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Introduction Ulster

Early history


Ulster classes as one of the four Irish provinces. Its name derives from the Irish language Cúige Uladh (pronounced "KOO-gah OO-lah"), meaning "Province (literally 'fifth') of the Ulaid", named for the ancient inhabitants of the region.[1] The Irish Uladh with the addition of the Old Norse stadr (meaning "place" or "territory") yields "Uladh Stadr" or, in English, "Ulster."

The province's early story extends further back than written records and survives mainly in legends such as the Ulster Cycle. In early medieval Ireland, the Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty dominated Ulster from their base in Tír Eógain (Eoghan's Country) - modern Tyrone. After the Norman invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century, the east of the province fell by conquest to Norman barons, first De Courcy (died 1219), then Hugh de Lacy (1176-1243), who founded the Earldom of Ulster - based around the modern counties of Antrim and Down. However, by the end of the 15th century the Earldom had collapsed and Ulster had become the only Irish province completely outside of English control.

In the 1600s Ulster functioned as the last redoubt of the traditional Gaelic way of life, and following the defeat of the Irish forces in the Nine Years War (1594-1603) at the battle of Kinsale (1601), Elizabeth I's English forces succeeded in subjugating Ulster and all of Ireland. The Gaelic leaders of Ulster, the O'Neills and O'Donnells, finding their power under English suzerainty limited, decamped en masse in 1607 (the Flight of the Earls) to Roman Catholic Europe. This allowed the Crown to settle Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish planters, a process which began in earnest in 1610.


Plantations and civil wars
The Plantation of Ulster, run by the government, settled only the counties confiscated from those Irish clans that had taken part in the Nine Years War. This involved the Crown dispossessing thousands of the native Irish, who had perforce to take up poorer land. Counties Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, Cavan, Londonderry and Fermanagh comprised the official plantation. However, the most extensive settlement in Ulster of English, Scots and Welsh — as well as Protestants from throughout the European continent — occurred in Antrim and Down. These counties, though not officially planted, had suffered de-populatation during the war and proved attractive to settlers from nearby Scotland. This unofficial settlement continued well into the 18th century, interrupted only by the Catholic uprising of 1641.

This rebellion, initially led by Phelim O'Neill, intended to seize power rapidly, but quickly degenerated into attacks on Protestant settlers. Dispossessed Catholics slaughtered thousands of Protestants, an event which remains strong in Ulster Protestant folk-memory. In the ensuing wars (1641 - 1653, fought against the background of civil war in England, Scotland and Ireland), Ulster became a battleground between the Protestant settlers and the native Irish Catholics. In 1646, the Irish Catholic army under Owen Roe O'Neill inflicted a bloody defeat on a Scottish Covenanter army at Benburb in county Tyrone, but the Catholic forces failed to follow up their victory and the war lapsed into stalemate. The war in Ulster ended with the defeat of the Irish Catholic army at the battle of Scarrifholis in 1650 and the occupation of the province by the Cromwellian New Model Army. The atrocities committed by all sides in the war poisoned the relationships between Ulster's ethno-religious communities for generations afterwards.

Forty years later, in 1688-1691, the former warring parties re-fought the conflict in the Williamite war in Ireland, when Irish Catholics ("Jacobites") supported James II (deposed in the Glorious Revolution) and Ulster Protestants (Williamites) backed William of Orange. At the start of the war, Irish Catholic Jacobites controlled all of Ireland for James, with the exception of the Protestant strongholds at Derry and at Enniskillen in Ulster. The Jacobites besieged Derry from December 1688 to July 1689, when a Williamite army from Britain relieved the city. The Protestant Williamite fighters based in Enniskillen defeated another Jacobite army at the battle of Newtownbutler on July 28, 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. Ulster Protestant irregulars known as "Enniskilleners" served with the Williamite forces. The war provided Protestant loyalists with the iconic victories of the Siege of Derry, the Battle of the Boyne (1 July 1690)and the Battle of Aughrim (12 July 1691), all of which their descendants still commemorate today. See also: Twelfth of July.

The Williamites' victory in this war ensured British and Protestant supremacy in Ireland for over 100 years. The Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland excluded most of Ulster's population from power on religious grounds. Roman Catholics (descended from the indigenous Irish) and Presbyterians (mainly descended from Scottish planters, but also from indigenous Irishmen who converted to Presbyterianism) both suffered discrimination under the Penal Laws, which gave full political rights only to Anglican Protestants (mostly descended from English settlers). In the 1690s, Scottish Presbyterians became a majority in Ulster, tens of thousands of them having emigrated there to escape a famine in Scotland.


Republicanism, rebellion, and communal strife
Most of the eighteenth 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 British North America in this period, where they became known as the "Scotch Irish".

Political tensions resurfaced, albeit in a new form, towards the end of the 18th century. In the 1790s many Catholics and Presbyterians, in opposition to Anglican domination and inspired by the American and French revolutions joined together in the United Irishmen movement. This group (founded in Belfast) dedicated itself to founding a non-sectarian and independent Irish republic. The United Irishmen had particular strength in Belfast, Antrim and Down. However, paradoxically, this period also saw much sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants, principally members of the Church of Ireland (Anglicans, who practised the state religion and had rights denied to both Presbyterians and Catholics), notably the "battle of the Diamond" in 1795, a faction fight between the rival "Defenders" (Catholic) and "Peep of Day Boys" (Anglican), which led to over 100 deaths and to the founding of the Orange Order. This event, and many others like it, came about with the relaxation of the Penal Laws and as Catholics began to purchase land and involve themselves in the linen trade (activities which previously had involved many onerous restrictions). Protestants, including Presbyterians, who in some parts of the province had come to identify with the Catholic community, used violence to intimidate Catholics who tried to enter the linen trade. Estimates suggest that up to 7000 Catholics suffered expulsion from Ulster during this violence. Many of them settled in northern Connacht. These refugees' linguistic influence still survives in the dialects of Irish spoken in Mayo, which have many similarities to Ulster Irish not found elsewhere in Connacht. Loyalist militias, primarily Anglicans, also used violence against the United Irishmen and against Catholic and Protestant republicans throughout the province.

In 1798 the United Irishmen, led by Henry Joy McCracken, launched a rebellion in Ulster, mostly supported by Presbyterians. But the British authorities swiftly put down the insurgents and employed severe repression after the fighting had ended. In the wake of the failure of this rebellion, and following the gradual abolition of official religious discrimination after the Act of Union in 1800, Presbyterians came to identify more with the State and with their Anglican neighbours, who perceived them as the lesser of two evils.


Industrialisation, Home Rule, and partition
In the 19th century Ulster became the most prosperous province in Ireland, with the only large-scale industrialisation in the country. In the latter part of the century Belfast overtook Dublin as the largest city on the island. Belfast became famous in this period for its huge dockyards and shipbuilding - and notably for the construction of the RMS Titanic. In the 19th century sectarian divisions in Ulster became hardened into the policial categories of unionist (supporters of the Union with Britain, mostly (but not exclusively) Protestant) and nationalist (advocates of a republic separate from the UK, usually (though not exclusively) Catholic). The origins of Northern Ireland's current politics lie in these late 19th century disputes over Home Rule for Ireland, which Ulster Protestants usually opposed - fearing for their status in an autonomous Catholic-dominated Ireland and also not trusting politicians from the agrarian south and west with supporting the more industrial economy of Ulster. To resist Home Rule, thousands of unionists, led by the Dublin-born barrister Sir Edward Carson and James Craig, signed the "Ulster Covenant" of 1912, pledging to resist Irish independence. This movement also saw the setting up of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the first Irish paramilitary group, in order to resist British attempts to enforce Home Rule. In response, Irish nationalists created the Irish Volunteers - forerunners of the IRA - to ensure the passing of the Home Rule Act 1914.

The outbreak of the Great War in 1914, in which thousands of Ulstermen and Irishmen of all religions and sects volunteered and died, interrupted this armed stand-off. In particular, the heavy casualties of the 36th Ulster Division (largely composed of Volunteers from the UVF) became a source both of mourning and of pride for the loyalist community down to the present day.

In the aftermath of the War, Ireland saw several years of political violence, with Irish nationalists launching a guerrilla campaign against British rule as part of the Anglo-Irish War (1919 - 1921). In Ulster the fighting generally took the form of street battles between Protestants and Catholics in the city of Belfast. Estimates suggest that about 600 civilians died in this communal violence, the majority of them (58%)Catholics. The IRA remained relatively quiescent in Ulster, with the exception of the south Armagh area, where Frank Aiken led it.

The formal end to hostilities came with the enactment of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 followed by the Anglo-Irish Treaty (6 December 1921) which ended in the partition of Ireland between the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland. However, low-level violence, often involving the B-Specials, continued in Ulster, causing Michael Collins to order a boycott on northern produce in protest at the attacks on the Catholic/Nationalist community. In 1922 six out of Ulster's nine counties became collectively Northern Ireland and remained in the United Kingdom, whilst the rest became part of the Irish Free State. For the subsequent general history of Ulster see History of Northern Ireland and History of the Republic of Ireland.


Current politics
This section primarily discusses the three Ulster counties in the Republic of Ireland. For current politics in Northern Ireland refer to Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland.

Although a large number of its Catholic citizens have long opposed the existence of Northern Ireland, the Protestant citizens of the three Ulster counties in the Republic of Ireland have assimilated well (although a good deal of migration into the new Northern Ireland state took place following partition). Some sectarian tensions remain. The Orange Order freely organises in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, with a large 12 July march taking place in Rossknowlagh in Donegal annually with the full co-operation of the Garda Siochána and the local Catholic population.

Electorally, while voting in Northern Ireland tends to follow religious or sectarian lines, no such noticeable religious demarcation exists in the three Ulster counties in the Republic of Ireland. All political parties welcome members of all religious persuasions, with one Church of Ireland TD (Teachta Dála, a member of the lower house of the National Parliament) who had represented Monaghan, Erskine Hamilton Childers, winning election as President of Ireland after having served as a long-term minister under Fianna Fáil Taoisigh Éamon de Valera, Sean Lemass and Jack Lynch.

As of 2006 Northern Ireland has eight Catholic MPs (out of a total of 18 from the whole of Northern Ireland) in the House of Commons at Westminster; and the three counties have one Protestant TD of the ten it has elected to the Republic of Ireland Dáil Éireann. The Republic's parties have long ceased to base their selection of candidates purely on any religious criteria. For most of the twentieth century they chose at least one candidate from a Protestant background to attract the Protestant vote, but the disappearance of a block Protestant vote voting exclusively for a candidate on the basis of religion (with Protestant voters instead voting primarily for local candidates irrespective of religion) means that selection now depends largely on considerations of geography when electing TDs to Dáil Éireann.

There remains one occasional exception. Where the parties find that two candidates (one Catholic and one Protestant) from a local area seek nomination in an area with a large Protestant electorate, the national party sometimes gives preference to the Protestant candidate, with sometimes the national headquarters adding the Protestant candidate to the ticket. But this does not occur automatically, and takes place only in those circumstances where a party can gain no competitive advantage from geography alone and where a candidate's ability to pick up one or two per cent extra in a part of a constituency because of their religion could prove decisive in winning a seat.

Though few Protestants have of late sought party nominations to run for Dáil Éireann, a larger number continues to seek nominations, and get elected, to local councils in the Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan areas.

In the early 2000s the law banned TDs from also serving as councillors, so as to separate local and national government more clearly. This may discourage councillors who wish to remain on the council from seeking Dáil seats. It remains unclear as of 2005 whether this may have an impact in discouraging the disproporionately high number of Protestant councillors (many of whom have long held council seats passed on through the generations, which they may wish to hold but which they would have to give up if elected) from seeking to run for the Dáil.

The flag of Ulster served as the basis for the flag of Northern Ireland, which functioned as the region's official flag until the proroguing of the Stormont parliament in 1973.


Sport
In Rugby union, the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union plays as a professional club in the Celtic League, along with clubs from Wales, Scotland and the professional clubs from the other Irish Provinces (Leinster, Munster and Connacht).

The border has divided Association football (soccer) teams since 1921: there exists a Northern Ireland (international) team, but not an Ulster team; separate football championships take place: (Irish League in Northern Ireland, League of Ireland in the rest of Ulster). Anomalously, Derry City F.C. has played in the League of Ireland since 1985. There have, however, been cup competitions between teams from both sides of the border such as the recently formed Setanta Sports Cup.

In Gaelic games, Ulster counties compete with the other Irish counties in the All-Ireland Championships and National Leagues, as well as in the All-Ireland inter-club championships. The whole province fields a team to play the other provinces in the Railway Cup. Gaelic football, by far the most popular of the GAA sports in Ulster, has counties Derry, Antrim, and Down existing as 'isolated' hurling counties.