There have been various names of the Irish state, some of which have been controversial. The constitutional name of the contemporary state is Ireland, the same as the island of Ireland, of which it comprises the major portion. In 1949 it declared itself a republic and adopted the term Republic of Ireland as its official description while keeping the name Ireland.
The United Kingdom (part of which, Northern Ireland, constitutes one sixth of the territory of the island of Ireland), objected to the political implications of the adoption of the name Ireland on the basis that it constituted an irredentist claim to sovereignty over the entire island of Ireland. However, that name was internationally recognised by the early 1960s and since the end of the 1990s has been accepted by the United Kingdom.
Read more about Names Of The Irish State: Constitutional Name, Legal Description, European Union, Abbreviations, Alternative Names, Name Dispute With The UK
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“Matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will—the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“I do not see why, since America and her autumn woods have been discovered, our leaves should not compete with the precious stones in giving names to colors; and, indeed, I believe that in course of time the names of some of our trees and shrubs, as well as flowers, will get into our popular chromatic nomenclature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Irish Americans are about as Irish as black Americans are African.”
—Bob Geldof (b. 1954)
“He talks about the Scylla of Atheism and the Charybdis of Christianity—a state of mind which, by the way, is not conducive to bold navigation.”
—Norman Douglas (1868–1952)