Éire

The latter is distinct from Northern Ireland (Tuaisceart Éireann in the Irish language), which covers the remainder of the northeast of the island.

Ériu has been derived from reconstructed Archaic Irish *Īweriū,[1][2] and further from the Proto-Celtic *Φīwerjon- (nominative singular Φīwerjū).

During his exploration of northwest Europe (circa 320 BC), Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne (written Ἰέρνη).

The Pseudo-Aristotelian text On the Universe (393b) has: Ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγισται τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη.

The evolution of the word would follow as such: An Old Irish by-form of this placename was íriu, meaning "land, earth".

Later, he is the first to step ashore and praises the island's abundance, saying to the Tuatha Dé Danann: "You dwell in a good land.

[1] A 19th-century proposal, which does not follow modern standards of etymology, derives the name from Scottish Gaelic: ì (island) + thiar (west) + fónn (land), which together give ì-iar-fhónn, or "westland isle".

Erin derives from Éirinn, the Irish dative case of Éire, which has replaced the nominative case in Déise Irish and some non-standard sub-dialects elsewhere, in Scottish Gaelic (where the usual word for Ireland is Èirinn) and Manx (like Irish and Scottish Gaelic, a Goidelic Celtic language), where the word is spelled "Nerin," with the initial n- probably representing a fossilisation of the preposition in/an "in" (cf.

[8] The UK Government generally avoided all reference to "Ireland" in connection with the state and used what Senator Thomas O'Connell described as "sneering titles such as Eirish".

Bernard Commons, a Clann na Talmhan TD, suggested to the Dáil in 1950 that the Government examine "the tourist identification plate bearing the letters EIR ... with a view to the adoption of identification letters more readily associated with this country by foreigners".

[20] The 1938 Act was repealed in 1981, and in 1996 a British journalist described Eire as "now an oddity rarely used, an out-of-date reference".

The reply from the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs was:[22] The accent has been omitted on most Irish stamps issued over the past ten years in the interests of artistic balance and in accordance with a common practice in the printing of Irish in Roman script for display purposes.

Éire has been incorporated into the names of Irish commercial and social entities, such as Eir (formerly Eircom and Telecom Éireann) and its former mobile phone network, Eircell.

The company "BetEire Flow" (eFlow), named as a pun on "better", is a French consortium running the electronic tolling system at the West-Link bridge west of Dublin.