05/09/2024
When I was a very young child I was sat down and educated, in a nice way, by my republican grandfather. I had written an address on an envelope incorrectly, I wrote Eire which I thought was the name of the country in Irish! It wasn't!
You see *Éire* was the name of the county in 1937. Do you see that fada over the capital É? It turns the Irish word for 'Burden' [Eire] into the Irish word for Ireland [Éire]. Where would you want to send a letter to? Ireland or Burden! I never made that mistake again!
As I grew older I learnt more about Irish history, that the British government since the Eire Act 1938 would refer to the Irish Free State as "Eire", not Éire, nor Ireland. This only changed after the crown was removed from Irish politics and it was finally written into British law in the Ireland Act of 1949, thereafter English law would use the "Republic of Ireland". Éire is now considered outdated in Ireland and instead, we use the genitive case of Éireann, as in Poblacht an hÉireann (*The Republic of Ireland).
*Another mistake is Southern Ireland. That is what the British wanted to call Ireland when they first also conceived of Northern Ireland too, it was only used by British politicians for a very short period of history (literally a year). It was changed to the Irish Free State, Éire and finally the Republic of Ireland through struggle.
Northern Ireland might make visitors think that the Republic of Ireland is located to the south of it, but it is not. Malin Head is the most northerly point in Ireland, and it is located in the Republic of Ireland, to the North of Northern Ireland.
Ireland has been divided up into four provinces since 1610, those provinces being Ulster (North), Munster (South), Leinster (East) Connacht (West). Interesting fact, the Irish word for provinces is *cúige, *meaning Five. Meath was the lost fifth province.
Credit: Clive Bilby
