It's a little confusing but here's the explanation:
Geography:
Great Britain is primarily a geographical term = The island of Britain and its near-by off-shore islands. It does not include Ireland.
The British Isles = The collection of Islands to the North West of Europe i.e. Britain and Ireland and any off their off shore islands. Much as Scandinavia = Denmark, Sweden, Norway etc.
The present day United Kingdom = "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
(it excludes The Isle of Mann and the Channel Island states (Jersey and Gurnsey) which are "Crown Dependencies and not part of the UK or the European Union! and have almost fully independent legal and political systems but Britain handles their defense and forigen affairs responsibilities)
The 1801 Act of Union effectively merged the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland together into one legislative entity.
26 of 32 counties of Ireland subsequently left the UK in 1922 becoming initially "The Irish Free State", which had something along the lines of Canada or Australia's relationship with the UK and later in 1932 declaired a fully independent republic and left the commonwealth and cut all ties with the UK.
The UK of Great Britain and Ireland became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1922 on.
If you use the term Great Britain you are usually only refering to England Scotland and Wales. If you use the term UK / United Kingdom you are including Northern Ireland too.
If you use the term British Isles you're refering to the Geographical Entity that includes the Republic of Ireland as well as the Isle of Mann and the Channel Island States.
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Ireland:
Legally and in international politics the Republic of Ireland is usually simply refered to as Ireland or alternatively by it's Gaelic translation Éire. (Northern Ireland's part of the UK and thus refered to as the UK). E.g. my passport says "IRELAND and ÉIRE and European Union / Cophobal Europach (Irish Translation) This use of the word Ireland doesn't cause any confusion abroad but it can cause confusion in the UK where Ireland to some people tends to mean Northern Ireland and Éire tends to mean the Republic of Ireland.. Some UK companies tend to print ROI on the end of addresses which can actually cause delays in delivery where an order is being shipped by a company in a country that has no idea what ROI means. The same companies have been known to send my phone number as +44 (00353) 21XXXXXXX instead of +353 21 XXXXXXX. Which would be like printing +49/0043/1XXX XXXX for a number in Vienna.
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Confused yet?! I almost am!
[This message has been edited by djk (edited 11-09-2003).]
