A report on Northern Ireland and Partition of Ireland

The traditional counties of Northern Ireland

Result in Ireland of the December 1910 United Kingdom general election showing a large majority for the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Ulster Volunteers marching in Belfast, 1914

Signing of the Ulster Covenant in 1912 in opposition to Home Rule

Result of the 1918 general election in Ireland showing the dramatic swing in support for Sinn Féin

Result of the 1918 general election in Ireland

Catholic-owned businesses destroyed by loyalists in Lisburn, August 1920

Crowds in Belfast for the state opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament on 22 June 1921

The Coat of arms of Northern Ireland used between 1924 and 1973

Members of the Irish negotiation committee returning to Ireland in December 1921

James Craig (centre) with members of the first government of Northern Ireland

North East Boundary Bureau recommendations May 1923

Opening of the Northern Ireland parliament buildings (Stormont) in 1932

Responsibility for Troubles-related deaths between 1969 and 2001

The Boundary Commission's proposed changes to the border

First Minister Ian Paisley (DUP) centre, and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) left, and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond right in 2008

A republican anti-partition march in London, 1980s

A flowchart illustrating all the political parties that have existed throughout the history of Northern Ireland and leading up to its formation (covering 1889 to 2020).

Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, seat of the assembly

ESA Sentinel-2 image of Northern Ireland

Köppen climate types of Northern Ireland

Goliath crane of Harland & Wolff in Belfast

2011 census: differences in proportions of those who are, or were brought up, either Catholic or Protestant/Other Christians

Map of predominant national identity in the 2011 census

Approximate boundaries of the current and historical English/Scots dialects in Ulster. South to north, the colour bands represent Hiberno-English, South-Ulster English, Mid-Ulster English and the three traditional Ulster Scots areas. The Irish-speaking Gaeltacht is not shown.

Percentage of people aged 3+ claiming to have some ability in Irish in the 2011 census

Percentage of people aged 3+ claiming to have some ability in Ulster Scots in the 2011 census

People carrying the Irish flag, overlooking those with the unionist Ulster Banner

George Best, Northern Irish international footballer and 1968 Ballon d'Or

Prominent Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy

Broadcasting House, Belfast, home of BBC Northern Ireland

The partition of Ireland (críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

- Partition of Ireland

Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties.

- Northern Ireland

45 related topics with Alpha

Seán Hogan's flying column of the IRA's 3rd Tipperary Brigade during the war

Irish War of Independence

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Guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC).

Result of the 1918 UK general election in Ireland

RIC and British Army personnel near Limerick, c.1920

Police wanted poster for Dan Breen, one of those involved in the Soloheadbeg Ambush in 1919.

Wall plaque in Great Denmark Street, Dublin where the Dublin IRA Active Service Unit was founded.

A group of "Black and Tans" and Auxiliaries in Dublin, April 1921

British soldiers and relatives of the victims outside Jervis Street Hospital during the military enquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings at Croke Park

Aftermath of the burning of Cork by British forces

A crowd gathers at the Mansion House in Dublin in the days before the truce

The funeral of Michael Collins
St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, August 1922

The Lord Lieutenant inspecting troops outside Belfast City Hall on the day Northern Ireland's parliament first met.

A mural in Belfast depicting revenge killings by police in Belfast.

Irish republican internees at Ballykinlar Internment Camp 1920

The symbol of the Republic:
The Irish tricolour which dated back to the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848.

A symbol of British rule:
The standard of the Lord Lieutenant, using the union flag created under the Act of Union 1800.

Monument to IRA fighters in Phibsborough, Dublin

Soldiers of a British cavalry regiment leaving Dublin in 1922

Constance Markievicz was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and fought in the Easter Rising. In 1919 she was appointed Minister for Labour in the Government of the Irish Republic

Conflict deaths in Belfast 1920–1922.
50–100 deaths per km2
100–150 deaths per km2
over 150 deaths per km2

In May 1921, Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act, which created Northern Ireland.

