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Northern Ireland

A division of the United Kingdom in the northeast section of the island of Ireland. The province occupies much of the ancient Irish kingdom of Ulster and is often known by that name. It was colonized by the British in the 17th century and became a part of the United Kingdom in 1920. Civil strife between the Protestant majority and Catholic minority of Northern Ireland has erupted frequently since the late 1960s. A historic peace settlement was finally achieved in 1998. Belfast is the capital and the largest city. Population: 1,720,000.

NorthernIrelander Northern Ire'land·er n.

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Political Dictionary: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom is easily misunderstood. It appears full of paradox: a successful implementation of the Westminster model that went horribly wrong; ultraloyal territory prepared to demonstrate its loyalty through acts of disloyalty; and a deeply conservative polity which (since 1972) has become an adventure playground for constitutional tinkering. Insofar as we can speak of the ‘settlement’ of the historic British-Irish conflict (embodied in the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921), it was a British success. Lloyd George's genius had been to extricate Britain from the Irish imbroglio at minimum cost. By establishing two parliaments and governments in Ireland he had quarantined the issue from British politics; reduced Irish representation at Westminster to 13 Northern Ireland MPs; and security control was transferred to indigenous forces. But the settlement did not alter the fact that the same actors remained with their conceptual approaches fundamentally intact. Part of the ambiguity lay in the transitional status of Ireland. The 1920 Act was about political pacification and its designers settled for the fashionable post-war device of partition. The first elections for the Northern Ireland Parliament established the dominance of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) winning almost 70 per cent of all seats between 1921 and 1969. They set about shaping it in their own image, a policy that met no resistance from Westminster where a philosophy of ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ was adopted.

Consequently it was fashionable to examine Northern Ireland as a peculiar form of devolution within the UK until the mid-1960s: indeed it was like an autonomous state with a federal relationship to the United Kingdom. It did not enjoy full legitimation and stability was ensured by a security policy in which citizens became accustomed to the belief that the rule of law could always be suspended. Westminster's limited control meant that it was a reasonably successful example of administrative devolution. The result was the absence of an informed Whitehall view of the more controversial aspects of Northern Ireland politics. This situation encouraged unionist illusions of self-sufficiency and it created unspoken separatist tendencies. These tendencies were put to the test after the campaign for full civil rights for Catholics erupted 1968 and led to intercommunal violence. Both governments were caught unawares. There had been minimal contact between North and South since 1922. Dublin had claimed Northern Ireland's territory and wrote this irredentism into its 1937 Constitution. There was low-level functional cooperation on matters such as energy, fisheries, and railways. With scant knowledge of conditions on the ground Dublin was forced into acting as ‘second guarantor’ of a reform programme produced rapidly by the Wilson government (to respond to Catholic grievances). London reacted angrily by declaring that the Northern Ireland problem was purely an internal affair. Neither the reform programme nor a security response returned stability to the province and by March 1972 Stormont was prorogued and direct rule was imposed.

Increasingly London was reduced to using the instruments of war rather than those of civil administration. This set Northern Ireland apart from the rest of the UK. Violence was prevalent even before Northern Ireland had been established. Unionists had used it to resist the Home Rule threat in the period before the Great War. Nationalists retorted with the 1916 Rising. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) again mounted a violent campaign between 1956 and 1962 but it failed to win popular (Catholic) support. So when the ‘Troubles’ erupted both communities reverted to familiar tactics. It was the incident known as Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) when the British Army killed thirteen unarmed Catholic protesters that meant that the decision was taken that London could not rule by proxy. Catholics had withdrawn compliance from the state and Westminster politicians in the person of the first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, soon appreciated that Northern Ireland did not fit into the usual parameters of British political practice. Direct rule was meant to be temporary but it was impossible to find political leaders who had the authority to speak unequivocally for their respective communities. In an attempt to build a ‘strong centre’ and weaken the Unionist monolith the government reintroduced proportional representation for Stormont elections—the Unionist government had abolished it in 1929. They succeeded in that the UUP held only about 23 per cent of the popular vote by 1998. A March 1973 White Paper added to unionism's humiliation. The Stormont Parliament was to be an ‘Assembly’, the Cabinet an ‘Executive’, the office of Governor was to be discontinued and no more Privy Councillors were to be appointed. But the strong centre remained illusory and the ‘politics of the last atrocity’ endured. Whitehall veered between a security response and institutional tinkering. Between 1972 and 1984 there were six successive sets of institutions, all of them based on an internal settlement. Only the 1974 power-sharing government that lasted five months, brought down by massive loyalist intimidation, began to address the fundamentals. The two communities were represented on it, it was answerable to London and it had an Irish dimension. So it encompassed the four contending parties and was a cautious attempt to probe their conceptual approaches. But it was ahead of its time because there was not sufficient trust between the governments; factionalism was rife in each community; and loyalist and republican paramilitaries were rampant.

By 1980, and under some international pressure, the governments began a series of summits that culminated in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) in November 1985. Although deeply unpopular with unionists it had the merit of placing the conflict in its proper British-Irish context. The AIA had three features of note: it gave the Irish government a strong role (that fell short of joint authority) in the politics of Northern Ireland; it increased considerably British-Irish security cooperation; and its structures were flexible enough to withstand any sustained popular (Protestant) opposition. The IRA noted the significance of security cooperation—Sinn Fein had decided 1986 to contest and take their seats in a Dublin parliament. This was hugely symbolic because, since partition, they had rejected Dublin rule as being illegitimate. Equally loyalist paramilitaries began to look for radical political alternatives to violence. The Agreement was a watershed. It received international endorsement particularly from the United States and it was registered at the UN under Article 102 of the Charter. The failure of the unionist community to bring down the Agreement represented a milestone in British-Unionist relations. It was the first occasion in the last century that London had withstood their pressure on a vital constitutional matter. The final realization that power resided in London (and Dublin) led to significant attitudinal change over time. It registered in two 1987 think-pieces, the Ulster Defence Association's Common Sense (1987) and a Democratic Unionist Party/Ulster Unionist Party joint report The Way Forward. Politics was moving from zero-sum to inclusion and process for the first time ever in Northern Ireland. Despite continuing violence historic talks occurred between Sinn Fein and the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) during 1988. They did not succeed but neither did they fail and they were to be resurrected in the 1990s in the Hume/Adams talks. Attempts to remove unionism from its internal exile (in protest against the AIA) began 1989 through the Secretary of State Peter Brooke and his successor from 1992. In the meantime the IRA held secret talks with an emissary of the British government between 1990 and 1993. The outcome was the December 1993 Downing Street Joint Declaration signed by the British and Irish prime ministers. It was a deliberate piece of tortuous syntax with one aim in mind—to persuade the IRA to a ceasefire. That happened on 31 August 1994 followed by a loyalist ceasefire on 13 October. But it was to be a hiatus. One of the flaws of the Joint Declaration was its ambiguity on decommissioning. During 1995 the British government made decommissioning of paramilitary weapons a precondition for entering all-party talks. The IRA reacted by planting a bomb in Canary Wharf in February 1996 and the ceasfire was at an end. During 1995 both governments had published the ‘Joint Framework Document’ to establish accountable government in Northern Ireland and to ‘assist discussion and negotiation involving the Northern Ireland parties’. In November they launched a ‘twin track’ process to make progress in parallel on decommissioning and all-party negotiations. An international decommissioning panel, chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell, was created. Despite the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire a constitutional architecture (for a new Northern Ireland and for relations within the archipelago) was in place with substantial international endorsement. The missing links for success were an IRA commitment to peace and the political will in Britain to push through an inclusive package. The latter became possible after Labour's overwhelming victory in the May 1997 general election: the former followed. Blair set the multi-party talks for one year later with George Mitchell chairing. The Belfast Agreement was finally reached on 10 April (Good Friday) and was endorsed by 71.1 per cent of the North's electorate and 94.39 per cent of the Republic's voters on 22 May 1998.

The 1998 Agreement revisited the problems identified 1920 with a stronger sense of realism. It was an acknowledgement that the problem was British-Irish and that the first version of Northern Ireland had not worked. It recognized the three strands to the solution: relations within Northern Ireland; those between North and South; and relations between Britain and Ireland—all of these playing alongside developments in British devolution and in the EU. It gave the people of Northern Ireland the right to determine their constitutional future through a more inclusive range of political opinion. And it placed proper emphasis on equity, diversity, and human rights issues. By the turn of the century Northern Ireland might still be a place apart within the UK but the agreement was being heralded as a model for other societies coming out of conflict.

— Paul Arthur

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Northern Ireland

Part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland occupying the northeastern portion of the island of Ireland. Area: 5,461 sq mi (14,144 sq km). Population (2001): 1,685,267. Capital: Belfast. It is bounded by the republic of Ireland, the Irish Sea, the North Channel, and the Atlantic Ocean. Northern Ireland is often referred to as the province of Ulster. The people are descended from indigenous Irish and immigrants from England and Scotland. Language: English (official). Religions: Protestantism (the majority) and Roman Catholicism (a minority). Currency: pound sterling. Northern Ireland's industries include engineering, shipbuilding (which has been in severe decline), automobile manufacturing, textiles, food and beverage processing, and clothing. The service industry employs about three-fourths of the workforce, and manufacturing employs less than one-fifth of workers. Agriculture is important, with most farm income derived from livestock. Northern Ireland shares most of its history with the republic of Ireland, though Protestant English and Scots immigrating in the 16th – 17th centuries tended to settle in Ulster. In 1801 the Act of Union created the United Kingdom, which united Great Britain and Ireland. In response to mounting Irish sentiment in favour of Home Rule, the Government of Ireland Act was adopted in 1920, providing for two partially self-governing units in Ireland: the northern six counties constituting Northern Ireland and the southern counties now making up the republic of Ireland. In 1968 civil rights protests by Roman Catholics sparked violent conflicts with Protestants and led to the occupation of the province by British troops in the early 1970s. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) mounted a prolonged campaign of violence in an effort to force the withdrawal of British troops as a prelude to Northern Ireland's unification with Ireland. In 1972 Northern Ireland's constitution and parliament were suspended, bringing the province under direct rule by the British. Violence continued for three decades before dropping off in the mid-1990s. In 1998 talks between the British government and the IRA resulted in a peace agreement that provided for extensive Home Rule in the province. In 1999 power was devolved to an elected assembly, though the body was hampered by factional disagreements. Sporadic sectarian strife continued in the early 21st century, as the IRA gradually carried out decommissioning (disarming).

