Names of the Irish state

According to the Constitution of Ireland, the names of the Irish state are Ireland (English) and Éire (Irish). From 1922 to 1937, its legal name was the Irish Free State. The state has jurisdiction over almost five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The rest of the island is Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. Consequently, other formal and informal names have been (and are) used when it is necessary to distinguish between the territory of the state and the island as a whole. In 1948 it adopted the term Republic of Ireland as the official description of the state, without changing the constitutional names.

The terms ''Republic of Ireland'' (''ROI''), ''the Republic'', ''the 26 counties'' or ''the South'' are the alternative names most often encountered. The term "Southern Ireland", although only having legal basis from 1920 to 1922, is still seen occasionally, particularly in Britain.

Until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, British government and media declined to use the name Ireland, preferring Eire (without accent) until 1949 and Republic of Ireland thereafter.

Constitutional name

Article 4 of the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that " e name of the State is ''Éire'', or, in the English language, ''Ireland''".
Hence, the Irish state has two official names, ''Éire'' (in Irish) and ''Ireland'' (in English). For official purposes, the Irish government uses the name ''Éire'' in documents written in Irish, while using ''Ireland'' where the language of the documents is English, including in international treaties and other legal documents. The name of the state is reflected in its institutions and public offices. For example, there is a '' President of Ireland'' and a ''Constitution of Ireland''. The name ''Ireland'' is also used in the state's diplomatic relations with foreign nations and at meetings of the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, International Monetary Fund, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Constitution gives the Irish language formal precedence over English, and a reflection of this is that ''Éire'' is the only name of the Irish state to feature on a range of national symbols including the Seal of the President, postage stamps and Irish euro coins. In 1981 the Department of Posts and Telegraphs recommended the inclusion of the word "Ireland" along with "Éire" on stamps but the Department of the Taoiseach vetoed the idea on the basis it could cause "constitutional and political repercussions" and that "the change could be unwelcome", as the name "Ireland" was considered by Unionists in Northern Ireland to refer to all 32 counties of Ireland.
The spelling "Eire", with an E rather than an É, is not correct Irish orthography despite being preferred for many years by British government and media.

Official description

Since 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 has provided that the ''Republic of Ireland'' (or ''Poblacht na hÉireann'' in Irish) is the official ''description'' for the state. However, ''Ireland'' remains the constitutional ''name'' of the state.

The constitutional name ''Ireland'' is normally used. However, the official description ''Republic of Ireland'' is sometimes used when disambiguation is desired between the state and the island of Ireland. In colloquial use this is often shortened to 'the Republic'.

This distinction between ''description'' and ''name'' was and remains important because the Act was not a constitutional amendment and did not change the name of the state. If it had purported to do so, it would have been unconstitutional. The distinction between a ''description'' and a ''name'' has sometimes caused confusion. The Taoiseach, John A. Costello introduced the legislation with an explanation of the difference in the following way:

Many republics, including the French Republic and the Italian Republic reference the institutional form of the state in their long form names, but others, such as Hungary (since 2012) and Ukraine (since 1991) do not.

"Republic of Ireland" was used on the state's version of the 2021 EU Digital COVID Certificate, which a Department of Health official said was an "oversight" that would be "corrected going forward".

European Union

The state joined the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1973. Its accession treaty was drawn up in all of the EU's then-official treaty languages (including English and Irish) and, as such, the Irish state joined under both of its names, ''Éire'' and ''Ireland''. On 1 January 2007, Irish became an official working language of the EU. This did not change the name of the Irish state in EU law. However, it has meant for example that at official meetings of the EU Council of Ministers, nameplates for the Irish state now read as ''Éire – Ireland'', whereas previously they would simply have read as ''Ireland''.

The Inter Institutional Style Guide of The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities sets out how the names of the Member states of the European Union must always be written and abbreviated in EU publications. Concerning Ireland, it states that its official names are ''Éire'' and ''Ireland''; its official name in English is ''Ireland''; its country code is ''IE''; and its former abbreviation was ''IRL''. It also adds the following guidance: "''NB: Do not use 'Republic of Ireland' nor 'Irish Republic'.''"

