The history of Northern Ireland

The history of Northern Ireland officially begins in 1921, when six counties of Ulster remained in the United Kingdom while the rest of the island became independent. In little more than a century the region has known fifty years of unionist government, thirty years of armed conflict, the Troubles, and a peace process that, through crises and suspensions, has held until today. For the origins of partition see the Irish question.

The unionist state (1921-1968)

The new state was designed to guarantee a solid Protestant and unionist majority, about two thirds of the population. The Belfast parliament, which from 1932 met in the grand building at Stormont, was governed without interruption by the Ulster Unionist Party. Prime Minister James Craig spoke of "a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people". The Catholic, nationalist minority suffered discrimination in jobs, the allocation of public housing and voting: constituencies were drawn to favour unionists, as in the glaring case of Derry, a Catholic-majority city run by a unionist council, and the vote in local elections was tied to property. The police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the auxiliary militia were almost entirely Protestant.

The Troubles (1968-1998)

In the late 1960s, inspired by the American civil rights movement, a movement emerged demanding "one man, one vote" and an end to discrimination. Marches were attacked by police and loyalists, and in August 1969, after the "Battle of the Bogside" in Derry and violence in Belfast, the British government sent in the army. The Provisional IRA was born, launching an armed campaign for Irish unification, while loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UVF and UDA attacked the Catholic community. In 1971 internment without trial was introduced. On 30 January 1972, Bloody Sunday, British paratroopers killed fourteen unarmed demonstrators in Derry: only in 2010, after a twelve-year inquiry, did Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologise. In the same year, the bloodiest of the conflict, London suspended Stormont and imposed direct rule.

Years of bombings, murders and reprisals followed, also striking Britain, with bombs in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Brighton, where in 1984 the IRA tried to kill Margaret Thatcher. A power-sharing attempt in 1974, the Sunningdale Agreement, collapsed in the face of a loyalist general strike. In 1981 ten republican prisoners died on hunger strike in the Maze prison seeking political status; the first, Bobby Sands, was elected an MP at Westminster shortly before his death. Sinn Féin, the IRA's political wing, then began to contest elections. In all, the Troubles caused more than 3,500 deaths, most of them civilians.

The peace process

The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 gave Dublin a consultative role in the north for the first time. After years of secret contacts, the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 paved the way for the ceasefires of the IRA and the loyalists in 1994. With the mediation of former US senator George Mitchell and the commitment of the governments of Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, the Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998 and approved on 22 May by referendum, by 71% of voters in Northern Ireland and 94% in the Republic. The agreement created an Assembly and a government with mandatory power-sharing, bodies for north-south cooperation, and established that Northern Ireland will remain in the UK as long as a majority of its people wish. The enemies of peace did not give up at once: in August 1998 a bomb by dissident republicans killed 29 people in Omagh. In 2005 the IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and the decommissioning of its weapons.

From 2007 to today

In 2007 what many thought impossible happened: the hardline unionist leader Ian Paisley and the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness led the government together. The institutions have, however, been suspended several times, from 2017 to 2020 over a renewable energy scandal and from 2022 to 2024 over tensions about Brexit and checks on goods. In February 2024 Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin became the region's first nationalist First Minister. Painful issues remain open, such as how to deal with the crimes of the past, along with the debate on a possible referendum on reunification with the Republic.

See also Northern Ireland, Belfast and Brexit and Northern Ireland.