Fáilte!

Northern Ireland is located on the northern part of the island of Ireland. It is not an independent nation unlike its counterpart, Ireland but forms part as 1 of the 4 constituent countries of the United Kingdom.

Officially, Northern Ireland does not have a flag. It used to have one but it, along with Northern Ireland's regional government, got suspended in 1972 by Westminster. After self-governance was restored, the new Northern Irish government decided to not reintroduce the official flag nor any other due to it, basically, being too controversial (because its more associated with unionism).

Unionists and Nationalists

There are two main political affiliation in Northern Ireland regarding Northern Irish sovereignty, those being the Unionists and the Nationalists. The Unionists, also called loyalists, are pro-UK and believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom. Mostly Protestants, but not exclusively.

Nationalists

Nationalists believe that Northern Ireland should leave the UK altogether and join the larger Republic of Ireland, who, unlike the Unionists who consider themselves a part of the larger British identity, see themselves as Irish first. They are mostly Catholic (though not exclusively) and historically includes the IRA (Irish Republican Army), now disbanded, which was a group of military volunteers who wanted to achieve unification through violent means.

The Troubles

The Troubles (1960s-1998) was a conflict that kicked off after years of tension after 1921 when the majority of Ireland split off from the United Kingdom. For years, the Protestants led various government institutions and politics which led to unfair treatment of Catholic(-nationalist)s on the areas of housing, voting and jobs. In the 1960s, inspired by the civil rights protests of the U.S., Catholics en masse demanded equality which led to fights between police and other unionists.

1970-1971

The conflict only worsened and with events like Bombay Street (1969) where Protestant extremist groups burned down various Catholic households. When the British Army was deployed in the same year, Catholics welcomed them with open arms seeing them as protectors from the violence.

Protectors, no more as British troops began arresting suspected members of the IRA without trial combined with beatings, house raids and Bloody Sunday (1972) where British troops shot 28 unarmed protesters in the city of Derry, killing 14.

The End

The main problem was that neither party wanted to cooperate, because the Unionists wanted to keep total power and the Nationalists just wanted to see a reunification with Ireland proper.

Conflict continued until 1998 when the sides finally agreed to the Good Friday Agreemnt where nationalists, unionists, the British government and Irish government agreed to a Northern Ireland Assembly with a mandatory coaltion between unionist and nationalist political parties and the principle of consent, where the Republic of Ireland would remove its claim to Northern Ireland while Northern Ireland would remain a part of the UK unless it held a referendum where the majority would vote to leave. Other things were also set up and said, but these two things helped soothe tensions between unionists and nationalists.