Paul Prince wrote:

People from Northern Ireland are UK nationals. They are NOT British, what you are referring to is a political thing.
I'm referring to the make up of the UK, to which i was stating that Great Britain isn't the same as the UK, Therefor, as we are using all 4 countries for the purpose of flag collecting, it should be UK not GB.

And team GB also uses people from other dependencies.....but i don't see the flag of Jersey under the "GB" section.

No, Paul - not political, but cultural and ethnic. And I DO know the argument about UK and GB (being from GB/UK originally!!!). I was pointing out that UK authorities themselves are not consistent in getting the distinction right, and that GB is an internationally recognized abbreviation. Therefore, there's no real reason for Flagcounter to change its abbreviation in this respect.

True!!

Lorelei wrote:

Meiriongwril wrote:

The problem is that the UK government is not consistent in its usage either!
For example, the Olympic Team is always GB (even though it contains athletes from Northern Ireland), the vehicle identification plate is GB not UK

It's called GB and not UK at the Olympics for a simple reason. Because Northern Ireland athletes can choose to represent Ireland if they want (they all have dual citizenship). So there is no UK as far as the games are concerned

Sorry - not true. Not all Northern Irish people (or athletes) have dual citizenship. There are certain criteria you have to meet to apply for Irish citizenship if you are domiciled in Northern Ireland. Many residents don't meet those criteria, and even if you do, many residents either don't want dual citizenship or can't be bothered to go to the expense and trouble of getting it. (I lived for 10 years in Northern Ireland, so know of which I speak!)

At the Olympic level, the Olympic Council of Ireland and the British Olympic Association have an agreement that Northern Irish athletes can compete for either team regardless of their official nationality (which is what I suspect you were referrring to). However, even this agreement is imprecise as it does not specify whether someone from the rest of GB who happens to move to Northern Ireland is then immediately eligible to compete for the OIC.

Final point, the British Olympic Team has used the country label GB since the first Olympics, thus predating the independence of the Irish Republic, so when all of Ireland was part of the UK. Even though the official title of the country was the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" the Olympic team was still GB - there was no Irish team until 1924.

Last edited by Meiriongwril (October 17, 2012 9:50 am)

On all cars from UK they either have written on the plate GB/SCO or a GB oval ..http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TZ4zYEBSw1I/Sjl7DunZXjI/AAAAAAAAKMc/_eC4zWIA534/s400/great_britain_2.jpg         so it seems okay also for FC

Paul,
Yes Sir, time to close it.