The northeastern part of the island of Ireland is occupied by Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It covers only one sixth of the total area of the island but has about one third of the population. The rest of the island is occupied by the Republic of Ireland.
   Northern Ireland is sometimes called Ulster because it includes six of the nine counties that made up the early Celtic kingdom, or province, of Ulster. The cultural links of most of the people of Northern Ireland with Scotland and England are quite strong, although some have closer familial ties with the Republic of Ireland. About two thirds of the people of Northern Ireland are descended from Scottish and English settlers who came to Ulster mainly in the 17th century, and most of them are Protestants. The remainder of the population are Irish in origin and are mainly Roman Catholics.
   Politics in Northern Ireland has long been dominated by the issue of union or separation with the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, and this split has followed religious lines. The majority of the people have voted in favor of Northern Ireland remaining in the United Kingdom. Elections on the issue must be held at not less than ten-year intervals.
   Until 1973 Northern Ireland was administratively divided into six counties: Londonderry and Antrim, in the north; Tyrone, in the center; and Fermanagh, Armagh, and Down, in the south. Although the traditional county boundaries still exist, local government is now administered by 26 local authority areas based on the larger urban centers. The land area of Northern Ireland totals 5,462 square miles (14,153 square kilometers).

Land and Climate

The land is shaped like a saucer, with lowlands in the center rimmed by highlands. Glaciation left the lowlands with a variety of drift deposits and gave the landscape its gentle, rolling hills, its marshy hollows and peat bogs, and its river valleys. The Antrim Plateau rises in the northeast, the Sperrin Mountains in the northwest, and the Mourne Mountains in the southeast. The highest point is Slieve Donard, rising to 2,796 feet (852 meters) in the Mourne Mountains in County Down.
   Near the center of the province lies Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles. The River Bann drains this lake to the north. County Fermanagh, in the southwest, contains the sister lakes of Upper Lough Erne and Lower Lough Erne, connected by the Erne River. In this area are the rounded drumlins--smooth, elongated, Ice Age mounds. The seashores are rocky, but deep inlets provide excellent harbors. On the northern coast of the country rises the striking natural formation called the Giant's Causeway, which is made up of thousands of columns of basalt rock.
   Northern Ireland's temperate, maritime climate is dominated by low-pressure Atlantic storm systems, which cause cool and humid conditions that keep the country green in all seasons. Strong southwesterly winds are frequent. Rainfall varies between an annual average of 32 inches (825 millimeters) in the Lough Neagh basin to 80 inches (2,000 millimeters) in the western mountains of Tyrone. Temperatures in Northern Ireland range from an average daily maximum 65o F (18o C) in July to an average daily minimum of 34o F (1o C) in January.

Economy

Unlike the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland is highly industrialized. Locally grown flax and an abundant supply of fresh water stimulated the development of the famous Irish linen industry in Ulster in the 18th century. Much of the flax is now imported, and the linen industry has been surpassed by the cotton and synthetic fiber industries. Northern Ireland has almost no native fuel supplies, and coal, natural gas, and oil are imported from Great Britain. Quarries supply basalt, sand and gravel, grit and conglomerate, limestone, granite, rock salt, chalk, and clay.
   About one quarter of the people live in Belfast, the capital, a seaport on the east coast. Belfast has large shipbuilding, aircraft and aerospace, and automobile industries. It also makes textile, marine, and mining machinery; rope and twine; and cotton textiles. The second city in size is Londonderry, also called Derry, in the north on the River Foyle. It has a large clothing and footwear industry.
   The cool and rainy climate produces good grass and rich pastures, which support dairying and cattle and sheep raising. Pigs and poultry also boost the incomes generated from Northern Ireland's small farms. Apart from grass, hay, and turnips for stock feeding, the main crops grown are barley, potatoes, wheat, and oats. Commercial fisheries catch lobsters, cod, whiting, herring, and salmon in the sea and eels and trout in the inland waters.