Historical names

Ancient

The Annals of the Four Masters describe how Ireland was referred to in ancient times
* During the time of the Partholonians, Nemedians, Fomorians, and Firbolg, the island was given a number of names:
** ''Inis Ealga'' signifying the ''noble'' or ''excellent island''. The Latin translation was ''Insula Nobilis''
** ''Fiodh-Inis'' signifying the ''Woody island''. In Latin this was ''Insula nemorosa''
** ''Crioch Fuinidh'' signifying the ''Final'' or ''remote country''. In Latin as ''Terra finalia''.
* ''Inisfáil'' meaning the ''Island of Destiny'', and ''Inisfalia'' or ''Insula Fatalis'' in Latin. This was the name used by the Tuatha Dé Danann and from this 'Fál' became an ancient name for Ireland. In this respect, therefore, '' Lia Fáil'', the Stone of Destiny, came to mean 'Stone of Ireland'. ''Inisfail'' appears as a synonym for '' Erin'' in some Irish romantic and nationalist poetry in English in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Aubrey Thomas de Vere's 1863 poem ''Inisfail'' is an example.
* '' Ériu'' (from which derived '' Éire''), '' Banba'' and '' Fódla'' were names given by the Dananns from three of their queens.
* ''Ierne'' refers to Ireland by various ancient Greek writers and many scholars have the opinion that in the poem when the Argonauts passes ''Neson Iernida'', that is, the ''Island Iernis'', they are referring to the island of Ireland, thus referring to Ireland longer ago than 1000 BC.
* '' Ogygia'' meaning ''the most ancient land'' is a name used by Plutarch in the first century which may refer to Ireland.
* '' Hibernia'' is first used to refer to Ireland by Julius Caesar in his account of Britain, and became a common term used by the Romans. They also used a number of other terms, namely ''Juverna'', ''Juvernia'', ''Ouvernia'', ''Ibernia'', ''Ierna'', ''Vernia''. Ptolemy also refers to it as ''Iouernia'' or ''Ivernia''.
* '' Scotia'' or ''the land of the Scots'' is a term used by various Roman and other Latin writers, who referred to Irish raiders as Scoti. Some of the earliest mentions are in the 5th century, St. Patrick calls the Irish "Scoti", and in the 6th century, St. Isidore bishop of Seville and Gildas the British historian both refer to Ireland as Scotia. It was a term that exclusively referred to Ireland up until the eleventh century when modern Scotland was first referred to as Scotia. But even up until the sixteenth century, many Latin writers continued to refer to Ireland as Scotia. From the twelfth to the sixteenth century, various scholars used to distinguish between Ireland and Scotland by using ''Scotia Vetus'' or ''Scotia Major'' meaning ''Old Scotia'' or the ''Greater Scotia'' for Ireland, and ''Scotia Minor'' or ''Lesser Scotia'' for Scotland.
* ''Insula Sanctorum'' or the ''Island of the Saints'' and ''Insula Doctorum'' or the ''Island of the Learned'' are names used by various Latin writers; hence the modern-day quasi-poetic description of the island as the "Island of Saints and Scholars".

Pre-1919

Following the Norman invasion, Ireland was known as ''Dominus Hiberniae'', the Lordship of Ireland from 1171 to 1541, and the Kingdom of Ireland from 1541 to 1800. From 1801 to 1922 it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as a constituent country.

Irish Republic (1919–22)

In English, the revolutionary state proclaimed in 1916 and ratified in 1919 was known as the ''Irish Republic'' or, occasionally, the ''Republic of Ireland''. Two different Irish language names were used: ''Poblacht na hÉireann'' and ''Saorstát Éireann'', based on two competing Irish translations of the word ''republic'': ''Poblacht'' and ''Saorstát''. ''Poblacht'' was a direct translation coming from the Irish ''pobal'', cognate with the Latin ''populus''. ''Saorstát'', on the other hand, was a compound of the words: ''saor'' (meaning "free") and ''stát'' ("state").

The term ''Poblacht na hÉireann'' is the one used in the Easter Proclamation of 1916. However the Declaration of Independence and other documents adopted in 1919 eschew this title in favour of ''Saorstát Éireann''. A slight variant of this title, ''Saorstát na hÉireann'', was also sometimes used in later days as was the Latin ''Respublica Hibernica''.

''(For an explanation continuing usage of the term ''Irish Republic'' in the United Kingdom, see Name dispute with the UK (below). Some republicans also continue to use the term because they refuse to recognise the Anglo-Irish Treaty – see below).''

Southern Ireland (1921–22)

''Southern Ireland'' ( ga, Deisceart Éireann) was the official name given to an autonomous ''Home Rule'' region (or '' constituent country'') of the United Kingdom. It was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 on 3 May 1921. It covered the same territory as the present day Irish state.

However, political turmoil and the ongoing War of Independence meant that it never fully functioned as envisaged. Southern Ireland was superseded in law on 6 December 1922 by the establishment of the Irish Free State. The term ''Southern Ireland'' does not have any official status today.John Furlong (2006). Ireland – the Name of the State. Legal Information Management, 6, pp 297–301. Cambridge University Press. However, it is sometimes still used colloquially, particularly by older people, in the United Kingdom.

