@Emperor:
I know I saw this question asked here before, but can’t remember the answer, and the search function is beyond useless.
Is Sicily connected to Italy or do you need a transport?
Any island, that is a named island and if owned by a player power will have a distinct control marker, is a separate space and would require a transport to move between another island or continent in the same seazone. So sardinia and sicily need a transport to move between each other or to the mainland. The same with Ceylon, Cyprus, Crete, etc as they are named islands.
Northern Ireland is not an exception, per se, as Scotland is the blanket term naming the territory for both Scotland and what is Northern Ireland, and the control marker connects both with the single name “Scotland”. Same case with the north and south islands in New Zealand.
Majorca, however, is NOT a separate space as it is not a named island and is part of Spain. Niether is Gotland, which is considered part of Sweden. Corsica, which is probably considered either italy or sardinia but makes no difference which as it’s not a space… etc, you get the idea.