Ulster

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One of the four traditional Irish provinces.

Ulster (coloured), showing Northern Ireland in pink and the Republic of Ireland part in green

A bronze statue commemorating The Flight of the Earls at Rathmullan in north County Donegal.

A modern Protestant mural in Belfast celebrating Oliver Cromwell and his activities.

Royal Avenue, Belfast. Photochrom print circa 1890–1900.

The results of the 1918 Irish general election, in which Sinn Féin and the Irish Parliamentary Party won the majority of votes on the island of Ireland, shown in the color green and light green respectively, with the exception being primarily in the East of the province of Ulster.

The track of the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (CDRJC) restored next to Lough Finn, near Fintown station.

It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); the remaining three are in the Republic of Ireland.

This, and the subsequent Irish War of Independence, led to the partition of Ireland.

Hazards of separation from Great Britain. Unionist postcard (1912)

Unionism in Ireland

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Political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution.

Detail of the Battle of Ballynahinch 1798 by Thomas Robinson. Government Yeomanry prepare to hang United Irish insurgent Hugh McCulloch, a grocer.

1899 penny print of Henry Cooke's 1841 speech in "reply to Daniel O'Connell"

William Gladstone writing legislation under pressure from the Land League. Caricature 1881.

God Save the Queen, Erin Go Bragh, Ulster Unionist Convention, Belfast, 1892

Flag of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, 1893–1907

Signing the Ulster Covenant Declaration, "Ulster Day” 1912

An Orange Order banner showing Carson the signing of the Ulster Covenant 1912

The 1918 general election result in Ireland. Sinn Féin sweeps the south and west

The Coat of Arms of the Government of Northern Ireland used between 1924 and 1973

The statue of Lord Edward Carson in front of Parliament Buildings, Stormont

Mural for the Red Hand Commando (UVF) which, uniquely, had an Irish-language motto, Lamh Dearg Abu (Victory to the Red Hand)

Campaign against the Anglo-Irish Agreement

Detail from 2015 Sinn Féin election flyer, North Belfast

The cross of St. Patrick superimposed on the Scottish Saltire with a six-county star, Red Hand of Ulster and no crown: the "Ulster national flag" variously employed by Loyalist groups to represent an independent, or distinctly Ulster-Scot, Northern-Ireland identity.

Since Partition (1921), as Ulster Unionism its goal has been to maintain Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom and to resist a transfer of sovereignty to an all-Ireland republic.

The Troubles

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A "peace line" in Belfast, 2010, built to separate nationalist and unionist neighbourhoods

The Battle of the Boyne (12 July 1690) by Jan van Huchtenburg

The Ulster Covenant was issued in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill in September 1912.

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic was issued during the Easter Rising of April 1916.

Irish Boundary Commission final report map (1925) – religious distribution. The green areas signify catholic majority areas, the red areas signify non-catholic majority areas.

Sir James Craig, 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, who said, "All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and Protestant State".

A monument to Northern Ireland's first civil rights march

Loyalist banner and graffiti on a building in the Shankill area of Belfast, 1970

The Irish National Liberation Army began operations in the mid 1970s.

Republican mural in Belfast commemorating the hunger strikes of 1981

Grand Brighton Hotel after the IRA bomb attack in October 1984

Police officers looking at a burned van used by the IRA in the 1991 mortar attack on 10 Downing Street

The destruction caused by the Docklands bombing in London, 1996

A republican mural in Belfast during the mid-1990s bidding "safe home" (Slán Abhaile) to British troops. Security normalisation was one of the key points of the Good Friday Agreement.

A republican mural in Belfast with the slogan "Collusion is not an illusion"

Orangemen marching in Bangor on the Twelfth of July 2010

A watchtower at a heavily fortified RUC base in Crossmaglen

A "peace line" at the back of a house on Bombay Street, Belfast

The Troubles (Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.

A key issue was the status of Northern Ireland.

