Is he really 'British'?

garrynolan
garrynolan Posts: 560
edited July 2011 in The bottom bracket
I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...
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  • MattC59
    MattC59 Posts: 5,408
    However, there is no separate Manx citizenship. Citizenship is covered by UK law, and Manx people are classed as British citizens.
    Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed.
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved
  • Mendip rouleur
    Mendip rouleur Posts: 163
    I don't care what it says on his passport, he's a great cyclist, a winner and I love his attitude. Personal opinion, we are all entitled to one, I'd feel the same wherever he came from.
    “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle.”

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  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    If we can claim the Falklands as British the IOM is easy peasy.

    Course he's British, especially now, my word he's almost as British as the royal family. Hold on a minute................................. :lol:
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • Celeriac
    Celeriac Posts: 5
    He's British. The Isle of Man may not be part of the United Kingdom but he's still a British citizen.
    The Channel Isles are not in the UK or even the EU but residents are still Brits.
    Celeriac
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,444
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    Coming from NI you should know that the Isle of Man is the bit of Northern Ireland which the giant Finn Macool (of the Giant's Causeway) threw at his rival giant in Scotland. The hole which he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

    Therefore Mark Cavendish is from Norn Iron.

    I'll stay away from his British/ Irishness

    Though we all know he's Irish....
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • Pseudonym
    Pseudonym Posts: 1,032
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man
  • pauldavid
    pauldavid Posts: 392
    TailWindHome wrote:
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    Coming from NI you should know that the Isle of Man is the bit of Northern Ireland which the giant Finn Macool (of the Giant's Causeway) threw at his rival giant in Scotland. The hole which he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

    Therefore Mark Cavendish is from Norn Iron.

    I'll stay away from his British/ Irishness

    Though we all know he's Irish....

    Did Scotland stretch a lot further south when these 2 giants were throwing mud at each other or was the scottish one visiting his uncle in Liverpool at the time?? Or he might just have been a shit shot!!!

    Cav is A STRAIGHT TALKING BRIT we should be proud of simple as that, although obviously should he start to lose with any regularity or not perform as we all expect next year at both tour and olympics he will become a LOUD MOUTHED MANX TWAT :D
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    TailWindHome wrote:
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    Coming from NI you should know that the Isle of Man is the bit of Northern Ireland which the giant Finn Macool (of the Giant's Causeway) threw at his rival giant in Scotland. The hole which he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

    Therefore Mark Cavendish is from Norn Iron.

    I'll stay away from his British/ Irishness

    Though we all know he's Irish....

    Rathlin Island and not Isle of Man surely?
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Cavendish seems comfortable with both Man and British identities.

    If he was prickly about the issue, you'd think he would have said something by now.
    _
  • DF33
    DF33 Posts: 732
    No different to the republic of Yorkshire is it?
    Peter
  • One Man And His Bike
    One Man And His Bike Posts: 661
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Cavendish seems comfortable with both Man and British identities.

    If he was prickly about the issue, you'd think he would have said something by now.

    "I don't give a sh1t" would be his answer me thinks. :lol:

    Making Gary Imlach apologise on his behalf right after when they cut back to the studio.
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  • fnb1
    fnb1 Posts: 591
    Man is actually clsoer to Scotland than it is to either England or Ireland and was ceded to the British Crown from Norway under the Treaty of Perth so he may well have to be claimed as Scottish :D

    Officially I think Man is a Crown Dependency, not part of the UK but part of Great Britain?
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  • Yossie
    Yossie Posts: 2,600
    Celeriac wrote:
    He's British. The Isle of Man may not be part of the United Kingdom but he's still a British citizen.
    The Channel Isles are not in the UK or even the EU but residents are still Brits.
    Celeriac

    Oooh - contentious but I'm too tired to get into arguments about Bailiwicks, Crown Dependancies, the status and position of the Lt Governor, the effect of the Royal Courts of the independant islands a propros the regularities and interjurisdictional jurisprudence of the Courts of England and Wales, etc etc. Long night looking at how to blow things up last night.

    Remember that CI "British" passport holders do not have any EU rights of residence or work and if you ask around you'll find that most of them say that they are from Jersey/Guernsey/etc/etc rather than British.

    They also do not benefit at all from UK taxes, Govt spending health care and all that jazz. Students are also treated as foreign students when they go to British Universities.

    They also have their own government, currency, language laws, etc etc. The British thing is all a bit tenuos at the most and due to historical issues.

    Feelings run high in those parts my love, eh, ah ba croi you, ah hell you're from Grouville: that's the wrong side of the tunnel, eh ..... I'm off for a pint at the Farmers.

    But I do agree 100% with the English media suddenly adopting someone succesful as British then as they fail/go off the boil revert to calling them Scottish/Manx/etc etc. The individual nations tend to claim and keep their own.
  • deptfordmarmoset
    deptfordmarmoset Posts: 3,118
    Am I right in thinking that Cavendish's mitochondria comes from Yorkshire?
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  • garnett
    garnett Posts: 196
    garrynolan wrote:
    it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak.
    Similarly amazing that this is only ever stated and observed by Irish (or Scottish etc). :wink:
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    Remember that cartoon about Ben Johnson :
    Canadian athlete wins Olympic Gold!!!!
    Jamaican-Canadian athlete suspected of drugs cheat scandal !!!
    Jamaican athlete stripped of Olympic gold for drug cheat scandal !!!
  • skylla
    skylla Posts: 758
    deptfordmarmoset wrote:
    Am I right in thinking that Cavendish's mitochondria comes from Yorkshire?

