Our land border
A group of friends were having a natter the other day when I heard someone say “we don’t have that problem because our country doesn’t have a land boundary”.
My ears pricked up “But we do”.
“No we don’t” everyone else chorused. 
“What about our border with Ireland” I replied.
“That’s a sea crossing” they all responded. Following an explanation of the difference between Ireland the country and Ireland the island they conceded that we did, if fact, have a land boundary with another country. “And is much longer than you think – four times a long as the Danish border with Germany and Danes don’t think their country’s an island even if their capital, like ours, is on an island”.
“But hardly anyone crosses our land border” someone said.
“The people near it do” I said.
“But do you know anyone who has crossed?”
“I have, for a start – but that’s not the point”
The fact that so many people “disappear” part of the country is a little odd. Most road atlases in this country do not include the whole country – even including the ETA’s own atlas – they miss out Northern Ireland (I tried, but the publisher wouldn’t countenance include Northern Ireland without being given a shedload more cash). You might say that few people travel to Northern Ireland from the mainland by car so what’s the point. Okay but many road atlases include the Channel Islands which are not part of Britain and never have been. Very few people travel to Jersey by car. So what’s going on?
Yet, in France a road atlas will include Corsica; a Spanish road atlas will include the Balearics (even the Canaries); an Italian road atlas – Sicily and Sardinia; a Greek road atlas includes Crete and even Danish road atlases include Bornholm – an Danish island around 100km to the west of Copenhagen tucked around the corner of Sweden.
Indeed, our road atlases include Shetland which is far further away from the mainland than Northern Ireland.
Someone must know the answer to this conundrum.
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Comments
Northern Ireland
I have no idea why the maps are missing it out, perhaps it's because they like me consider Ireland the island to be a contiguous whole, and occupied Ulster an anachronism which history will eventually remove. The Irish didn't ask the British to invade their country, and when they got independence from the British state - which had treated them appallingly since medieval times and especially by Cromwell and later despots - they should have got the whole of their country back, not held on to a bit because they'd stuffed it with Protestant Scots mercenaries, shipped over by a foreign monarch William of Orange, a Dutchman, to subjugate the Irish. Their descendants are the Orangemen who still have a racist attitude towards the real Irish and who are the real problem.
So the conundrum is why these non-Irish didn't go back to Scotland when their killing skills were no longer needed. A hangover from the British Empire that should be sorted out, but no politicians have the courage or inclination to do it.
Missing Ireland
Maybe because Northern Ireland isn't part of Great Britain, although it is in the United Kingdom. In full, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Shetland Islands are in Great Britain.
Trinidad and Tobago
Could be but I wonder whether people in Trinidad and Tobago miss the other island out in their road atlases of their country. Do road atlases of Malaysia - if they have any - include Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak?
It's odd isn't it? Britain, the short form of our country, is longer than a name for part of our country - Great Britain, which itself has the word "Great" to distinguish it from "Petit Bretange" or little Britain. Few people call Brittany "little Britain" any more.
Geographical or political?
I don't think Shetland is part of Great Britain, I always understood that to be the name for the largest of the British Isles, which I think includes Ireland, as it is a geographical term, not a political one. I'm not a geographer mind, so this could be all wrong... I figured this out when living in Belfast, but have also had the discussion living in Wales with locals who deny their Britishness, which if this is correct they cannot actually choose.
Although people on GB do tend to have a very selective memory when it comes to Ireland, I suspect the road atlas thing to be more prosaic. Most people don't take their cars to Ireland, and if they do they can buy an Irish atlas, which will always include the North. My road atlas does actually have a page of Ireland (the island), albeit at a smaller scale.
Tell your friends that people cross our land border all the time, there's even an intercity train running across it, so it's not just those living close by!