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The Britain and Ireland Template:Lang-ga refers to two islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe comprising Great Britain, Ireland.

.

States

There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Ireland.

The group also includes the crown dependencies Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

The islands extend from Pednathise Head, Isles of Scilly in the south (or Les Minquiers Reef, Jersey if the Channel Islands are included), to Out Stack, Shetland in the north; and from Tearaght Island, Ireland in the west, to Lowestoft Ness, England in the east. There are more than 6,000 islands, amounting to a total land area of 121,674 square miles (315,134 km²). The islands of Britain and Ireland are largely low lying and fertile, although there are mountainous areas everywhere except in southern England. The regional geology is complex, formed by the drifting together of separate tectonic plates and subsequent orogenic, glacial and weather erosion.

References

1. 
   Collier's Encyclopedia, 1997 Edition
   Don Aitken, "What is the UK? Is it the same as Britain, Great Britain or England?", February 2002
   

   Usage is not consistent as to whether the Channel Islands are included - geographically they should not be, politically they should.

2. An Irishman's Diary Myers, Kevin; The Irish Times (subscription needed) 09/03/2000, Accessed July 2006 'millions of people from these islands - oh how angry we get when people call them the British Isles'
3. The Times 'New atlas lets Ireland slip shackles of Britain'
4. "Written Answers - Official Terms", Dáil Éireann - Volume 606 - 28 September, 2005.
5. The diplomatic and constitutional name of the Irish state is simply Ireland. For disambiguation purposes "Republic of Ireland" is often used though technically that is not the name of the state but, according to the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, its "description". Article 4, Bunreacht na hÉireann. Section 2, Republic of Ireland Act, 1948.

Further reading

• A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3500 B.C. - 1603 A.D. by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 978-0786866755
• The Isles, A History by Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0195134421

See also

• Botanical Society of the British Isles
• Great Britain and Ireland
• List of the British Isles by area
• List of the British Isles by population
• Extreme points of the British Isles
• Terminology of the British Isles
• British Isles naming dispute