For more information on Northern Ireland, visit Britannica.com.

British History: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was formed by the Government of Ireland Act 1920-1. It comprised the six counties of the north-east of the island: Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone. To ensure a protestant majority, the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster were rejected as the boundary. Fermanagh and Tyrone, though possessing small catholic majorities, were included to provide a credible geographical entity.

The circumstances of the province's formation dictated its turbulent subsequent history. The catholic minority, always over 30 per cent of the population, never accepted partition and usually boycotted the Belfast Parliament. The emerging Free State refused to recognize Northern Ireland. The new province established itself along the lines of a protestant state for a protestant people, with a heavy emphasis on security considerations.

After 1925, the province's future seemed more assured. But economic development was retarded by over-dependence on the British Treasury and by over-reliance on declining traditional industries. The government was dominated by narrow landed and commercial interests; all were members of the Orange order. Sir James Craig was prime minister 1921-40, Lord Brooke 1943-63. Unionist confidence was increased by their contribution in supplying bases and ports for Atlantic convoys, contrasting with the Free State's neutrality.

The declaration of an Irish republic in 1948 caused the constitutional status of the province to be clarified in the Ireland Act of 1949. Terence O'Neill's attempts, as premier from 1963, to modernize the economy and reform the sectarian basis of the province highlighted all inherent tensions. Police and special constabulary's reaction to civil rights demonstrations resulted in major riots in Derry city and Belfast, and the belated intervention of British troops to restore order and ensure more fundamental reforms. The security situation deteriorated rapidly in 1969-72, resulting in the alienation of the catholic population from the British army, and the formation of the Provisional IRA. The British government's declaration of direct rule from Westminster in 1972 was followed by the establishment of a power-sharing executive in January 1974, which was brought down as a consequence of the loyalist strike within five months.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a continuous IRA offensive against both the security forces and the economy; the growth of loyalist paramilitary retaliation; spates of sectarian assassinations and bombings in the province, in Britain, and occasionally in the Republic. Demands for political status for republican prisoners in 1981 led to further catholic alienation and support for Sinn Fein.

By 1985 and the Anglo-Irish agreement, attention turned to co-operation between the Republic and the British government on security and political matters. A sense of exhaustion after 25 years of conflict, better Anglo-Irish government communications, European and American concern, and, finally, negotiations between the SDLP and Sinn Fein leaders, John Hume and Gerry Adams, all contributed to the Downing Street declaration of December 1993, the IRA cease-fire of August 1994, and the loyalist paramilitary one two months later. After a referendum, administration was handed back in 1998 to a Northern Ireland Assembly of 108 members, of which 24 represented SDLP and 18 Sinn Fein. But hopes for the peace process have been jeopardized by the refusal of the IRA to begin serious disarmament. Assembly was suspended and direct rule reimposed. In July 2005 the IRA declared the armed struggle to be over, but suspicion postponed the reinstatement of the Assembly.

Irish Literature Companion: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland came into being shortly before the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 [see Anglo-Irish War], which established a sovereign Irish Free State [see Irish State] within the United Kingdom. The northern state owed its existence to the strongly-felt antipathy of Ulster Unionists to Home Rule legislation [see Irish Parliamentary Party], which they identified with rule by a preponderantly Roman Catholic and economically underdeveloped population that had traditionally been the religious and racial enemy of northern Protestants since the 17th-cent. Ulster plantation. On 28 September 1912, almost half a million Northern Protestant men and women signed an Ulster Covenant vowing resistance to Home Rule under the leadership of Edward Carson and the Unionist Council. Under the Better Government of Ireland Act of 1920 (with effect from 1 May 1921), Northern Ireland was equipped with a parliament at Stormont from 1932 on the outskirts of Belfast, constructed on the Westminster model and subject to the authority of the imperial parliament. Commonly—but erroneously—called Ulster or the Province, Northern Ireland had at the outset a clear two-thirds Protestant majority of which one-third was Church of Ireland and two-thirds Presbyterian. Together these dominated political life under a succession of conservative Unionist governments led by James Craig (Viscount Craigavon), 1921-40, J. M. Andrews, 1940-3, and Sir Basil Brooke (Lord Brookborough), 1943-63. Meanwhile Catholics found themselves systematically excluded from political office and discriminated against in matters of employment and housing. However, the extension of British post-war legislation in health and education began to bring the benefits of the Welfare State to all sections of the Northern population from 1947. This had the effect of creating the generation who formed the nationalist movements of the 1960s—notably the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, 1967; People's Democracy, 1968; and the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP). With the accession of Terence O'Neill to the premiership came the promise of liberalization in the North and friendly overtures towards the neighbouring Republic. An ultra-Protestant reaction in 1966 led to the formation of the new Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Revd Ian Paisley, Moderator of his own Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and later founder of the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971, soon emerged as leader of the ultra-Protestants. Protestant violence at Burntollet during a Belfast-Derry march, abetted by the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), led to the battle of the Bogside, and the introduction of the British army on 15 August 1969 at the request of the new premier, James Chichester-Clark (Lord Moyola). A reinvigorated IRA emerged to defend the nationalist community and quickly took the offensive in a campaign of shootings and bombings. Internment was implemented disastrously on 9 August 1971—the intelligence lists were out of date and UVF paramilitaries were exempted. Thirteen civilian marchers were shot dead by British paratroopers on ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry on 30 January 1972, and direct rule by secretary of state was introduced in March of that year. The Sunningdale Agreement between Britain and Ireland (1973) established a power-sharing executive which was brought down by the Ulster Workers' Council strike of May 1974. A concerted policy of criminalization was levelled against the IRA by the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher (who narrowly escaped becoming one of the IRA's assassination victims). In November 1985 the Hillsborough Agreement confirmed that neither government would support unity without the clear and formal consent of the Northern majority. Talks between John Hume of the SDLP and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin in Autumn 1993, and a joint declaration by the Irish and British governments with the assent of the Official Unionists under James Molyneux, raised the possibility that peace might ‘break out’ in early 1994, confirmed by the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires later in the year. The IRA ended its ceasefire in 1996 with the bombing of Canary Wharf in London, and Sinn Féin were barred from the inter-party talks under the Chairman George Mitchell, a U.S. Senator. In 1997 Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister at Westminster and brought a fresh impetus to the process of peacemaking, along with Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State. In July 1997 the IRA renewed its ceasefire, Sinn Féin joined the talks, and signed up to the Mitchell principles, which were based on compromise and non-violence. In 1998 Mitchell, after exhausting and nail-biting negotiations involving both governments and all parties (apart from the Democratic Unionist Party) brokered the ‘Good Friday Agreement’, which put in place wide-ranging strategies of accommodation between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and between Ireland and Britain. In 1999 a devolved assembly was formed in Stormont, only to be revoked in 2000 when agreement could not be reached on the decommissioning of weapons.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Northern Ireland,