Government and History

Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, is represented by 12 members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons in Westminster. The Northern Ireland government is at Stormont, near Belfast. It is directed and controlled by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a national government cabinet post as outlined in the Northern Ireland Act of 1974. The national government's concern has been principally with law and order, political and constitutional affairs, and security policy. The 26 local government districts are subdivided into 526 wards. General elections at the local government level take place every four years.
   In ancient times the Celtic Kingdom of Ulster included Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan, in addition to the present six counties. Celtic Ulster had its chief fortress or center of rule, Navan Fort, at Emain Macha near Armagh. The power of the religious leaders of the Celts, known as druids, was diminished after Christianity was introduced in the 5th century by St. Patrick. The first appearance of the Norsemen, or Vikings, on the Irish coast is recorded in 795. They established settlements and controlled trade and commerce for about two centuries, until 1014. The last effort to establish Norse domination was by Magnus III, king of Norway, who was slain in 1103 during a raid on the Ulster coast.
   In the 11th and 12th centuries the reform movement in the Roman Catholic church was extended into Ireland. Pope Adrian IV granted Ireland to King Henry II of England on the condition that he bring order to the Irish church and state. Henry II arrived in Ireland in 1171, placing Ireland in a position of subordination.
   The lords of Ulster long challenged British rule. In 1607 scores of Celtic chieftains fled from Northern Ireland forever. This "flight of the earls" marked the end of ancient Celtic Ulster. Britain declared the earls guilty of treason and seized their great estates. James I sent Scottish and English colonists to settle "plantations" on the seized land. Presbyterian and Episcopal churches appeared in a country that had been wholly Roman Catholic. A general uprising in Ulster by the Catholics against the Protestants occurred in 1641, and thousands of colonists were murdered or forced to flee. Irish confederate armies could offer little resistance to the English forces led by Oliver Cromwell. By 1652 Irish resistance had ended and power remained with the Protestants.
   In the 19th century the southern Irish began a movement for Home Rule. Ulster "Unionists" clung to the union with Great Britain. In 1920 the Government of Ireland Act created Northern Ireland out of the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster. The other three counties joined the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland). Fierce dissension arose in Ulster between the Catholic minority and the Protestant Unionists. The southern Irish almost brought on civil war by demanding Fermanagh and Tyrone counties and several border towns. In 1925 the dispute was settled in favor of Northern Ireland.
   Relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland began to improve in the early 1960s. In 1968, however, tensions flared between Protestants and Catholics. The Catholic minority was protesting the government's denial of political and economic rights. In the following years civil violence plagued Ulster and British troops were sent to troubled areas. In 1972 the British government suspended the provincial government and the parliament of Northern Ireland and imposed direct rule from London. In March 1973, in a referendum boycotted by Catholics, the Ulster Protestants voted to remain part of the United Kingdom rather than join the Irish Republic.
   An experiment in political power-sharing began in 1973 between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority. A coalition Assembly was elected to replace the former parliament, and an 11-member Executive, which included four Catholics, took control of a provisional government. But violence intensified, and a general strike paralyzed the state. Britain resumed direct rule. The conflict raged through the 1980s.
   In 1982 an Assembly was created in the hope that the two sides could compromise. In 1985 Britain and the Republic of Ireland signed an agreement giving the latter a voice in the affairs of Northern Ireland. In June 1986 the Assembly was dissolved by the British government because it had failed to unite Roman Catholics and Protestants. Talks held in 1991 that were aimed at returning Northern Ireland to local rule broke off because no progress could be made, but British and Irish leaders agreed to meet every six months to pressure political leaders to resume peace talks.
   In August 1994 the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a militant organization seeking to end British rule in Northern Ireland, announced a cease-fire in a new determination to find a political solution to the conflict. Amid great hope the peace process began, but delays and setbacks stalled progress. In February 1996 the IRA, disappointed by the slow progress of the peace efforts, ended its cease-fire with a series of bombings. Later that month prime ministers John Major of Great Britain and John Bruton of Ireland agreed to restart the peace negotiations but said that Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, would not be allowed to take part in the talks until the IRA restored its cease-fire. Talks headed by former United States Senator George Mitchell began in Belfast in June between the British and Irish governments and all the major political parties in Northern Ireland except Sinn Fein. The IRA detonated a bomb in Manchester, England, soon after the start of negotiations.
