evidence: The idea that Ireland regards as part of its territory the tiny clump of rocks known as Rockall, 420km northwest of Co Donegal, is a popular misconception – flag-planting on the rock by brave, patriotic souls notwithstanding. [...] Irish lawyers and diplomats have maintained that nothing as insubstantial or uninhabitable as Rockall can be said to constitute a national territory in any meaningful sense. And particularly in the sense of such a status bestowing economic rights. Irish diplomats successfully fought hard to establish the principle (see clause above) in international law at interminable UN meetings on the drafting of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. [...] Denmark, Iceland and Ireland had protested against the use of Rockall as a base point for the British fishery zone established in 1977. The UK claimed sovereignty over the rock and sought formally to annex it under its 1972 Island of Rockall Act. But when it signed up to the Law of the Sea Convention in 1997, it appeared that London had accepted implicitly that Rockall was not being seen as a base point.