North Britain is a term which has been used, particularly between the 17th and 19th centuries, for either the northern part of Great Britain or Scotland , which occupies the northernmost third of the island. "North Britains" could also refer to Britons from Scotland; with North Briton later the standard spelling. Its counterparts were South Britain , generally used to refer to England and Wales and West Britain , usually referring to Ireland .
36-543: West Briton may refer to: West Brit , a pejorative term for an Irish person alleged to be excessively sympathetic to or imitative of the British The West Briton , a local newspaper published in Truro, Cornwall, England A person from Wales (obsolete usage) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
72-522: A "shoneen" as a person "of native Irish stock who committed the unforgivable sin of aping English or West-Briton manners and attitudes". Similar to shoneen , another variant since c. 1840, jackeen ('Little Jack'), was used in the countryside in reference to Dubliners with British sympathies; it is a pun, substituting the nickname Jack for John , as a reference to the Union Jack , the British flag. During
108-486: A bigoted Gaelic Athletic Association member who waved his hurley around while verbally attacking his pet hates. " Little Englander " had been an equivalent term in British politics since about 1859. An antonym of jackeen , in its modern sense of an urban (and strongly British-influenced) Dubliner, is culchie , referring to an unsophisticated Irish person who resides in the countryside. North Britain Early uses of
144-632: A boy, but it was the BBC, not RTÉ . I was a West Brit from the start. [...] I'm a kind of child of the Pale . I think I was born to succeed here [in the UK]; I have much more freedom than I had in Ireland". He became a dual citizen of Ireland and the UK and was eventually knighted by Queen Elizabeth II . The Irish Times columnist Donald Clarke noted a number of things that may prompt
180-407: A dealer in cattle." "North Britain" is often used historically, referencing the period before the formation of Scotland and England. As such, it forms a geographic, yet politically and culturally neutral description of the area. The term, particularly in adjective form, found use in the creation of the railway system. The North British Railway operated from 1846 to 1923, leaving a later legacy in
216-457: A portion of the empire , provided they be made so in reality and not in name alone; they are ready to become a kind of West Britons, if made so in benefits and justice; but if not, we are Irishmen again. Here, O'Connell was hoping that Ireland would soon become as prosperous as " North Britain " had become after 1707, but supposed that if the Union did not deliver this, then some type of Irish home rule
252-421: A table of West-Briton responses to certain words: According to Boyd, "The West Briton is the near Englishman ... an unfriendly caricature, the reductio ad absurdum of the least attractive English characteristics. ... The best that can be said ... is that the species is slowly becoming extinct. ... nationalism has become respectable". The opposite of the "West Briton" Boyd called the "synthetic Gael". After
288-608: Is a derogatory term for an Irish person who is perceived as Anglophilic in matters of culture or politics. West Britain is a description of Ireland emphasising it as subject to British influence. "West Britain" was used with reference to the Acts of Union 1800 which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Similarly " North Britain " for Scotland used after
324-998: Is pejorative in Irish usage, though used as a value-neutral colloquialism in Great Britain. During the Troubles , among nationalists "the Brits" specifically meant the British Army in Northern Ireland . "West Brit" is used presently by Irish people, chiefly within Ireland, to criticise a variety of perceived faults of other Irish people: Not all people so labelled may actually be characterised by these stereotypical opinions and habits. Public perception and self-identity can vary. During his 2011 presidential campaign, Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness criticised what he termed West Brit elements of
360-815: The Glasgow Daily Mail in 1901 and merged with the Glasgow Record the same year, ultimately becoming the Daily Record . Cousin Henry , one of Anthony Trollope 's 1879 novels , was serialized in that year in the North British Weekly Mail . Particularly in the 19th century, "North Britain" or "N.B." was widely used for postal addresses in Scotland. However, by the early 20th century, any vestiges of popular usage of this style had declined. "South Britain",
396-585: The House of Commons in opposing Daniel O'Connell 's motion for Repeal of the Union , "I should prefer the name of West Britain to that of Ireland". Rice was derided by Henry Grattan later in the same debate: "He tells us, that he belongs to England, and designates himself as a West Briton." Daniel O'Connell himself used the phrase at a pro-Repeal speech in Dublin in February 1836: The people of Ireland are ready to become
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#1732880789476432-616: The Royal Scots Greys were renamed the "Royal North British Dragoons". Similarly, the "Scots" in the name of the Royal Scots Fusiliers was changed to "North British", a name which lasted until 1877, when it became the "21st (Royal Scots Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot". In 1712, The Boston News-Letter in British North America was using the term "North British". The Oxford English Dictionary cites Matthew Prior using
