" 
 ::::""Term is hardly used in Ireland"" - mentioned in article (or words to that effect). ""Some editors highly offended.."" - your opinion, not a fact. ""The term is offensive to some people"" - the term is not offensive to anyone; some people don't like it, but it's not the sort of thing that anyone would find ""offensive"". Look up offensive in a dictionary. Here's a typical definition repugnant to the moral sense, good taste, or the like; insulting. Reasonable people, and I stress reasonable, would not put British Isles in that category.   "