Irish Free State (1922–37)

During the negotiations on secession leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Irish politicians wanted the state to be a republic, and its name to be the ''Republic of Ireland'' or the ''Irish Republic''. However the British government refused to contemplate a republic because this would have entailed the Irish state severing the link with the British crown and ceasing to be a part of the British Empire. Instead, the parties agreed the state would be a self-governing Dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations. The self-proclaimed Irish Republic had used ''Saorstát Éireann'' as its Irish name, and "Irish Free State" was derived by literal translation of ''Saorstát Éireann'' back into English. Article One of the treaty stated:

The May 1922 draft of the Constitution of the Irish Free State used only Irish forms of many names and titles, but on British insistence these were replaced with English equivalents; one exception was that references to "Saorstát Éireann" were amended to "the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann)". After the establishment of the Free State the Irish government often used the name ''Saorstát Éireann'' in documents in English as well as Irish; an exception was that postage stamps of the period used ''Éire''. Because the Irish Free State was not a republic, since 1922 the word ''saorstát'' has fallen out of use in Irish as a translation of ''republic''. When the official description of the state was declared to be the ''Republic of Ireland'' in 1949, its official Irish description became not ''Saorstát Éireann'' but ''Poblacht na hÉireann''. It appears that the "Irish Free State" name was not generally popular, ''The Times'' reporting on the Irish general election in 1932:

Éire (Irish language name since 1937)

As mentioned above, Article 4 of the Constitution of Ireland, gives the state its two official names, ''Éire'' in Irish and ''Ireland'' in English. Each name is a direct translation of the other. From 1937, the name ''Éire'' was often used even in the English language.

In May 1937, when the President of the Executive Council, Éamon de Valera presented the first draft of the Constitution to the parliamentary committee on the Constitution, Article 4 simply provided: "The name of the State is Éire". There was no reference to ''Ireland'' at all. Opposition politicians immediately proposed that the word ''Ireland'' be substituted for the word ''Éire'' throughout the English text. They argued that ''Ireland'' was the name known by every European country; that the name should not be surrendered; that the name ''Ireland'' might instead be adopted by Northern Ireland; and that the choice of ''Éire'' might damage the status of the state internationally by drawing a "distinction between the state...and what has been known for centuries as Ireland".Dáil Éireann – Volume 67 – 25 May 1937, Bunreacht na hÉireann (Dréacht)—Coiste
Responding, de Valera stressed that the Irish text of the constitution was to be the foundation text. In light of this, he said the name ''Éire'' was more logical and that it would mean an Irish name would become accepted even in the English language.
: 'The President: ... I should prefer to keep the name as "Eire" because the whole thing is more logical but, if anybody wants to translate that in the English text as "Ireland," I have no objection.
I am anxious, however, that the Irish term should be used on the same basis as we use "Taoiseach." Elsewhere, it is suggested that that should be "Prime Minister." The term "Ceann Comhairle" has now come to be used instead of "Speaker." It has come gradually into our speech and the acceptance of Irish words for our own institutions is desirable. This is one of those matters in which I should have imagined I would come in for considerable criticism from the opposite benches if I put in the word "Ireland" instead of "Eire."
...
There are two things that can be said in favour of using the word Eire. The first is that it keeps the logic of the whole system much more clear and definite. The second is that we are doing something beyond what we have done before, that is, getting Irish names accepted even in English when we speak English here.' However, he said he had "no strong views" and he agreed "that in the English translation the name of the state ould beIreland".

When de Valera subsequently tabled an amendment to give effect to this concession, he proposed Article 4's current wording: "The name of the State is ''Éire'', or, in the English language, ''Ireland''." In doing so, he remarked that as "the Irish text is the fundamental text t is as wellthat ''Éire'' is used here and there." With almost no debate, the wording was agreed to and subsequently became the law of the land.

It is sometimes said that de Valera wished to reserve the names ''Republic of Ireland'' or ''Irish Republic'' for the day when a united Ireland might be achieved. These names were not discussed in the parliamentary debates on the Constitution. However, the reason which de Valera gave in the debates for omitting any reference to the word ''republic'' throughout the constitution was that he thought the constitution would gain broader support if it did not refer to a ''republic''.