Government of Ireland Act 1920

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The Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo.

David Lloyd George, MP. The British Prime Minister was the author of the new Act.

The Act was intended to partition Ireland into two self-governing polities: the six north-eastern counties were to form "Northern Ireland", while the larger part of the country was to form "Southern Ireland".

The Union Flag, Ulster Banner and Orange Order flags are often flown by loyalists in Northern Ireland

Ulster loyalism

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Loyalist graffiti and banner on a building in a side street off the Shankill Road, Belfast (1970)

A loyalist marching band on The Twelfth, 2011

Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland.

This was followed by the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and partition of Ireland: most of Ireland became an independent state, while most of Ulster remained within the United Kingdom as the self-governing territory of Northern Ireland.

Map of Ireland in 1609 showing the major Plantations of Ireland

Irish republicanism

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Political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic.

Wolfe Tone circa 1794. Tone is considered by many as the father of Irish Republicanism

The Battle of Killala marked the end of the rising

William Smith O'Brien, leader of the Young Ireland movement

Some of the founding members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood

Seán Hogan's IRA flying column during the Irish War of Independence.

The funeral procession of Irish republican politician Martin McGuinness, Derry, Northern Ireland

That same year (1948), the republican movement took the decision to focus on Northern Ireland thereafter.

A variant of this is Irish republican legitimism, which also rejects the Republic of Ireland because of its tacit acceptance of partition and continuing British rule in Northern Ireland.

Ulster Volunteers

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Unionist, loyalist militia founded in 1912 to block domestic self-government for Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom.

After the war, the British Government decided to partition Ireland into two self-governing regions: Northern Ireland (which overall had a Protestant/unionist majority) and Southern Ireland.

Belfast

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Volunteer Corps parade down High Street, Bastille Day, 1792

Shankill Road during the Troubles, 1970s

Stormont is home to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Cavehill, a basaltic hill overlooking the city

Obel Tower is the tallest building in Belfast and Ireland.

Scottish Provident Institution, an example of Victorian architecture in Belfast

A recreation ground next to the Obel Tower. The Salmon of Knowledge is visible on the left.

A 1907 stereoscope postcard depicting the construction of a passenger liner (the RMS Adriatic) at the Harland and Wolff shipyard

Samson and Goliath, Harland & Wolff's gantry cranes

The Waterfront Hall. Built in 1997, the hall is a concert, exhibition and conference venue.

Silent Valley Reservoir, showing the brick-built overflow

Great Victoria Street station on Northern Ireland Railways

Glider bus rapid transit services opened in 2018.

AC/DC with Bon Scott (centre) pictured with guitarist Angus Young (left) and bassist Cliff Williams (back), performing at the Ulster Hall in August 1979

The Beatles emerging from the Ritz Cinema, Belfast, following their concert, 8 November 1963.

Broadcasting House, Belfast, Headquarters of the BBC in Northern Ireland.

Ravenhill Stadium is the home of Ulster Rugby

Titanic Belfast, devoted to the Belfast-built RMS Titanic, opened in 2012

Percentage Catholic or brought up Catholic

Percentage born outside the UK and Ireland

Belfast (, elsewhere ; from Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford' ) is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast.

Belfast suffered greatly during the violence that accompanied the partition of Ireland, and especially during the more recent conflict known as the Troubles.

Map of Ireland showing the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

United Ireland

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Proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state.

Proclamation of the Irish Republic, presented to the Irish people during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Result of the 1918 Irish general election

Voting on the Brexit referendum in Northern Ireland

Johnson and Macron meet during Brexit negotiations, 2019

Map of predominant national identity in the 2011 census in Northern Ireland

RED C/Sunday Times poll carried out in 2010 in the Republic of Ireland.

At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the majority of Ireland, while Northern Ireland, which lies entirely within (but does not constitute the entirety of) the Irish province of Ulster, is part of the United Kingdom.

Ireland has been partitioned since May 1921, when the implementation of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the state of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.