468-499: The 1603 Union of the Crowns and the Acts of Union 1707 connected it to the Kingdom of England (" South Britain "). In 1800 Thomas Grady, a Limerick unionist , published a collection of light verse named The West Briton , while an anti-union cartoon depicted an official offering bribes and proclaiming "God save the King & his Majesty's subjects of west Britain that is to be!" In 1801
504-462: The 18th and 19th centuries, and in 1844 there was also a North British Advertiser . The North British Review was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Church of Scotland as a Scottish "national review" for those unsatisfied with the secular Edinburgh Review or the conservative Quarterly Review . It continued until 1871. In 1847 a North British Daily Mail was founded, which was renamed
540-565: The 20th century, jackeen took on the more generalized meaning of "a self-assertive worthless fellow". The term is sometimes contrasted with Little Irelander , a derogatory term for an Irish person who is seen as an extreme nationalist , Anglophobic and xenophobic , while sometimes also practising Traditionalist Catholicism . The term was popularised by Seán Ó Faoláin . On the RTÉ program The Live Mike between 1978 and 1982, sketch comedian Dermot Morgan satirised "Little Irelanders", by playing
576-731: The Latin description of George III on the Great Seal of the Realm was changed from MAGNÆ BRITANNIÆ FRANCIÆ ET HIBERNIÆ REX "Of Great Britain, France and Ireland King" to BRITANNIARUM REX "Of the Britains King", ending the claim to the French throne and describing Great Britain and Ireland as "the Britains". Irish unionist MP Thomas Spring Rice (later Lord Monteagle of Brandon) said on 23 April 1834 in
612-524: The Union being severed. In this sense, Lord Roberts , Lord Charles Beresford and hundreds of others, of whom all Irishmen ought to be proud, are "West Britons", and thousands who have done nothing for the empire, under the just laws of which they live, who, perhaps, are mere descendants of Cromwell's soldiers , and even of Saxon lineage, with very little Celtic blood in their veins, are of the "Irish best". Ernest Augustus Boyd's 1924 collection Portraits: real and imaginary included "A West Briton", which gave
648-452: The application of a West Brit label, including being from Dublin (or south Dublin), supporting UK-based football teams, using the phrase " Boxing Day ", or voting for Fine Gael . Castle Catholic was applied more specifically by Republicans to middle-class Catholics assimilated into the pro-British establishment, after Dublin Castle , the main office of the British administration . Sometimes
684-678: The complementary style apportioned to England, had never seriously established itself, either north or south of the Anglo-Scottish border . At least two ships were named the SS North Britain : a 1940 vessel torpedoed in 1943, and the 1945 SS North Britain , which was built by Lithgows , Port Glasgow as the Empire Cyprus for the Ministry of War Transport . She was sold into merchant service in 1948 and renamed North Britain . In 1962, she
720-503: The death of the Queen Victoria in 1901. It included virtually all Church of Ireland Protestants and those Catholics who did not measure up to his definition of "Irish Irelanders". In 1907, Canon R. S. Ross-Lewin published a collection of loyal Irish poems using the pseudonym "A County of Clare West Briton", explaining the epithet in the foreword: Now, what is the exact definition and up-to-date meaning of that term? The holder of
756-506: The designation have been noted after the 1603 Union of the Crowns of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland . In early use the term could refer to inhabitants of Scotland as well as the country itself; since at least the late 15th century, "Britain" could be equivalent to "Briton", even being used interchangeably in early texts. Accordingly, "North Britain" was sometimes used as equivalent to "North Briton". Francis Bacon wrote in 1604 that
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#1732880789476792-488: The exaggerated pronunciation spelling Cawtholic was used to suggest an accent imitative of British Received Pronunciation . These identified Catholic unionists whose involvement with the British system was the purpose of O'Connell's Emancipation Act of 1829. Having and exercising their new legal rights according to the Act, Castle Catholics were then rather illogically being criticised by other Catholics for exercising them to
828-464: The first Union Flag , where Scotland and England are not otherwise named: Whereas, some differences hath arisen between Our subjects of South and North Britaine travelling by Seas, about the bearing of their Flagges ... This usage was repeated in Charles I 's Proclamation of 1634 on the use of the flag, though adding England and Scotland too for explanation: Our further will and pleasure is, that all
864-565: The full. The old-fashioned word shoneen (from Irish : Seoinín , diminutive of Seán , thus literally 'Little John', and apparently a reference to John Bull ) was applied to those who emulated the homes, habits, lifestyle, pastimes, clothes, and opinions of the Protestant Ascendancy . P. W. Joyce 's English As We Speak It in Ireland defines it as "a gentleman in a small way: a would-be gentleman who puts on superior airs." The Irish historian and academic, F. S. L. Lyons , defined
