The three dialects of the Irish language, with Ulster in the north.

The percentage of people in each administrative area in Ulster who have the ability to speak Irish. (Counties of the Republic of Ireland and District council areas of Northern Ireland.)

Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the Province of Ulster. The largest Gaeltacht region today is in County Donegal, so that the term Donegal Irish is often used synonymously. Nevertheless, records of the language as it was spoken in other counties do exist, and help provide a broader view of Ulster Irish. When the recommendations of the first Comisiún na Gaeltachta were drawn up in 1926, there were regions qualifying for Gaeltacht recognition in the Sperrin Mountains on the border between County Tyrone and County Londonderry, as well as in the northern Glens of Antrim around Rathlin Island. The report also makes note of small pockets of Irish speakers in northwest County Cavan, southeast County Monaghan, and the far south of County Armagh. However, these small pockets vanished early in the 20th century while the Gaeltacht of the Sperrin Mountains survived until the 1950s and the Glens of Antrim Gaeltacht survived until the 1970s. The last native speaker of Rathlin Island Irish died in 1985.

In the 1960s, six families in Belfast formed the Shaw's Road 'Gaeltacht', which has survived and even grown.^[1][2] The Irish-speaking area of the Falls Road in West Belfast has recently been designated the 'Gaeltacht Quarter'.^[3] Manx and the southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic share similarities with Ulster Irish, due to their historical connections with Ulster.

Lexicon[link]

The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects, or used otherwise only in the west of County Mayo. In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:

• amharc, "look" (elsewhere amharc, breathnaigh and féach; this latter means rather "try" or "attempt" in Ulster)
• bomaite, "minute" (elsewhere nóiméad, nóimint, neómat, etc.)
• cluinim "I hear" (southern cloisim, but cluinim is also attested in South Tipperary). In fact, the initial c- tends to be lenited even when it is not preceded by any particle (this is because there was a leniting particle in Classical Irish: do-chluin yielded chluin in Ulster)
• eallach "cattle" (southern beithíoch "one head of cattle", beithígh "cattle")
• gamhain "calf" (southern lao and gamhain)
• gasúr "boy" (southern garsún, garsún means "child" in Connemara)
• girseach "girl" (southern gearrchaile and girseach)
• bealach, ród "road" (southern and western bóthar and ród (cf. Scottish Gaelic rathad, Manx Gaelic raad), and bealach "way"). Note that bealach alone is used as a preposition meaning "towards" (literally meaning in the way of: d'amharc sé bealach na farraige = "he looked towards the sea"
• ag déanamh is used to mean "to think" as well as "to make" or "to do", síleann, ceapann and cuimhníonn is used in other dialects, as well as in Ulster Irish.
• druid "close" (southern and western dún; in other dialects druid means "to move in relation to or away from something", thus druid ó rud = to shirk, druid isteach = to close in)
• eiteogaí "wings" (southern sciatháin)
• sópa "soap" (standard gallúnach, Connemara gallaoireach)
• stócach, "youth", "young man", "boyfriend" (Southern = "gangly, young lad")
• cál "cabbage" (southern gabáiste)
• fá "about, under" (standard faoi Munster fé, fí and fá is only used for 'under'; mar gheall ar and i dtaobh = "about")
• Gaeilg, Gaelic "Irish" (standard, Western Gaeilge, Southern Gaoluinn, Manx Gaelg, Scottish Gàidhlig)
• caidé (cad é) atá? "what is?" (Connacht céard tá; Munster cad a thá, cad é a thá, dé a thá, Scotland dé tha)
• tábla "table" (western and southern bord and clár, Scotland bòrd
• cá huair "when?" (Connacht cén uair; Munster cathain, cén uair)
• faoileog "seagull" (standard faoileán)
• falsa "lazy" (southern and western leisciúil, fallsa = "false, treacherous")
• the word iontach "wonderful" is used as an intensifier instead of the prefix an- used in other dialects.

In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:

• cloigeann "head" (southern and western ceann; elsewhere, cloigeann is used to mean "skull")

• capall "mare" (southern and western láir; elsewhere, capall means "horse")

Phonology[link]

The phonemic inventory of Ulster Irish (based on the dialect of Gweedore^[4]) is as shown in the following chart (see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonants /h, n, l/ are neither broad or slender.

The vowels of Ulster Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.

The long vowels have short allophones in unstressed syllables and before /h/.

In addition, Ulster has the diphthongs /ia, ua, au/.

Some characteristics of the phonology of Ulster Irish that distinguish it from the other dialects are:

• The only broad labial continuant is the approximant [w]. In other dialects, fricative [vˠ] is found instead of or in addition to [w]. No dialect makes a phonemic contrast between the approximant and the fricative, however.
• Often in Ulster dialects, [tʲ] can become [tʃ] as in "teach" (Pronounced as the English "ch"). Likewise [dʲ] can become [dʒ] as in "dearg" (Pronounced as the English "j"). This is particularly evident in younger speakers of this dialect. Such pronunciation of the slender "t" and "d" is also the case in Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
• There is a three-way distinction among coronal nasals and laterals: /n̪ˠ ~ n ~ ṉʲ/, /l̪ˠ ~ l ~ ḻʲ/, and there is no lengthening or diphthongization of short vowels before these sounds and /m/. Thus, while ceann "head" is /cɑːn/ in Connacht and /caun/ in Munster, in Ulster it is /can̪ˠ/
• /ɔː/ corresponds to the /oː/ of other dialects. The Ulster /oː/ corresponds to the /au/ of other dialects.
• Long vowels are shortened when in unstressed syllables.
• /n/ is realized as [r] (or is replaced by /r/) after consonants other than [s]. This happens in Connacht as well.
• Orthographic -adh in unstressed syllables is always [u] (this includes verb forms).
• Unstressed orthographic -ach is pronounced [ax], [ah], or [a].

Morphology[link]

Initial mutations[link]

Ulster Irish has the same two initial mutations, lenition and eclipsis, as the other two dialects and the standard language, and mostly uses them the same way. There is, however, one exception: in Ulster, a dative singular noun after the definite article is lenited (e.g. ar an chrann "on the tree") (as is the case in Scottish and Manx), whereas in Connacht and Munster, it is eclipsed (ar an gcrann), except in the case of den, don and insan, where lenition occurs in literary language. Both possibilities are allowed for in the standard language.

Verbs[link]

Irish verbs are characterized by having a mixture of analytic forms (where information about person is provided by a pronoun) and synthetic forms (where information about number is provided in an ending on the verb) in their conjugation. In Ulster and North Connacht the analytic forms are used in a variety of forms where the standard language has synthetic forms, e.g. molann muid "we praise" (standard molaimid, muid being a back formation from the verbal ending -mid and not found in the Munster dialect, which retains sinn as the first person plural pronoun as does Scots Gaelic and Manx Gaelic) or mholfadh siad "they would praise" (standard mholfaidís). The synthetic forms, including those no longer emphasised in the standard language, may be used in short answers to questions.

The 2nd conjugation future stem suffix in Ulster is -óch- (pronounced [ah]) rather than -ó-, e.g. beannóchaidh mé [bʲan̪ˠahə mʲə] "I will bless" (standard beannóidh mé [bʲanoːj mʲeː]).

Some irregular verbs have different forms in Ulster from those in the standard language. For example:

• (gh)níom (independent form only) "I do, make" (standard déanaim) and rinn mé "I did, made" (standard rinne mé)
• tchíom [t̠ʲʃiːm] (independent form only) "I see" (standard feicim, Southern chím, cím (independent form only))
• bheiream "I give" (standard tugaim, southern bheirim (independent only)), ní thabhram or ní thugaim "I do not give" (standard only ní thugaim), and bhéarfaidh mé/bheirfidh mé "I will give" (standard tabharfaidh mé, southern bhéarfad(independent form only))

Particles[link]

In Ulster the negative particle cha (before a vowel chan, in past tenses char - Scottish/Manx Gaelic chan, chan do) is sometimes used where other dialects use ní and níor. The form is more common in the north of the Donegal Gaeltacht. Cha cannot be followed by the future tense: where it has a future meaning, it is followed by the habitual present.^{[citation needed]} It triggers a "mixed mutation": /t/ and /d/ are eclipsed, while other consonants are lenited. In some dialects however (Gweedore), cha eclipses all consonants, except b- in the forms of the verb 'to be', and sometimes f- :

Syntax[link]

The Ulster dialect uses the present tense of the subjunctive mood in certain cases where other dialects prefer to use the future indicative:

Suigh síos anseo aige mo thaobh, a Shéimí, go dtugaidh (dtabhairidh, dtabhraidh) mé comhairle duit agus go n-insidh mé mo scéal duit.

Sit down here by my side, Séimí, till I give you some advice and tell you my story.

The verbal noun can be used in subordinate clauses with a subject different from that of the main clause:

Ba mhaith liom thú a ghabháil ann.

I would like you to go there.

See also[link]

• Ulster Scots language
• Mid Ulster English
• Scottish Gaelic

References[link]

1. ^ Nig Uidhir, Gabrielle (2006) “The Shaw’s Road urban Gaeltacht: role and impact.” In: Fionntán de Brún (ed.), Belfast and the Irish Language. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 136-146.
2. ^ Mac Póilin, Aodán (2007) "Nua-Ghaeltacht Phobal Feirste: Ceachtanna le foghlaim?" In: Wilson McLeod (Ed.) Gàidhealtachdan Ùra; Leasachadh na Gàidhlig agus na Gaeilge sa Bhaile Mhòr. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, pp. 57-59.
3. ^ "All roads lead to the Gaeltacht Quarter". Belfast City Council. http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/news/news.asp?id=515. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
4. ^ Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999). "Irish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–16. ISBN 0-521-63751-1. 

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: A Dialect of Donegal

• Gaelic resources focusing on Ulster Irish (Irish)
• A yahoogroup for learners of Ulster Irish

Ulster Ulaidh / Cúige Uladh Ulstèr
Flag
Sovereign states	United Kingdom Ireland
Counties	Antrim (UK) Armagh (UK) Cavan (IE) Donegal (IE) Down (UK) Fermanagh (UK) Londonderry (UK) Monaghan (IE) Tyrone (UK)
Government
• Teachtaí Dála & MPs	8 DUP MPs 8 Sinn Féin TDs/MPs 5 Fine Gael TDs 3 SDLP MPs 2 Fianna Fáil TDs 1 Alliance MP 2 Independent TDs/MPs
Area
• Total	21,552 km2 (8,275 sq mi)
Population (2011 estimate)
• Total	2,106,296[a]
a. ^ The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency[1] estimate for 2011 combined with the preliminary results of Census of Ireland 2011 for Ulster (part of).[2]

Ulster (Irish: Ulaidh or Cúige Uladh, Ulster Scots: Ulstèr^[3][4][5] or Ulster)^[6][7][8] is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" Irish: rí ruirech. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes.

Ulster is composed of nine counties. Six of these (almost 57% of the land area) make up Northern Ireland: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. The three remaining counties (about 43% of the land area) are in the Republic of Ireland: Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.

Terminology[link]

The name Ulster derives from the Irish Cúige Uladh (IPA: [ˈkuːɟ ˈʌlˠu, ˈʌlˠi]) meaning "The fifth of Uladh", a reference to the five regions into which ancient Ireland was divided. In the English language, the first part of the name ("Ul")refers to the Ulaidh tribes inhabiting this northernmost region. The latter part of the name ("ster") derives either from the Irish tír or the Old Norse staðr, both of which translate as "land" or "territory".

Ulaidh (or Cúige Uladh) has historically been anglicized as Ulagh or Ullagh^[9] and Latinized as Ulidia or Ultonia.^[10] The latter two have yielded the terms Ulidian and Ultonian. The Irish word for someone or something from Ulster is Ultach. Words that have been used in English are Ullish and Ulsterman/Ulsterwoman.

Northern Ireland is often referred to as 'Ulster',^[11] despite including only six of Ulster's nine counties. This usage is most common amongst people in Northern Ireland who are unionist,^[12] although it is also used by the media throughout the United Kingdom.^[13][14] Some people, mainly Irish nationalists, object to this use of the term.^[12]

Geography and demographics[link]

Ulster (coloured) showing the Northern Ireland part in pink and the Republic of Ireland part in green

Ulster has a population of just over 2 million people and an area of 21,552 square kilometres (8,321 sq mi). Its biggest city, Belfast has an urban area of over half a million inhabitants. Six of Ulster's nine counties, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, form Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom after the partition of Ireland in 1921. Three Ulster counties, Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, form part of the Republic of Ireland. About half of Ulster's population lives in Counties Antrim and Down. Across the nine counties, according to the aggregate UK 2001 Census for Northern Ireland, and Irish 2002 Census for counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, there is a very slim Catholic plurality over Protestant (49% against 48%), but not an overall majority (people of neither religion, "no religion" or those "not stating" religion making up the balance). The traditional counties of Northern Ireland are now ceremonial, with day-to-day administration in 26 districts

The biggest lake in Ireland, and in the United Kingdom, Lough Neagh, lies in eastern Ulster. The province's highest point, Slieve Donard (848 metres (2,782 ft)), stands in County Down. The most northerly point in Ireland, Malin Head, is in County Donegal, as are the sixth-highest (601 metres (1,972 ft)) sea cliffs in Europe, at Slieve League. The longest river in Ireland, the Shannon, rises at the Shannon Pot in County Cavan with underground tributaries from County Fermanagh. Volcanic activity in eastern Ulster led to the formation of the Antrim Plateau and the Giant's Causeway, one of the island's three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The geographical centre of Ulster lies between the villages of Pomeroy and Carrickmore in County Tyrone. In terms of area, County Donegal is the largest county in all of Ulster. The two largest cities in the province are Belfast and Derry. Belfast is Ireland's second largest city, and the largest in Northern Ireland.

Access and transport[link]

Air access[link]

The province's main airport is Belfast International Airport (popularly called Aldergrove Airport), which is located at Aldergrove, near Antrim Town. George Best Belfast City Airport (sometimes referred to as "the City Airport" or "the Harbour Airport") is another, smaller airport in the same which is located at Sydenham. The City of Derry Airport is located at Eglinton on the eastern outskirts of the city of Derry serving the city and the counties of Londonderry, western Tyrone and eastern Donegal. The west Donegal Gaeltacht area is served by Donegal Airport (Irish: Aerfort Dhún na nGall. Popularly known as Carrickfinn Airport), which is located in The Rosses.

Rail access[link]

The majority of the railway lines operational today are run by Northern Ireland Railways (N.I.R.). The two most important lines are: firstly, the Belfast-Derry railway line connecting Derry's Waterside Station, via Coleraine, with Belfast Central and Belfast Great Victoria Street; and secondly, the jointly operated Enterprise run by N.I.R. and Iarnród Éireann, connecting Belfast Central to Dublin Connolly.

Main railway lines linking to and from Belfast Great Victoria Street and Belfast Central are:

• The Derry Line and the Portrush Branch.
• The Larne Line
• The Bangor Line
• The Portadown Line

The historic Great Northern Railway of Ireland would have connected the counties that have no mainline railway at present.

Ulster's counties without mainline railways are County Cavan, County Monaghan, County Fermanagh, County Tyrone and County Donegal. Waterside Station in Derry is the closest railway station to County Donegal.

Counties[link]

Counties shaded in grey are in the Republic of Ireland. Counties shaded in pink are in Northern Ireland.