division of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1989 est. pop. 1,583,500), 5,462 sq mi (14,147 sq km), NE Ireland. Made up of six of the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster in NE Ireland, it is frequently called Ulster. The capital is Belfast.

Land, People, Economy, and Government

The land is mountainous and has few natural resources. It comprises 26 districts. English is the official language. The majority of the population is Protestant, and nearly 40% is Catholic. Farming (livestock, dairy products, cereals, potatoes) is the largest single occupation. Heavy industry is concentrated in and around Belfast, one of the chief ports of the British Isles. Machinery and equipment manufacturing, food processing, and textile and electronics manufacturing are the leading industries; papermaking, furniture manufacturing, and shipbuilding are also important. Northern Ireland's fine linens are famous.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has limited devolved powers from the British Parliament, and often has been suspended since its establishment in 1999. The government is based on a power-sharing arrangement that requires that its members include a minimum number of both Protestants and Catholics, and that those members have the support of the representatives elected by their respective communities. Northern Ireland has 18 representatives in the British Parliament.

History

A Troubled History

Northern Ireland's relatively distinct history began in the early 17th cent., when, after the suppression of an Irish rebellion, much land was confiscated by the British crown and “planted” with Scottish and English settlers. Ulster took on a Protestant character as compared with the rest of Ireland; but there was no question of political separation until the late 19th cent. when William Gladstone presented (1886) his first proposal for Home Rule for Ireland. The largely Protestant population of the north feared domination under Home Rule by the Catholic majority in the south. In addition, industrial Ulster was bound economically more to England than to the rest of Ireland.

Successive schemes for Home Rule widened the rift, so that by the outbreak of World War I civil war in Ireland was an immediate danger. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 attempted to solve the problem by enacting Home Rule separately for the two parts of Ireland, thus creating the province of Northern Ireland. However, the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland (see Ireland, Republic of), which was established in 1922, refused to recognize the finality of the partition; and violence erupted frequently on both sides of the border.

The late 1960s marked a new stage in the region's troubled history. The Catholic minority, which suffered economic and political discrimination, had grown steadily through immigration from the Republic. In 1968 civil-rights protests by Catholics led to widespread violence. Prime Minister Terence O'Neill had sought to end anti-Catholic bias as part of his policy of fostering closer ties between Ulster and the Irish Republic, but opponents within his ruling Unionist party forced his resignation in Apr., 1969. His successor, James Chichester-Clark, was unable to restrain the growing unrest and in August called in British troops to help restore order.

The IRA and Sectarian Struggle

At the end of 1969 a split occurred in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is the illegal military arm of the Sinn Fein party; the new “provisional” wing of the IRA was made up of radical nationalists. Brian Faulkner became leader of the Unionist party and prime minister of Northern Ireland in Mar., 1971, and began a policy of imprisoning IRA and other militants. However, the IRA and the Ulster Defense Association, a Protestant terrorist group, continued and even intensified their activities.

On Mar. 30, 1972, the British prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the government and appointed William Whitelaw secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Westminster's direct rule over the province was renewed in Mar., 1973. An assembly was formed in June, 1972, with the Unionist party, a moderate pro-British group, in the majority. In November the Unionist party formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Labour party (SDLP), the major Catholic group, and the nonsectarian Alliance party. A Northern Ireland Executive was formed to exercise day-to-day administration.

In late 1973, the British prime minister, the head of the Executive, and the Irish Republic's prime minister agreed to form a Council of Ireland to promote closer cooperation between Ulster and the Republic. However, both the IRA and Protestant extremists sought to destroy the Executive and the Council, as they found power-sharing between Protestants and Catholics unacceptable. In 1974, hard-line Ulster Protestants won 11 of the province's 12 seats in the British House of Commons and pledged to renegotiate Ulster's constitution in order to end the Protestant-Catholic coalition and progress toward a Council of Ireland.

