A large archipelago lies off the northwest coast of mainland Europe. It is composed of two main islands (Island of Great Britain and Island of Ireland) and thousands of smaller islands surrounding them. The Atlantic Ocean lies to the west and north. The North Sea lies to the east, between Great Britain and Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. To the south, the English Channel separates Great Britain from France. At its narrowest point, the Strait of Dover, the Channel is about twenty one miles wide. The Irish Sea separates the two larger islands. The Celtic Sea lies to the south, between the southern coast of Ireland and the southwestern tip of Great Britain.

Five countries share these islands. Three smaller islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, govern themselves and are not part of any of the five. Many names are used for all of these, and some of the names sound alike but cover different areas and have different meanings. This primer explains what each name includes today. It also shows how they are grouped in international organizations, in sport, in money and in travel. History and politics are not the topic of this post.

I. Two Large Islands and The Archipelago Name

No name for the whole group is accepted by everyone. Some books and maps call it the British Isles, but the government of Ireland does not use that name. In this blog we call them the Islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

II. The Smaller Islands

Orkney lies a few miles off the north coast. It has about seventy islands. Shetland lies about fifty miles further north and has about a hundred islands. People live on only some of them. The largest island in both groups is called Mainland. Hoy is another large island in Orkney. Yell and Unst are other large islands in Shetland. Unst is the most northerly island in the group where people live.

Off the northwest coast there are two groups of islands. The Outer Hebrides lie further out in the Atlantic Ocean. Their largest island has two names, Lewis in the north and Harris in the south. South of it are North Uist, South Uist and Barra. The Inner Hebrides lie closer to the coast. They include Skye, Mull, Iona and Islay. Skye is the largest, and a bridge joins it to the mainland.

The Firth of Clyde is further south, a wide inlet of the sea that runs inland toward the city of Glasgow. Firth is the Scottish word for this kind of inlet. Its main islands are Arran, Bute and Great Cumbrae, and Arran is the largest.

The Isle of Man lies about halfway between Great Britain and Ireland on the Irish Sea. Anglesey lies off the west coast of Great Britain, on the eastern side of the Irish Sea. Two bridges join it to the mainland.

Achill lies off the west coast of Ireland, and it is the largest island around Ireland. A bridge joins it to the mainland. The Aran Islands lie further south, at the mouth of Galway Bay. Inis Mór is the largest of them, and Irish is the everyday language there. Skellig Michael is a steep rock off the southwest coast. Monks built a monastery on top of it more than a thousand years ago, and their stone huts still stand. Rathlin Island lies off the northeast coast.

Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, lies off the northeast coast of Britain in the North Sea. A road joins it to the mainland, and the sea covers that road at every high tide. The Isle of Wight lies off the south coast, in the English Channel. The Isles of Scilly are a small group about twenty eight miles off the southwestern tip of Great Britain. St Mary’s is the largest.

The Channel Islands lie in the English Channel, close to the French coast. The largest are Jersey and Guernsey. Alderney and Sark are smaller. Jersey is about fourteen miles from France and more than eighty miles from Great Britain.

III. Countries and Sovereign States

A country is a land with its own name, its own people and a long history of its own. A sovereign state is a country, or a group of countries, that governs itself completely and deals with the rest of the world on its own.

Most people use the two words as if they meant the same thing, because for almost every place in the world they do. France is one country and one sovereign state, and so is Japan and the United States. On the islands of Great Britain and Ireland the two do not always match, and the easiest way to follow them is to think of government at two levels:

• The first is the country or local or internal level. At this level the government runs everyday life inside one country, with matters such as health, schools and housing.
• The second is the state level. At this level the sovereign state deals with the rest of the external world. Only a sovereign state can go to war or make peace. Only a sovereign state can sign treaties with other states, send ambassadors to them, or join the United Nations. The state level also keeps some matters at home that must be the same everywhere in the state in case the sovereign state contains more than one country, such as the currency, immigration and most taxes.

In France and the United States, both levels are the same, because each is one country and one sovereign state. But a sovereign state can also be made up of several countries. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is one sovereign state made up of four countries: the Netherlands itself, and three islands in the Caribbean. The Kingdom of Denmark joins Denmark with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which run most of their own affairs. In both, each country runs much of its everyday life, while the sovereign state deals with the rest of the world.

