[WikiEN-l] [Foundation-l] Trouble in Ireland

[Andrew Gray]

2008/11/26 Michael Everson <everson at evertype.com>:
> I don't know whether this is a reasonable place to put this problem,
> but the articles on Ireland on en.wikipedia.org need a serious look by
> people with a neutral view.

wikien-l might be a better location; I've sent this reply there.

> Right now we've got a clique of about 10
> editors filibustering and preventing any change to the article naming
> conventions. It's driving us mad, and preventing the articles
> themselves from being improved. Somehow I think we need binding
> arbitration.

Having had a look at these debates once or twice before (and a similar
set involving the term "British Isles"), yeah, they're big and messy
and affect a lot of articles. A resolution would be good for everyone.

> A number of us think that the most sensible proposal is to move
> [[Ireland]] to [[Ireland (island)]], [[Ireland (disambiguation)]] to
> [[Ireland]], and [[Republic of Ireland]] to [[Ireland (state)]].
> That's a compromise over an alternative, which is to move [[Ireland]]
> to [[Ireland (island)]], keep [[Ireland (disambiguation)]] where it
> is, and move [[Republic of Ireland]] to [[Ireland]]. If any of you
> would like to take a look, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ireland_(disambiguation)#Proposed_move_to_Ireland
>  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ireland#Proposed_move_to_Ireland_.28island.29

A quick summary of the background, for those who (like me) have to
keep reminding themselves of the nuances:

"Ireland" is a big lump of land northwest of France. It contains two
political entities, "Ireland" (that's the formal name), an independent
nation state sometimes known as "Eire" or (mostly in the UK) "the
Republic of Ireland", and "Northern Ireland", which is a part of the
UK. Prior to the 1920s, both were one and the same political entity,
which occupied all of the geographical island; this historical period
is described under [[Kingdom of Ireland]], etc.

Currently:

[[Ireland (disambiguation)]] - disambiguation page.
[[Ireland]] - geographical entity, primary title
[[Republic of Ireland]] - political entity

Proposal #1 above:

[[Ireland]] - disambiguation page, primary title
[[Ireland (island)]] - geographical entity
[[Ireland (state)]] - political entity

Proposal #2 above:

[[Ireland (disambiguation)]] - disambiguation page.
[[Ireland (island)]] - geographical entity
[[Ireland]] - political entity, primary title

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk