Northern Ireland is a constituent part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland – the UK. The UK is the political union between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and is a constitutional monarchy.
Over the centuries, Great Britain evolved politically from three independent countries (England, Scotland and Wales); through two kingdoms with a shared monarch (England and Scotland) with the ‘Union of the Crowns’ in 1603; a single ‘all-island Kingdom of Great Britain’ from 1707; to the situation following 1801 in which Great Britain, together with the island of Ireland, constituted the larger United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK). For more information on the development of the United Kingdom, see the parallel article for England.
Throughout the 19th century, there was strong Irish opposition to the union and a growing movement for home rule. Those who opposed home rule and wanted to retain links with the UK were known as Unionists. Although Unionists were a minority group in Ireland overall, they were a majority group in Ulster, a province in the North of Ireland. In 1914, the Government of Ireland Act 1914 was passed which would partition six of Ulster’s nine counties from the rest of Ireland; this separation was intended to be temporary. However, the First World War then broke out, so the Act was suspended before it could be implemented. In 1921, following the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Ireland was partitioned into Northern Ireland, comprising six of the nine counties in Ulster, and the 26 counties of Southern Ireland. Each part had its own parliament with elections taking place in May 1921. However, while in the North a devolved parliament was reluctantly accepted, in the South, Sinn Féin (Republicans) did not take their seats. The UK Government entered further negotiations with the Republicans and the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921. This formed the Irish Free State from the 26 counties of Southern Ireland.
The Irish Free State was a self-governing dominion within the British Empire until the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 ended the remaining constitutional ties to the British monarchy and established Ireland as a republic. In response to this piece of legislation, the UK Government passed the Ireland Act 1949. This gave Northern Ireland a guarantee that it would not cease to be part of the UK without the support of the majority of its citizens.
Since it was set up, the Northern Ireland Parliament was dominated by Unionists. Its attempts to solve social and political ills, such as institutional discrimination against Catholics, were too slow for Nationalists and Republicans and too quick for many Unionists. In the 1960s this gave rise to growing tension and violence between the two communities, known as 'the Troubles'. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that, in 1972, the Northern Ireland Parliament was abolished and direct rule was imposed by the UK Government. This lasted until 1998 when, as a result of the Belfast Agreement of 10 April, the Northern Ireland Assembly was established. The Agreement was the outcome of a long process of talks between the Northern Ireland political parties and the British and Irish Governments.
The Agreement was endorsed through a referendum held on 22 May 1998 and subsequently given legal force through the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Since its creation, the Assembly has been suspended on five occasions. The fifth suspension occurred after the Assembly collapsed in January 2017 and continues at the time of writing (January 2019), although efforts to form an Executive are ongoing.
For more information, see the Northern Ireland Assembly’s history pages and the UK Parliament’s Parliament and Ireland pages.
EU membership
The United Kingdom (UK), rather than Northern Ireland (as one of its four constituent parts), is currently a member state of the European Union (EU). For a history of the UK’s membership of the EU, see the article ‘Historical Development’ for England.
Brexit
On 23 June 2016 a referendum on UK membership of the European Union was held. The people of the UK as a whole voted with a majority of 51.9% to leave the EU, although 55.8% of voters in Northern Ireland opted to remain. For further information on the process of the UK leaving the EU, see the parallel article for England.
Article last reviewed December 2020.