After the adoption of the Constitution, de Valera's government generally encouraged use of the name ''Éire'' (rather than ''Ireland'') but not always. His government also appreciated the significance of the name ''Ireland''. So for example, when the Irish ambassador in Berlin, Charles Bewley sought instructions concerning the new name of the State, he was advised by Joseph P. Walshe, for decades the top civil servant in the Irish Department of External Affairs that:

Thus, while sometimes encouraging the use of the name ''Éire'' even in English, de Valera's government insisted at other times on the use of the name ''Ireland''. The United Kingdom disputed Irish adoption of the name "Ireland" (below). De Valera's decision to generally use the name ''Éire'' was sometimes severely criticised as a poor choice of name. Some argued that it was confusing. Others said the name ''Éire'' might strengthen the claim of the government of Northern Ireland to the ancient name of Ulster for their state. However, the name ''Éire'' (generally appearing as ''Eire'' in English) quickly became widely accepted in English. Nevertheless, this only fuelled more criticism of the name, as once free in the English language, it evolved – leading to what opposition politicians stated were "sneering titles such as Eirish". These criticisms were aired at length in the Oireachtas when the Republic of Ireland Act was being debated. De Valera's use of the name ''Éire'' as well as the wording of Article 4 were sharply criticised. The Taoiseach of the day, John A. Costello said "that tremendous confusion ha been caused by the use of that word ''Éire'' in Article 4. By a misuse by malicious people of that word, ''Éire'', they have identified it with the Twenty-Six Counties and not with the State that was set up under this Constitution of 1937."

Despite these criticisms, de Valera initially called for the proposed Irish description of the state, ''Poblacht na h-Éireann'' to also be inserted into the English text of the Act in the same way both the Irish and English names of the state are used in Article 4. However, de Valera subsequently retreated from this position and in what may be seen as an implicit acceptance of the criticisms made of the wording of Article 4 itself, de Valera accepted that it was better not to also use the Irish description in the English text.
Despite not changing the ''name'', when the Republic of Ireland Act was passed, the name ''Éire'' quickly fell into disuse (except in the Irish language). However the name continues to linger on, particularly in the United Kingdom. The Constitution review group's 1967 report discusses Article 4:

Historically, "Eire" was commonly used as a state-name by a variety of organisations. For example, in 1938, the "Irish Amateur Athletic Union" (IAAU) changed its name to "Amateur Athletic Union of Eire" (AAUE) and affiliated to the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) under the country name "Eire".

In 1967, the AAUE merged with most of the rival NACA to form Bord Lúthchleas na hÉireann (BLÉ). BLÉ requested the IAAF to change the country's name to "Ireland". This finally happened in 1981.

Abbreviations

Under the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166 standard, the two-letter code for Ireland is ''"IE"'' while the three-letter code is ''"IRL"''. The ''"IE"'' code is the basis for the choice of ".ie" for Irish internet addresses. The ''IRL'' code features on Irish driving licences, passports and is most visible on contemporary Irish ''EU style'' vehicle registration plates. Under the Convention on International Civil Aviation Irish registered aircraft carry the nationality mark ''"EI"'', although this abbreviation has nothing to do with the state's name. For example, the ICAO gives ''"EG"'' and ''"EH"'' as the abbreviations for Belgium and the Netherlands.

Alternative names

A variety of alternative names are also used for the Irish state. Sometimes alternative names are chosen because the name "Ireland" could be confused with the name of the island the state shares with Northern Ireland. Other times alternative names are chosen for political reasons.

"Republic of Ireland", the "description" of the state according to the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, is often used. In sport, the national football team plays as the "Republic of Ireland". This is because the Irish national football team was organised by the Irish Football Association, from 1882 to 1950. A new organisation, the Football Association of the Irish Free State was formed after partition to organize a new team to represent the newly formed Irish Free State. Over time the Irish Football Association came to be the body for organising association football in Northern Ireland only. However, both association football federations continued to field a team called "Ireland". Despite protests from both organisations, in 1953 FIFA decreed that neither team could be referred to as ''Ireland'' in competitions which both teams were eligible to enter. The two teams now play under the names "Republic of Ireland" and "Northern Ireland".

"Irish Republic" is commonly used as a name for the state in Britain but disliked in the Republic, where " Irish Republic" refers to the revolutionary state of the First Dáil in 1919. The initialism "ROI", for "Republic of Ireland", is also often used outside official circles. Shorter colloquial names include "the Republic" or "the South".

Irish republicans, and other opponents of Partition, often refer to the state as the "Twenty-Six Counties" or "26 Counties" (with Northern Ireland as the "Six Counties" or "6 Counties") and sometimes as the "Free State" (a reference to the pre-1937 state). Speaking in the Dáil on 13 April 2000, Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin explained it as follows:

"Southern Irish Commonwealth" and "Southern Irish Republic" were names suggested by the British publication, '' The Spectator'', in 1921. These suggestions never became widely used but are noteworthy for showing how fluid names for the territory were at the time.