Largest settlements[link]

Settlements in Ulster with at least 25,000 inhabitants, listed in order of population:

• Belfast (276,459)
• Derry Urban Area (90,663)
• Bangor (76,403)
• Lisburn (71,465)
• Newtownabbey (62,056)
• Craigavon Urban Area (57,685)
• Portadown (30,000)
• Ballymena (28,717)
• Newtownards (27,821)
• Newry (27,433)
• Carrickfergus (27,201)
• Lurgan (25,000)

Languages and dialects[link]

Most people in Ulster speak English. Irish is the next most commonly spoken language. The language is taught in all schools in the counties that are part of the Republic. In responses to the 2001 census in Northern Ireland 10% of the population had "some knowledge of Irish",^[15] 4.7% to "speak, read, write and understand" Irish.^[15] Large parts of County Donegal are Gaeltacht areas where Irish is the first language and some people in west Belfast also speak Irish, especially in the 'Gaeltacht Quarter'.^[16] The dialect of Irish (Gaeilge) most commonly spoken in Ulster (especially throughout Northern Ireland and County Donegal) is Gaeilge Thír Chonaill or Donegal Irish, also known as Gaeilge Uladh or Ulster Irish. Donegal Irish has many similarities to Scottish Gaelic. Cantonese forms the third most common language, mostly due to the considerable Chinese community of Belfast, the province's largest city. Ulster Scots (a dialect of Scots which is also sometimes known by the neologism Ullans) is also spoken in County Down and The Ards, County Antrim, County Londonderry and County Donegal.^[17]

Prehistory[link]

The archaeology of Ulster, formerly called Ulandia, gives examples of "ritual enclosures", such as the "Giant's Ring" near Belfast, which is an earth bank about 590 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, in the centre of which there is a dolmen (Riordain, 66).^[18]

History and politics[link]

Early history[link]

Ulster is one of the four Irish provinces. Its name derives from the Irish language Cúige Uladh (pronounced "Kooi-gah UH-loo"), meaning "'fifth' of the Ulaidh", named for the ancient inhabitants of the region.

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 dynasty displaced the Ulaidh and dominated Ulster from their base in Tír Eóghain, most of which forms modern County Tyrone. Among the High Kings of Ireland were Áed Findliath (died 879), Niall Glúndub (died 919), and Domnall ua Néill (died 980), all of the Cenél nEógain branch of the Uí Néill. Their descendants took the surname Mac Lochlainn (McLaughlin), ruling the kingdom of Ailech.

A bronze statue commemorating The Flight of the Earls in County Donegal.

Domnall Ua Lochlainn (died 1121) and Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn (died 1166) were of this dynasty. The Mac Lochlainn were in 1241 overthrown by their cousins, the clan Ó Néill (see O'Neill dynasty). The Ó Néill's were from then on established as Ulster's most powerful Gaelic family.

The Ó Domhnaill (O'Donnell) dynasty were Ulster's second most powerful clan from the early thirteenth-century through to the beginning of the seventeenth-century. The O'Donnells ruled over Tír Chonaill (most of modern County Donegal) in West Ulster.

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 on the modern counties of Antrim and Down.

However, by the end of the 14th century the Earldom had collapsed and Ulster had become the only Irish province completely outside of English control.

In the 1600s Ulster was 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 English Crown to plant Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish planters, a process which began in earnest in 1610.

Plantations and civil wars[link]

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh) was the organised colonisation (or plantation) of Ulster by people from Great Britain (especially Presbyterians from Scotland). Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606,^[19][20][21] while the official plantation controlled by King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scots) began in 1609. All land owned by Irish chieftains, the Ó Neills and Ó Donnells (along with those of their supporters), who fought against the English Crown in the Nine Years War, were confiscated and used to settle the colonists. The Counties Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine and Armagh comprised the official Colony^[22] however most of the counties including the most heavily colonized Counties Antrim and Down were privately colonised.^[19][20][21] These counties, though not officially designated as subject to Plantation, had suffered violent de-populatation during the previous wars and proved attractive to Private Colonialists from nearby Britain.

The official reason for the Plantation is said to have been to pay for the costly Nine Years' War,^[23] but this view was not shared by all in the new 'British' establishment of the time, most notably the English Crown-appointed Attorney-General for Ireland in 1609, Sir John Davies:

A barbarous country must be first broken by a war before it will be capable of good government ; and when it is fully subdued and conquered, if it be not well planted and governed after the conquest, it will eftsoons return to the former barbarism^[24]

