unfortunately jafafa hots appears to be ignorant of the facts and engages in petty minded cynicism feel free to do so as it is the preserve of the fool who cannot deal in rational debate there are political connotations to using the term british isles when describing the republic of ireland we find it offensive the law provides for it to be called the british irish isles in light of the establishment of our free state in and independence in so such political connotations exist in calling people of the u s a americans the term exists because every other country in the americas have their own identifiable description and you outlined some of those this left the u s a citizens to be dubbed americans and it is not politically offensive nor is it legally incorrect you go on to say by labelling us irishmen you mislabel no such word swot up on your english half of us the million population of the republic of ireland overwhelmingly consider themselves irish and of the million in northern ireland consider themselves irish leaving roughly to consider themselves british now the last time i indulged in mathematics did not strike me as half of million so come back to me when you have a little better grasp of the situation and stop making ignorant and idiotic comments on an issue that you have little or no real understanding of go back to important stuff like contributing to articles on college ice hockey that's where i would suggest you belong my good man go make a difference