Distinguishing the state from the island

Where "Ireland" would be ambiguous, the current convention in Irish government usage is "island of Ireland" for the island and "the state" for the state. In the decades prior to the change to Articles 2 and 3, the forms "Ireland (32 counties)" and "Ireland (26 counties)" had some official use.

Goods originating in Northern Ireland can be sold in the Republic as "Irish" or "made in Ireland", which some consumers find confusing or misleading. The private National Dairy Council introduced a "Farmed in the Republic of Ireland" logo in 2009, whereas Bord Bia, the statutory food labelling authority, has distinct "Ireland", "Northern Ireland", and "Ireland & Northern Ireland" logos; the "Ireland" logos incorporate an Irish tricolour as well as text.There is a separate debate about whether the flag relates only to the 26-county state or also to the entire island. The private Guaranteed Irish logo is mostly used by firms in the Republic, but there is one in Northern Ireland.

Name dispute with the UK

This section concerns a protracted dispute which existed between the Irish and British governments over the official names of their respective states: ''Ireland'' and the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''. Although following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 the dispute was supposed to end as each government now accepts the official name of the other state, the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs still refers to the UK as "Great Britain".

"Eire" and "Éire" v Ireland

In 1937, the Irish Free State Government arranged for a plebiscite to approve a new Irish Constitution. Articles 2 and 3 of the new Constitution expressed a territorial claim to the "whole island of Ireland" and thus an irredentist claim to the territory of Northern Ireland. In addition, Article 4 provided that "the name of the state is Éire, or, in the English language, ''Ireland''". This too was seen by the British Government as another anti-partitionist attempt to lay claim to the whole of the island.

In the run up to the adoption of the new Irish Constitution which took effect on 29 December 1937, the British Cabinet considered how to respond as regards the new name. A report to Cabinet by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs reported thatI.S.C. (32) 129;CABINET. Irish Situation Committee. RELATIONS WITH THE IRISH FREE STATE. GENERAL CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs "e Valerafeels strongly that the title ''Irish Free State'' was one of the things imposed on the Irish by the British in 1921". The same report recommended that the UK Government use "always the Irish term 'Eire' when referring to the State, and ourselves avoiding the use of the term 'Ireland,' except to describe the whole island as a geographical entity". It so happened that the Constitution would come into force when the Westminster Parliament was adjourned over the Christmas. Accordingly, the preferred course of the Prime Minister making a statement on the matter in Parliament was ruled out.

Ultimately, in response to the new constitution and in consultation with all the Governments of the British Commonwealth except the Irish Government, the British government published a communiqué on 30 December 1937, the day after the Constitution took effect. In the communiqué, the British government recognised that the new constitution gave the Irish state two names ''Ireland'' or ''Éire''. It also implicitly recognised that the two names had an identical meaning, by declaring:

The British government finessed Article 4 and ignored Articles 2 and 3: if the Irish constitution said the name of the state in the national language was ''Éire'', then that (written as "Eire") was what the British government would call it. By doing so, it avoided any need to call the Irish state, in the English language, ''Ireland''. The change of name effected by the 1937 constitution (but not the other constitutional changes), was given effect in United Kingdom law in the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938 which covered the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement between "The Government of Éire and the Government of the United Kingdom". Under Section 1 of that Act, it was declared that (for the purposes of United Kingdom legislation) the territory "which was ... known as Irish Free State shall be styled as ... Eire".Oliver, JDB, ''What's in a Name''
in Tiley, John, ''Studies in the History of Tax Law'', The Chartered Institute of Taxation, 2003.

The British approach of calling the state Eire was greatly assisted by the general preference of Éamon de Valera, the leader of the Irish government at the time, that the state be known as ''Éire'', even in English. This is seen in the English-language preamble of the Constitution. However, the Irish government, even when led by de Valera, also appreciated the significance of the name ''Ireland'' and insisted on that name in some fora. For example, in 1938 Irish representatives in the Commonwealth countries gave their official titles as '' High Commissioner for Ireland'' and the League of Nations was informed that ''Ireland'' was the correct English name for the country. A unique modus vivendi was adopted by the two states when they concluded a bilateral agreement on air services in 1946. That agreement was styled as an "Agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland (Eire)". A parliamentary question as to why the term "Ireland (Eire)" was used rather than simply "Eire" was put in the British House of Commons. A parliamentary secretary for the Government, Ivor Thomas, explained the position as follows:

The practice in other Commonwealth countries varied: At the outset at least, it appears the Union of South Africa and Canada used the name ''Ireland'' while New Zealand favoured ''Eire''. In 1947, the United Kingdom Home Office went further by issuing instructions to United Kingdom government departments to use ''Eire''. Nevertheless, over time the name ''Éire'' fell increasingly out of use by both the Irish government (except in the Irish language) and internationally, in particular after the passing of the Republic of Ireland Act.

