Unambiguous English name for Ireland in the 40s?

January 18, 2010 1:32 PM

Fiction-writing-filter: Was there any non-ambiguous English name for the modern-day "Republic of Ireland" between the years 1937 and 1949?

I understand that pre-1937 the country was called the "Irish Free State" and that post-1949 it was called "The Republic of Ireland". However, in the years in between, the name in English was simply "Ireland."

So, what would an English speaker say when relating that they had crossed the border from north to south?

"I made my way south from Belfast and eventually crossed over into Ireland."

That seems unnecessarily confusing (due to the island also being named Ireland) and also carries more of a political payload than I would like.

Certainly "South Ireland" is unacceptable and I can't help but feel that "Éire" would come easily to the lips of an English speaker of the time.

Any help? Is there any less awkward, but chronologically appropriate, place name I can use that isn't heavily laden with politics?

I've read this informative wikipedia article, but it hasn't helped.

posted by 256 to Society & Culture (16 answers total)

Eire
posted by A189Nut at 1:33 PM on January 18, 2010

Response by poster: Eire
posted by A189Nut

Right, but is there any likelihood at all that an English speaker would actually say that at the time?
posted by 256 at 1:34 PM on January 18, 2010

"I made my way south from Belfast and eventually crossed over the border."
posted by criticalbill at 1:46 PM on January 18, 2010

It probably depends on the political opinions of your character. Certainly Éire was used. I'd say that "Southern Ireland" was probably used more though. [I hate that term though]
posted by Fence at 1:54 PM on January 18, 2010

Criticalbill is correct, that is the way the locals would say it.

BTW, in the English language the country is called Ireland, just Ireland, not Republic of Ireland.
posted by Long Way To Go at 1:57 PM on January 18, 2010

Best answer: Brits called it Eire or 'Southern Ireland' at the time (newsreels usually the former). Both terms are seriously annoying to the people who actually live here.

Northerners would call us 'The South' or possibly the Free State.

FWIW the 1937 Constitution says that the official name of the bit of Ireland we're describing is "Éire, or in the English language, Ireland".
posted by DarlingBri at 1:58 PM on January 18, 2010

Response by poster: It probably depends on the political opinions of your character. Certainly Éire was used. I'd say that "Southern Ireland" was probably used more though. [I hate that term though]
posted by Fence

The character is a twelve year old German boy, orphaned and stranded far from home. He has no political opinion whatsoever on the history and disputes of Ireland. And therein lies the problem, because any name I can think to use seems to carry the weight of a political standpoint.

The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that he would just use whatever he had heard others say, and thus unwittingly echo the politics of whoever he had spoken to last. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't come across well in fiction unless I devote more sentences to it than the story would like.

Maybe, I'll just have to go the route suggested by criticalbill and avoid naming the country at all, though that seems inelegant.
posted by 256 at 2:04 PM on January 18, 2010

If you want to include a name, could you specify a county or a near-the-border town?
posted by synecdoche at 3:28 PM on January 18, 2010

I think you have an out there since the boy is only twelve. He is crossing, or just crossed a border. He doesn't know where he is and is somewhat confused about it. The city he was in is ___ and the city he is now in is ____. Being vague could add to his feeling lost and out of place. If you write it correctly.

Even a well versed Irish tewlve year old could be confused about the whole thing, and a foreign child could not be expected to grasp the details. At twelve I'd be more concerned about the differences between the two lands on either side of the border, not what they were called.

I am no expert, I know very little about Irelands borders. This is only my opinion.
posted by TooFewShoes at 3:42 PM on January 18, 2010

Google News Archive indicates heavy use of Éire/Eire in both UK and US newspapers. In a number of cases, though, they seem to be actively sidestepping the issue by burying the name in the article, while focusing on the metonym of Dublin.
posted by dhartung at 5:06 PM on January 18, 2010

If the boy is not British, or Northern Unionist, he would probably just say Ireland or "the South".

Eire was often used disparagingly by the British. Unionists/Loyalists would often (and still do) call Ireland "the Free State" and citizens "Free Staters". Having said all that, you don't want to open a can of worms such as this unless it's key to your plot. We've been fighting over it all for more than six hundred years ouselves!
posted by Mephisto at 7:41 PM on January 18, 2010

It is also possible he wouldn't know he'd crossed the border. There were border checkpoints on roads but not across fields, so depending on where he was lost, the border could (and can) be very fluid.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:30 PM on January 18, 2010

Nthing criticalbill unless your character is hyper-particular about facts.

I saw a film made around that time which listed a copyright in the UK and Irish Free State in the credits, but I doubt a foreign teen would use that terminology.
posted by brujita at 10:34 PM on January 18, 2010

1) When I was 12 I was very much aware of things like borders and countries. Then again, I ended up getting a degree in geography so I might not have been a standard 12-year-old :)

2) Since you specify he's a German orphan, chances are low he would use Eire (or Éire). The German terms for the different political entities are Republik Irland, Nordirland, Irische Freistaat. Specifically, the 1937 Constitution is called Verfassung von Irland in German. Chances are he would use the obviously cognate English word instead of an Irish one.
posted by brokkr at 12:23 AM on January 19, 2010

I'm just reading yet another history of WWII, and Churchill and the British media called it Eire when complaining that they were denied naval bases there.
posted by themel at 2:11 AM on January 19, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I think "The South" is actually the most elegant solution, if that is something that might actually have been said.
posted by 256 at 7:03 AM on January 19, 2010