It is the second-largest (after\u00a0Munster<\/a>) and second-most populous (after\u00a0Leinster<\/a>) of Ireland’s four provinces, with\u00a0Belfast<\/a>\u00a0being its biggest city. Unlike the other provinces, Ulster has a high percentage of\u00a0Protestants<\/a>, making up almost half of its population. English is the main language and\u00a0Ulster English<\/a>\u00a0the main dialect. A minority also speak Irish, and there are\u00a0Gaeltachta\u00ed<\/a>\u00a0(Irish-speaking regions) in southern\u00a0County Londonderry<\/a>, the\u00a0Gaeltacht Quarter, Belfast<\/a>, and in\u00a0County Donegal<\/a>; collectively, these three regions are home to a quarter of the total Gaeltacht population of Ireland.<\/sup>\u00a0Ulster-Scots<\/a>\u00a0is also spoken.\u00a0Lough Neagh<\/a>, in the east, is the largest lake in the\u00a0British Isles<\/a>, while\u00a0Lough Erne<\/a>\u00a0in the west is one of its largest lake networks. The main mountain ranges are the\u00a0Mournes<\/a>,\u00a0Sperrins<\/a>,\u00a0Croaghgorms<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Derryveagh Mountains<\/a>.<\/p>\n Historically, Ulster lay at the heart of the\u00a0Gaelic<\/a>\u00a0world made up of\u00a0Gaelic Ireland<\/a>,\u00a0Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Isle of Man<\/a>. According to tradition, in\u00a0ancient Ireland<\/a>\u00a0it was one of the\u00a0fifths<\/a> ruled by a\u00a0r\u00ed ruirech<\/a><\/i>, or “king of over-kings”. It is named after the overkingdom of\u00a0Ulaid<\/a>, in the east of the province, which was in turn named after the Ulaid folk. The other overkingdoms in Ulster were\u00a0Airg\u00edalla<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ailech<\/a>. After the\u00a0Norman invasion of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0in the 12th century, eastern Ulster was conquered by the\u00a0Anglo-Normans<\/a>\u00a0and became the\u00a0Earldom of Ulster<\/a>. By the late 14th century the Earldom had collapsed and the\u00a0O’Neill dynasty<\/a>\u00a0had come to dominate most of Ulster, claiming the title\u00a0King of Ulster<\/a>. Ulster became the most thoroughly Gaelic and independent of Ireland’s provinces. Its rulers resisted\u00a0English encroachment<\/a>\u00a0but were defeated in the\u00a0Nine Years’ War<\/a>\u00a0(1594\u20131603). King\u00a0James I<\/a> then colonized Ulster with English-speaking Protestant settlers from Great Britain, in the Plantation of Ulster<\/a>. This led to the founding of many of Ulster’s towns. The inflow of Protestant settlers and migrants also led to bouts of\u00a0sectarian<\/a>\u00a0violence with Catholics, notably during the\u00a01641 rebellion<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Armagh disturbances<\/a>. Along with the rest of Ireland, Ulster became part of the\u00a0United Kingdom<\/a>\u00a0in 1801. In the early 20th century, moves towards\u00a0Irish self-rule<\/a>\u00a0were opposed by many\u00a0Ulster Protestants<\/a>, sparking the\u00a0Home Rule Crisis<\/a>. This, and the subsequent\u00a0Irish War of Independence<\/a>, led to the\u00a0partition of Ireland<\/a>. Six Ulster counties became Northern Ireland, a self-governing territory within the United Kingdom, while the rest of Ireland became the\u00a0Irish Free State<\/a>, now the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n The term\u00a0Ulster<\/i> has no official function for local government purposes in either country.<\/p>\n Ulster is one of the\u00a0four Irish provinces<\/a>. Its\u00a0name<\/a>\u00a0derives from the\u00a0Irish language<\/a>\u00a0C\u00faige Uladh<\/i>, meaning “fifth of the\u00a0Ulaidh<\/a>“, named for the ancient inhabitants of the region.<\/p>\n The province’s early story extends further back than written records and survives mainly in legends such as the\u00a0Ulster Cycle<\/a>. The\u00a0archaeology<\/a>\u00a0of Ulster, formerly called Ulandia, gives examples of “ritual enclosures”, such as the “Giant’s Ring” near Belfast, which is an earth bank about 590\u00a0feet (180 m) in diameter and 15\u00a0feet (4.5 m) high, in the centre of which there is a\u00a0dolmen<\/a>.<\/sup><\/p>\n The Boyne and its tributary the Blackwater were the traditional southern boundary of the province of Ulster and appear as such in the\u00a0T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faailnge<\/a>. According to historian Francis John Byrne the\u00a0Ulaid<\/a>\u00a0‘possibly still ruled directly in\u00a0Louth<\/a> as far as the Boyne in the early seventh century\u00a0when\u00a0Congal C\u00e1ech<\/a>\u00a0made a bid for the\u00a0kingship of Tara<\/a>. In 637, the\u00a0Battle of Moira<\/a>, known archaically as the Battle of Magh Rath, was fought by the Gaelic High King of Ireland Domhnall II against his foster son King Congal C\u00e1ech of Ulster, supported by his ally Domhnall the Freckled (Domhnall Brecc) of\u00a0Dalriada<\/a>. The battle was fought near the Woods of Killultagh, just outside the village of Moira in what would become County Down. It was allegedly the largest battle ever fought on the island of Ireland, and resulted in the death of Congal and the retreat of Domhnall Brecc.<\/p>\n In early medieval Ireland, a branch of the\u00a0Northern U\u00ed N\u00e9ill<\/a>, the\u00a0Cen\u00e9l nE\u00f3gain<\/a>\u00a0of the province of\u00a0Ailech<\/a>, gradually eroded the territory of the province of Ulaidh until it lay east of the\u00a0River Bann<\/a>. The Cen\u00e9l nE\u00f3gain would make T\u00edr E\u00f3ghain (most of which forms modern\u00a0County Tyrone<\/a>) their base. Among the\u00a0High Kings of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0were\u00a0\u00c1ed Findliath<\/a>\u00a0(died 879),\u00a0Niall Gl\u00fandub<\/a>\u00a0(died 919), and\u00a0Domnall ua N\u00e9ill<\/a>\u00a0(died 980), all of the Cen\u00e9l nE\u00f3gain. The province of Ulaidh would survive restricted to the east of modern Ulster until the Norman invasion in the late 12th century. It would only once more become a province of Ireland in the mid-14th century after the collapse of the Norman\u00a0Earldom of Ulster<\/a>, when the\u00a0O’Neills<\/a>\u00a0who had come to dominate the Northern U\u00ed N\u00e9ill stepped into the power vacuum and staked a claim for the first time the title of “king of Ulster” along with the Red Hand of Ulster symbol. It was then that the provinces of Ailech, Airgialla, and Ulaidh would all merge largely into what would become the modern province of Ulster.<\/p>\n Domnall Ua Lochlainn<\/a>\u00a0(died 1121) and\u00a0Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn<\/a>\u00a0(died 1166) were of this dynasty. The\u00a0Meic Lochlainn<\/a> were in 1241 overthrown by their kin, the clan \u00d3 N\u00e9ill. The \u00d3 N\u00e9ill’s were from then on established as Ulster’s most powerful Gaelic family.<\/p>\n The \u00d3 Domhnaill (O’Donnell<\/a>) dynasty were Ulster’s second most powerful clan from the early thirteenth-century through to the beginning of the seventeenth-century. The O’Donnells ruled over\u00a0T\u00edr Chonaill<\/a>\u00a0(most of modern County Donegal) in West Ulster.<\/p>\n After the\u00a0Norman invasion<\/a>\u00a0of Ireland in the twelfth century, the east of the province fell by conquest to Norman barons, first\u00a0De Courcy<\/a>\u00a0(died 1219), then\u00a0Hugh de Lacy<\/a>\u00a0(1176\u20131243), who founded the\u00a0Earldom of Ulster<\/a>\u00a0based on the modern counties of Antrim and Down.<\/p>\n In the 1600s Ulster was the last redoubt of the traditional\u00a0Gaelic<\/a>\u00a0way of life, and following the defeat of the Irish forces in the\u00a0Nine Years War<\/a>\u00a0(1594\u20131603) at the\u00a0battle of Kinsale<\/a>\u00a0(1601),\u00a0Elizabeth I<\/a>‘s English forces succeeded in subjugating Ulster and all of Ireland.<\/p>\n The Gaelic leaders of Ulster, the\u00a0O’Neills<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0O’Donnells<\/a>, finding their power under English\u00a0suzerainty<\/a>\u00a0limited, decamped\u00a0en masse<\/i>\u00a0in 1607 (the\u00a0Flight of the Earls<\/a>) to\u00a0Roman Catholic<\/a>\u00a0Europe. This allowed the\u00a0English Crown<\/a>\u00a0to plant Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish\u00a0planters<\/a>, a process which began in earnest in 1610.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Plantation of Ulster<\/a> was the organized colonization<\/a>\u00a0(or\u00a0plantation<\/a>) of Ulster by people from Great Britain (especially\u00a0Presbyterians<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Scotland<\/a>). Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606,<\/sup><\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0while the official plantation controlled by\u00a0King James I of England<\/a>\u00a0(who was also King James VI of Scots) began in 1609. All land owned by Irish chieftains, the\u00a0\u00d3 Neills<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u00d3 Donnells<\/a>\u00a0(along with those of their supporters), who fought against the\u00a0English Crown<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Nine Years War<\/a>, were confiscated and used to settle the colonists. The Counties\u00a0Tyrconnell<\/a>,\u00a0Tyrone<\/a>,\u00a0Fermanagh<\/a>,\u00a0Cavan<\/a>,\u00a0Coleraine<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Armagh<\/a>\u00a0comprised the official Colony.<\/sup> However, most of the counties, including the most heavily colonized Counties Antrim<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Down<\/a>, were privately colonized.<\/sup>\u00a0These counties, though not officially designated as subject to\u00a0Plantation<\/a>, had suffered violent depopulation during the previous wars and proved attractive to Private\u00a0Colonialists<\/a> from nearby Britain. The efforts to attract colonists from England and Scotland to the Ulster Plantation were considerably affected by the existence of British colonies in the Americas, which served as a more attractive destination for many potential emigrants.<\/p>\n The Plantation of Ulster continued well into the 18th century, interrupted only by the\u00a0Irish Rebellion of 1641<\/a>. This Rebellion was initially led by\u00a0Sir Phelim O’Neill<\/a>, and was intended to overthrow British rule rapidly, but quickly degenerated into attacks on colonists, in which dispossessed Irish slaughtered thousands of the colonists. In the ensuing\u00a0wars<\/a>\u00a0(1641\u20131653, fought against the background of\u00a0civil war<\/a>\u00a0in England, Scotland and Ireland), Ulster became a battleground between the Colonialists and the native Irish. In 1646, an Irish army under command by\u00a0Owen Roe O’Neill<\/a>\u00a0(Irish:\u00a0Eoghan Ruadh \u00d3 N\u00e9ill<\/i>) inflicted a defeat on a Scottish\u00a0Covenanter<\/a>\u00a0army at\u00a0Benburb<\/a>\u00a0in County Tyrone, but the native Irish forces failed to follow up their victory and the war lapsed into stalemate. The war in Ulster ended with the defeat of the native army at the\u00a0Battle of Scarrifholis<\/a>, near Newmills on the western outskirts of\u00a0Letterkenny<\/a>,\u00a0County Donegal<\/a>, in 1650, as part of the\u00a0Cromwellian conquest of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0conducted by\u00a0Oliver Cromwell<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0New Model Army<\/a>, the aim of which was to expel all native Irish to the Province of\u00a0Connaught<\/a>.<\/sup><\/p>\n Forty years later, in 1688\u20131691, the\u00a0Williamite War<\/a>\u00a0was fought, the belligerents of which were the\u00a0Williamites<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jacobites<\/a>. The war was partly due to a dispute over who was the rightful claimant to the\u00a0British Throne<\/a>, and thus the supreme monarch of the nascent\u00a0British Empire<\/a>. However, the war was also a part of the greater\u00a0War of the Grand Alliance<\/a>, fought between\u00a0King Louis XIV of France<\/a>\u00a0and his allies, and a European-wide coalition, the\u00a0Grand Alliance<\/a>, led by\u00a0Prince William of Orange<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire<\/a>, supported by the\u00a0Vatican<\/a>\u00a0and many other states. The Grand Alliance was a cross-denominational alliance designed to stop French eastward colonialist expansion under Louis XIV, with whom\u00a0King James II<\/a>\u00a0was allied.<\/p>\n The majority of Irish people were “Jacobites” and supported James II due to his 1687\u00a0Declaration of Indulgence<\/a>\u00a0or, as it is also known, The Declaration for the Liberty of Conscience, that granted religious freedom to all denominations in England and Scotland and also due to James II’s promise to the Irish Parliament of an eventual right to self-determination.<\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0However, James II was deposed in the\u00a0Glorious Revolution<\/a>, and the majority of Ulster\u00a0Colonialists<\/a>\u00a0(Williamites<\/a>) backed\u00a0William of Orange<\/a>. It is of note that both the Williamite and Jacobite armies were religiously mixed; William of Orange’s own elite forces, the\u00a0Dutch Blue Guards<\/a>\u00a0had a papal banner with them during the invasion, many of them being Dutch Roman Catholics.<\/sup><\/p>\n At the start of the war, Irish Jacobites controlled most of Ireland for James II, with the exception of the Williamite strongholds at\u00a0Derry<\/a>\u00a0and at\u00a0Enniskillen<\/a>\u00a0in Ulster. The Jacobites\u00a0besieged Derry<\/a>\u00a0from December 1688 to July 1689, ending when a Williamite army from Britain relieved the city. The Williamites based in Enniskillen defeated another Jacobite army at the\u00a0battle of Newtownbutler<\/a>\u00a0on 28 July 1689. Thereafter, Ulster remained firmly under Williamite control and William’s forces completed their conquest of the rest of Ireland in the next two years. The war provided Protestant\u00a0loyalists<\/a>\u00a0with the iconic victories of the\u00a0Siege of Derry<\/a>, the\u00a0Battle of the Boyne<\/a>\u00a0(1 July 1690) and the\u00a0Battle of Aughrim<\/a>\u00a0(12 July 1691), all of which the\u00a0Orange Order<\/a>\u00a0commemorate each year.<\/p>\n The Williamites’ victory in this war ensured\u00a0British rule in Ireland<\/a>\u00a0for over 200 years. The\u00a0Protestant Ascendancy<\/a>\u00a0in Ireland excluded most of Ulster’s population from having any Civil\u00a0power<\/a>\u00a0on religious grounds.\u00a0Roman Catholics<\/a>\u00a0(descended from the indigenous Irish) and\u00a0Presbyterians<\/a>\u00a0(mainly descended from Scottish colonists) both suffered discrimination under the\u00a0Penal Laws<\/a>, which gave full political rights only to\u00a0Anglican<\/a>\u00a0Protestants (mostly descended from English settlers). In the 1690s, Scottish Presbyterians became a majority in Ulster, due to a large influx of them into the Province.<\/p>\n Considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots emigrated to the North American colonies throughout the 18th century (160,000 settled in what would become the United States between 1717 and 1770 alone).<\/p>\n Disdaining (or forced out of) the heavily English regions on the Atlantic coast, most groups of Ulster-Scots settlers crossed into the “western mountains,” where their descendants populated the\u00a0Appalachian<\/a>\u00a0regions and the\u00a0Ohio Valley<\/a>. Here they lived on the frontiers of America, carving their own world out of the wilderness. The Scots-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from\u00a0Pennsylvania<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Georgia<\/a>. Author (and US Senator)\u00a0Jim Webb<\/a>\u00a0puts forth a thesis in his book\u00a0Born Fighting<\/i>\u00a0to suggest that the character traits he ascribes to the Scots-Irish such as loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and a propensity to bear arms, helped shape the American identity.<\/p>\n In the\u00a0United States Census, 2000<\/a>, 4.3\u00a0million Americans claimed Scots-Irish ancestry. The areas where the most Americans reported themselves in the 2000 Census only as “American” with no further qualification (e.g.\u00a0Kentucky<\/a>, north-central\u00a0Texas<\/a>, and many other areas in the\u00a0Southern US<\/a>) are largely the areas where many Scots-Irish settled, and are in complementary distribution with the areas which most heavily report Scots-Irish ancestry.<\/p>\n According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, 400,000 people in the US were of Irish birth or ancestry in 1790 when the first US Census counted 3,100,000 white Americans. According to the encyclopedia, half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster, and half from the other three provinces of Ireland.[41]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Most of the 18th century saw a calming of sectarian tensions in Ulster. The economy of the province improved, as small producers exported linen and other goods. Belfast developed from a village into a bustling provincial town. However, this did not stop many thousands of Ulster people from emigrating to\u00a0British North America<\/a>\u00a0in this period, where they became known as “<\/span>Scots Irish<\/a>” or “<\/span>Scotch-Irish<\/a>“.<\/span><\/p>\n Political tensions resurfaced, albeit in a new form, towards the end of the 18th century. In the 1790s many Roman Catholics and\u00a0Presbyterians<\/a>, in opposition to\u00a0Anglican domination<\/a>\u00a0and inspired by the American and French\u00a0revolutions<\/a>\u00a0joined together in the\u00a0United Irishmen<\/a>\u00a0movement. This group (founded in Belfast) dedicated itself to founding a non-sectarian<\/a>\u00a0and independent Irish republic. The United Irishmen had particular strength in\u00a0Belfast<\/a>,\u00a0Antrim<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Down<\/a>. Paradoxically however, this period also saw much sectarian violence between Roman Catholics and Protestants, principally members of the\u00a0Church of Ireland<\/a> (Anglicans, who practiced the British state religion and had rights denied to both Presbyterians and Roman Catholics), notably the “Battle of the Diamond<\/a>” in 1795, a faction fight between the rival “Defenders<\/a>” (Roman Catholic) and “Peep O’Day Boys<\/a>” (Anglican), which led to over 100 deaths and to the founding of the\u00a0Orange Order<\/a>. This event, and many others like it, came about with the relaxation of the\u00a0Penal Laws<\/a>\u00a0and Roman Catholics began to be allowed to purchase land and involve themselves in the linen trade (activities which previously had involved many onerous restrictions). Protestants, including some Presbyterians, who in some parts of the province had come to identify with the Roman Catholic community, used violence to intimidate Roman Catholics who tried to enter the linen trade. Estimates suggest that up to 7000 Roman Catholics suffered expulsion from Ulster during this violence. Many of them settled in northern\u00a0Connacht<\/a>. These refugees’ linguistic influence still survives in the dialects of Irish spoken in\u00a0Mayo<\/a>, which have many similarities to\u00a0Ulster Irish<\/a>\u00a0not found elsewhere in Connacht. Loyalist militias, primarily\u00a0Anglicans<\/a>, also used violence against the\u00a0United Irishmen<\/a>\u00a0and against Roman Catholic and Protestant\u00a0republicans<\/a>\u00a0throughout the province.<\/p>\n In 1798 the United Irishmen, led by\u00a0Henry Joy McCracken<\/a>, launched a rebellion in Ulster, mostly supported by Presbyterians. But the British authorities swiftly put down the rebellion and employed severe repression after the fighting had ended. In the wake of the failure of this\u00a0rebellion<\/a>, and following the gradual abolition of official religious discrimination after the\u00a0Act of Union<\/a>\u00a0in 1800,\u00a0Presbyterians<\/a> came to identify more with the State and with their Anglican neighbors, due to their civil rights now being respected by both the state and their Anglican neighbors.<\/p>\n The\u00a01859 Ulster Revival<\/a>\u00a0was a major\u00a0Christian revival<\/a>\u00a0that spread throughout Ulster.<\/p>\n In the 19th century, Ulster had the only large-scale industrialization and became the most prosperous province on the island. In the latter part of the century, Belfast<\/a>\u00a0briefly overtook\u00a0Dublin<\/a>\u00a0as the island’s largest city. Belfast became famous in this period for its huge\u00a0dockyards<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0shipbuilding<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and notably for the construction of the\u00a0RMS\u00a0Titanic<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0Sectarian<\/a>\u00a0divisions in Ulster became hardened into the political categories of\u00a0unionist<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(supporters of the Union with Britain; mostly, but not exclusively, Protestant) and\u00a0nationalist<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(advocates of repeal of the 1800 Act of Union, usually, though not exclusively, Roman Catholic). Northern Ireland’s current politics originate from these late 19th century disputes over\u00a0Home Rule<\/a>\u00a0that would have devolved some powers of government to Ireland, and which Ulster Protestants usually opposed\u2014fearing for their religious rights calling it “Rome Rule” in an autonomous Roman Catholic-dominated Ireland and also not trusting politicians from the agrarian south and west to support the more industrial economy of Ulster. This lack of trust, however, was largely unfounded as during the 19th and early 20th century important industries in the southernmost region of Cork included brewing, distilling, wool and like Belfast, shipbuilding.<\/sup><\/p>\n Thousands of unionists, led by the Dublin-born barrister\u00a0Sir Edward Carson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0James Craig<\/a>, signed the “Ulster Covenant<\/a>” of 1912 pledging to resist Home Rule. This movement also set up the\u00a0Ulster Volunteer Force<\/a>\u00a0(UVF). In April 1914, the UVF assisted with the landing of 30,000\u00a0German<\/a>\u00a0rifles with 3,000,000 rounds at\u00a0Larne<\/a> by blockading authorities. The\u00a0Curragh Incident<\/a>\u00a0showed it would be difficult to use the British army to enforce home rule from Dublin on Ulster’s unionist minority.<\/p>\n In response, Irish republicans created the\u00a0Irish Volunteers<\/a>, part of which became the forerunner of the\u00a0Irish Republican Army<\/a>\u00a0(IRA) \u2013 to seek to ensure the passing of the\u00a0Home Rule Bill<\/a>. Upon the outbreak of\u00a0World War I<\/a>\u00a0in 1914, 200,000 Irishmen, both Southern and Northern, of all religious sects volunteered to serve in the\u00a0British Army<\/a>. This had the effect of interrupting the armed stand-off in Ireland. As the war progressed, in Ireland, opposition to the War grew stronger, reaching its peak in 1918 when the British government proposed laws to extend\u00a0conscription<\/a>\u00a0to all able bodied Irishmen during the\u00a0Conscription Crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of World War I, the political party\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>\u00a0(“Ourselves”) won the majority of votes in the\u00a01918 Irish general election<\/a>, this political party pursued a policy of complete independent self-determination for the island of Ireland as outlined in the\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in campaign Manifesto of 1918<\/a>, a great deal more than the devolved government\/Home Rule<\/a>\u00a0advocated by the (I.P.P)\u00a0Irish Parliamentary Party<\/a>. Following the Sinn F\u00e9in victory in these elections the\u00a0Irish Declaration of Independence<\/a>\u00a0was penned and\u00a0Irish republicans<\/a>\u00a0launched a guerrilla campaign against British rule in what became the\u00a0Irish War of Independence<\/a>\u00a0(January 1919 \u2013 July 1921). The fighting in Ulster during the Irish War of Independence generally took the form of street battles between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the city of Belfast. Estimates suggest that about 600 civilians died in this communal violence, the majority of them (58%) Roman Catholics. The IRA remained relatively quiescent in Ulster, with the exception of the south\u00a0Armagh<\/a>\u00a0area, where\u00a0Frank Aiken<\/a>\u00a0led it. A lot of IRA activity also took place at this time in\u00a0County Donegal<\/a>\u00a0and the City of\u00a0Derry<\/a>, where one of the main Republican leaders was\u00a0Peadar O’Donnell<\/a>. Hugh O’Doherty, a\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>\u00a0politician, was elected mayor of Derry at this time. In the\u00a0First D\u00e1il<\/a>, which was elected in late 1918, Prof.\u00a0Eoin Mac N\u00e9ill<\/a>\u00a0served as the Sinn F\u00e9in T.D. for\u00a0Londonderry City<\/a>.<\/p>\n Partition of Ireland<\/a>, first mooted in 1912, was introduced with the enactment of the\u00a0Government of Ireland Act 1920<\/a>, which gave a form of “Home rule” self-government to two areas,\u00a0Southern Ireland<\/a>, with its capital at\u00a0Dublin<\/a>, and “Northern Ireland<\/a>“, consisting of six of Ulster’s central and eastern counties, both within a continuing\u00a0United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland<\/a>. Dissatisfaction with this led to the\u00a0Irish War of Independence<\/a>, which formally ceased on 11 July 1921. Low-level violence, however, continued in Ulster, causing\u00a0Michael Collins<\/a>\u00a0in the south to order a boycott of Northern products in protest at attacks on the Nationalist community there. The Partition was effectively confirmed by the\u00a0Anglo-Irish Treaty<\/a>\u00a0of 6 December 1921. One of the primary stipulations of the treaty was the transformation of Ireland into a self-governing British\u00a0dominion<\/a>\u00a0called the\u00a0Irish Free State<\/a>\u00a0(which later became the sovereign\u00a0Republic of Ireland<\/a>), but with the option of a continuation of the home rule institution of Northern Ireland, still within the United Kingdom, if the Northern Ireland Parliament (already in existence) chose to opt out of the Irish Free State. All parties knew that this was certain to be the choice of the Ulster Unionists who had a majority in the parliament, and immediately on the creation of the Free State they resolved to leave it.<\/p>\n Following the Anglo Irish treaty, the exact border between the new dominion of the Irish Free State and the future\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a>, if it chose to opt out, was to be decided by the\u00a0Irish Boundary Commission<\/a>. This did not announce its findings until 1925, when the line was again drawn around six of Ulster’s nine counties, with no change from the partition of 1920.<\/p>\n Electorally, voting in the six\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a>\u00a0counties of Ulster tends to follow religious or sectarian lines; noticeable religious demarcation does not exist in the South Ulster counties of Cavan and Monaghan in the\u00a0Republic of Ireland<\/a>. County Donegal is largely a Roman Catholic county, but with a large\u00a0Protestant<\/a>\u00a0minority. Generally, Protestants in Donegal vote for the political party\u00a0Fine Gael<\/a>\u00a0(“Family of the Irish”).<\/sup>\u00a0However, religious sectarianism in politics has largely disappeared from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. This was illustrated when\u00a0Erskine H. Childers<\/a>, a\u00a0Church of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0member and\u00a0Teachta D\u00e1la<\/a>\u00a0(TD, a member of the lower house of the National Parliament) who had represented Monaghan, won election as\u00a0President<\/a>\u00a0after having served as a long-term minister under\u00a0Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>\u00a0Taoisigh<\/a>\u00a0\u00c9amon de Valera<\/a>,\u00a0Se\u00e1n Lemass<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jack Lynch<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Orange Order<\/a>\u00a0freely organises in counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, with several Orange parades taking place throughout County Donegal each year. The only major Orange Order march in the\u00a0Republic of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0takes place every July in the village of\u00a0Rossnowlagh<\/a>, near\u00a0Ballyshannon<\/a>, in the south of County Donegal.<\/p>\n As of 2017, Northern Ireland has seven Roman Catholic members of parliament, all members of Sinn F\u00e9in (of a total of 18 from the whole of Northern Ireland) in the\u00a0British House of Commons<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Westminster<\/a>; and the other three counties have one Protestant T.D. of the ten it has elected to\u00a0D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann<\/a>, the Lower House of the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. At present (August 2007) County Donegal sends six T.D.’s to D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann. The county is divided into two constituencies: Donegal North-East and Donegal South-West, each with three T.D.’s. County Cavan and County Monaghan form the one constituency called Cavan-Monaghan, which sends five T.D.’s to the D\u00e1il (one of whom is a Protestant).<\/p>\n The historic\u00a0Flag of Ulster<\/a>\u00a0served as the basis for the\u00a0Ulster Banner<\/a>\u00a0(often referred to as the Flag of Northern Ireland), which was the flag of the\u00a0Government of Northern Ireland<\/a>\u00a0until the proroguing of the\u00a0Stormont<\/a>\u00a0parliament in 1973.<\/p>\n The biggest lake in the\u00a0British Isles<\/a>,\u00a0Lough Neagh<\/a>, lies in eastern Ulster. The province’s highest point,\u00a0Slieve Donard<\/a>\u00a0(848 metres (2,782\u00a0ft)), stands in County Down. The most northerly point in Ireland,\u00a0Malin Head<\/a>, is in County Donegal, as are the sixth-highest (601 metres (1,972\u00a0ft)) sea\u00a0cliffs<\/a>\u00a0in Europe, at\u00a0Slieve League<\/a>, and the province’s largest island,\u00a0Arranmore<\/a>. The most easterly point in Ireland is also in Ulster, in\u00a0County Down<\/a>, and the most westerly point in the UK is in\u00a0County Fermanagh<\/a>. The longest river in the British Isles, the\u00a0Shannon<\/a>, rises at the\u00a0Shannon Pot<\/a>\u00a0in County Cavan with underground tributaries from County Fermanagh.\u00a0Volcanic activity<\/a>\u00a0in eastern Ulster led to the formation of the\u00a0Antrim Plateau<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Giant’s Causeway<\/a>, one of Ireland’s three\u00a0UNESCO<\/a>\u00a0World Heritage Sites<\/a>. Ulster also has a significant\u00a0drumlin<\/a> belt. The geographical center of Ulster lies between the villages of\u00a0Pomeroy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Carrickmore<\/a>\u00a0in County Tyrone. In terms of area, County Donegal is the largest county in all of Ulster.<\/p>\n The GDP of the province of Ulster is around \u20ac50\u00a0billion. Salary levels are the lowest on the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n The province’s main airport is\u00a0Belfast International Airport<\/a>\u00a0(popularly called Aldergrove Airport), which is located at\u00a0Aldergrove<\/a>, 11.5 miles northwest of Belfast near\u00a0Antrim<\/a>.\u00a0George Best Belfast City Airport<\/a>\u00a0(sometimes referred to as “the City Airport” or “the Harbour Airport”) is another, smaller airport which is located at\u00a0Sydenham<\/a>\u00a0in Belfast. The\u00a0City of Derry Airport<\/a>\u00a0is located at\u00a0Eglinton<\/a>, 13 kilometres (8\u00a0mi) east of the city of\u00a0Derry<\/a>. There is also\u00a0Donegal Airport<\/a>\u00a0(Irish<\/a>:\u00a0Aerfort Dh\u00fan na nGall<\/i>), popularly known as Carrickfinn Airport, which is located in\u00a0The Rosses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Railway lines are run by\u00a0Northern Ireland Railways<\/a>\u00a0(NIR). Belfast to Bangor and Belfast to Lisburn are strategically the most important routes on the network with the greatest number of passengers and largest profit margins. The\u00a0Belfast-Derry railway line<\/a>\u00a0connecting\u00a0Londonderry railway station<\/a>, via\u00a0Coleraine<\/a>,\u00a0Ballymoney<\/a>,\u00a0Ballymena<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Antrim<\/a>, with\u00a0Lanyon Place<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Belfast Great Victoria Street<\/a>\u00a0is a noted scenic route. Belfast is also connected with\u00a0Carrickfergus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Larne Harbour<\/a>,\u00a0Portadown<\/a>,\u00a0Newry<\/a>\u00a0and onwards, via the\u00a0Enterprise<\/a>\u00a0service jointly operated by NIR and\u00a0Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann<\/a>, to\u00a0Dublin Connolly<\/a>.<\/p>\n The main railway lines linking to and from Belfast Great Victoria Street and Belfast Central are:<\/p>\n Only five Irish counties, all in Southern and Western Ulster, currently have no mainline railway. The historic\u00a0Great Northern Railway of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0connected them. They are Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Donegal. A plan to re-link\u00a0Sligo<\/a>\u00a0and Derry through Donegal has been postponed until at least 2030.<\/p>\n NOTE: Northern Ireland has not had a distinct flag since 1973, instead officially using only the Union Jack.\u00a0 The previous flag is still seen but it is mired in controversy as a sectarian banner that separates instead of uniting the people.\u00a0 Ulster, one of the four provinces of Ireland, includes the entirety of Northern Ireland as well as three counties in the Republic of Ireland.\u00a0 This is an imperfect solution to the lack of a flag for Northern Ireland but it is the one I have chosen.<\/p>\n The\u00a0flag of Ulster<\/b>\u00a0is a historic banner based on the\u00a0coat of arms of Ulster<\/a>, used to represent\u00a0Ulster<\/a>, one of the four\u00a0provinces of Ireland<\/a>. It consists of a red cross on a gold background with a red hand on a white shield in the centre.<\/p>\n The flag of Ulster came about when\u00a0Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster<\/a>\u00a0became earl of the\u00a0Earldom of Ulster<\/a>\u00a0in 1264. He merged the de Burgh family heraldry, which was a red cross on a yellow background with that of the\u00a0Red Hand of Ulster<\/a>\u00a0of the Irish over-kingdom of\u00a0Ulaid<\/a>, which the earldom encompassed.<\/sup><\/p>\n The de Burgh heraldry is said to have come about after\u00a0Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent<\/a>\u00a0had fought in the\u00a0Third Crusade<\/a> but had no coat of arms himself. He carried a gold colored shield into battle. Following a battle,\u00a0King Richard the Lionheart<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0England<\/a>\u00a0gave de Burgh a coat of arms by dipping his finger into the blood of a\u00a0Saracen<\/a> slain at the feet of de Burgh and marked a red cross onto de Burgh’s shield; stating “for your bravery, this shall be your crest”.<\/p>\n The origin of the Red Hand of Ulster however is shrouded in mystery, with a popular legend saying that in the race to claim the kingship of Ulster, the first man to lay his hand on the province would have claim to it. This led one man to chop off his hand and throw it over his comrades.<\/p>\n There\u00a0was dispute throughout<\/a>\u00a0the early modern period over which Irish clan had the right to it. Either the\u00a0Magennises<\/a>\u00a0who were the ruling dynasty of the\u00a0U\u00ed Echach Cobo<\/a>, part of the original Ulaid, or the O’Neill’s, the ruling dynasty of the\u00a0Cen\u00e9l nE\u00f3gain<\/a>, who after 1317 claimed the kingship of Ulaid for the first time. Eventually in 1908 the then head of the O’Neill clan admitted that it originally belonged to the Magennises.<\/p>\n There is often debate as to if a\u00a0dexter<\/i>\u00a0(right) or\u00a0sinister<\/i>\u00a0(left)<\/a> hand is to be used on the flag. While usually a right hand is used on the flag, several organizations such as the former 36th (Ulster) Division<\/a>\u00a0that also used a left hand.<\/sup>\u00a0The symbols also appear in heraldry for some of the counties of Ulster. The counties of\u00a0Antrim<\/a>,\u00a0Fermanagh<\/a>,\u00a0Londonderry<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tyrone<\/a>\u00a0all use a right red hand in their coats of arms.<\/sup>\u00a0County Louth<\/a> also use a right hand but theirs is skin colored as it symbolizes the hand of God rather than the red hand of Ulster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Ulster is a historic banner based on the coat of arms of Ulster, used to represent Ulster, one of the four provinces of Ireland. It consists of a red cross on a gold background with a red hand on a white shield in the center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[66,59,26,5,6,7,29,18,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9687,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions\/9687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/09\/Ulster-in-Ireland-241x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Early history:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/d\/d6\/Bronze_statue_-_geograph.org.uk_-_821113.jpg\/260px-Bronze_statue_-_geograph.org.uk_-_821113.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Plantations and civil wars:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/69\/Oliver_Cromwell_mural_%282736627207%29.jpg\/220px-Oliver_Cromwell_mural_%282736627207%29.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Emigration:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/span>Republicanism, rebellion and communal strife:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/span>Industrialization, Home Rule and Partition:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/ec\/Royal_Avenue_Belfast2.jpg\/220px-Royal_Avenue_Belfast2.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"The](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/0a\/Irish_UK_election_1918.png\/230px-Irish_UK_election_1918.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/div>\n1920 to present:<\/span><\/h3>\n
Geography:<\/h2>\n
Economy:<\/h2>\n
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
Air:<\/span><\/h3>\n
Rail:<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
Flag of Ulster:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/05\/Flag-of-Ulster-300x168.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>