IV. The Five Countries and Their Own Governments

Five countries share the two large islands. England, Scotland and Wales are on the island of Great Britain. England covers most of the south and the center, Scotland covers the north, and Wales lies in the west. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are on the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland covers the northeast corner, and the Republic of Ireland covers the rest of the island.

All five countries are governed as parliamentary democracies. The people elect a parliament, the parliament makes the laws, and a leader governs with the support of that parliament. For England, that parliament is the Parliament of the whole United Kingdom.

V. The Republic of Ireland – A Sovereign State

The Republic of Ireland is like most countries in the world. It is both a country and a sovereign state. It runs its own affairs at home and deals with the rest of the world in its own name.

It is a parliamentary republic. Its head of state is a President, elected directly by the people for seven years. Its parliament is called the Oireachtas. It meets at Leinster House in Dublin, an 18th-century palace. It has two houses. The Dáil is the main house, with one hundred and seventy four members elected by the people. The Seanad is a smaller upper house, with sixty members. The government is led by a prime minister called the Taoiseach, who must have the support of the Dáil.

The flag of the Republic of Ireland has three upright bands of green, white and orange.

VI. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England Countries – One Sovereign State

The other four are countries, but not sovereign states. Together they form one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. Its head of state is the monarch. Its parliament meets at Westminster, in London, and has two houses, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The UK government is led by the Prime Minister. It deals with the rest of the world, including defense and foreign affairs as well as the common matters for all four.

Three of the four (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) also have a parliament and a government of their own to handle their individual country matters. They make laws on many matters at home, such as health and schools. England is different since lacks a separate parliament and uses directly the UK parliament as it’s parliament.

• Scotland has the Scottish Parliament, at Holyrood in Edinburgh. Its government is led by a First Minister. It was first elected in 1999.
• Wales has the Welsh Parliament, called the Senedd, in Cardiff Bay. Its government is led by a First Minister. It began in 1999 as the National Assembly for Wales and took its new name in 2020.
• Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly, at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, in Belfast. Its government is shared between the main communities. It is led jointly by a First Minister and a deputy First Minister, who have equal power. The Assembly has been suspended several times, when the parties could not agree to govern together.
• England has no parliament and no government of its own. England holds about eighty four percent of the people of the United Kingdom. The UK Parliament and the UK government make its laws directly.

Three of the countries also have their own flags. One of them had not agreed on a separate flag.

• England’s flag is the Cross of St George, a red upright cross on white. St George is the patron saint of England. He was a Roman soldier, and he probably never visited England.
• Scotland’s flag is the Saltire of St Andrew, a white diagonal cross on blue. A saltire is a cross shaped like an X. Tradition says St Andrew died on a cross of this shape.
• The flag of Wales shows a red dragon on white and green. It has no cross.
• Northern Ireland has no official flag of its own. The United Kingdom Flag is the only official flag flown there. St Patrick’s Saltire, a red diagonal cross on white, is sometimes used for Northern Ireland. It is not official, and the people of Northern Ireland have not agreed on any flag of their own.

The system of laws is also different for those four countries. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own courts and their own system of law. England and Wales share one.

The UK has changed its name several times.

• The Kingdom of England is usually dated to 927, when King Æthelstan took York from the Vikings and ruled all the English.
• In 1535 and 1542, laws joined Wales to England. The state was still called the Kingdom of England
• In 1603 the king of Scotland also became king of England. The two countries shared one monarch but stayed separate states, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland.
• In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland joined into one state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• In 1801 Ireland joined. The state became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• In 1922 most of Ireland left. Northern Ireland stayed.
• In 1927 the name changed to the one used today, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK also has its own flag, the Union Flag, often called the Union Jack. It joins the crosses of Saint George for England, Saint Andrew for Scotland and Saint Patrick for Northern Ireland. Wales does not appear on it, because Wales was already joined to England when the first version of the flag was made in 1606.

