the "Tusker Tunnel" between the ports of Rosslare and Fishguard proposed by The Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004. [http://www.iei.ie/Publications/GetPublicationDetails.pasp?PublicationID=69&Module=Papers&txt_freetext=&RecordsPerPage=1000&PageNumber=1&MenuID=24 IEI report (pdf)] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4121001.stm BBC report] [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/1206/1052605062HM5WALESTRANSPORT.html?digest=1 (Irish Times)] A different proposed route is between Dublin and Holyhead, proposed in 1997 by a leading British engineering firm, Symonds, for a rail tunnel from Dublin to Holyhead. Either tunnel, at 80 km, would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated €20,000,000,000. There is a strong economic case for such a link. The Irish sea is one of the busiest shipping regions in the world and has the world's largest car ferry—Irish Ferries Ulysses [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=43778 (Guinness Book of Records)]. In addition, half of the air traffic at Dublin Airport is to Britain, 8,300,000 per annum. The Dublin-London air route is the busiest in the European Union and the second busiest in the world, with about 50 daily flights and 4.5 million journeys per annum. The success of the recent 15 km Oresund Bridge between Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark, which has lead to important economic integration between the two cities, suggests that the Dublin–Holyhead route may be the most promising. [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1997/1229/archive.97122900011.html Irish Times, 97] With the addition of high speed rail, such a tunnel could cut journey times from the northern English cities of Liverpool and Manchester to Dublin to under an hour. The combined population of the three metropolitan areas is over 5 million.

Wind power

One of the world's largest wind farms is being developed on [http://www.airtricity.com/opencontent/default.asp?itemid=397§ion=WIND+FARMS Arklow Bank], about 10 km off the coast of County Wicklow in the south Irish Sea. The site currently has seven GE 3.6 MW turbines, each with 104 m rotor diameters, the world's first commercial application of offshore wind turbines over three megawatts in size. The operating company, Airtricity, has indefinite plans for nearly 100 further turbines on the site. Further wind turbine sites include:
- The [http://www.natwindpower.co.uk/northhoyle/ North Hoyle] site off the Welsh coast, containing thirty 2 MW turbines.
- A site in the Solway Firth is being developed
- Turbines are being erected off the coast of Walney Island

Footnotes

U-Boat Alley by Roy Stokes, published by Compuwreck, ISBN 0-9549186-0-6 Category:Seas Category:Geography of Ireland ko:아일랜드 해 ja:アイリッシュ海

British Isles

:For an explanation of often confusing terms like (Great) Britain, United Kingdom and England see also British Isles (terminology). :The "British Isles" is also an old name for the British and Irish Lions rugby team. British and Irish Lions The British Isles is a term traditionally given to the group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe including Great Britain (containing England, Scotland, and Wales), Ireland, and several thousand smaller adjacent islands. The name was extensively used historically, derived from when the island of Great Britain was called Britannias, and Ireland and the other islands near Great Britain were called Britanniae (the Latin genitive case meaning of Britannias.) In 1922 most of the island of Ireland ceased to be in the United Kingdom and became the independent sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland. However, even before this, and especially since, the usage of the term British Isles has been seen by many people, especially in Ireland, as problematic, due to an implied continued British sovereignty over the whole of Ireland, or more generally as referring to Ireland as being British in any sense. This is not a result of anti-British sentiment, but simply a reflection that Irish people do not regard themselves or their country as British. The term is also considered by some to be offensive to people in Wales and Scotland. In terms of geography the term British Isles is understood to refer to the whole archipelago, from Scilly to Shetland, containing more than 6,000 islands and totalling 315,134 km² (121,674 square miles) of land. These islands were originally inhabited by the ancient Britons (hence the name "British Isles"). The historic name British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe the island group. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (iv.xvi.102) records of Great Britain that "it was itself named Albion while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae".

List of the British Isles

Albion]] :Main article: Complete list of the British Isles
- Great Britain
  - Northern Isles (including Orkney, Shetland and Fair Isle)
  - Hebrides (including the Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides and Small Isles)
  - Islands of the lower Firth of Clyde (including the Isle of Arran and Bute)
  - Anglesey (in Welsh: Ynys Môn)
  - Lundy
  - Isles of Scilly
  - Isle of Wight
  - Lindisfarne
- Ireland
  - Ulster: Rathlin Island
- , Arranmore, Tory Island
  - Connacht: Achill Island, Clew Bay islands, Inishturk, Inishbofin, Inishark, Aran Islands
  - Munster: Blasket Islands, Valentia Island, Cape Clear , Sherkin Island, Great Island
  - Leinster: Lambay Island, Ireland's Eye
- Isle of Man
- Channel Islands1
- Rockall Many other small islands are not listed.
- Rathlin Island is the only Irish island part of Northern Ireland and hence the UK.

