Sir, – Declan O’Donovan insists that “Northern Ireland is not a country” (Letters, August 15th) and seems to prefer the term “region” as a descriptor for the North. But surely Northern Ireland is what remains today within the UK of the kingdom of Ireland that, with Great Britain, formed the United Kingdom from 1801 until the 1920s, ie, a “rump kingdom”? The official name, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, implies as much. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN McCAFFERTY,
Tertnes,
Norway.