Yes, being British here and expressing it is often riddled with bigotry and division. It’s a fragile system for sure
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Great Britain is the geographical name of the largest island in the archipelago of the British Isles. IIRC the name was given by the Normans / French. Grande Bretagne (grande as in large or big), as opposed to Bretagne in western France. So the name doesn’t come from the the British claiming greatness, though many seem to believe that’s the case.
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Nice! Although I was using it more as a play on words I didn’t actually know that, banked!
More importantly NI isn’t in GB anyway, as it’s ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’
By that qualification NI isn’t even ‘British’ 
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But geographically speaking Ireland is one of the British Isles, so I guess all the Irish can claim to be British
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They just never would 
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Yeah technically though people in NI can claim British citizenship etc. I dont think technicalities come into play though
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One benefit of being in NI is you can have an Irish and British passport so can switch nationalities at will 
NI is part of the UK, (they have the same passport as me), but the UK contains both GB and NI, it’s all just word silliness really but an amusing aside. i.e. they have UK citizenship, not ‘British’ citizenship (which doesn’t exist on its own, but that’s how it’s referred).
But it’s also used coloquiely, like with our Olympic team, which is ‘Team GB’, but doesn’t exclude NI.
We’ve just got a very silly name - and nobody beyond pedants on internet forums would ever make this point Importantly I’m not attempting to diminish NI’s claim to British citizenship - they’re as British as the rest of us (should they choose to identify as such…), just the labelling that’s odd.
Born in England, moved to Scotland when I was 8, still here. English mother, Scottish father.
I support the England football team but the Scottish rugby team… I’m a freak.
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I was going to add, not that many would want to! Still, it’s valid for the Unionists in NI who identify as British.
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That’s funny! I presume you don’t go the local to watch the England football team playing .
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Official government forms and documents use the term British and Irish when you have to enter nationality here. I thought this was the same in the rest of the UK? You very rarely here the term United Kingdom here, its always British and Great Britain. I guess it seems more grand to use and less welcoming as the United Kingdom. Even the words great and united have differing feels to the images they create.
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Au contraire, people who write programs often have to be very concerned about the distinctions.
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Yea totally, I’m not even sure what the right term would be to encapsulate everyone in the UK other than ‘British’, through lack of there being an alternative - it just creates a slightly odd inconsistency in the naming convention.
It’s a mess we got ourselves into.
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It’s ironic that ultimately the French are responsible for many British people presuming they’re great 
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Interestingly the status of being a citizen of the state “United Kingdom” is officially termed “British Citizen” on passports etc. (Maybe that’s what you meant I’m not sure).
EDIT: I just looked up the relevant Wikipedia page and wish I hadn’t… rabbit hole.
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Yea exactly that, it’s like a brain twister:
I guess a good equivelant might be if Canada and USA were to form an alliance and call themselves ‘The Aligned Nations of Canada and The United States of America’ but then calling it American citizenship and everyone referring to themselves as American.
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The problem I have with flag wavers (here on the mainland) is the question of who are they waving the flag at? It’s always made me feel uneasy, being old enough to remember the bad old days. I get there’s a very different dynamic in NI where flags/murals etc are a deep part of community life.
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If I may ask, why does it make you feel uneasy? Because of the whole empire thing?