Republic of Ireland v Ireland

On 18 April 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act, 1948 (No. 22 of 1948), came into operation, removing the last functions of the King (King George VI). Section two of the Act states, "It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland."

The following note of what Prime Minister Clement Attlee said at a British Cabinet meeting on 12 January 1949 illustrates some of the considerations the British government had to consider following this declaration:

Ultimately, the British responded by passing the Ireland Act 1949 which provided that:

It was the culmination of careful consideration by the Prime Minister Attlee. He put it that "a refusal to use the title 'Republic of Ireland' in any circumstances would involve he UKin continuing friction with the Eire Government: it would perpetuate the "inconveniences and indignities" which we now experience as a result of our present policy of insisting on the title 'Eire' as against Dublin's preference for 'Ireland.'"

Hence, the Ireland Act formally provided the name ''Republic of Ireland'' for use instead of the name ''Eire'' in British law. Later the name ''Eire'' was abolished entirely in British law under the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1981.Austen Morgan, The Belfast Agreement, 2000, p99. This has meant that the ''Republic of Ireland'' is the only name for the Irish state officially provided for in domestic UK law.

Notwithstanding the Ireland Act 1949, the British government would often continue to refer to the Irish state by other names such as the ''Irish Republic'' or ''Southern Ireland''. A good example of this was in the Treaty of London, 1949. The UK government had been centrally involved in preparing the treaty which was signed in London and established the Council of Europe. The treaty consistently describes the Irish state as the ''Irish Republic''. Opposition leader, Éamon de Valera, queried this. The Minister for External Affairs, Seán MacBride, responded that he agreed "that the description is not possibly as accurate as we would have liked it to be". Yet he also said that the term ''Irish Republic'' was used in the treaty "in a general sense in the way the country is described; French Republic, Irish Republic, Italian Republic, Kingdom of the Netherlands and so on."Committee on Finance. – Vote 3—Department of the Taoiseach (Resumed). Thursday, 21 July 1949.
/ref> However, leading opposition politician, Frank Aiken, was not satisfied with this response. Speaking in the Dáil, Aiken cited article 26 of the treaty where "the names of the countries are given as "Belgium", "Denmark" and "France", not "Republic of France" or "French Republic"" noting that "one would expect that the next thing one would find would be "Ireland", but instead we have "Belgium, Denmark, France, Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg" and so on. Aiken remarked that some British MPs wanted "to popularise the name ''Irish Republic''". He asked the Taoiseach, John Costello to clear up "what exactly is the name of this State going to be in international documents, international agreements and matters of that kind." Aiken expressed the view that "We want to keep up the name given in the Constitution, "Ireland", in order to show that our claim is to the whole island of Ireland and in international documents, in my opinion, the State should be alluded to as "Ireland" or the "Republic of Ireland"."

The following month the Minister for External Affairs clarified at the Council of Europe that ''Ireland'' was how the state should be described. This was reported on in ''The Times'' on 8 August 1949 in the following terms:

Therefore, even with the UK's Ireland Act and its provision of ''Republic of Ireland'' as a UK "name" for the Irish state, a dispute over the names of their respective states was to continue between the UK and Irish governments. For the Irish, ''Republic of Ireland'' was still not the name of the state, merely its description. For a brief period from the coming into effect of the Republic of Ireland Act until the second half of 1950 the Irish Government was inconsistent in the way it described itself and the state: At times it described itself internationally as the ''Government of the Republic of Ireland''; At other times it continued to insist that the name of the Irish state was ''Ireland''.

From the second half of 1950, the Irish government reverted to consistently styling itself the ''Government of Ireland''. The Irish state joined the United Nations in 1955 as ''Ireland'' over protests concerning its name by the United Kingdom. Similarly, the United Kingdom protested when the Irish state was admitted to the European Economic Community in 1973 as ''Ireland''. Australia also for several years following the declaration of a republic refused to exchange ambassadors with Dublin on the basis of the name "Ireland" rather than "Republic of Ireland", on the basis that this would have involved recognition of a territorial claim to part of His/Her Majesty's dominions. A legacy of this dispute was the designation of the Irish legation in London as the "Irish Embassy", rather than the title "Embassy of Ireland" preferred by Dublin. A further Commonwealth anomaly was the title of the monarch in Canada. In 1950, following the declaration of a republic the Irish and Canadian High Commissioners were replaced by Ambassadors / Ministers Plenipotentiary, accredited on the basis of the sovereign's title in Canada still encompassing the whole of Ireland. Even in 1952, following the accession of Queen Elizabeth II, and prior to the revised definition of the royal title in 1953, Canada's preferred format was: ''Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas.''

