Islands of the North Atlantic

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 Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey), Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), and the Isle of Man, similar to the present day British–Irish Council. Its intended purpose was as a more politically acceptable alternative to the British Isles, which is disliked by some people in Ireland.

The neologism has been criticised on the grounds that it excludes most of the islands in the North Atlantic, and also that the only island referred to by the term that is actually in the North Atlantic Ocean is Ireland (Great Britain is in fact in between the Irish Sea and The North Sea). In the context of the Northern Irish peace process, during the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement, IONA was unsuccessfully proposed 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:

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

The term IONA is used by the World Universities Debating Championship. IONA is one of the regions that appoint a representative onto the committee of the World Universities Debating Council. Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland are included in the definition of IONA used in this context, while Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island are in the North American region. However, none of these islands have yet participated in the World Universities Debating Championships. Otherwise, the term has achieved very little popular usage in any context.