Fame and Nationality

   Fame in one country does not automatically bring citizenship in another. That, however, does not stop some in the news media from claiming citizenship for a famous person who is really from another country, and is not part of the national heritage of those who refer to the star as one of their own.
   This happened recently when newspapers in Britain said Wimbledon tennis champion Andy Murray is English. Not so. While it may be technically acceptable to refer to him as British, since Scotland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland remains a separate country. It has its own currency. And fellow Scots vehemently resent losing their nationality in any way.
   Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom since Queen Elizabeth I was succeeded in 1603 by her cousin James, who had been king of Scotland for several years until he added the English crown to his attire. And while the English refer to him as James I, to Scots he is James VI, since he is the sixth of that name to wear the crown of Scotland.
   Moreover, the formal name of the monarchy did not become official until 1707, when the Act of Union was approved and the king became the ruler of Great Britain. That solved the problem of which came first in the official name, England or Scotland.
   In addition, Ireland lost its independent Parliament around the same time, and the monarch became king of Great Britain and Ireland.
   And, of course, the Irish rebelled in 1916 and the island was split by a peace treaty that gave 26 of the counties semi-independent status while six of the counties in the north remained part of the UK. Then, in 1947, the southern part declared its full independence and became the Republic of Ireland.
   Even so, there were and are some who continue to refer to both islands as the United Kingdom, and its people as British.
   For example, the actress Saoise Ronan starred in the film "Lady Bird," got rave reviews for her performance and was nominated for an Oscar in the film "Brooklyn." The British media are claiming her as British, as they have with Colin Farrell, Ruth Negga, Michael Fassbender and the boxer Katie Taylor. They use the argument that they are from the British Isles.
   This supposed compliment ignores their nationality of being Irish -- not from the six counties of Northern Ireland that remain subject to the British crown, but they are from the fully independent Republic of Ireland. This may geographically be one of the British Isles, but that does not make its people British.
   They may have achieved fame in England, but that does not make them English.
   Similarly, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, its people strongly resented being called Russian.
   And undoubtedly, Canadians who achieve fame in the United States would dislike being referred to as Americans, since their country is part of the continent of North America.
   While it may be difficult to discern from speech patterns whether a person is from Canada or the U.S., that's not the case with Ukrainians, who have their own language that is not at all related to Russian.
   Here's a brief list of a few people who achieved fame in the United States, but  were actually from Canada: William Shatner (Capt. Kirk of the "Star Wars" series), Ali Velshi, an MSNBC News anchor, Lorne Greene (star of the "Bonanza" TV series), Morley Safer (CBS News), actor Michael J. Fox, Justin Bieber, and Raymond Burr.