‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
…What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
- Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II

Reading the news in Northern Ireland last week, some would have been reminded of one of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes.

At a meeting of Belfast City Council, councillors spent thirty minutes arguing over whether to include “Northern Ireland” or “the North of Ireland” during a debate on a motion about housing standards. The proposed motion called on Stormont to update the minimum physical standards required for privately rented housing in – please insert preferred term for the northeast corner of the piece of land left of Great Britain, right of the Atlantic. 

At present, those standards are focused on a very basic list of what is required for human habitation yet, according to media reports, more time was spent discussing the legitimacy of referring to “the North of Ireland” vs. “Northern Ireland.”

Unlike in theatre and botany, in law, definitions matter. Yet, even in law, ‘Northern Ireland’ is imprecisely defined.

In 1920 Northern Ireland was defined in the Government of Ireland Act as “the parliamentary counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, and the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry.” Reiterated in the 1973 Northern Ireland Constitution Act, this geographical definition stayed on the UK statute book until the 1920 Act and the 1973 Act were abolished by the Northern Ireland Act of 1998.

The 1998 Act gave legal force to much of the content of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement – delete as you prefer. While removing the pre-existing geographical definition in the earlier acts, the 1998 Act offered a somewhat curious non-definition whereby “Northern Ireland” is said to “include so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Northern Ireland.”

Most schoolchildren could tell you that it is not good practice to use the terms you are seeking to define in your definition. And, granted, it is useful to know the parts of the sea “Northern Ireland” includes, in legislation designed to implement a peace agreement to end a decades long territorial dispute, surely, it would have been useful to also mention the land also included in “Northern Ireland.”

For historians, lawyers and constitutional scholars, the ambiguities of the legal definition of “Northern Ireland” is significant; but for people living in low-standard rented accommodation in Belfast, it is not.

All privately rented accommodation in Northern Ireland must meet a “Fitness Standard.” Said standard was established in 1981 by the Housing (NI) Order and last amended in 1992. As standards go, this one is pretty low. Properties must be structurally stable, free from serious disrepair, free from dampness damaging to your health, and have adequate provision for lighting, heating, ventilation, water, a toilet, a sink, a bath or shower and working drains. While these are important and worthy requirements for a home, they allow space for low standard properties to be rented that, for example have damp problems less a health hazard and are in a state of disrepair less ‘serious’.

Three years ago, I moved into a privately rented house in Belfast. My average-sized – it is relevant – brother was one of a kind crew of people who helped me move in. For his time, my brother put his arm through the kitchen wall he had been casually leaning against. It was not a good start. The house in question had, of course, passed the “fitness standard” for human habitation and was nowhere close to the minimum level that can be legitimately rented based on the 1981 Act (as amended).

Like in the world of “fair Verona” in Northern Ireland, names often act as signifiers of conflicting histories and identities. But, unlike for Shakespeare’s Juliet, the “enemy” of Belfast City Councillors is not the names that their colleagues choose to use. The enemy is the low standard of housing experienced by those who voted them into office; and we would all be better off if they agreed.