As a result there are two sovereign states on the Islands of Great Britain and Ireland. The first is the Republic of Ireland. The second is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

VII. The Constitutional Monarchy of UK

At the state level, the four countries in UK share one head of state, the British monarch. The monarch does not make political decisions. Over several centuries, power in Britain moved from the monarch to the elected UK Parliament. The monarch kept the title of head of state and the ceremonial duties, and the government took the real decisions. This system is called a constitutional monarchy.

The Crown means the monarchy as an institution. It is the office of king or queen, which passes from one monarch to the next. The Crown is linked to land in two different ways. It rules some lands as their head of state, and it owns other land as property.

VIII. The Crown Dependencies

Three places on these islands are ruled by the Crown but are not part of the United Kingdom. They are the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and together they are called the Crown Dependencies. A bailiwick is an old name for an area under one local administration. The Bailiwick of Guernsey also includes the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark. They all have their own flags.

These places came to the Crown by separate routes, long before the United Kingdom existed. Jersey and Guernsey were part of the Duchy of Normandy, a territory in northern France ruled by a duke. In 1066 the Duke of Normandy became King of England. In 1204 the King of England lost the rest of Normandy to the King of France, but the islands stayed with the English Crown. The Isle of Man had its own rulers for centuries, under the title Lord of Mann. In 1765 the Crown bought the rights to the island, and today the monarch is Lord of Mann.

The Crown Dependencies were never joined to England or to the United Kingdom, and they fill the two levels in their own way. At the local level they do almost everything for themselves. Each elects its own parliament, has its own government led by a chief minister, and keeps its own laws, courts, flag and taxes. None of them sends members to the Parliament in London. At the state level they are not sovereign states, so they do not deal with the rest of the world on their own. The government of the United Kingdom does this for them, and it is also responsible for their defense. The British monarch is their head of state, and this link through the Crown is what ties them to the United Kingdom.

IX. The Crown Lands in UK

The Crown also owns land as property. Much of it belongs to the Crown Estate, which includes farms, forests, buildings in London and most of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Crown Estate belongs to the monarch only as holder of the office. A separate body runs it, and its profits go to the government. Two other estates, the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall, provide income to the monarch and to the heir to the throne.

Some of the best known places in London also belong to the Crown. The Royal Parks, including Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Greenwich Park, began as royal hunting grounds and private gardens. Over the centuries, monarchs opened them to the public, but the Crown still owns them. Palaces such as the Tower of London and Hampton Court belong to the Crown in the same way, and today they are open to visitors.

By area, the largest holding of the Crown is not on land at all. The Crown owns the seabed around the United Kingdom out to twelve nautical miles from the coast, which is about fourteen miles. It also owns around half of the foreshore, the strip of shore between high and low tide. Companies that build wind farms or lay cables in these waters lease the seabed from the Crown. In Scotland a separate body, Crown Estate Scotland, manages the seabed and the Crown’s land, and its profits go to the Scottish Government.

On land, the largest single holding is on Dartmoor in southwest England. The Duchy of Cornwall owns about sixty seven thousand five hundred acres there, and it also owns most of the land on the Isles of Scilly. The Duchy of Lancaster holds about forty five thousand acres, spread across several counties in England and Wales. In Scotland the largest Crown estate is at Glenlivet. None of this land is the private property of the monarch. It belongs to the Crown as an institution, passes with the throne, and cannot be sold by the person who holds it.

X. The Royal Peculiars in UK

A few churches also have a link to the Crown of their own, and they are called Royal Peculiars. Westminster Abbey in London and St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle are the best known. Most churches in the Church of England answer to a bishop, but a Royal Peculiar answers directly to the monarch.

XI. UK and Ireland Representation In International Organizations

Only sovereign states can join most international organizations.

The United Nations is the organization in which almost every sovereign state in the world has a seat. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are both members. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not members on their own, and neither are the Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom speaks for all of them.

The European Union is a group of European states that share a single market and many common laws. The Republic of Ireland has been a member since 1973. The United Kingdom joined in the same year and left in 2020, so all four of its countries left together. The Crown Dependencies were never members. While the United Kingdom was a member, they had a limited arrangement of their own for trade in goods.

XII. Representation in Sports

In sport the two levels have a lot of exceptions. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not sovereign states, but in many sports they play other states as national teams of their own. Each sport has its own arrangement.

