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Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann [ˈt̪ˠuəʃcəɾˠt̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ] ;[13] Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland that is variously described as a country, province or region.[14][15][16][17][18] Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. At the 2021 census, its population was 1,903,175,[7] making up around 3% of the UK's population and 27% of the population on the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly, established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. The government of Northern Ireland cooperates with the government of Ireland in several areas under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.[19] The Republic of Ireland also has a consultative role on non-devolved governmental matters through the British–Irish Governmental Conference (BIIG).[20]

Northern Ireland
  • Tuaisceart Éireann (Irish)
  • Norlin Airlann (Scots)

List
List

Consociational devolved legislature within unitary constitutional monarchy

18 MPs (of 650)

18 July 1973

17 July 1974

19 November 1998

14,330 km2 (5,530 sq mi)[5]

13,793 km2 (5,326 sq mi)[5]

Neutral increase 1,910,543[6]

Neutral increase 1,903,175[7]

141/km2 (365.2/sq mi)[6]

2021 estimate

£45.7 billion

£24,007[8]

2021 estimate

£51.7 billion

£27,154[9]

Steady 27[10]
low

Increase 0.896[11]
very high

UTC+0 (GMT)

UTC+1 (BST)

dd/mm/yyyy (AD)

Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties. As was intended by unionists and their supporters in Westminster, Northern Ireland had a unionist majority, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom;[21] they were generally the Protestant descendants of colonists from Britain. Meanwhile, the majority in Southern Ireland (which became the Irish Free State in 1922), and a significant minority in Northern Ireland, were Irish nationalists (generally Catholics) who wanted a united independent Ireland.[22] Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed by a significant minority from all backgrounds.[23]


The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During the conflict of 1920–22, the capital Belfast saw major communal violence, mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians.[24] More than 500 were killed[25] and more than 10,000 became refugees, mostly Catholics.[26] For the next fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Unionist Party governments.[27] There was informal mutual segregation by both communities,[28] and the Unionist governments were accused of discrimination against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority.[29] In the late 1960s, a campaign to end discrimination against Catholics and nationalists was opposed by loyalists, who saw it as a republican front.[30] This unrest sparked the Troubles, a thirty-year conflict involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces, which claimed over 3,500 lives and injured 50,000 others.[31][32] The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including paramilitary disarmament and security normalisation, although sectarianism and segregation remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued.[33]


The economy of Northern Ireland was the most industrialised in Ireland at the time of partition, but soon began to decline, exacerbated by the political and social turmoil of the Troubles.[34] Its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17.2% in 1986, but dropped back down to below 10% in the 2010s,[35] similar to the rate of the rest of the UK.[36] Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, with Northern Ireland sharing both the culture of Ireland and the culture of the United Kingdom. In many sports, there is an All-Ireland governing body or team for the whole island; the most notable exception is association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games.

Ulster, strictly speaking, refers to the province of , of which six of nine historical counties are in Northern Ireland. The term "Ulster" is widely used by unionists and the British press as shorthand for Northern Ireland, and is also favoured by Ulster nationalists.[d] In the past, calls have been made for Northern Ireland's name to be changed to Ulster. This proposal was formally considered by the Government of Northern Ireland in 1937 and by the UK Government in 1949 but no change was made.[124]

Ulster

The Province refers to the historic Irish province of Ulster but today is used by some as shorthand for Northern Ireland. The , in its editorial guidance for Reporting the United Kingdom, states that "the Province" is an appropriate secondary synonym for Northern Ireland, while "Ulster" is not. It also suggests that "people of Northern Ireland" is preferred to "British" or "Irish", and the term "mainland" should be avoided in reporting about Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[125]

BBC

42.8% identified as British, solely or along with other national identities

33.3% identified as Irish, solely or along with other national identities

31.5% identified as Northern Irish, solely or along with other national identities

The and the Portrush Branch.

Derry Line

The Larne Line

The Bangor Line

The Line

Portadown

List of Ulster-related topics

Outline of Northern Ireland

Outline of the United Kingdom

Lynch, Robert (2019). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107007734.

The Partition of Ireland: 1918–1925

A History of Ulster (Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1992), ISBN 0-85640-476-4

Jonathan Bardon

Brian E. Barton, The Government of Northern Ireland, 1920–1923 (Athol Books, 1980)

Peter Gibbon and Henry Patterson The State in Northern Ireland, 1921–72: Political Forces and Social Classes, Manchester (Manchester University Press, 1979)

Paul Bew

(2000). The Irish War. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7117-7.

Tony Geraghty

The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism (Penguin, 1972–2000), ISBN 0-14-029165-2

Robert Kee

Osborne Morton, Marine Algae of Northern Ireland (Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1994),  0-900761-28-8

ISBN

Henry Patterson, Ireland Since 1939: The Persistence of Conflict (Penguin, 2006),  978-1-84488-104-8

ISBN

P. Hackney (ed.) Stewart's and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland 3rd edn. (Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, 1992),  0-85389-446-9(HB)

ISBN

(Northern Ireland devolved government)

Northern Ireland Executive

(Northern Ireland Tourist Board)

Discover Northern Ireland

Geographic data related to at OpenStreetMap

Northern Ireland