The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It has a complex history and uses several names to refer to different geographical and political entities. The Union Flag represents the political union between the countries. There are also national flags and anthems for each country, and the national anthem for the UK is "God Save the Queen". The flag and anthem traditions illustrate the layered identities within the UK.

2. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland is a country made up of
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It is a member of the Commonwealth and the
European Union and its capital is London. The
name United Kingdom is found mainly in
formal and official use.
Great Britain is a geographical are
consisting of the large island which is divided
into England, Wales and Scotland. It is often
called Britain.

3. The name Great Britain was first used in a
political sense after the Act of Union of Scotland
with England and Wales in 1707.
The British Isles describes the geographical
area of Great Britain, all of Ireland, and all the
many smaller offshore islands, including the
Orkney Islands and the Scilly Isles. It has a total
area of 121544 square miles / 314798 square
kilometers.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, called for short the United
Kingdom or the UK, refers to the political state
that includes the countries of England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland.

4. It does not include the Isle of Man or the
Channel Islands, which are Crown dependencies.
The United kingdom was formed in 1801 when
the Irish parliament was joined with the
parliament for England, Wales and Scotland in
London, and the whole of the British Isles became
a single state. However, in 1922 the south of
Ireland became the Irish Free State and, in 1949, a
completely independent republic.
The names Great Britain and United Kingdom
are now often used informally to mean the same
thing. There are older names for parts of the
United Kingdom, but these are found mostly in
literature.

5. Britannia is the name the Romans gave to
their province which covered most of England.
Albion was the original Roman name for
England, Caledonia their name for Scotland,
Cambria for Wales and Hibernia for Ireland.
The people of the United Kingdom are
British and have British nationality. As a group
they are usually referred to as the British, rather
than as Britons, though this name is used in the
media. Ancient Britons were the people who
lived in Britain before the Romans came. Only
people who come from England can be called
English.

6. People from Ireland are Irish, people from
Wales Welsh, and people from Scotland Scots
or Scottish, and they do not like being called
English.
The term the Brits is only used informally,
often humorously. Many people from Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland have stronger
feelings of loyalty towards their own country
than they do to the United Kingdom.
British people who have come originally
from Asia, Africa or the West Indies may also
feel two sets of loyalties.

7. The Celts
The Celts came to Britain around 500 BC.
Although Stonehenge is often associated with
the Celts it had been built many centuries
earlier. The Celts came originally from central
Europe and settled in Britain, France and
Spain.
The Celts were described by Roman and
Greek writers as a fierce and warlike people.

8. They were originally ruled by kings, but by
the time Julius Caesar came to Britain, around
55 BC, they had broken up into many tribes,
each with a different leader.
It was possible for women as well as men
to hold positions of power, and one of them
was Queen Boudicca.
Druids were a powerful group within
Celtic society, combining the functions of
priest, doctor, and perhaps also lawmaker.

9. Celtic culture
The Celts were farmers and introduced the
iron plough to Britain.
They fought using chariots and, when in
battle, painted their bodies with a blue dye
called woad.
Although the Celts did not have a written
form of their language until after the arrival of
the Romans, they had a strong oral tradition of
storytelling performed by bards.

10. The Celts are described as wearing
brightly-coloured clothes and the men usually
had long moustaches rather than a beard.
Some sources claim that they were very
fond of drinking alcohol. In pre-Roman times,
the Celts were known to carry out human
sacrifice and to cut off and display the heads of
their enemies.
A possible example of human sacrifice is
the preserved body of Lindow man.

11. The Anglo-Saxon invasion and Celtic
Christianity
After the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in
the fifth century AD, the Celts were pushed
into the western and northern parts of the
British Isles, particularly into Cornwall, Wales,
the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Ireland.
During the next 600 years, a rich Celtic
Christian culture developed, centred mainly
around monasteries in Scotland and Ireland.

12. One of the most famous of these was the
monastery on the island of Iona in Scotland,
which was founded by the Irish St Columba in
563 AD. Monks copied texts from the Bible
and decorated their work with beautiful
patterns and pictures.
The best example of these illuminated
manuscripts is the Book of Kells.

13. Celtic design
One of the most lasting influences of the
Celts is in art and design. Today people buy
‘Celtic’ jewellery, and Celtic designs were used
in the Arts and Crafts Movement at the end
of the 19th century.
Celtic designs are very elaborate, with lines
crossing and combining like the branches of a
tree or vine.

14. Beautiful brooches, pins, and shields have
been found as well as a large number of torcs
(= a thin bar or twisted metal worn around the
neck).
One of the most distinctive Celtic designs,
from the Christian period, is the Celtic cross
which is still used for graves and memorials.
It has a circle added to the four bars of the
cross and is often elaborately carved.

