That is fine that you have set out your views I have set out mine and when I am accused to talking nonsense for expressing those views I will respond likewise That you decide you do not like my reaction does not give you or those of your frame of mind the right to starve my views of the oxygen of publicity as one nice Englishwoman put it in 1988 I do not have to accept any British nomenclature for my home I live in Ireland I therefore am Irish I live in Europe I therefore am a European To claim that I live in what British people have termed the British Isles is despite the wire balancing act by some wikipedia editors ultimately an explicit claim that I am British That son is a profoundly political claim It is hostile aggressive and completely about imposing a British nationalist identity upon me my family and everybody I know It doesn t get any more political Anybody who partakes in that British nationalist project is of that national disposition They are aligning themselves with that agenda for who I am You can not censor this view simply because it doesn t accord with your British Comics outlook on the world While you were reading British Comics I was reading books like Edward Said s Orientalism book and Declan Kiberd s Inventing Ireland book both of which are books that emphasise the importance to colonial powers of controlling the representation of countries they have conquered Claiming Ireland to be in this British Isles is precisely about that about controlling Irish identity Irish direction It is disingenuous in the extreme to claim this title is merely geographic it is merely political 86 42 90 145