Is the UK the same as England/Britain? Does it matter? UK, hun? If you’re alarmed that Paul Mescal is called British then it should alarm you when people say we aren’t Irish because we are from the 'UK'. Ahead of my guest spot with @motherfocloir later this week, read this intro

I would obviously say I am from Ireland and when describing the region of Ireland I am from I usually prefer the phrases ‘North of Ireland’ or the ‘six counties’. However, when talking about the ‘UK’ and its definitions, the legal name of the statelet is ‘Northern Ireland’

The United Kingdom is of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a region that was created by the British State in the 1920s. It was born out of continued occupation, not from liberation, so its very existence is problematic and the term is politically loaded.

Very rarely growing up in Derry would I have heard the term 'the UK' and this seems to back data that @bbop1984 and I found showing that in the 1990s the ‘UK’ overtook the term Britain in colloquial usage. As the two terms are used interchangeably there are problems with that...

Materially, the UK as a state in and of itself doesnt really exist. There are very few things that you could put down as UK wide, from schools to governance etc In fact, in 2017 we had to spell out to unknowing English people who the DUP were: https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/general-election-2017-who-are-the-dup/ @plutopress

English people are probably the most guilty of saying they’re from the ‘UK’. This seems to be because of racist connotations associated with ‘Britain. So I'd challenge you to interrogate that and ask why saying you’re from the ‘“United” Kingdom of Great Britain and NI” is better.

When Irish people from the 26c say the “UK” they legitimise a narrative that partitions us, and homogenise a not-country kingdom that includes 6 counties in Ireland - just say Britain to avoid contributing to the erosion of Irish life from a discourse that claims to include it

It’s particularly prevalent in the Academy- in my line of work I regularly hear about ‘Irish migration to the UK’ - how exactly does that work for the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who by accident of birth have ended up on the wrong side of a “UK” border in Ireland?

Being 'from' the UK isnt really an identity- An irish person talked about ‘UKians’ recently, would she call Bobby Sands a UKian? Irish ppl in NI (note I haven't said “Northern Irish” ppl) are not Irish enough for some Irish -wait til they hear where their grandparents were 'from'

The good news is, it’s a really easy mistake to fix. You don’t have to talk about the UK as if it's one country, as homogeneous, as a single entity. You can just simply say England when you mean England and Britain when you mean Britain. Language is important and powerful.