Category:Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland, consisting of the six most North Easterly counties of the island of Ireland, was created by the partition of Ireland in 1921. This was the culmination of a process which began with the organisation in 1912, of the armed Ulster Volunter Force, whose opposition to the constitutional movement for Irish Home Rule was supported by a section of the British ruling class. The subsequent development of an armed volunteer movement among Irish nationalists led to the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence.

The boundaries of Northern Ireland (six counties instead of the nine counties of the historic province of 'Ulster') were drawn specifically to ensure that it would contain a majority of Protestants in perpetuity.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement provided that that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom until a majority of the people of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. Should that happen, then the British and Irish governments are under "a binding obligation" to implement that choice.

Resources

• Conflict Archive on the Internet, University of Ulster.
• Victoria Hales Britain’s Forgotten Colony? New Histories VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3 - COLONIALISM, January 19, 2010.