    No, his mitochondria come from eve, which I think is not a yorkshire name [/geekalert]
  • deptfordmarmoset
    deptfordmarmoset Posts: 3,118
    skylla wrote:
    deptfordmarmoset wrote:
    Am I right in thinking that Cavendish's mitochondria comes from Yorkshire?

    No, his mitochondria come from eve, which I think is not a yorkshire name [/geekalert]

    Hah! Explain the Yorkshire Eve Post then...
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  • beverick
    beverick Posts: 3,461
    The Isle of Man is one of the 1,000 or so Islands making up the British Isles - he can therefore, irrespective of political or economic definitions, claim to be, or be classed as being British.

    Bob
  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    But only one of the islands is Great Britain...
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  • t.m.h.n.e.t
    t.m.h.n.e.t Posts: 2,265
    nwallace wrote:
    But only one of the islands is Great Britain...
    It's an ironic name ( I blame wiggle for that)
  • Sirius631
    Sirius631 Posts: 991
    nwallace wrote:
    But only one of the islands is Great Britain...

    If the land mass that contains England, Wales and Scotland is Great Britain, does that make Britany 'Little Britain' ?
    To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.
  • DIESELDOG
    DIESELDOG Posts: 2,087
    T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:
    nwallace wrote:
    But only one of the islands is Great Britain...
    It's an ironic name ( I blame wiggle for that)

    So's United Kingdom...

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    DD
    Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

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  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    Sirius631 wrote:
    nwallace wrote:
    But only one of the islands is Great Britain...

    If the land mass that contains England, Wales and Scotland is Great Britain, does that make Britany 'Little Britain' ?

    Apparently, Yes!
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  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,444
    daviesee wrote:
    TailWindHome wrote:
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    Coming from NI you should know that the Isle of Man is the bit of Northern Ireland which the giant Finn Macool (of the Giant's Causeway) threw at his rival giant in Scotland. The hole which he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

    Therefore Mark Cavendish is from Norn Iron.

    I'll stay away from his British/ Irishness

    Though we all know he's Irish....

    Rathlin Island and not Isle of Man surely?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fionn_mac_Cumhaill

    FACT!
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    Garnett wrote:
    garrynolan wrote:
    it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak.
    Similarly amazing that this is only ever stated and observed by Irish (or Scottish etc). :wink:

    Agreed. I've never seen anyone give an example of the correlation between success and how their nationality is reported. Nationality seems to be fairly interchangeable. Sometimes Andy Murray is British, sometimes he's a Scot. Seems to me to depend on the mood of the reporter at the time.

    Also don't forget that the reporters of the many media outlets in this country are all individuals and not all part of some conspiracy against the 'opressed nations'. They're probably just as likely to be Welsh, Irish or Scottish as they are English.

    Maybe the problem lies with people only picking articles apart when their local hero is losing and being hypersensitive to the 'problem' at that time.

    I imagine Mark Cavendish has little time for such bullsht given that he spends a lot of time abroad where such issues will probably seem like trivialities. :roll:
  • Escadrille Ecosse
    Escadrille Ecosse Posts: 164
    Heavymental
    Also don't forget that the reporters of the many media outlets in this country are all individuals and not all part of some conspiracy against the 'opressed nations'. They're probably just as likely to be Welsh, Irish or Scottish as they are English.

    Part of the problem may be the confusion that many people in this country and around the world have with England/Britain. A bit like Netherlands/Holland or if you want to p*ss off most Germans, call them a Prussian.

    As for the 'oppressed nations' bit; as a chap who originally hailed from the Indian sub-continent once pointed out, it is hard to see the Scots as an oppressed nation from anywhere except inside Scotland given their past and current form (politicians, landowners, businessmen and soldiers).

    As someone else once said, nationalists are a group of people who share an imaginary history and a hatred of foreigners.

    Cav seems to have his head screwed on fairly straight and can therefore ignore most of this cr*p.
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  • redjeepǃ
    redjeepǃ Posts: 531
    edited July 2011
    garrynolan wrote:
    I'm talking about Cav. Coming from NI it's amazing how some sportspeople are considered British when they're winning but Irish (or Scottish etc) when they're on a bad streak. Cav is from the Isle of Man which isn't even part of the UK so how can he be British? I'm sure someone can explain...

    Funny how there never seems to be any proof behind this.

    Last time Murray got knocked out of a tournament I counted the references to him being British and Scottish from articles in the national press for the few days before and the few days after he lost and there was no obvious trend. (Yes I do know I should get out more :oops: ).

    If anything he was typically refered to as being Scottish before and after, but there were references to him being the best ranking British tennis player.

    If you really want to see evidence of racial bias, try reading a Scottish newspaper like the Daily Record. Funny how Millar is always refered to as Scottish and Wiggins as British...
  • ellieb
    ellieb Posts: 436
    added to which.. I don't remember him representing the IOM at the olympics
  • DIESELDOG
    DIESELDOG Posts: 2,087
    ellieb wrote:
    added to which.. I don't remember him representing the IOM at the olympics

    Don't think they had a "Throw A Cat" event

    Love n hugs

    DD
    Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

    www.onemanandhisbike.co.uk

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