Northern Ireland

Template:Northern Ireland infobox Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Ireland, where it shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, the only part of the United Kingdom with an international land border. It was created by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920.

It covers 14,139 square kilometres (5,459 square miles) in the north-east of the island of Ireland, about a sixth of the total area of the island, and has a population of 1,685,000 (April 2001) — between a quarter and a third of the island's total population.

A slight majority of the present-day population are unionist and wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, but a significant minority, known as nationalists, want to see a united Ireland. These two views are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are predominantly Protestant and often descendants of Scottish and English (mainly Scottish) settlement in previous centuries, while nationalists are predominantly Catholic and usually descend from the population predating such settlement. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1920–72) gave rise to the nationalist "Civil Rights Movement" in the 1960s, and eventually to a long-running conflict known as The Troubles. Political unrest has gone through its most violent phase in recent times between 1968–1994. The main actors have been paramilitaries representing minorities from both sides of the divide and the RUC and British army representing the British authorities and the Northern Ireland state. As a consequence of the worsening security situation, self-government for Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. Since the mid-1990s, the main paramilitary group, the Provisional IRA has observed an uneasy ceasefire. Following negotiations, the Belfast Agreement of 1998 provides for an elected Northern Ireland Assembly, and a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive comprising representatives of all the main parties. These institutions have been suspended since 2002 because of PSNI allegations of spying by people working for Sinn Fein at the Assembly, although nobody was convicted after a high-profile operation.

Symbols

Flag of Northern Ireland from 1953 till 1972, used unofficially in sporting and international contexts.

Today, Northern Ireland comprises a diverse patchwork of community rivalries, represented in some areas by whole communities where lamp posts and some homes fly the Irish national flag, the tricolour, or the Union Flag, the symbol of British identity, while even the kerbstones in less affluent areas get painted green-white-orange or red-white-blue, depending on whether a local community expresses nationalist/republican or unionist/loyalist sympathies.

According to the United Nations, the only official Flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. The 'Northern Ireland Flag' (or 'Red Hand Flag') is no longer official due to the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1972. Unionists tend to use the Union flag and sometimes the Northern Ireland Flag, while nationalists typically use the Irish tricolour. Some unionists also occasionally use the flags of secular and religious organizations they belong to. The Northern Ireland flag is based on the Ulster flag.[1] (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/symbols/flags.htm) Some groups, including the Irish Rugby Football Union have used the Flag of St. Patrick as a symbol of Ireland which lacks the same nationalist or unionist connotations, but even this is felt by some to be a loyalist flag, as it was designed by the British and is used by some British army regiments. No universally acceptable symbol has yet been found.

Similarly, there is no longer an official national anthem. At most events requiring a Northern Irish national anthem, God Save The Queen is played, although sometimes the old anthem A Londonderry Air, perhaps better known outside Northern Ireland as the tune of Danny Boy, is used.

Geography and climate

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Map of Northern Ireland

Main article: Geography of Ireland, Geography of the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland was covered by an ice sheet for most of the last ice age and on numerous previous occasions, the legacy of which can be seen in the extensive coverage of drumlins in Counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and particularly Down. The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 392 km² the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh.

There are substantial uplands in the Sperrin Mountains (an extension of the Caledonian fold mountains) with extensive gold deposits, granite Mourne Mountains and basalt Antrim Plateau, as well as smaller ranges in South Armagh and along the Fermanagh–Tyrone border. None of the hills is especially high, with Slieve Donard in the dramatic Mournes reaching 848 metres, Northern Ireland's highest point. The volcanic activity which created the Antrim Plateau also formed the eerily geometric pillars of the Giant's Causeway.

The Lower and Upper River Bann, River Foyle and River Blackwater form extensive fertile lowlands, with excellent arable land also found in North and East Down, although much of the hill country is marginal and suitable largely for animal husbandry.

The valley of the River Lagan is dominated by Belfast, whose metropolitan area includes over a third of the population of Northern Ireland, with heavy urbanisation and industrialisation along the Lagan Valley and both shores of Belfast Lough.

The whole of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is persistent across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5°C (43.7°F) in January and 17.5°C (63.5°F) in July. The damp climate and extensive deforestation in the 16^th and 17^th centuries resulted in much of the region being covered in rich green grassland.

The Counties in Northern Ireland

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Mussenden Temple/Co. Antrim

Northern Ireland consists of six Irish counties:

These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead there are twenty-six districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents, even in the case those named after the counties from which they derive their name. Fermanagh District Council most closely follows the borders of the county it takes its name from.

Towns and villages

Main article: List of towns in Northern Ireland See also the list of places in Northern Ireland for all villages, towns and cities

Ahoghill, Armagh, Antrim
Ballycastle, Ballyclare, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Bangor, Belfast, Bushmills
Carnmoney, Carrickfergus,Comber, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon
Donaghadee, Downpatrick, Dundonald, Dungannon, Dungiven
Enniskillen
Glengormley
Hillsborough, Holywood
Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Londonderry, Lurgan
Magherafelt
Newcastle, Newry, Newtownards, Newtownstewart
Omagh
Portrush, Portstewart, Portadown, Portaferry
Strabane
Warrenpoint

Places of interest

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Giants Causeway

The Mountains of Mourne
Lough Neagh, the biggest lake in the British Isles, 153 square miles
Lough Erne
Strangford Lough
Carlingford Lough
The Giant's Causeway
The Glens of Antrim
Fermanagh Lakeland
The Sperrin Mountains
National parks of Northern Ireland
National Trust Properties in Northern Ireland

Variations in Geographic nomenclature

Many people inside and outside Northern Ireland use other names for the entity, as part of a linguistic agenda to define the nature of the state from their historic, cultural or political viewpoint.

The most common names used are

Unionist

Ulster - to suggest that Northern Ireland has an older ancestry that predates its founding in 1921, dating back both to the Plantation of Ulster in the late middle ages and to the millennium-old province of Ulster, one of four provinces on the island of Ireland. The island's province of Ulster covers a greater landmass than Northern Ireland: 6 of its counties are in Northern Ireland, 3 in the Republic of Ireland.

The Province - to again link to the historic Irish province of Ulster, with its mythology.

Nationalist

North of Ireland - to link Northern Ireland to the island of Ireland, by describing, as is geographically accurate , the state as the 'north of Ireland' and so by implication playing down Northern Ireland's links with Britain.

Pro-Belfast Agreement Republican

The Six Counties - language which avoids using the name given to the state by the British-enacted Government of Ireland Act, 1920. (The Republic is similarly described as the Twenty-Six Counties.) Some of the users of this term fear using the official name of the region would imply acceptance of the legitimacy of the Government of Ireland Act.

Anti-Belfast Agreement Republicans

The Occupied Six Counties. The Republic, whose existence is also opposed by such groups, is described as being "The Free State, referring to the Irish Free State, the Republic's old name.

The use of language for Northern Irish geography

Disagreement on nomenclature, and the reading of political symbolism into the use or non-use of a word, also attaches to some urban centres. The most famous example is whether Northern Ireland's second city should be called Derry or Londonderry.

Choice of language and nomenclature in Northern Ireland often reveals the cultural, ethnic and religious identity of the speaker. The first Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Seamus Mallon was criticised by unionists for always calling the state the "North of Ireland" while Sinn Féin has been criticised in some newspapers in the Republic for continuing to refer to the "Six Counties". Nationalists have in turn criticised unionist leaders, for constantly referring to the state as "Ulster".

Those who do not belong to any group but lean towards one side often tend to use the language of that group. Supporters of unionism in the British media (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) regularly call Northern Ireland "Ulster" while nationalist and republican-leaning media outlets in Ireland (such as Daily Ireland) almost always use "North of Ireland" or the "Six Counties".

State institutions and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland, particularly those pre-dating the 1980s, often used the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster, the Ulster Orchestra, Ulster Hall and Ulster Television, which changed its name to simply UTV so not to offend anyone.

Many news bulletins since the 1990s have opted avoid all contentious terms and use either the official name, Northern Ireland, or the shorter term, "the North". For the North's second city, broadcasting outlets which are unaligned to either community and broadcasts to both, use both names interchangably, often starting a report with "Londonderry" and then using "Derry" in the rest of the report. However within Northern Ireland, print media which are aligned to either community (the Belfast Newsletter is aligned to the Unionist Community while the Irish News is aligned to the Nationalist Community) generally use their community's preferred term. British newspapers with Unionist leanings, such as the Daily Telegraph[2] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F06%2F16%2Fnblud16.xml), usually use the language of the Unionist Community, while others, such as The Guardian use the terms interchangably [3] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,184915,00.html) [4] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,1394346,00.html) The media in the Republic of Ireland use the nomenclature preferred by Nationalists, eg RTÉ News (http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0609/northviolence.html).

The division in nomenclature is seen particularly in sports and religions associated with one of the communities. Gaelic games and soccer use Derry in club names for example. However, to complicate matters both the largely Unionist Church of Ireland and the largely Nationalist Roman Catholic Church each calls their local bishop Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. Nor is there clear agreement on how to decide on a name. When the Nationalist-dominated local council voted to name the city Derry Unionists objected, stating that as it owed its city status to a Royal Charter, only a charter issued by Queen Elizabeth II could change the name. Queen Elizabeth refused to intervene on the matter.