15. Celtic languages
Celtic languages are divided into two
categories, Q-Celtic, which includes Irish,
Scottish Gaelic and Manx, and P-Celtic
including Welsh, Cornish, and Breton (= the
languages are official languages as well as
English, they are no longer spoken by most
people.
Welsh is spoken by about 20% of the
population of Wales.)

16. Modern Celts
Celtic culture is very much alive,
particularly Celtic music using traditional
instruments such as the bagpipes.
‘Celtic’ is often used to describe the people
and culture of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and
Cornwall, even in the parts where Celtic
languages are not spoken.

17. National anthems
Britain’s official national anthem is God
save the Queen. It is not known who wrote the
words, but it seems that the song, said to be the
oldest national anthem in the world, was
written many years before it was chosen as an
official national song in the 18th century.
It was first performed in public in 1745,
during the Jacobite Rebellion, to a musical
arrangement by Thomas Arne (1710-1778).

18. The first verse is played or sung on formal
occasions, especially if the Queen or another
member of the royal family is present:
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen.
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.
Everybody stands while it is being played,
as a mark of respect.

19. Many British people think God save the
Queen is too slow and solemn, and would
prefer a more lively national song such as
Land of Hope and Glory or
Rule, Britannia!
Both express pride in Britain’s
achievements but were perhaps more
appropriate in the days when Britain had an
empire.

20. Wales has its own national anthem, Hen
Wlad fy Nhadau (Land of My fathers).
It celebrates the survival of Welsh
traditions, language and scenery and is often
sung at concerts and at major sports events in
which Wales is taking part.
Scotland does not have an official national
anthem, though Scotland the Brave is often
sung at public gatherings.
The Flower of Scotland is played and sung
as an anthem before international Rugby games
in which the Scottish team is playing.

21. Flag of the United Kingdom
The history, current status and nomenclature of the
Union Flag, and its use other than as a flag for the United
Kingdom, are treated more fully under the article Union
Jack.
Name: “Union Jack” or Union Flag
Use: Civil and state flag
Adopted: 1 January 1801
Design: A white-fimbriated
symmetric red cross on a blue field
with a white-fimbriated
counterchanged saltire of red and white.

22. The Union Flag, popularly known as the
Union Jack, is the national flag of the United
Kingdom. It is the British flag.
It is called the Union Flag because it
symbolises the administrative union of the
countries of the United Kingdom.
It is made up of the individual Flags of
three of the Kingdom's countries all united
under one Sovereign - the countries of
'England, of 'Scotland' and of 'Northern
Ireland' (since 1921 only Northern Ireland has
been part of the United Kingdom).

23. Evolution of the Union flag
The Union Flag can be flown by any
individual or organization in Great Britain on
any day of their choice.
Legal regulations restrict the use of the
Union Flag on Government buildings in
Northern Ireland. Long-standing restrictions
on Government use of the flag elsewhere were
abolished in July 2007.

24. Half-mast
The Union Flag is flown from Government
buildings at half-mast in the following situations:
- from the announcement of the death of the Sovereign
- the day of the funeral of a member of the British
Royal Family
- the funeral of a foreign ruler
- the funeral of a former British Prime Minister
The Sovereign sometimes declares other days
when the Union Flag is to fly at half-mast. Half-mast
means the flag is flown two-thirds of the way up the
flagpole with at least the height of the flag between
the top of the flag and the top of the flagpole.

25. Flag Days
Until July 2007, the Union Flag was only
flown on Government buildings on a limited
number of special days each year.
The choice of days was managed by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS). Government buildings are those used
by civil servants, the Crown, or the armed
forces.
They were not applicable to private
citizens, corporations, or local authorities.

26. Until July 2007, the Union Flag was only
flown on days marking
- the birthdays of members of the Royal Family,
- the wedding anniversary of the Monarch,
- Commonwealth Day,
- Accession Day,
- Coronation Day,
- The Queen's official birthday,
- Remembrance Sunday and
- on the days of the State Opening and
- prorogation of Parliament.

27. The flag days when the Union Flag should
be flown from government buildings all over
the UK were:
- 20 January: birthday of The Countess of
Wessex
- 6 February: anniversary of The Queen's
accession in 1952
- 19 February: birthday of The Duke of York
- Second Sunday in March: Commonwealth Day
- 10 March: birthday of The Earl of Wessex
- 21 April: The Queen's birthday

28. - 9 May: Europe Day
- 2 June: anniversary of The Queen's 1953
coronation
- 10 June: birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh
- A Saturday in June: The Queen's Official Birthday
- 17 July: birthday of The Duchess of Cornwall
- 15 August: birthday of The Princess Royal
- Second Sunday in November: Remembrance
Sunday
- 14 November: birthday of The Prince of Wales
- 20 November: anniversary of the wedding of The
Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh

29. At the 2008 Summer Olympics The Scottish Parliament flies the flags of the United
Kingdom, Scotland and Europe.
Flag of the City of London United Kingdom Emblem