For its part, the Irish government also disputed the right of the British state to call itself the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''. The Irish government objected to the words "and Northern Ireland" in the name of the British state. The name also ran against the Irish state's territorial claim to Northern Ireland. The dispute over the names of their respective states was most apparent when the two states concluded bilateral treaties. For example, when the Anglo-Irish Agreement was made in 1985 between the two states, the British text of the agreement gave it the formal title "Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Ireland" whereas the Irish government's text of the very same agreement gave it the formal title "Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom".

The Government Information Bureau in 1953 issued a directive, noting that Article 4 of the 1937 Constitution gave the name as "Éire" or, in the English language, "Ireland"; they noted that whenever the name of the state was mentioned in an English language document, Ireland should be used and that "Care should be taken", the directive stated, "to avoid the use of the expression Republic of Ireland or Irish Republic in such a context or in such a manner as might suggest that it is a geographical term applicable to the area of the Twenty‐Six counties." According to Mary Daly, this directive remained in use for a number of years. A copy was sent to Bord Fáilte (the Irish tourist board) in 1959, reminding them not to use the title "the Republic of Ireland" on their promotional literature.

In 1963, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, to revise geography textbooks, the Irish Department of Education issued guidelines to delegates on politically correct geographic terminology: "British Isles" and "United Kingdom" were deemed objectionable and that delegates insist on "Ireland" and "Great Britain." The term "Republic of Ireland" should be avoided but that delegates were no longer to insist on "the Six Counties" in place of "Northern Ireland" in an attempt to improve relations with Northern Ireland.

In February 1964, the Irish government indicated its wish to appoint an ambassador to Canberra. The one issue, however, that blocked the exchange of ambassadors had been the insistence of Australia that the letters carried by the Irish ambassador should have the royal title as "Elizabeth the Second, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Australia and Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen." This was, according to Daly, despite the fact that the Australian Royal Style and Titles Act did not mention Northern Ireland, referring only to "the United Kingdom, Australia" etc. However, that November when Eoin MacWhite presented his credentials as Irish Ambassador to Australia, a circular was issued to all Australian government departments indicating to them to use the word "Ireland" rather than "the Irish Republic". The UK was by the mid-1960s the only country not to refer to the state as Ireland.

In 1985 the British command papers described the Anglo-Irish Agreement as an "Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Ireland", with the Irish official papers described it as an "Agreement Between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom". The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office referred to Ireland as the "Republic of Ireland" – however since 2000 it has referred to the State as "Ireland." The credentials presented by the British ambassador, Stewart Eldon, in 2003, were addressed to the President of Ireland.

Republic of Ireland v Irish Republic

When the Republic of Ireland Act was enacted, the United Kingdom cabinet debated whether it should use the new name in preference to "Eire". Having said that it was minded to do so and invited comment, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland ( Sir Basil Brooke, Ulster Unionist) objected in the strongest possible terms, saying that the new description "was intended to repeat Eire's claim to jurisdiction over the whole island." Attlee partly accepted this argument, saying that the Kbill should formally recognise the title 'Republic of Ireland' but that the description "The Irish Republic" would be employed in all official usage. Indeed, despite the Belfast Agreement, almost all British publications still follow this style (see below).

In the Irish courts

The name of the state — both in English and in Irish — was considered in one case in the Irish courts. In the 1989 Supreme Court case of ''Ellis v O'Dea'', the court objected to the issuing of extradition warrants (in English) by the United Kingdom's courts naming the state as ''Éire'' and not ''Ireland''. Judge Brian Walsh said that while the courts of other countries were at liberty to issue such warrants in the Irish language, if they used the English language they had to refer to the state as ''Ireland''. Walsh and Judge Niall McCarthy expressed the view that where extradition warrants did not use the correct name of the state it was the duty of the courts and of the Gardaí to return such warrants for rectification. Both judges also noted that the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 did not change the name of the state as prescribed in the Constitution. The following is an extract from Walsh's judgement:

