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 England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, similar to the present day British-Irish Council. Its intended purpose was as a more politically acceptable alternative to British Isles, which is disliked by many 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. It has been used particularly in the context of the Northern Irish peace process during the negotiation of the Good Friday 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:

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