LONDON, Oct 4 — The British province of Northern Ireland was hit by three decades of sectarian violence until the late 1990s.
Since 2016 it has been one of the key sticking points in negotiations for Britain’s departure from the European Union due to its border with the Republic of Ireland.
Here are five things to know about the province.
Under the British crown
The island of Ireland joined Britain in 1801 after numerous invasions by Vikings, Normans and then the British crown.
A guerrilla war for independence from Britain was launched in 1919 by a Roman Catholic group called the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
It resulted in the island’s split in 1921 into a Catholic-majority Irish Free State in the south and a Protestant-majority Northern Ireland.
While the northern part remained within the United Kingdom, the larger southern section became the independent Republic of Ireland in 1948.
Today Northern Ireland’s population of 1.9 million represents three per cent of that of the United Kingdom.
‘The Troubles’
Anger among minority Catholics in Northern Ireland over discrimination erupted into riots in 1968 and the British army was sent in.
It was the start of a three-decade period of unrest called “The Troubles”, marked by bombings and shootings by rival Catholic IRA and Protestant groups, who favoured a united Ireland and continued union with the UK respectively.
One of the worst episodes was “Bloody Sunday” in January 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on a peaceful Catholic march in Londonderry, killing 14 people.
Two months later London dissolved the Northern Ireland parliament and imposed direct rule.
After lengthy peace negotiations, the breakthrough Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998 ended a conflict that had cost 3,500 lives.
Power-sharing stalled
The Good Friday Agreement led to a power-sharing government between republican and unionist parties to run the province’s semi-autonomous institutions.
The two largest groups are the pro-British and largely Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and the IRA’s republican political wing, Sinn Fein.
The power-sharing executive broke down in January 2017, after a row over a botched green energy scheme.
With the two sides at loggerheads, Northern Ireland’s affairs are being managed from London.
EU-centred economy
Northern Ireland shares an essentially open 500-kilometre (310-mile) border with Ireland.
There are fears that after Brexit, when it would be Britain’s only land border with the EU, it could again become a “hard border”, interrupting the passage of people and goods.
Around 30,000 people cross the border every day and in 2016 around 31 per cent of Northern Ireland’s exports were sent to Ireland.
Northern Ireland is one of the UK’s poorest provinces with a gross disposable household income of €17,700 (RM81,276) in 2017 that is equivalent to 81 per cent of the UK average, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Its economy was previously based on industry, with several factories and the iconic Titanic shipyard, but it is reorienting towards services.
Around 27 per cent of jobs are in the public sector, while the private sector remains underdeveloped, according to the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat.
The European Union has contributed €1.3 billion (RM5.9 billion) to Northern Ireland since 1995 for economic development aimed at consolidating peace.
It has earmarked €270 million for the 2014-2020 period.
Conservative laws
Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom which does not allow same-sex marriages, a position defended by the ultra-conservative DUP.
Abortion is also illegal except when the mother’s life is in danger. The High Court in Belfast yesterday ruled the law breached UK human rights commitments.
In July 2019 Britain’s lower House of Commons voted to extend same-sex marriage and abortion rights to Northern Ireland — unless its local government is restored there by October 21 and decides differently. — AFP