In May, 1974, militant Protestants sponsored a general strike in the province, and the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed on May 28. The British government then took direct control of the province with the passage of the Northern Ireland Act of 1974. Meanwhile, bombings and other terrorist activities had spread to Dublin and London. In 1979 Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA, and in 1981 protests broke out in Belfast over the death by hunger strike of Bobby Sands, an IRA member of Parliament.

Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s terrorist violence by the IRA and other groups remained a problem. An assembly formed in 1982 to propose plans for strengthening legislative and executive autonomy in Northern Ireland was dissolved in 1986 for its lack of progress. In 1985, an Anglo-Irish accord sought to lay the groundwork for talks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Dublin agreed not to contest Northern Ireland's allegiance to Great Britain in exchange for British acknowledgment of the Republic's interest in how Northern Ireland is run. A 1993 Anglo-Irish declaration offered to open negotiations to all parties willing to renounce violence, and in 1994 the IRA and, later, Protestant paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire. Formal talks began in 1995. A resumption of violence (1996) by the IRA threatened to derail the peace process, but negotiations to seek a political settlement went ahead.

In July, 1997, the IRA declared a new cease-fire, and talks begun in September of that year included Sinn Féin. The result was an accord reached in 1998 that provided for a new Northern Ireland Assembly as well as a North-South Ministerial Council to deal with issues of joint interest to the province and the Irish Republic. The Republic of Ireland also agreed to give up territorial claims on Northern Ireland. The formation of a new government was slowed, however, by disagreement over the disarmament of paramilitary groups, but in Dec., 1999, a multiparty government was formed after further negotiations, and Britain ended direct rule of the province. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble became leader of the Northern Irish government.

In Feb., 2000, however, Britain suspended self-government after the IRA refused to agree to disarm, but subsequent concessions by the IRA led to the resumption of self-government in May. Continued resistance by the IRA to disarming has threatened self-government and led Trimble to resign on July 1, 2001. Subsequently, Britain twice suspended the Northern Irish government in an attempt to avoid its complete collapse. Negotiations on disarming the IRA and other paramilitary groups, however, were relatively fruitless until late 2001, when the IRA began disarming; Trimble subsequently returned to office.

The arrests in 2002 of Sinn Féin government members for intelligence gathering for the IRA threatened the power-sharing government once again, leading Britain to suspend home rule once more, but in 2005 charges against the alleged spies, one of whom was a long-time government informant, were dropped, raising questions about the entire affair. The May, 2003, elections that would have reestablished the assembly were suspended by the British government. The ostensible reason was the insufficient specificity of the IRA's commitment to the peace process, but Trimble and the moderate Unionists also seem likely to suffer losses if the elections were held. Disagreements over the way the IRA's disarming was being handled continued.

When the elections were held in Nov., 2003, the more extreme Protestant and Catholic parties, Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists and the Sinn Féin, outpolled their more moderate counterparts. Home rule remained suspended, but in early 2004 Britain, the Irish Republic, and Northern Irish political parties began a “review” of the 1998 agreement in hopes of reestablishing a Northern Irish government. Subsequent accusations that the IRA was involved in criminal activities threatened any future participation of Sinn Féin in a government. In Apr., 2005, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams called on the IRA to abandon the use of arms and restrict its activities to politics, and an independent report affirmed in September that the IRA had decommissioned its weapons.

In Apr., 2006 the British and Irish governments called for the Northern Irish assembly to begin formation of an executive in May and complete the work before the end of November; if they failed to do so, the members of the assembly would no longer receive their salaries. The assembly reconvened in May, but there was no quick progress in forming an executive. However, talks in October produced some progress, and the November deadline was pushed back to Mar., 2007. In Jan., 2007, Sinn Féin agreed to back the Protestant-dominated Northern Irish police force.

In March, elections for the assembly led to strong showings by the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin, and later in the month the two parties agreed to form a power-sharing government in May. Ian Paisley became first minister. Also in May the Ulster Volunteer Force, the oldest Protestant paramilitary group, announced that it was renouncing violence; it did not plan, however, to decommission its weapons. British troops ended their military mission in Northern Ireland, which began in 1969, in July, 2007. UDA factional clashes during the summer led to a demand that they decommission their arms or lose funding for a loyalist project associated with the UDA; the social development minister's insistence on the deadline and cutoff of funds led to tensions in the North Irish executive in Oct., 2007, with the DUP and Sinn Féin supporting a more lenient approach to the UDA.

Bibliography

See A. Blacam, The Black North (1938); M. Wallace, Northern Ireland: Fifty Years of Self-Government (1971); P. Arthur, Northern Ireland Since 1968 (1988); B. Rowthorn, Northern Ireland: The Political Economy of Conflict (1988); F. Gaffikin, Northern Ireland: The Thatcher Years (1990); E. Collins, Killing Rage (with M. McGovern, 1999); G. Mitchell, Making Peace (1999); P. Taylor, Loyalists (1999).

Geography: Northern Ireland

Political division of the United Kingdom, located in northeastern Ireland. (See Ulster.)

