POLITICS

Northern Ireland Political Flag

The Ulster Unionist Party governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972. More recently, the party has split into two groups; the Official Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party; the latter, led by the Reverend Ian Paisley, is opposed to any compromise on Northern Irelandís future in relation to Great Britain and is the most hostile to the Republic of Ireland. The other main political parties are the Social Democratic and Labour Party, which supports peaceful reunification with Ireland, the Alliance Party, and Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

ARTS AND CULTURE

In the arts and cultural life it is generally difficult to distinguish between native and imported. Few traces remain of any culture predating the Tudor invasions of the 16th century and the forced settlements of Scots early in the following century. Folk participation and recreation are periodically focused on colourful and noisy religious ceremonies and processions. In other respects, the cultural milieu of Northern Ireland is one shared with the remainder of the British Isles. The accents given to the English language represent the most obvious of the few truly distinctive regional characteristics.

Northern Ireland has an Arts Council, which encourages all aspects of the arts. Its activities tend to be concentrated in Belfast because this city alone can support ballet and opera companies. Belfast has theatres, a touring company based on the University of Ulster, a symphony orchestra, and a youth orchestra. In addition, it possesses a permanent art gallery, as does Londonderry. Ulster Television, Ltd., provides local programming in competition with the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Ulster Museum is the national museum, while the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum provides an interesting link with peasant origins in Northern Ireland.

HISTORY

Northern Ireland is today one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, (although it is also described by official sources as a province or a region) situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland, having been created as a separate legal entity on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster: four counties with unionist majorities, and Fermanagh and Tyrone, two of the five Ulster counties which had nationalist majorities. In large part unionists, at least in the northeast, supported its creation while nationalists were opposed. Subsequently, on 6 December 1922, the whole island of Ireland became an independentdominion known as the Irish Free State but Northern Ireland immediately exercised its right to opt out of the new dominion.

EDUCATION

The country has two universities: Queenís University of Belfast, founded as Queenís College in 1845, and the University of Ulster, with campuses in Coleraine, Belfast, Jordanstown, and Londonderry, was established in 1984 by the merger of the New University of Ulster and Ulster Polytechnic..

The total annual university enrollment in the early 1990s was about 17,000. Two colleges, the Belfast College of Technology (1901) and the Union Theological College (1978), are in Belfast.

RELIGION

About two-fifths of the population is Roman Catholic, while more than one-fifth is Presbyterian, with less than one-fifth Episcopalian (Church of Ireland); Methodists and members of other sects make up most of the remainder. The distribution of Catholics and Protestants is, however, very uneven. In country districts the latter are in a majority in the north and east. Elsewhere they are in a minority, though fairly highly localized. Most towns have a Protestant majority: this is the case in Belfast, where Catholics make up less than one-third of the population. Towns remote from Belfast--Newry and Londonderry--are more than half Roman Catholic. In the towns there is a high degree of segregation of the sects, and mixing is minimal. Industrial western Belfast is split into two sectors along two axial roads. The Falls Road is as exclusively Catholic as the Shankill Road is Protestant. In many streets adjoining the boundary line, segregation is effectively complete. East Belfast has an exclusively Catholic core, but segregation is less apparent in the middle-class suburbs. Segregation increases as socioeconomic status decreases. Civil disturbances are almost always confined to locations in which segregation is highest. The proportions of the sects are changing slightly because of a differential in birth rate. In Belfast, for example, fertility rates in Catholic districts are much higher than in Protestant areas. There has been a relative decline of Protestants in the 20th century, though they have remained more or less stable in absolute numbers, and a relative and absolute increase of Catholics.

GOVERNMENT

  

Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for the purposes of local government. Each district is run by a council responsible for a variety of administrative functions. As an integral part of Great Britain, Northern Ireland elects members (now 18) to the British House of Commons.

MAJOR TOWNS AND CITIES

The capital and largest city of Northern Ireland is Belfast, County Antrim, (population, 1991 preliminary, 279,237), which is surrounded by heavy industries including shipbuilding and textiles. The other major city in Northern Ireland is Londonderry, County Londonderry (72,334).

POPULATION

Northern Ireland has the smallest population of the countries of the United Kingdom. The population is fairly static, as migration roughly balances natural increase. The birth rate is much higher than in Great Britain. Consequently Northern Ireland has a young population, with relatively fewer older people. The population is unevenly distributed, sparse over the uplands, heavy in the valleys, and greater in the east than in the west. Since the 1950s, Belfast, like other British cities, has lost population, especially from its centre, and has shared in the decline of mainland cities.

THE PEOPLE AND THE LANGUAGE

The cultural differences that underlie many of Northern Ireland's contemporary social problems have a long and troubled history. The province has had lasting links with parts of western Scotland, strengthened by constant population movements. After the Tudor invasions and particularly after the forced settlements, or plantations, of the early 17th century, the English and Scottish elements were further differentiated from the native Irish by their Protestant faith. Two distinct and often antagonistic elements--the indigenous Roman Catholic Irish and the intrusive Protestant English and Scots--date from that period, and they have played a significant role in molding the province's development. The intrusive element dominated former County Antrim and northern Down, controlled the Lagan corridor toward Armagh, and also formed powerful minorities elsewhere.

This situation contributed to the decline of spoken Gaelic, and it is reflected in the contemporary distribution of religions. Gaelic is now only occasionally heard at a traditional entertainment, though it is taught in secondary schools and at universities. The accents given to English, however, are regionally distinctive. The northeastern dialect, dominating the former counties of Antrim and Londonderry and parts of Down, is an offshoot of central Scots dialect and reflects the latter in almost all its features. The remainder of the province, including the Lagan valley, has accents derived from England, more particularly from Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and southern Lancashire, as well as the West Country counties of Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, and Devon. The towns show more of a mixture and an overlay of standard English.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Northern Ireland,constituent part of the United Kingdom, lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, itself located on that western continental periphery often characterized as Atlantic Europe. Northern Ireland is often referred to as the province of Ulster (and its inhabitants as Ulstermen), though it includes only six of the nine counties which made up that historic Irish entity. Northern Ireland occupies an area of 5,452 square miles (14,120 square kilometres), about a sixth of the whole of the island, and is separated on the east from Scotland, another constituent country of the United Kingdom, by the narrow North Channel, which is at one point only 13 miles (21 kilometres) wide. The Irish Sea separates Northern Ireland from England and Wales on the east and southeast, respectively, and the Atlantic Ocean lies to the north. The southern border is with the republic of Ireland.