[messe]

And it's use in English only comes from the mid 16th and 17th centuries, right around the time that much of Ireland was being colonized by the British.

Frankly, I find the term offensive, and think it should be discouraged in much the same way people have shifted away from "the Ukraine" to simply Ukraine.

[returningfory2]

Why is "the Ukraine" bad?

[JoshTriplett]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Etymology_and_orthogra...

It's the difference between a descriptive name for a region and a proper noun for a country.