Overall the use of nomenclature exclusive to one community by one community is a notable feature of Northern Ireland. At times of high communal tension, each side regularly complains of the use of the nomenclature associated with the other community by a third party such as a media organisation, claiming such usage indicates evident "bias" against their community.

History

Main article: History of Northern Ireland; for events before 1900 see History of Ireland.

The area now known as Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. From serving as the bedrock of Irish resistance in the era of the plantations of Queen Elizabeth and James I in other parts of Ireland, it became itself the subject of major planting of Scottish and English settlers after the Flight of the Earls in 1607 (when the native Gaelic aristocracy left en masse for Catholic Europe).

The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541-1801) was incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a central parliament, government and monarchy based in London. In the early 20th century Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Unionists were in a minority on the island of Ireland as a whole, but formed a majority in the northern province of Ulster. An example of the Unionists sheer determination not to have Home Rule forced upon them they resorted to the illegal importation of arms in 1912. Therefore, after the First World War, Ireland was partitioned in 1921 under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 between six of the nine Ulster counties in the northeast (forming Northern Ireland) and the remaining twenty-six counties of the south and west (forming the Irish Free State in 1922). When the latter achieved dominion status, the six Northern Ireland counties — under the procedures laid out in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921 — opted out, and so remain as part of the United Kingdom.

The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee to the Parliament and Government that Northern Ireland would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without consent of the majority of its citizens, and this was most recently reaffirmed by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This status was echoed in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, which was signed by the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic, was amended in 1999 to remove a claim to sovereignty over the whole of Ireland (in Article 2), a claim qualified by an acknowledgement of British rule in the northeast. The new Articles 2 & 3, added to the Bunreacht to replace the earlier articles. implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in the six counties. An acknowledgement that a decision on whether to remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland rests with the people of Northern Ireland was also central to the Belfast Agreement, which was signed in 1998 and ratified by plebiscites held simultanously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. However, many unionist leaders equivocate when asked if they would peacefully accept a reunited Ireland if a majority in Northern Ireland sought it.

A plebiscite within Northern Ireland on whether it should remain in the United Kingdom, or join the Republic, was held in 1973. The vote went heavily in favour of maintaining the status quo, in part because many nationalists boycotted it. Though legal provision remains for holding another plebiscite, and Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble some years ago advocated the holding of such a vote, no plans for such a vote have been adopted as of 2005.

Demographics and politics

The vast majority of the population of Northern Ireland identifies with one of two different groups, unionists and nationalists. Both sides of the community are often described by their predominant religious attachments. Unionists are predominantly Protestant most of whom belong to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the second in terms of size is the Church of Ireland), while nationalists are predominantly Catholic. However, contrary to widespread belief, not all Catholics necessarily support nationalism, and not all Protestants necessarily support unionism. It is also important to note that, in parallel with other parts of Europe, the proportion of the population practising their religious beliefs has fallen dramatically in recent decades, particularly among Catholics and adherents of mainstream Protestant denominations. This has not necessarily resulted in a weakening of communal feeling.

Once established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Northern Ireland was structured geographically (see gerrymander) so as to provide unionist majorities in its local government system, with significantly nationalist areas producing unionist majorities through the granting of voting rights exclusively to property owners (where most Catholics were renting and most Protestants were owners). Anger of local government control by Protestants, and the awarding of housing to Protestants to ensure Unionist majorities in areas with large Catholic populations, played a significant part in creating the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, with a sit-in by nationalist politician Austin Currie in a house granted to an unmarried Protestant woman ahead of a large homeless Catholic family triggering off the movement. [5] (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/discrimination/whyte.htm#chap1)

In recent decades the Catholic population has increased in percentage terms within Northern Ireland, while the Presbyterian and Church of Ireland population percentages have decreased. However the decreasing size of Catholic families and the increasing use of birth control among the Catholic community has led to a slowing down in the growth of the Catholic population. Statisticians predict both communities will achieve close to parity in size, with Protestants dominant primarily to the east and north of Northern Ireland and Catholics dominant to the west and south. However as of 2005 most statisticians predict that Protestants will continue to slightly outnumber Catholics in Northern Ireland as a whole.

The religious affiliations, based on census returns, have changed as follows between 1961 and 2002:

**Religious Affiliations in Northern Ireland 1961–2001**
Religions	1961	1991	2001
Roman Catholic	34.9%	38.4%	40.3%
Presbyterian (Protestant)	29.0%	21.4%	20.7%
Church of Ireland (Protestant)	24.2%	17.7%	15.3%
Other Religions	9.3%	11.5%	9.9%
Not Stated	2.0%	7.3%	9.0%
None	0.0%	3.8%	5.0%

**Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2003** [6] (*http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/2003/Political_Attitudes/UNINATID.html*)
Religion	Affiliation	2003
Protestant	Unionist	68%
	Nationalist	1%
	Neither	29%
Catholic	Unionist	0%
	Nationalist	60%
	Neither	36%
Total	Unionist	38%
	Nationalist	24%
	Neither	35%

Most Northern Irish Catholics support unification, although opinion polls have shown a minority who support remaining part of the UK, usually while continuing to support nationalist political parties. This proportion has slowly but steadily declined over the course of the Troubles. The proportion of Protestants who wish to join the Republic is smaller. There are also considerable numbers of people who give ambiguous answers to questions about the future constitutional status of Northern Ireland.

While elections in Northern Ireland are often characterised as mini-referenda on the constitutional question, this is too simplistic an analysis. Voters may also perceive voting to be about strengthening the hand of their section of the community within Northern Ireland, or about gaining advantage for their social class.

Representation

Northern Ireland currently has 18 seats in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The Northern Ireland Assembly has 108 MLAs, although this is currently in suspension. It is also represented in the European Parliament with 3 seats, and at local level by 26 district councils.

Sinn Féin, currently the biggest of the nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, has campaigned for a broadening of the franchise of Northern Ireland voters to allow them to vote in elections to choose the President of Ireland. It has also demanded that Northern Ireland MEPs and MPs be allowed speaking rights in the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, Dáil Éireann. The Irish government has accepted this, but has not yet moved to enable it.

Political parties

Political parties in Northern Ireland can be divided into three distinct categories: unionist parties, such as the Democratic Unionist Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, and other smaller parties such as the Progressive Unionist Party and the United Kingdom Unionist Party; nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP); and cross-community parties such as the Alliance Party and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition.

The Ulster Unionists were historically a cross-class massenpartei who ran a one-party Northern Ireland from its creation until 1972, although since the rise of the DUP in the 1970s their support has been more middle-class. Until 1972 the UUP's members of the House of Commons took the Conservative Party whip, although for the past 32 years they have sat as a party in their own right. The UUP's member of the European Parliament belongs to the European People's Party group, along with Fine Gael.

The DUP are a more complex mixture than the other major parties — combining support from rural evangelicals and from urban, secular, working-class voters. The party is firmly to the right on issues such as abortion, capital punishment, European integration and equal opportunities, although the party seems to be moderating its stance on gay rights since the "Ulster says No to Sodomy" campaign of the '80s. Conversely, the DUP often support social programmes which benefit their working class or agricultural base, for example, free public transport for the elderly and European Union agricultural subsidies. The DUP have grown in recent years as they are the only major party to oppose the Good Friday Agreement. Their MEP, Jim Allister, sits as an Independent in the European Parliament, but is perceived to be close to the Independence and Democracy group.

The smaller Progressive Unionist Party and New Ulster Political Research Group are linked with the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association respectively. The UK Unionist Party is essentially a one-man show led by Robert McCartney MLA for North Down.

Similarly, on the nationalist side of the political spectrum, Sinn Féin has overtaken the traditionally dominant SDLP in recent elections. Sinn Féin is a radical socialist revolutionary party, theoretically committed to espousing an all-Ireland Socialist Republic, and linked with the IRA. Sinn Féin is often described as the political wing of the IRA - the exact relationship between Sinn Féin and the IRA is not clear, with many people believing them to be one and the same, referring to them as "Sinn Féin/IRA" - it is however widely accepted that they have an overlapping leadership. Traditionally the party of the urban Catholic working-class and a number of republican rural areas, since the IRA ceasefires of the mid-1990s it has expanded its base considerably, and has overtaken the long-dominant SDLP in terms of vote share. Many of their opponents, especially more hardline republicans, contend that its experience of government has blunted the edge of the party's revolutionary enthusiasm.

The SDLP are a nominally social democratic party and a full member of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International. However, as the Northern Irish party system is not based on socio-economic divisions, it inevitably attracts a wider spectrum of opinion and has a middle-class support base. The SDLP nominally support Irish unification, but reject utterly the use of violence as a means to that end. The SDLP has lost considerable support in the past decade, with the retirement of key figures such as former leader John Hume and deputy leader Seamus Mallon and the IRA's cessation of violence. The party has been torn between members who wish to follow a post-nationalist agenda focusing primarily on "bread and butter issues" (taxation, employment, education, health, etc) and those who wish to follow a more traditionalist nationalist campaign to challenge the more republican Sinn Féin. In March 2005 the party launched a major policy programme on working to a united Ireland, suggesting that it has opted to focus on traditional issues of identity (Irish or British, unionist or nationalist) than on economic or social issues.

