Wikipedia’s bizarre justification for lying about C.S Lewis being British – Lewis: “thank the gods that I am Irish”

9 comments
  1. Unionist born in Wales – Welsh

    Unionist born in England – English

    Unionist born in Scotland – Scottish

    Unionist born in the north – British

    Never made any sense

  2. I googled the quote and the context gives it even more weight in terms of how he self-identified as Irish.

    >Lewis actually met Yeats twice in 1921 since Yeats had moved to Oxford. Lewis wrote: ‘I am often surprised to find how utterly ignored Yeats is among the men I have met: perhaps his appeal is purely Irish – if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish.’

    Thanks for this post. I never knew C.S. Lewis was Irish. He’s similar to Kenneth Brannagh in that he moved from Belfast to England at a young age. If Lewis wanted to personally identify as British, I would have no issue with it. But given that he didn’t, it’s just wrong to label him as British.

  3. The John le Carre conversation about his nationality is fun as well…they can’t let him go.

  4. Is this on the talk page?

    I think a more sensible approach would be to simply say he is Northern Irish as it provides a good compromise.

    Unless in his writings he primarily identified himself as being solely Irish or British.

  5. Seems like circular logic. I wouldn’t have known he was Irish if not for reading it here, but they can’t put it on the Wiki if he’s not “noted” for being Irish?

  6. It’s so buzzard how Wikipedia doesn’t just stick to facts like where one is born

    You have some authors labelled as English, others British and some Irish with no rhyme nor reason

  7. I’m in Ireland, I note that C.S. Lewis is Irish due to birth and his own words. There, job done Wikipedia.

Leave a Reply