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IONA (Islands of the North Atlantic) is an acronym suggested in 1980 by Sir John Biggs-Davison to refer to a loose linkage of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, similar to the present day British-Irish Council.^[1][2] It is intended as alternative to British Isles, which is widely used, but is disliked by some people, mainly in Ireland.

It has been criticized on the grounds that it in fact excludes most of the islands in the North Atlantic, including Iceland, Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and the Azores. It has been used particularly in the context of the Northern Irish "peace process", during the negotiation of the Belfast Agreement, as a neutral name for the proposed council.

One feature of this name is that IONA has the same spelling as the island of Iona which is off the coast of Scotland but with which Irish people have strong cultural associations. It is therefore a name with which people of both main islands might identify. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern noted the symbolism in a 2006 address in Edinburgh:

[The Island of] Iona is a powerful symbol of relationships between these islands, with its ethos of service not dominion. Iona also radiated out towards the Europe of the Dark Ages, not to mention Pagan England at Lindisfarne. The British-Irish Council is the expression of a relationship that at the origin of the Anglo-Irish process in 1981 was sometimes given the name Iona, islands of the North Atlantic, and sometimes Council of the Isles, with its evocation of the Lords of the Isles of the 14th and 15th centuries who spanned the North Channel. In the 17th century, Highland warriors and persecuted Presbyterian Ministers criss-crossed the North Channel.^[3]

In a Dáil Éireann debate, Proinsias De Rossa was less enthusiastic:

The acronym IONA is a useful way of addressing the coming together of these two islands. However, the island of Iona is probably a green heaven in that nobody lives on it and therefore it cannot be polluted in any way.^[4]

The term IONA has achieved almost no popular usage in Great Britain.

1. ^ Coulter, John. "Revolutionary Unionism", Open Republic Magazine, Open Republic Institute, Summer, 2005. Retrieved on July 28, 2006.
2. ^ Aughey, Arthur (2005). The Politics of Northern Ireland: Beyond the Belfast Agreement. New York: Routledge, p. 91. 
3. ^ Ahern, Bertie (1998-10-29). Address at 'The Lothian European Lecture' - Edinburgh. Department of the Taoiseach, Taoiseach's Speeches Archive 1998. Retrieved on July 28, 2006.
4. ^ http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0484/D.0484.199712090003.html Dáil Debates. Vol 484. Col.466. 9 December 1997.

• British Isles (terminology)

• The Good Friday Agreement
• British-Irish Council
• Project IONA