Northern Ireland was created in 1920, when Britain established separate parliaments for the parts of Ireland dominated by Protestants and by Roman Catholics. The Protestant portion remained in union with Britain.
Demands for equal civil and economic rights by the Catholic minority, beginning in the late 1960s, led to a renewal of violence between Catholics and Protestants.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA), a nationalist organization dedicated to the unification of Ireland, has staged terrorist attacks on British troops in Northern Ireland, as well as other random terrorist attacks in Britain.
A peace accord reached on Good Friday, 1998, provided for the restoration of home rule, which Britain had suspended in 1972 when it assumed direct control of Northern Ireland. By the terms of this accord, both Britain and the Republic of Ireland agreed to give up their constitutional claims on Northern Ireland. Voters in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland approved the accord later in 1998. The failure of the IRA to disarm threw this accord into jeopardy until recently. There is now reasonable hope for a settlement.

Wikipedia: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland (English) Tuaisceart Éireann (Irish) Norlin Airlann¹ (Ulster Scots)
The Union Flag is the official flag used by the government to represent Northern Ireland. The former official flag, the Ulster Banner, continues to be used by groups (such as some sports teams) representing the territory in an unofficial manner (see Northern Ireland flags issue).
Motto Quis separabit? (Latin) "Who shall separate?"
Anthem "God Save the Queen" "Londonderry Air" (de facto)
Location of Northern Ireland (orange) – on the European continent (camel & white) – in the United Kingdom (camel)
Capital (and largest city)		Belfast 54°35.456′N, 5°50.4′W
Official languages		English (de facto), Irish and Ulster Scots²
Government		Constitutional monarchy
-	Monarch	Queen Elizabeth II
-	Prime Minister	Gordon Brown MP
-	First Minister	Ian Paisley MP MLA
-	Deputy First Minister	Martin McGuinness MP MLA
-	Secretary of State	Shaun Woodward MP
Establishment
-	Government of Ireland Act	1920
Area
-	Total	km² sq mi
Population
-	2004 estimate	1,710,300
-	2001 census	1,685,267
-	Density	122/km² /sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2002 estimate
-	Total	$33.2 billion
-	Per capita	$19,603
Currency		Pound sterling (`GBP`)
Time zone		GMT (UTC+0)
-	Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)
Internet TLD		.uk³
Calling code		[[+44]]⁴
Patron saint		St Patrick⁵
¹	Norlin Airlann is a neologism which was not used by Scots speakers historically, but which has some official usage. The spelling Norn Iron is often used by indigenous speakers as an affectionate phonetic spelling to reflect local pronunciation.
²	Officially recognised languages: Northern Ireland has no official language; the use of English has been established through precedent. Irish and Ulster Scots are officially recognised minority languages
³	Also .eu, as part of the European Union, and .ie shared with Republic of Ireland. ISO 3166-1 is GB, but .gb is unused.
⁴	+44 is always followed by 28 when calling landlines. The code is 028 within the UK and 048 from the Republic of Ireland
⁵	In common with the Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann, Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the island's total area). As of the UK Census in April 2001, its population was 1,685,000, between a quarter and a third of the island's total population.

Northern Ireland consists of six of the nine counties of the Province of Ulster. In the UK, it is generally known as one of the four Home Nations that form the Kingdom.^[1] Some of these terms have controversial implications in relation to political ideologies concerning the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. The remainder of the island of Ireland is a sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland.

As an administrative division of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland was defined by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and has had its own form of devolved government in a similar manner to Scotland and Wales. The Northern Ireland Assembly, established in 1998, has been suspended multiple times but was restored on 8 May, 2007.^[2]^[3] Northern Ireland's legal system descends from the pre-1920 Irish legal system (as does the legal system of the Republic of Ireland), and is therefore based on common law. It is separate from the jurisdictions of England and Wales or Scotland.^[4]

Northern Ireland has been for many years the site of a violent and bitter ethno-political conflict between those claiming to represent Nationalists, who are predominantly Catholic, and those claiming to represent Unionists, who are predominantly Protestant.^[5] In general, Nationalists want Northern Ireland to be unified with the Republic of Ireland, and Unionists want it to remain part of the United Kingdom. Unionists are in the majority in Northern Ireland, though Nationalists represent a significant minority. In general, Protestants consider themselves British and Catholics see themselves as Irish but there are some who see themselves as both British and Irish. People from Northern Ireland are entitled to both British and Irish citizenship (see Citizenship and Identity). The campaigns of violence have become known popularly as The Troubles. The majority of both sides of the community have had no direct involvement in the violent campaigns waged. Since the signing of the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement or the G.F.A.) in 1998, many of the major paramilitary campaigns have either been on ceasefire or have declared their war to be over.

History

Main article: History of Northern Ireland

; for events before 1900 see Ulster or History of Ireland.

The area now known as Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. From serving as the bedrock of Irish resistance in the era of the plantations of Queen Elizabeth and James I in other parts of Ireland, it became the subject of major planting of Scottish and English settlers after the Flight of the Earls in 1607 (when the Gaelic aristocracy fled to Catholic Europe).

The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541—1800) merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a government and monarchy based in London. In the early 20th century, Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson (generally regarded as the founder of Northern Ireland), opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Unionists were in a minority on the island of Ireland as a whole, but were a majority in the northern province of Ulster, a very large majority in the counties of Antrim and Down, small majorities in the counties of Armagh and Londonderry, with substantial numbers also concentrated in the nationalist-majority counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone. These six counties, containing an overall unionist majority, would later form Northern Ireland.

