Skip to main content

Is Ireland independent in Harry Potter?


The HP Wikia page for the British Ministry of Magic claims that:



The same Ministry also appears to govern the wizarding population in Ireland.



But it fails to give any source for this claim, which I find quite dubious as there is no authority in the real (Muggle) UK that also governs Ireland.


Is there any canon source for the claim that Ireland is not an independent country in the Potterverse?


Any level of canon (books, Pottermore, or even films) is acceptable, but not Wikia or other unreliable sources.




Answer



It seems like Ireland is separate from Britain, but still governed by the Ministry of Magic.


There are very few references to Ireland or the Irish in the books – I counted maybe a dozen, if you exclude the Irish team in the Quidditch World Cup in Goblet of Fire. It’s very hard to draw any solid inferences about the state of magical politics in the British Isles.


What references there are play fast and loose with mentions of “Britain” and “Ireland”. It’s not always clear which entity is being referred to.


Clearly we need some prequels which spend all their time explaining the politics. I’m sure such a work would be universally beloved.


This stuff is sufficiently complicated in Muggle politics that I won’t try to come up with a unified theory of British politics, but here are some facts that can be inferred from canon:




  • There seems to be a distinction between “Britain” and “Ireland”.




    • In Goblet of Fire, Hermione gives Harry a book Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland.

    • In Philosopher’s Stone, Hagrid has a book Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland.

    • Quidditch through the Ages has a chapter “Teams of Britain and Ireland”.

    • There’s Ministry department called “the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters”.


    If Ireland was part of “Britain”, it would be strange to list it separately. This is probably “Great Britain”, but that would let Northern Ireland slip through the gap.




  • “Northern Ireland” and “Ireland” are distinct entities.


    Quidditch through the Ages tells us about the thirteen teams in the British and Irish league. Here’s a description of two of the teams:




    Ballycastle Bats. Northern Ireland's most celebrated Quidditch team.


    Kenmore Kestrels. This Irish side was founded in 1291.



    Northern Ireland only split from Ireland in 1921, well after magical society broke away from the Muggles. This suggests that at least some events in Muggle politics have carried over to magical society.




  • Hogwarts covers both the UK and Ireland.


    Quoting from JK Rowling in an interview with Telegraph Magazine:




    A month before your's child's 11th birthday, if you are a resident of the UK or Ireland, you will receive a letter delivered by owl telling you your child is due at Hogwarts.



    We know at least one Irish student at Hogwarts – Seamus Finnigan – although I don’t think we know whether he actually lives in Ireland.


    Since the Ministry has some control over Hogwarts, this might suggest their role includes some of Ireland. And indeed…




  • The Ministry has some jurisdiction over Ireland.


    The Department for Magical Games and Sports, part of the London Ministry, seems to preside over the entire British and Irish Quidditch League. This included asking some professional teams to disband when the League was established – something they could only do if they had at least some authority.


    We don’t get more detailed descriptions than that, or another specific incident involving the Ministry asserting authority over Irish affairs.


    There are discussions in the HP Wikia talk pages for Ministry of Magic and Minister for Magic about the exact jurisdiction of the Ministry – but nobody there has a definitive answer. The sentence quoted in the original question seems to be entirely hypothetical.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more