- "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 collective term used to refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which together form the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom and Ireland have a shared sporting tradition in rugby union, and the term "home nations" has extended to the Ireland rugby team as the team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Technically however, the Republic of Ireland (commonly known as 'Ireland') is not a 'home nation', as it is not a country that is part of the United Kingdom, but is a separate country and state. The Republic of Ireland extends its citizenship to the Northern Irish, who can choose to have British citizenship, Irish, or both.
Occasionally the term Home Countries is used.
Sporting events
'Home Nations' is often used in reference to sporting events in which each competes separately, such as rugby union's Six Nations Championship and the now defunct British Home Championship in association football.Between 1883 and 1909, what is now the Six Nations was played between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and was known as the Home International Championship; it reverted to that name when, from 1932 to 1939, France was excluded from the tournament even though, by then, Ireland had been partitioned into Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the independent Irish Free State (Republic of Ireland from 1949). The term continues to be used in rugby union and rugby league even though the Ireland national rugby union team and Ireland national rugby league team draw players from both the Republic and Northern Ireland. The term "Home Union" is used to refer to the four national governing bodies.
In association football, the British Home Championship (also known as the Home International Championship) was an annual competition contested between the UK's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (later, Northern Ireland), between 1884-1914, 1919-1939, and 1946-1984.
Other sports which use the term "Home Nations" include boxing, cricket, curling, cycling, disabled sports, fencing, hockey, golf, mountaineering, rowing, skiing, swimming and tennis.
The term is also used to refer to the seven representative teams — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey — from the British Islands that participate in the Commonwealth Games.
See also
- Symbols of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
- British Isles (terminology)
- Constitutional status of Cornwall
- Home rule
- Home Counties - counties in or surrounding London
- Home Islands - the central Japanese islands
- Constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina
References
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Last updated on Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 12:47:55 PDT (GMT -0700)
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