The clash between the House of Commons and House of Lords over the controversial budget of Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd-George produced the Parliament Act 1911, which enabled the veto of the Lords to be overturned. Given that the Lords had been the unionists' main guarantee that a home rule act would not be enacted, because of the majority of pro-unionist peers in the House, the Parliament Act made Home Rule a likely prospect in Ireland. Opponents to Home Rule, from Conservative Party leaders like Andrew Bonar Law to militant unionists in Ireland, threatened the use of violence, producing the Larne Gun Running incident in 1912, when they smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for the Ulster Volunteer Force. Lord Randolph Churchill famously told a unionist audience in Ulster that "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right".

Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland
Sir James Craig (1922–1940)
John Miller Andrews (1940–1943)
Sir Basil Brooke (1943–1963)
Captain Terence O'Neill (1963–1969)
James Chichester-Clark (1969–1971)
Brian Faulkner (1971–1972)

The prospect of civil war in Ireland was seen by some as likely.^{[citation needed]} In 1914, the Third Home Rule Act, which contained provision for a temporary partition, received the Royal Assent. Its implementation was suspended for the duration of the intervening First World War, which was expected to last only a few weeks, but, in fact, lasted four years.

By the end of the war, the Act was seen as dead in the water, with public opinion in the majority nationalist community having moved from a demand for home rule to something more substantial: independence. David Lloyd George proposed in 1919 a new bill which would divide Ireland into two Home Rule areas, twenty-six counties being ruled from Dublin, six being ruled from Belfast, with a shared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland appointing both executives and a Council of Ireland, which Lloyd George believed would evolve into an all-Ireland parliament.^{[citation needed]}

Partition of Ireland, partition of Ulster

Former Governmental Flag of Northern Ireland 1953-72.

Ireland was partitioned in 1921 under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Six of the nine Ulster counties in the north-east formed Northern Ireland and the remaining three counties joined those of Leinster, Munster and Connacht to form Southern Ireland. Whilst the former came into being, the latter had only a momentary existence to ratify (in United Kingdom law) the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War.

Under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was provisionally scheduled to be included in the Irish Free State, though it could opt out should the Parliament of Northern Ireland elect so to do.^[6] As expected, it did so immediately. Once that happened, as provided for, an Irish Boundary Commission came into being, to decide on the territorial boundaries between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Though leaders in Dublin expected a substantial reduction in the territory of Northern Ireland, with nationalist areas like south Armagh, Tyrone, southern Londonderry and urban territories like Derry and Newry moving to the Free State, the Boundary Commission decided against this. This decision was approved by the Dail in Dublin by a vote of 71 to 20.^[7] The Council of Ireland provided for in the 1920 Act, and in the Treaty, to link Northern Ireland eventually to the Irish Free State within 50 years was removed.^[8]

1925 to the present

Former Coat of Arms of Northern Ireland 1925-72

In June 1940, to encourage the Irish state to join with the Allies, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill indicated to the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that the United Kingdom would push for Irish unity, but believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer.^[9] The British did not inform the Northern Ireland government that they had made the offer to the Dublin government, and De Valera's rejection was not publicized until 1970.

The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee to the Parliament and Government that Northern Ireland would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without consent of the majority of its citizens, and this was most recently reaffirmed by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This status was echoed in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, which was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic, was amended in 1999 to remove a claim of the "Irish nation" to sovereignty over the whole of Ireland (in Article 2), a claim qualified by an acknowledgement that the southern state only could exercise legal control over the territory formerly known as the Irish Free State. The new Articles 2 and 3, added to the Bunreacht to replace the earlier articles, implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships within the United Kingdom and with the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in Northern Ireland. An acknowledgement that a decision on whether to remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland rests with the people of Northern Ireland was also central to the Belfast Agreement, which was signed in 1998 and ratified by plebiscites held simultaneously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. A plebiscite within Northern Ireland on whether it should remain in the United Kingdom, or join the Republic, was held in 1973. The vote went heavily in favour (98.9%) of maintaining the status quo with approximately 57.5% of the total electorate voting in support, but most nationalists boycotted the poll (see Northern Ireland referendum, 1973 for more). Though legal provision remains for holding another plebiscite, and former Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble some years ago advocated the holding of such a vote, no plans for such a vote have been adopted as of 2007.

8 May 2007 Home rule returned to Northern Ireland. DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness took office as First Minister and Deputy First Minister, respectively ^[10].

Lives lost and injured in the "Troubles"

Main article: The Troubles

Bombings in Great Britain tended to have had more publicity, since attacks there were comparatively rare (in the context of the troubles); indeed 93% of killings happened in Northern Ireland. Republican paramilitaries have contributed to nearly 60% (2056) of these. Loyalists have killed nearly 28% (1020) while the security forces have killed just over 11% (362) with 9% percent of those attributed to the British Army.

Civilians killed

Civilians account for the highest death toll at 53% or 1798 fatalities. Loyalist paramilitaries account for a higher proportion of civilian deaths (those with no military or paramilitary connection) according to figures published in Malcolm Sutton’s book, “Bear in Mind These Dead: An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969 - 1993”. According to research undertaken by the CAIN organisation, based on Sutton's work, 85.6% (873) of Loyalist killings, 52.9% (190) by the security forces and 35.9% (738) of all killings by Republican paramilitaries took the lives of civilians between 1969 and 2001. The disparity of a relatively high civilian death toll yet low Republican percentage is explained by the fact that they also had a high combatants' death toll.