Origin of the term British Isles

In classical times, foreign sources used "Brit-" or "Prit-" with various endings and native sources used oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" or insularum meaning "islands". Only in modern times has British Isles entered the English language.

Classical geographers

The inhabitants of the British Isles in classical times were the Celtic Bruthin or Priteni, later known as the "Brythons", who were in Great Britain and Ireland some time before the 5th century BC, whether as a result of cultural changes in the native population or of immigration, possibly through conquest. The classical writers of geographies named the group of islands after these inhabitants, using a transliteration into their own language such as Latin (e.g. Bretannae) or Greek (e.g. Βρηττανων). Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans for the islands as a group. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, "...οι νοτιωτατοι των Βρηττανων βορηιοτηροι τουτον ηισιν". (...the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this)2. He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century. Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. (Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Ptolemy is quite clear that Ireland – he calls it Hibernia – belongs to the group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of his Geography as Hibernia, Island of Britannia.

Native sources

The early surviving discussion of the geography is almost exclusively in classical languages. The "British Isles" terminology of the classical geographers is found in English only in documents written after the Reformation. The earliest native source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the Life of Saint Columba, a hagiography purporting to record the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba among the peoples of Great Britain. Written in the late seventh century by Adomnán of Iona, an Irish monk living on a Scottish island with considerable Pictish and English interests, it must be considered an authority as regards the totality of relationships within the archipelago at that time. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition) and it is used sparingly. Another early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. The term does not appear to have entered English usage until after the Reformation. The earliest quotation of "British Isles" given by the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary is in 1621.

Renaissance mapmakers

Continental mapmakers Gerardus Mercator (1512), Balthasar Moretus (1624), Giovanni Magini (1596), Abraham Ortelius (1570) and Sebastian Munster (1550) produced maps bearing the term "British Isles". Ortelius makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically nominally at least separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "a description of England, Scotland and Ireland, or the British Isles", additionally many maps from this period show Cornwall as a separate nation, most notably those of Mercator.

Modern historians

:There were four groups of Celtic invaders of Ireland, viz., beginning with the earliest: :(1) The Cruthin (Priteni), after whom these islands were known to the Greeks as the Pretanic Islands. In early historical times they preserved their individuality best in the North of Britain, where they were known to Latin writers as "Picti". O'Rahilly, T. F. (1984). Early Irish history and mythology. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. pp. 40–2 :The first group of invaders of which we know anything were the "Bruthin" or "Priteni", a group of P-Celts, who invaded both Great Britain and Ireland, presumably from Europe, some time before the fifth century B.C. They maintained their individuality best in North Britain, where they were known as Picts to the Latin writers. It was their presence which made Greeks like Ptolemy and Pytheas refer to the British Isles as "the Pretanic Isles". Needham, C. (1963). The life of St. Patrick. Camden, NJ: The St. Patrick Fathers. :"The Brettans" appears to be an older term than Brettanike, and suggests that the earliest sources viewed Britain together with adjacent islands under this name; ... Strabo spells this with a P (Prettans)... Pliny seems to use the same terminology... "cum Brittaniae vocarentur omnes") It is quite possible that this goes back to Pytheas... Certainly it would not be unreasonable for mariners using the Western Seaway between Ireland and Britain to group all the outlying islands together with the large ones under a single term... (Roseman, C H (1984) Pytheas of Massalia: On the Ocean Text, Translation and Commentary Chicago, Illinois: Ares Publishers, Inc. p. 45) The term "British" had been used to describe the Brythonic Celts, now known as Brythons, who inhabited Brittany ("Little Britain") and most of the largest island of the archipelago, Great Britain. Ireland was inhabited by Goidelic Celts. :use of the initial P is considered to reflect the Brythonic branch of Keltic, and ... the change in spelling from Pre- to Brit- [may be] based on a misconception of Caesar's arising from his familiarity with Britanni occupying the Gaulish coast around Boulogne. (Roseman, op.cit., footnote 34, chapter IV)3

