The population of Northern Ireland is about 1.9 million people with a third of this population residing in the Belfast Metropolitan area. The August riots were the most sustained violence that Northern Ireland had seen since the early 1920s. Republicans regarded the state forces as combatants in the conflict, pointing to the collusion between the state forces and the loyalist paramilitaries as proof of this. In Northern Ireland, Protestants in favor of the monarchy had been in the majority for centuries. The Trustees are the custodians of schools within the Catholic managed sector. At the time of its creation, Northern Ireland's population was two-thirds Protestant and one-third Catholic. Although counties are no longer used for local governmental purposes, they remain a popular means of describing where places are. The team's roster has featured Northern Irish-born players such as Mark Morrison, Graeme Walton and Gareth Roberts among others. On January 30, 1972, Catholic nationalists in Derry organized a march to protest the British internment policy, but the military was called in to shut it down. The Free State, Northern Ireland, and UK governments agreed to suppress the report and accept the status quo, while the UK government agreed that the Free State would no longer have to pay a share of the UK national debt. Seventy percent of the economy's revenue comes from the service sector. Well see. These were created in 2015, replacing the twenty-six districts which previously existed.[139]. It too was almost wholly Protestant and lacked operational independence, responding to directions from government ministers. While bloodied protestors fled into the freezing river for protection, the RUC officers stood aside and did nothing to protect them, says Smyth. [40] Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war. [85], On 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA declared an end to its campaign and has since decommissioned what is thought to be all of its arsenal. It first met on 7 June and formed its first devolved government, headed by Ulster Unionist Party leader James Craig. (National Library of Ireland on The Commons / Wikimedia Commons). In the summer of 1920, sectarian violence erupted in Belfast and Derry, and there were mass burnings of Catholic property in Lisburn and Banbridge. [208] Two of the three major international road race meetings are held in Northern Ireland, these being the North West 200[209] and the Ulster Grand Prix. "The Paradox of Reform: The Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland", in. The British troops were initially welcomed by the Catholic nationalists as potential protectors, but the military soon instituted a controversial policy of internment without trial, after which hundreds of suspected IRA members were rounded up and imprisoned without due process. The year 2021 marks 100 years since the Government of the United Kingdom and Ireland divided the Emerald Isle into two self-governing political entitiesNorthern Ireland and Southern Irelandunder the Government of Ireland Act. In 1973, Northern Ireland held a referendum to determine if it should remain in the United Kingdom, or be part of a united Ireland. Many Catholics however, generally aspire to a United Ireland or are less certain about how to solve the constitutional question. Following this, the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain pushed for the two kingdoms to be merged, in an attempt to quell violent sectarianism, remove discriminatory laws, and prevent the spread of French-style republicanism. However, Home Rule became a near-certainty in 1912 after the Government of Ireland Act 1914 was first introduced. Yet from the Old Testament through to the Crusades and the inquisitions, Christian history is full of violence. In September 1919, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George tasked a committee with planning another home rule bill. Young nationalist leaders like John Hume, Austin Currie and Bernadette Devlin refused to accept the status quo. Basically the entire Northern Ireland state collapsed over a period of three or four days, says Smyth. The ITV franchise in Northern Ireland is UTV. And they dont identify with Protestant unionists, nor with Catholic nationalists. Some of them wore the white armbands of the B-Specials, an auxiliary police unit of the RUC. These figures based on the 2021 census at district level mask wide variations on smaller scales. Some authors choose this word but note that it is "unsatisfactory". That fact made Northern Ireland a bigger entity than anyone had expected it to be and also heightened the animosities on both sides. And the other near Belfast City Centre by (catholic) career criminals and scumbags who now can seemingly batter and kill on a whim. With their decline in official use, there is often confusion surrounding towns and cities which lie near county boundaries, such as Belfast and Lisburn, which are split between counties Down and Antrim (the majorities of both cities, however, are in Antrim). 