Home Nations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Home nation" (common noun) redirects here; home nation is also used to refer to the host country of multi-sport events (eg. the Olympics), or other international sports championships.

Home Nations (often written as the common noun home nations) is a term used to refer to the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — collectively but as separate entities, distinct from the United Kingdom as a state^{[citation needed]}.

The term is also used to refer to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (i.e. the whole island: both the republic and the north) together. However, Ireland is generally only included when referring to sporting events, mainly rugby union but sometimes other sports. Its usage is rare (especially outside the UK) and somewhat controversial in some quarters^{[citation needed]}, although it is more common in sporting contexts.

Occasionally the term Home Countries is used.^[1]

[edit] Sporting events

The term is often used when referring to sporting events in which each Home Nation competes separately, such as the now defunct British Home Championship in football. When the term came into use is not known, but it is fair to assume that before the partition of Ireland into the still-British Northern Ireland and the independent Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) in 1922, that all of Ireland was considered to be a Home Nation (as all of it was part of the UK). This traditional usage is still seen today in the context of sports such as rugby union; the Ireland national rugby union team represents both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is still common in Britain and elsewhere, for the team to be referred to as a Home Nation team. Examples of such usage can also be found in the media in the Republic of Ireland [1] and on the official site of the Irish Rugby Football Union^{[citation needed]}. The term 'Home Union' is used to refer to the governing bodies of the four teams.

For example, within the Six Nations Championship in rugby union, the Home Nation teams play for the honour of winning the Triple Crown, send players to the British and Irish Lions and take part in hosting Grand Slam tours.

Other sports which use the term 'Home Nations' include boxing, cricket^[2], curling^[3], cycling^[1], disabled sports^[3], fencing, hockey, golf, mountaineering, rowing, rugby league, skiing, swimming and tennis.

The term is also used to refer to the 7 teams from the British Islands at the Commonwealth Games.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "historic rivalries between the home nations and the Commonwealth were once again centre stage with the Home Countries having great success", British Cycling, March 2006
2. ^ "Home nations fans 'back England'", BBC Sport website, 30 March 2006
3. ^ ^{a b} "Scotland have been nominated as the home nation to score points towards a place for Great Britain", BBC Sport website, 16 January 2005

[edit] See also

• British Isles (terminology)
• Home rule
• Home Counties - counties in or surrounding London
• Home Islands - the central Japanese islands
• Constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina