The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During
the conflict of 1920–22, the capital
Belfast saw major
communal violence, mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians. More than 500 were killed and more than 10,000 became refugees, mostly Catholics. For the next fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of
Unionist Party governments. There was informal mutual
segregation by both communities, and the Unionist governments were accused of discrimination against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority. In the late 1960s, a
campaign to end discrimination against Catholics and nationalists was opposed by
loyalists, who saw it as a
republican front. This unrest sparked
the Troubles, a thirty-year conflict involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces, which claimed over 3,500 lives and injured 50,000 others. The 1998
Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the
peace process, including
paramilitary disarmament and security normalisation, although
sectarianism and segregation remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued. (Full article...)
In
Northern Irish politics, direct rule (
Irish: riail dhíreach) is the administration of
Northern Ireland directly by the
Government of the United Kingdom. It was practised for 26 consecutive years between 1972 and 1998 during
the Troubles, and has since then been temporarily applied during suspensions. The most recent period of direct rule came to an end on 8 May 2007 when power was restored to the
Northern Ireland Assembly following April elections and a power-sharing agreement among major parties.
Although everyday matters under direct rule were handled by government departments within Northern Ireland itself, major policy was determined by the
British Government's
Northern Ireland Office, under the direction of the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; and legislation was introduced, amended, or repealed by means of
Order in Council. Direct Rule did not mean that the people of Northern Ireland had no
democratic say in how they were governed; like other parts of the United Kingdom, they elected (and still elect)
members of parliament to the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, to which the Northern Ireland Office is responsible. But it did result in the existence of an administration specific to Northern Ireland which did not have a specifically Northern Irish mandate. (Full article...)
... that despite being the first women's football team in
Northern Ireland to sign players on professional contracts, Cliftonville Ladies F.C. were not the first club to register them?
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Northern Ireland is in the top 250 most referenced articles. It ranks 232nd, with 3,955 links to it - one more link than
Music, and many more links than the
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Besides
English, the Northern Ireland article has been translated to 44 other languages.
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