Subsequent political history

Thus at the time the name Priteni was first applied to it, the archipelago was inhabited by the P-Celts. By the time the Romans left in the 7th century they were differentiated into the Brythonic Celts (Brythons) in the lands that would become England, Cornwall, Wales and southern Scotland and the Picts in northern Scotland, while Ireland was dominated by Goidelic Celts who, as Scotti (Scots) had by then established Dalriada in western Scotland. In the following centuries Anglo-Saxons formed the kingdom of Wessex, pushing the Brythonic Celts back into Wales, Cumbria, south-west Scotland and Dumnonia later to become Kernow (or Cornwall). Angles took over Northumbria and south-east Scotland. Viking invaders formed the Danelaw in eastern England and took over Caithness, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and north-east Ireland, forming a settlement at Dublin. The Scots amalgamated with the Picts forming a Scottish Kingdom which by the early 11th century expanded to include the area of modern Scotland and Cumbria. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought England under Norman rule and their 1072 foray into Scotland left the first of a series of arguments as to whether the Scots accepted the suzerainty of the English kings. From then on Scottish kings were Anglo-Norman rather than Celtic. In 1171 King Henry II of England invaded Ireland, asuming the title Lord of Ireland. The Anglo-Normans settled as a ruling elite controlling much of Ireland, but over time the native Irish regained some territory and, outside the area of English authority around Dublin called the Pale, the Norman lords adopted the Irish language and customs and became known as the "Old English". In 1140 the Hebridean Islands, the Isle of Man and Antrim came under the Norse-Gael rule of the Lord of the Isles who kept a varying degree of independence until the Hebrides were forfeited to Scotland in 1493. From the early 13th century the Scots language of south east Scotland was spread throughout the Lowlands, but the Scottish Highlands remained Gaelic speaking and developed the semi-independent Scottish clan system. Wales came under English control with the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. The English Kings became Kings of Ireland as well in 1541, ruling through an Irish Parliament. Scotland was still independent despite a series of disputes and wars with England, then in 1603 King James VI of Scotland inherited the title James I of England, unifying the countries under a personal union of the crowns. While the governments of England and Scotland remained separate, King James proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" on October 20th 1604, apparently with the political aim of creating a shared identity under his autocratic rule. Ireland was effectively being ruled as a colony of England and James expanded an existing policy of English settlers, adding Scots Presbyterians and creating the "Plantation of Ulster" at the expense of the existing Roman Catholics, both the native Irish and the "Old English". As the century progressed the Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms brought Irish rebellion with massacres alienating Protestants from Catholics and making Irish Catholics embittered about the English, tensions further reinforced in the Jacobite war in Ireland. Scottish economic weakness against English protectionism lead to merger of the governments in the 1707 Act of Union when the official name became The Kingdom of Great Britain, with pro-Hanoverian Scots enthusiastically adopting the term "North Britain" as an alternative to "Scotland" for example "The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons" were renamed "The Royal North British Dragoons" (later examples included the North British Magazine and the North British Railway). The Scottish Highlanders were still Gaelic speaking and were derisively called "Erse" (Irish) by the Lowlanders, but to end Jacobitism the Scottish clan system was crushed and they became fully British. A French-aided rebellion in Ireland in 1798 was defeated and Ireland was brought firmly under British government control by the 1800 Act of Union in what became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the 19th century famine and emigration affected the Irish and the Scottish Highlanders. Irish nationalist attempts to win independence peaked in the early 20th century with the Anglo-Irish war of independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State, later becoming the Republic of Ireland. The mostly Protestant northeast continued to be part of what was now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a Northern Ireland Assembly which is at present suspended. Inspired by the Irish movement, nationalist parties developed in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. More recently Scotland has gained Home Rule with a Scottish Parliament and Wales a degree of home administration with the Welsh Assembly, but both remain part of the unitary United Kingdom. Cornwall has not been granted any devolved power but a petition calling for a Cornish assembly has collected more than 50,000 signatures.

Problems with modern usage

Today the term British is usually used to describe people or things belonging to either Great Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However the whole island of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are still commonly included in the 'British Isles', despite the fact that the greater part of Ireland has, since 1922, been independent of the United Kingdom, first as the Irish Free State and now the Republic of Ireland, and that the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are not a part of the UK but crown dependencies. Many Irish people, as well as some Scottish, Welsh and Cornish nationalists, find the term British Isles proprietorial and unacceptable as being inconsistent with the modern meaning of the word British, and, as such, offensive. However, Unionists in Northern Ireland attach great importance to their 'British' identity. Other people see it as a geographical term that does not imply ownership or control by the British. Hostility to the term British Isles has often been caused by its misinterpretation; this was exemplified by an embarrassing and controversial faux pas by the then American First Lady Nancy Reagan during an Irish visit. The confusion caused by the term was also highlighted during a stop-over visit to the Republic of Ireland by then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, when he indicated that he presumed Ireland's head of state was Queen Elizabeth II, given that she was the British Queen and his officials said that Ireland was a part of the British Isles. The term British Isles is no longer used in Irish state documents, has been abandoned in schoolbooks in the Republic of Ireland and is being phased out of textbooks4. Its usage is also decreasing in official British state documents, out of sensitivity to the concerns of some Irish, Scottish and Welsh people and the evolving geo-political relationships.