356 species of marine algae have been recorded in the northeast of Ireland. Northern Ireland has produced two world snooker champions; Alex Higgins, who won the title in 1972 and 1982, and Dennis Taylor, who won in 1985. [13][110] The BBC style guide is to refer to Northern Ireland as a province, and use of the term is common in literature and newspaper reports on Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. But after the failure of the Rising and the subsequent executions of the leading revolutionaries the tricolour and 'The Soldier's Song' became more and more popular as symbols of the rebellion. The origins of the Troubles date back to centuries of warfare in which the predominantly Catholic people of Ireland attempted to break free of British (overwhelmingly Protestant) rule. [198][199] The Northern Ireland national football team also uses the Ulster Banner as its flag but uses "God Save The King" as its anthem. downloading the latest version of Internet Explorer, 100 years on: The partition of Ireland explained, Microscopes and soap bubbles show the art of science, Douglass Leadership House to undergo operational, physical changes. Irish nationalists had also formed a paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. So that made Ulster culturally and confessionally distinct. [56] Conflict continued intermittently for two years, mostly in Belfast, which saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between Protestants and Catholics, including rioting, gun battles, and bombings. It defies the whole spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, the power-sharing agreement that ended the Troubles, in 1998, and tended to diminish the distinctions between north and south. It is still used by some British army regiments. But Irish nationalists had unilaterally declared an independent Ireland and launched a guerrilla campaignthe Irish War of Independence, or Anglo-Irish War (191921) and refused to recognize the act; they refused to reconcile themselves to remaining within the United Kingdom. Government and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland often use the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster, the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Orchestra, and BBC Radio Ulster. It decided that two devolved governments should be establishedone for the nine counties of Ulster and one for the rest of Irelandtogether with a Council of Ireland for the "encouragement of Irish unity". He was drafted 1st overall in the 1990 NHL Draft by the Quebec Nordiques. It came into force on 3 May 1921,[54][55] partitioning Ireland and creating Northern Ireland. In the 1918 Irish general election, the pro-independence Sinn Fin party won the overwhelming majority of Irish seats. [150] This was the first time since Northern Ireland's creation that there were more people from a Catholic background than Protestant. However, many players from Northern Ireland compete with clubs in England and Scotland. The Irish Times, May 2008. [167], In recent censuses, residents said they held the following passports:[154][168], Irish is an official language of Northern Ireland as of 6 December 2022 when the Irish Language Act (Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022) became law. NISL takes a large component from the British family of sign language (which also includes Auslan) with many borrowings from ASL. The wrestling promotion features championships, former WWE superstars and local independent wrestlers. The UK flags policy states that in Northern Ireland, "The Ulster flag and the Cross of St Patrick have no official status and, under the Flags Regulations, are not permitted to be flown from Government Buildings. The whole of Ireland has a mainline railway network with a gauge of 5ft 3in (1,600mm), which is unique in Europe and has resulted in distinct rolling stock designs. The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 151 square miles (391km2) the largest freshwater lake both on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles. [148] In 2021 the largest non-white ethnic groups were black (0.6%), Indian (0.5%), and Chinese (0.5%). In May 2022, the UK Government proposed a bill in the House of Lords to make Irish an official language (and support Ulster Scots) in Northern Ireland and to create an Irish Language Commissioner. But in the south, it was mostly English Anglican Protestants who had a lot more in common with Catholicism, and with the Catholic peasantry, than did these Calvinist Presbyterians of Ulster. The "Ballast" investigation by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has confirmed that British forces, and in particular the RUC, did collude with loyalist paramilitaries, were involved in murder, and did obstruct the course of justice when such claims had been investigated,[81] although the extent to which such collusion occurred is still disputed. The Irish restriction was given effect by the twenty-seventh amendment to the Irish Constitution in 2004. They couldnt maintain order, so the British had to come in.. [68], The Nationalist Party was the main political party in opposition to the UUP governments. The current wording provides that people born in Northern Ireland are entitled to be Irish citizens on the same basis as people from any other part of the island. [194] The former Northern Ireland flag, also known as the "Ulster Banner" or "Red Hand Flag", is a banner derived from the coat of arms of the Government of Northern Ireland until 1972. "[183], Along with the Irish language, the Good Friday Agreement recognised the dialect as part of Northern Ireland's unique culture and the St Andrews Agreement recognised the need to "enhance and develop the Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture". Players play for local clubs with the best being selected for their county teams. The Liberal government was dependent on Nationalist support, and the Parliament Act 1911 prevented the House of Lords from blocking the bill indefinitely. [47] Most Ulster unionists wanted the territory of the Ulster government to be reduced to six counties so that it would have a larger Protestant unionist majority, which they believed would guarantee its longevity. Religious Demographics About 93% of the Northern Irish population identifies as Christian, 1% is non-Christian and 6% is not religious. Strangford Lough is the largest inlet in the British Isles, covering 150km2 (58sqmi). [36] It is estimated that there are more than 27million Scotch-Irish Americans now living in the United States,[37] along with many Scotch-Irish Canadians in Canada.