Combatants killed

Republican paramilitaries account for a higher proportion of combatants killed (those within paramilitaries or the military) Again from Malcolm Sutton's research, Republicans killed 1318 combatants, the security forces killed 192 and the Loyalists killed 147. Both Republicans and Loyalists killed more of their own than each other, over twice as many for Loyalists and nearly four times as many for Republicans.

80 people, mainly civilians, have died without any organisation claiming responsibility. The British Army has also lost 14 soldiers to Loyalists while the security forces overall in the Republic have lost 10 to Republicans.

According to a submission by Marie Smyth to the Northern Ireland Commission on Victims, 40,000 people have also been injured, though she believes that to be a conservative figure.

Demographics and politics

In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Assembly Acts: Acts Members: 1998 - 2003 - 2007 Elections: 1998 - 2003 - 2007 Presiding Officer Northern Ireland Executive First Minister: Ian Paisley Deputy First Minister: Martin McGuinness Departments and agencies Local Government Courts of Northern Ireland
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Parliament Committees: Affairs - Grand Members: Commons - Lords Elections: 2005 United Kingdom Government Northern Ireland Office Secretary of State • Direct Rule
Organisations
British-Irish Council Electoral Commission North/South Ministerial Council
See also
Belfast Agreement (1998) St Andrews Agreement (2006) Segregation in Northern Ireland Elections in Northern Ireland Constituencies • Political parties
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal

Main article: Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland

The population of Northern Ireland was estimated as being 1,710,300 on 30 June 2004. In the 2001 census, 53.1% of the Northern Irish population were Protestant, (Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Methodist and other Protestant denominations), 43.8% of the population were Roman Catholic, 0.4% Other and 2.7% none.^[11]^[12]

A plurality of the present-day population (40%) define themselves as Unionist, 22% as Nationalist and 35% define themselves as neither.^[13] According to a 2005 opinion poll, 58% express long term preference of the maintenance of Northern Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom, while 23% express a preference for membership of a united Ireland.^[14] This discrepancy can be explained by the overwhelming preference among Protestants to remain a part of the UK (85%), while Catholic preferences are spread across a number of solutions to the constitutional question including remaining a part of the UK (25%), a united Ireland (50%), Northern Ireland becoming an independent state (9%), and "don't know" (14%).^[15] Official voting figures, which reflect views on the "national question" along with issues of candidate, geography, personal loyalty and historic voting patterns, show 54% of Northern Ireland voters vote for Pro-Unionist parties, 42% vote for Pro-Nationalist parties and 4% vote "other". Opinion polls consistently show that the election results are not necessarily an indication of the electorate's stance regarding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.

Most of the population of Northern Ireland are at least nominally Christian. The ethno-political loyalties are allied, though not absolutely, to the Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations and these are the labels used to categorise the opposing views. This is, however, becoming increasingly irrelevant as the Irish Question is very complicated. Many voters (regardless of religious affiliation) are attracted to Unionism's conservative policies, while other voters are instead attracted to the traditionally leftist, nationalist Sinn Féin and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and their respective party platforms for Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy. For the most part, Protestants feel a strong connection with Great Britain and wish for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Catholics generally desire a greater connection with the Republic of Ireland, or are less certain about how to solve the constitutional question. In a survey by Northern Ireland Life and Times, quarter of Northern Irish Catholics were said to support Northern Ireland remaining a part of the United Kingdom ^{[citation needed]} (see Catholic Unionist). Despite this no Catholics in the survey stated they would vote for the Unionist Parties and only 5% would vote for the Alliance Party. ^{[citation needed]}

Protestants have a slight majority in Northern Ireland, according to the latest Northern Ireland Census.^[16] The make-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly reflects the appeals of the various parties within the population. Of the 108 members, 59 are Unionists and 42 are Nationalists (the remaining seven are classified as "other"). The largest single religious denomination is the Roman Catholic Church, which comprises a plurality, followed by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Church of Ireland (Anglican) and the Methodist Church.

The two opposing views of British unionism and Irish nationalism are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are overwhelmingly Protestant, descendants of mainly Scottish, English, Welsh and Huguenot settlers and indigenous Irishmen who had converted to one of the Protestant denominations.

Nationalists are predominantly Catholic and descend from the population predating the settlement, with a minority from Scottish Highlanders as well as some converts from Protestantism. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1921–1972) gave rise to the nationalist civil rights movement in the 1960s.^[17] Some Unionists argue that any discrimination was not just because of religious or political bigotry, but also the result of more complex socio-economic, socio-political and geographical factors.^[18] Whatever the cause, the existence of discrimination, and the manner in which Nationalist anger at it was handled, was a major contributing factor which led to the long-running conflict known as the Troubles. The political unrest went through its most violent phase in recent times between 1968 and 1994.^[19]

The main actors have been the Provisional Irish Republican Army and other republican groups who wish to bring about an end of the union with Great Britain, and various loyalist paramilitary groups who wish to maintain the union. The police force (the Royal Ulster Constabulary) and the British army were charged with maintaining law and order, though were frequently attacked by the nationalist