Alternative terms

Many have suggested replacements for the term British Isles but none has yet won universal acceptance. Sometimes, an ambiguous phrase such as "these Isles" or "the Isles" is used, thus utilising the same logic used when referring to the Persian Gulf as the "Gulf". In cases where what is being referred to is the two largest islands, the term "Great Britain and Ireland" can be used, but this risks confusion with the common term "Great Britain and Northern Ireland". The phrase "Great Britain, Ireland, and surrounding islands", is also occasionally used, but lacks brevity. In the context of the Northern Ireland peace process the term Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA), a term initially created by former Conservative Party MP Sir John Biggs-Davison, has been used as a neutral term to describe the 'British Isles', but in a wider context the term might be misunderstood as including Iceland, Greenland, the Azores and other islands. A more geographically accurate and slightly less ambiguous phrase, "North-Western Europe", is starting to find favour, especially in Ireland; however, the term has often been used before to refer to northern France, Germany and the Low Countries. The phrase "North European Archipelago" is somewhat whimsical, but even more accurate. Both of these suffer, however, from political issues associated with the word "European", particularly in the United Kingdom. The phrase "the Anglo-Celtic Isles" has also been suggested and is in some use, being both ethnically and geographically accurate and elegantly concise. The term British Islands is not a potential alternative; this is an official term used for the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies, i.e. all of the isles except the Republic of Ireland.

Footnotes

#The Channel Islands are included here by convention. Some people do not consider them part of the archipelago, as they are closer to France than to Great Britain. #Translation by Roseman, op.cit. #The author also refers to related discussion in Chadwick, H.M. 1949, repr. 1974, Early Scotland Octagon Books; (November 1974), ISBN 0374913579 #The problems caused by how one refers to the isles was highlighted when the historian Norman Davies produced a book examining the history of the archipelago. The title chosen was the neutral The Isles: A History though the cover carries a picture of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland from Abraham Ortelius's 1570 map. Indeed the term British Isles does not even feature in the index of the book. The index simply refers to The Isles. Norman Davies, The Isles: A History (Palgrave/Macmillan, 1999) ISBN 033376370X

Further reading


- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3500 BC - 1603 AD by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD by Simon Schama, BBC 2002
- [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DA90xB358A/ ARCHAIC ENGLAND]: an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions, by Harold Bayley. Publisher: London, Chapman & Hall ltd., 1919
- The Isles, A History by Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0195134427
- Shortened History of England by G. M. Trevelyan Penguin Books ISBN 0140233237

See also


- UK topics
- History of Great Britain
- Acts of Union 1536-1543
- Act of Union 1707
- Act of Union 1800
- Anglo-Irish Treaty
- List of bays of the British Isles

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/coast Coast] - The BBC explores the coast of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- [http://www.geograph.org.uk Geograph British Isles] - Creative Commons licenced, geo-located photographs of the British Isles
- [http://www.roman-britain.org Roman-Britain.Org]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/_Periods/Roman/home.html Roman Britain at LacusCurtius] (includes 3 complete books)
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/.Texts/Ptolemy/2/1
- .html The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy: Book II, Chapter 1]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/4
- .html#102 Pliny, Book 4 section 102ff.]
- [http://www.roman-britain.org/pliny.htm Pliny excerpts]
- [http://www.maphist.com/artman/uploads/04520_002.jpg Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio. - Ortelius, 1570]
- [http://www.bergbook.com/htdocs/woda/data/demo/descriptions/14983.htm Britannicarum Insularum Typus - Ortelius 1624]
- [http://www.walkingtree.com/ Mercator's Atlas] Maps of Cornwall & Wales ("Cornewallia & Wallia"), Ireland ("Irlandia"), Scotland ("Scotia") and England ("Anglia") circa 1564.
- [http://www.antiquemaps.co.uk/book/chapter18.html Early maps of the British Isles – Munster 1550 et al.]
- [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/L201040/text082.html Excerpt from Reeves edition of Life of Saint Columba.]
- [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bede1.html#8 Excerpt from Bede in Latin]
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.html Excerpt from Bede in English translation]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Category:British Isles ko:영국 제도 ja:ブリテン諸島

United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.

History

Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.

Government and politics

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Subdivisions

The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Military

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.

Geography

Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

Economy

artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced publ