English

Proper noun

these islands ‎(uncountable)

1. (chiefly Ireland) The archipelago in the North Atlantic comprising Great Britain, Ireland and surrounding islands.
   • 2001, John McGarry, Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford University Press (ISBN 9780198296331), page 231

     Since the Lions only play outside the British Isles or these islands, the opportunity for Irish nationalists to insist that the former description should not be used has not been taken.

   • 2010, World and Its Peoples, Marshall Cavendish (ISBN 9780761478843), page 8

     In all documents jointly drawn up by the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is simply referred to as "these islands."

   • 2010, Clive Hutchinson, Birds in Ireland, Bloomsbury Publishing (ISBN 9781408136997), page 16

     The west coast from Kerry north to Donegal has high cliffs interspersed with sandy beaches and one major estuary, that of the Shannon, the largest river in these islands.

   • 2016 April 26, Nick Duffy, “Isle of Man finally passes same-sex marriage”, in Pink News:

     Same-sex marriage proposals have been greenlit in Jersey and Guernsey - meaning that Northern Ireland is the only remaining part of these islands where marriage equality continues to be blocked.

2. Used other than as an idiom: see these,‎ islands.

Synonyms

• Anglo-Celtic Isles
• British Isles
• British and Irish Isles
• Islands of the North Atlantic