900-477: The independence of the Irish Free State , "West British" was applied mainly to anglophile Roman Catholics , the small number of Catholic unionists , as Protestants were expected to be naturally unionists . This was not automatic, since there were, and are, also Anglo-Irish Protestants favouring Irish republicanism (see Protestant Irish nationalism ). "Brit" meaning "British person", attested in 1884,
936-507: The media, who he said were out to undermine his attempt to win the election. He later said it was an "off-the-cuff remark" but did not define for the electorate what (or who) he had meant by the term. Irish TV and radio presenter Terry Wogan , who spent most of his career working for the BBC in Britain, described himself as a West Brit: "I'm an effete, urban Irishman. I was an avid radio listener as
972-671: The name of the North British Hotel in Edinburgh , which was renamed The Balmoral Hotel in the 1990s. The North British Locomotive Company existed from 1903 until its bankruptcy in 1962, again leaving a naming legacy in other organisations. The name is found in other private enterprises, examples being the Edinburgh North British Insurance Company , founded in 1809, and North British Distillery Company founded there in 1885. The North British Rubber Company
1008-544: The other Ships of Our Subjects of England or South Britain bearing flags shall from henceforth carry the Red Cross, commonly called S. George's Cross, as of old time hath been used; And also that all other ships of Our Subjects of Scotland or North Britain shall henceforth carry the White Cross commonly called S. Andrews Cross. After the Acts of Union 1707 , Scotland was sometimes referred to as "North Britain" officially. In 1707,
1044-399: The same time hate the mere Saxon, and revel in the oft resuscitated pictures of long past periods, and the horrors of the penal laws he is a mere "West Briton", his Irish blood, his Irish sympathies go for nothing. He misses the chief qualifications to the ranks of the "Irish best", if he remains an imperialist, and sees no prospect of peace or happiness or return of prosperity in the event of
1080-519: The spelling "North Briton" in 1718. In Rob Roy (1817), Sir Walter Scott refers to a Scottish person in England as a North Briton , sometimes in the mouth of an English character but also in the authorial voice. "Why, a Scotch sort of a gentleman, as I said before," returned mine host; "they are all gentle, ye mun know, though they ha' narra shirt to back; but this is a decentish hallion—a canny North Briton as e'er cross'd Berwick Bridge — I trow he's
1116-497: The title West Briton . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=West_Briton&oldid=1235489189 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages West Brit West Brit , an abbreviation of West Briton ,
West Briton - Misplaced Pages Continue
1152-511: The title may be descended from O'Connors and O'Donelans and ancient Irish Kings . He may have the greatest love for his native land, desirous to learn the Irish language, and under certain conditions to join the Gaelic League . He may be all this, and rejoice in the victory of an Irish horse in the " Grand National ", or an Irish dog at " Waterloo ", or an Irish tug-of-war team of R.I.C. giants at Glasgow or Liverpool, but, if he does not at
1188-559: The union made "The people to be the South-Brittains and North-Brittains". The Oxford English Dictionary cites the poet Richard Brathwait , the play Wit at Several Weapons , and Sir William Mure of Rowallan as early 17th-century appearances of the name for Scotland as a whole. King James VI and I , the first joint monarch of both kingdoms, used the terms "South Britain" and "North Britain" for England and Scotland respectively, most famously in his royal decree of 1606 establishing
1224-442: Was essential. The Dublin administration as performed during the 1830s was intermediate between these two possibilities. The term "West Briton" became used next pejoratively during the land struggle of the 1880s. D. P. Moran , who founded the publication The Leader in 1900, used the term frequently to describe those who he did not consider sufficiently Irish. It was synonymous with those he described as "Sourfaces", who had mourned
1260-608: Was founded in 1856 in Edinburgh's Fountainbridge , notable for its Wellington boots and eventually becoming Hunter Boot Ltd . An example of its use in respect to northern Great Britain rather than Scotland can be found in the title of the North British Academy of Arts which existed from 1908 to 1924 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , a city in northern England . The North Briton and New North Briton were newspapers in
1296-498: Was sold to Hong Kong and renamed Jesselton Bay , scrapped in 1968. In current usage, the northern parts of Great Britain are sometimes referred to simply as 'the North', though this term is more frequently used to describe northern England . This usage is often prevalent in social commentary on the suggested " North–South divide ". In 2008 the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh , in addition to Heriot-Watt University , organised
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