turn me lose from your hands / tin can at my feet Member since Mar 2013 14974 Points
Can of worms. Ok possibly.
I have thought this does need addressing for some months now. The whole of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Eire) has been defined badly and here so quite oddly.
Ulster is an old united Ireland province with 9 counties (6 in Northern Ireland and 3 in Eire). So therefore, by that simple fact, Ulster and by implication, none of the other province names in Eire should ever be used here either.
Counties and/or postcodes MUST be used when establishing a location to continue the norm of the rest of UK to Nthn Ireland's 6 counties.
We do not use Wessex, Home Counties, Anglia, or other areas of Scotland and Wales, and counties are the best way to separate mutiples - Newport, Newtown, Whitchurch spring to mind.
The Republic Of Ireland has its own 26 counties to utilise and provide a better location indicator for those venues there.
So short Belfast summary - NI, UK correct; Ulster, Ireland wrong (outdated currently) -- even using Ireland as a country is an error and promotes the misunderstanding.
Its only really going to be a problem pre 1922, IF I were to add venues my ancestors played at when Belfast, Co Antrim ( and the counties were grouped in pairs for a lot of will and BMD records ) was in Ireland as joined in one of those Acts Of Union with Great Britain, and possibly some 78 releases. So before the establishment of the Irish Free State and the like. But I guess there are plenty of other places where the place has physically stayed put and we have to record it where it now politically lies.