Among the cross-community parties, the Alliance Party draws its support mainly from middle-class professionals in the suburbs of Belfast. It professes to be the only significant party which does not base its political stance around the constitutional question, and is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and Liberal International.

Other parties who contest elections in Northern Ireland include the Green Party, the Workers Party and the Northern Ireland branch of the Conservative Party. The feminist Northern Ireland Women's Coalition briefly held seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, but have now lost both those and their only local Councillor and seem to be in jeapordy.

Fianna Fáil, the dominant party in the Republic, has opened a cumann (branch) in Derry. The leadership however as of 2005 has decided not to take part in electoral politics in Northern Ireland. Others both within Fianna Fáil and the SDLP (including former SDLP European Elections candidate Martin Morgan) have advocated an alliance, or even a merger, between both parties. However others in both parties are hostile to the idea, with some in the SDLP pointing out to the shared left wing links between the party and the Irish Labour Party. Others in the SDLP are also closer to the Republic's second biggest party, Fine Gael and oppose a merger with that party's rival, Fianna Fáil.

There are also two tiny parties seeking independence for Northern Ireland, although this is often perceived to be an ethnically Protestant or Unionist ideal with little real support.

Some commentators believe there are indications that the religious and ethnic basis of the party system may start to disintegrate. For example, in the 1998–2003 Assembly, there was a Catholic Member of the Legislative Assembly sitting for the Ulster Unionist Party. The SDLP have had a number of Protestant representatives in the past. A Protestant SDLP councillor recently defected to Sinn Féin. However, these tend to be one-off events, which have occurred periodically throughout Northern Ireland's history without setting a trend — cf Sir Denis Henry in the early part of the 20th century. In any event, social class is an important part of competition within the main ethnic political blocs, and class-based party structures in other established democracies have weakened since the end of the Cold War. Since the beginning of the peace process, the non-ethnic parties have declined, while the more radical Sinn Féin and DUP have prospered. While many Protestants are Sinn Féin members (more so in the Republic), the DUP has no Catholics in its ranks.

Optimists counter that, in the long-term, as the constitutional question may become less relevant due to the emergence of the European Union, and therefore a less sectarian political system may develop.

Culture

See Culture of Northern Ireland, Culture of Ireland, Culture of the United Kingdom

With its improved international reputation, Northern Ireland has recently witnessed rising numbers of tourists who come to appreciate the area's unique heritage. Attractions include cultural festivals, musical and artistic traditions, countryside and geographical sites of interest, pubs, welcoming hospitality and sports (especially golf and fishing). In 1987, pubs were allowed to open on Sundays.

Languages

The Mid Ulster dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows influence from both the West Midlands and Scotland, thereby giving it a distinct accent compared to Hiberno-English, along with the use of such Scots words as wee for 'little' and aye for 'yes'. Some jocularly call this dialect phonetically by the name Norn Iron. There are supposedly some minute differences in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics, the best known of which is the name of the letter h, which Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch", as in British English, and Catholics tend to pronounce as "haitch", as in Hiberno-English. However, geography is a much more important determinant of dialect than ethnic background. English is by far the most widely spoken language in Northern Ireland.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, Irish and Scots have official recognition on a par with that of English. Often the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland has met with the considerable suspicion of Unionists, who have associated it with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland, and more recently, with the republican movement in Northern Ireland itself

Ulster Scots comprises varieties of the Scots language spoken in Northern Ireland. Many claim it has become a separate language, descended from Scots in Scotland, whereas others question whether Scots is a separate language from English at all, or simply a collection of local dialects of Scottish and Northern Ireland Hiberno-English.

Chinese and Urdu are also spoken by Northern Ireland's Asian communities. According to the most recent census returns, Chinese is now the second most widely spoken language, though the 8000-strong Chinese community — while often referred to as the "third largest" community in Northern Ireland — is tiny by international standards.

External links

Discover Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Tourist Board (http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/)
University of Ulster: Northern Ireland Conflict Archive (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/)
Elections in Northern Ireland (http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections)
Online NI (http://www.onlineni.net)
Art gallery featuring Northern Irish artists and scenes (http://www.whiteimage.com)
BBC Nations (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/) History of Ireland
The British Isles (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/) Independent view of Ireland and the UK
Mercator Atlas of Europe (http://www.walkingtree.com/) Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
Jobs in Northern Ireland (http://www.RecruitmentNI.com)
Sutton Index of Deaths (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/)