In football each of the four countries has its own national team, and so does the Republic of Ireland. The two islands have five national football teams.

In rugby union, England, Scotland and Wales have their own teams. Ireland plays as one team from the whole island, with players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Every four years the best players from all four teams also join together as one touring side, the British and Irish Lions.

In cricket Scotland has its own team. The team called England represents both England and Wales. Ireland plays as one team from the whole island.

At the Olympic Games the United Kingdom sends one team, called Great Britain, although it includes Northern Ireland. Athletes from Northern Ireland may choose to compete for this team or for Ireland. Athletes from the Crown Dependencies also compete for the Great Britain team.

At the Commonwealth Games, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as four separate teams. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey send teams of their own as well.

XIII. Beyond the Islands: Territories, Realms and the Commonwealth

The links to the United Kingdom and to the Crown do not stop at the islands. Three groups of places around the world have such a link, and each link is a different kind.

XIV. The British Overseas Territories

The British Overseas Territories are fourteen places around the world that are still under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. Most are small islands. Five lie in the Caribbean. They are Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Four lie in the Atlantic Ocean. Bermuda sits alone in the North Atlantic. The Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands lie far to the south. Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a single territory made of three groups of islands. Gibraltar sits at the southern tip of Spain. Akrotiri and Dhekelia are two British military bases on the island of Cyprus, and together they form one territory. The Pitcairn Islands lie in the South Pacific and have fewer than fifty people. The British Indian Ocean Territory is a group of islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The British Antarctic Territory covers part of Antarctica. Three territories have no permanent population at all. They are the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Scientists, soldiers and officials live there only for a time.

The Overseas Territories are not part of the United Kingdom, and they are not Crown Dependencies either. Most of them elect their own government and make their own laws at the country level. At the state level, the United Kingdom is responsible for their defense and their relations with other states. The British monarch is their head of state, and in each territory a governor represents the monarch.

Most of their flags show the link plainly. The Union Flag sits in the top corner, and the territory’s own badge sits on the right. Gibraltar is the main exception. Its flag shows a red castle and a gold key and carries no Union Flag.

The Overseas Territories are what remains of the British Empire, the large group of colonies that Britain ruled around the world until the twentieth century. Most former colonies became independent states, and these fourteen did not.

XV. The Commonwealth Realms

The second group is made of fully independent sovereign states that still share the British monarch as their head of state. They are called the Commonwealth realms, and there are fifteen of them. They include the United Kingdom itself, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Papua New Guinea.

Each realm is a separate sovereign state. It has its own government, its own army and its own seat at the United Nations. The United Kingdom has no power over any of them. They only share the same person as head of state. That person is King of Canada in Canada and King of Australia in Australia, and in each realm the King acts on the advice of that country’s own government. Because the King lives in the United Kingdom, a governor general represents him in each of the other realms.

Some realms still carry the Union Flag in their own flag, and others do not. The flags of Australia, New Zealand and Tuvalu include it in the top corner. The flags of Canada and Jamaica do not.

A realm can stop sharing the monarch whenever it chooses. It changes its own constitution and chooses its own head of state, usually an elected president. Barbados did this in 2021. Over the years, many other former realms have done the same, among them India, Kenya and Mauritius.

XVI. The Commonwealth of Nations

The third group is the widest. The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of fifty six sovereign states. Voluntary means that each member chose to join and may leave. Most members were once part of the British Empire. Together they hold about a third of the people in the world.

The Commonwealth is not a state, and it has no power over its members. Its leaders meet every two years to discuss shared interests such as trade, education and climate. Its offices are in London. Most members are republics with their own presidents. The fifteen realms are members too, and they are the only members that share the British monarch.

The British monarch holds the title Head of the Commonwealth, but the title is symbolic and gives no power over any member. It does not pass automatically to the next monarch either. The leaders of the member states agree on who will hold it. Four members were never part of the British Empire at all: Mozambique, Rwanda, Gabon and Togo. The Republic of Ireland is not a member. It left in 1949.

The Commonwealth has its own flag. It shows a gold globe on a blue background, surrounded by gold rays that form the letter C.