Good Friday Agreement

The dispute between the UK and Irish governments over the names of their respective states has not yet been finally resolved. The Ireland Act 1949 has not been formally repealed by the UK but has been in effect overridden. This resolution took place when the Good Friday Agreement (or Belfast Agreement) was concluded in 1998. That Agreement concerned a wide range of constitutional and other matters regarding Northern Ireland. Notably, as part of it, the Irish state dropped its legal claim to the territory of Northern Ireland. In the title of the Agreement, the two governments used their respective domestic law names, the ''Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'' and the ''Government of Ireland''. However, the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs still refers to the UK as "Great Britain". Some Unionist members of the British parliament objected strenuously to the use of the term the ''Government of Ireland''. They proposed that the practice of referring to the Irish government as the ''Government of the Republic of Ireland'' should be continued. Their objections were not accepted. Responding for the British government in the House of Lords, Lord Dubs explained that the new practice of referring to the Irish state by the name ''Ireland'':

This policy has been respected by both governments since the Belfast Agreement. A House of Lords debate, ten years later in May 2008, on Regulations governing political donations by Irish citizens and bodies to political parties in Northern Ireland, is a good example of this. During the debate Lord Rooker, a Government minister, said that the Regulations would: "acknowledge the special place that the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland occupy in the political life of Northern Ireland". Responding, Lord Glentoran suggested that Lord Rooker in fact "meant to say that he draft Regulations recognisethe special place that Ireland occupies in the political life of Northern Ireland." Agreeing with Lord Glentoran's observation, Lord Rooker responded:

So far there has been no domestic British legislation explicitly providing that ''Ireland'' may be used as a name for the Irish state for the purposes of domestic British law. While the UK's Ireland Act 1949 provides for use of the name ''Republic of Ireland'' in domestic British law, that legislation is permissive rather than mandatory so it does not mean ''Ireland'' cannot be used instead. However, some legal commentators have speculated that it may be necessary for the British government to introduce legislation to also explicitly provide for use of the name ''Ireland'' for the Irish state because under domestic British law the name ''Ireland'' might be interpreted as referring to the whole island of Ireland. There is no requirement to amend domestic Irish legislation.

Nevertheless, there are now a growing number of UK statutes and regulations that refer to the Irish state as simply ''Ireland'' and make no reference to the ''Republic of Ireland''. One example is the Disqualifications Act 2000 which refers, ''inter alia'', to the "legislature of Ireland", the "House of Representatives of Ireland" and the "Senate of Ireland". The Loans to Ireland Act 2010 refers to the state as simply "Ireland". The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use uses simply ''Ireland'' for the country name.
Similarly, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office do not use the term Republic of Ireland but rather apply the term Ireland when advising potential British Nationals choosing to live in Ireland. In contrast, the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Regulations 1990 referred to barristers and solicitors qualified "in Ireland" and made no reference to the "Republic of Ireland" but when these regulations were replaced by the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Regulations 2009, the Regulations were amended to refer to the ''Republic of Ireland'' and not ''Ireland''.

However, in her letter to President of the European Council Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to give effect to Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May used the term ''Republic of Ireland'':

British media usage

The names attributed to the state by the British media are sometimes the subject of discussion in the state. The style guides of British news sources adopt differing policies for referring to the state (though notably all deprecate 'Eire' even though it was often used even in the late 20th century):
;'' The Times'': "Ireland: the two parts should be called the Republic of Ireland or the Irish Republic (avoid Eire except in direct quotes or historical context), and Northern Ireland or Ulster."
;'' The Guardian'': "Ireland, Irish Republic. not Eire or "Southern Ireland""
;'' The Daily Telegraph'': "Ireland includes Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Irish Government means the one in Dublin. Use Irish Republic or the Republic according to context, but not Eire."
;'' The Economist'': "Ireland is simply Ireland. Although it is a republic, it is not the Republic of Ireland. Neither is it, in English, Eire."
; BBC Radio: "''Ireland'' is an island, comprising Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic."
; BBC News style guide: We should make clear within the first four pars that we are talking about the country rather than the island, so should use Republic of Ireland or the Irish Republic. Subsequent references can talk about Ireland, the Republic of Ireland or the Republic. Also, in headlines it is acceptable to use Ireland, but again the summary should emphasise that we are referring to the country. However, when writing stories that cover both parts (e.g.: The numbers of songbirds are declining throughout Ireland) we should try to make clear that we are talking about the island as a whole. Do not use either Eire or Southern Ireland.

See also

* History of the Republic of Ireland
* Politics of the Republic of Ireland
* Alternative names for Northern Ireland
* Hibernia
* Ériu

Notes

References

{{Europe topic, Name of, title=Names of European states and territories

History of the British Empire
History of the Commonwealth of Nations
Politics of the Republic of Ireland
History of the Republic of Ireland
Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations
Ireland
Terminology of the British Isles
Irish state
Names for Ireland