These Islands Meaning

(chiefly Ireland) The archipelago in the North Atlantic comprising Great Britain, Ireland and surrounding islands.

Example: 2001, John McGarry, Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford University Press (ISBN 9780198296331), page 231
  Since the Lions only play outside the British Isles or these islands, the opportunity for Irish nationalists to insist that the former description should not be used has not been taken.
2010, World and Its Peoples, Marshall Cavendish (ISBN 9780761478843), page 8
  In all documents jointly drawn up by the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is simply referred to as "these islands."
2010, Clive Hutchinson, Birds in Ireland, Bloomsbury Publishing (ISBN 9781408136997), page 16
  The west coast from Kerry north to Donegal has high cliffs interspersed with sandy beaches and one major estuary, that of the Shannon, the largest river in these islands.
Used other than as an idiom: see these,‎ islands.