   Prospects for a return of Sinn Fein to the bargaining table increased in May 1997 when the Labour party won control of the British Parliament and Tony Blair became prime minister of the United Kingdom. His predecessor, Conservative party leader John Major, had developed a reputation of being hostile to the interests of the IRA and Sinn Fein. In July the IRA announced that it would resume the cease-fire, clearing the way for the participation of Sinn Fein in multiparty discussions. In September representatives and officials from the governments of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and the United States were joined in Belfast by Gerry Adams, the leader of the predominantly Roman Catholic Sinn Fein, and David Trimble, the leader of the overwhelmingly Protestant Ulster Unionist party (UUP). The presence of the leader of Sinn Fein and of the Ulster Unionists marked the first time that representatives from the antagonistic factions had met for direct negotiations since the partition of the island of Ireland. Sinn Fein made a strong reversal of previous statements and agreed to renounce the use of violence and terror as means of settling the longstanding territorial dispute. Grudgingly, the IRA approved the Sinn Fein pledge of nonviolence but continued to insist that it would remain armed until a peace settlement was ratified by all sides.
   In December 1997 Adams made history when he traveled to 10 Downing Street in London--the official address of the British prime minister--to meet with Blair to discuss their respective views on the peace process. Adams became the first Irish republican leader to visit the official seat of the British government since Irish revolutionary Michael Collins met with prime minister David Lloyd George in 1921. The following month Blair announced the opening of a new judiciary investigation into a massacre of Irish Catholic demonstrators in Londonderry in January of 1972. That episode, known as "Bloody Sunday," culminated in the shooting of 14 demonstrators by British soldiers, making it the single worst instance of British violence toward the Catholic population of Northern Ireland since 1920. Bloody Sunday had remained a cause of hostility between the Catholic population of Northern Ireland and the British government, and Blair stated that he hoped that a new inquiry into the killings would "establish the truth and close this painful chapter once and for all."
   On April 10, 1998, leaders from Northern Ireland's main Catholic- and Protestant-backed political parties, including the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein--joined by officials from England, Ireland, and the United States--announced that they had agreed upon a historic accord designed to bring about lasting peace. Under the terms of the accord, Catholic- and Protestant-backed political parties would jointly assume many of the responsibilities of governing the region through a semi-autonomous 108-member assembly. Elections for the Northern Ireland assembly would determine the composition of the Northern Irish government, with the top vote-getting party winning the right to hold the prime minister's post. Ministers in the Northern Ireland government would then be chosen from the region's various political parties, with the number of ministry seats designated to each party determined in proportion to the number of votes received in the elections. In addition to the national assembly, the ministers of the Northern Ireland government would also serve in a North-South Ministerial Council with leaders from the Republic of Ireland. This council--designed to placate the pro-unification sympathies of Northern Ireland's Catholic population--would work to forge stronger economic, agricultural, and diplomatic bonds with the Republic of Ireland. In exchange for the creation of the North-South Ministerial Council, the government of Ireland agreed to put to a national referendum a proposal that would remove from Ireland's constitution any claims to sovereignty over Northern Ireland. In a compromise designed to win the support of Northern Ireland's Protestant population, leaders of the Northern Ireland Assembly would also take part in another council, dubbed the Council of the Isles. Composed of members of the British and Irish Parliaments, as well as representatives from the new independent assemblies of Scotland and Wales, the Council of the Isles would have no legislative or administrative powers over Northern Ireland. Finally, in another measure designed to secure the support of Northern Ireland's majority Protestant population, the agreement stated that Northern Ireland would remain a part of the United Kingdom unless the population democratically elected to forge a union with the Republic of Ireland.
   In a referendum held on May 23, 1998, voters across the island of Ireland gave resounding support to the peace proposal. Nearly 95 percent of voters in Ireland and 71 percent of the voters in Northern Ireland backed the accord, paving the way for general elections to determine the composition of the national assembly. In backing the agreement, the IRA and Sinn Fein accepted the principle that unification between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would come about through democratic means alone, and not through violence. As part of the accord, the Irish constitution's territorial claim on Northern Ireland was replaced with a clause stating that unification between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should come about through the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland alone.
    Despite the strong support for the accord, numerous obstacles stood in the path toward a lasting peace. Following years of mutual recriminations and violence, Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, remained clearly skeptical of Sinn Fein and the IRA. In addition to tensions between Catholic and Protestant groups, there also existed a brewing rift between Trimble's followers and Protestant followers of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist party. Paisley, a preacher and politician with a reputation as a fierce proponent of union between Northern Ireland and Britain, had led the Protestant opposition to the accord. While Paisley failed to undermine the accord, some 29 percent of the Protestant population did back his call to reject the agreement. Some political analysts warned that Paisley's party, along with other opponents of the peace accord, might gain enough influence in the proposed assembly to block future initiatives for peace. Finally, militant Catholic and Protestant groups opposed to the accord posed another obstacle to the peace process. While such groups as the IRA and the militant Protestant Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force had renounced the use of violence in order to allow their political wings to participate in the peace process, other fringe groups continued vehemently to oppose any political compromise. Population (1994 estimate), 1,641,700.