The Plantation of Ulster continued well into the 18th century, interrupted only by the Irish Rebellion of 1641. This Rebellion was initially led by Sir Phelim O'Neill (Irish: Sir Féilim Ó Néill), and was intended to overthrow British rule rapidly, but quickly degenerated into attacks on Colonialists, in which dispossessed Irish slaughtered thousands of the Colonialists. In the ensuing wars (1641–1653, fought against the background of civil war in England, Scotland and Ireland), Ulster became a battleground between the Colonialists and the native Irish. In 1646, an Irish army under command by Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill) inflicted a defeat on a Scottish Covenanter army at Benburb in County Tyrone, but the native Irish forces failed to follow up their victory and the war lapsed into stalemate. The war in Ulster ended with the defeat of the native army at the Battle of Scarrifholis, near Newmills on the western outskirts of Letterkenny, County Donegal, in 1650, as part of the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland conducted by Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army, the aim of which was to expel all native Irish to the Province of Connaught^[25]

Forty years later, in 1688-1691, the Williamite War was fought, the belligerents of which were the Williamites and Jacobites. The war was partly due to a dispute over who was the rightful claimant to the British Throne, and thus the supreme monarch of the nascent British Empire. However, the war was also a part of the greater War of the Grand Alliance, fought between King Louis XIV of France and his allies, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by Prince William of Orange and Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, supported by the Vatican and many other states. The Grand Alliance was a cross-denominational alliance designed to stop French eastward colonialist expansion under Louis XIV, with whom King James II was allied.

The majority of Irish people were ("Jacobites") and supported James II due to his 1687 Declaration of Indulgence or, as it is also known, The Declaration for the Liberty of Conscience, that granted religious freedom to all denominations in England and Scotland and also due to James II's promise to the Irish Parliament of an eventual right to self determination.^[26][27] However, James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution, and the majority of Ulster Colonialists (Williamites) backed William of Orange. It is of note that both the Williamite and Jacobite armies were religiously mixed; William of Orange's own elite forces, the Dutch Blue Guards had a papal banner with them during the invasion, many of them being Dutch Catholics.^[28]

At the start of the war, Irish Jacobites controlled most of Ireland for James II, with the exception of the Williamite strongholds at Derry and at Enniskillen in Ulster. The Jacobites besieged Derry from December 1688 to July 1689, ending when a Williamite army from Britain relieved the city. The Williamites 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. 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 the Orange Order commemorate each year.

The Williamites' victory in this war ensured British rule in Ireland for over 200 years. The Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland excluded most of Ulster's population from having any Civil power on religious grounds. Roman Catholics (descended from the indigenous Irish) and Presbyterians (mainly descended from Scottish Colonialists) 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, due to a large influx of them into the Province.

Emigration[link]

Considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots immigrated to the North America]n colonies throughout the 18th century (160,000 settled in what would become the United States between 1717 and 1770 alone).

Disdaining (or forced out of) the heavily English regions on the Atlantic coast, most groups of Ulster-Scots settlers crossed into the "western mountains," where their descendants populated the Appalachian regions and the Ohio Valley. Here they lived on the frontiers of America, carving their own world out of the wilderness. The Scotch-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Author (and U.S. Senator) Jim Webb puts forth a thesis in his book Born Fighting to suggest that the character traits he ascribes to the Scotch-Irish such as loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and a propensity to bear arms, helped shape the American identity.

In the United States Census, 2000, 4.3 million Americans claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. Interestingly, the areas where the most Americans reported themselves in the 2000 Census only as "American" with no further qualification (e.g. Kentucky, north-central Texas, and many other areas in the Southern US) are largely the areas where many Scotch-Irish settled, and are in complementary distribution with the areas which most heavily report Scotch-Irish ancestry.

According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, 400,000 people in the U.S. were of Irish birth or ancestry in 1790 when the first U.S. Census counted 3,100,000 white Americans. According to the encyclopedia, half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster, and half from the other three provinces of Ireland.

Republicanism, rebellion and communal strife[link]

Most of the 18th 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 "Scots Irish" or "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. Paradoxically however, this period also saw much sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants, principally members of the Church of Ireland (Anglicans, who practised the British 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 O'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 Catholics began to be allowed to purchase land and involve themselves in the linen trade (activities which previously had involved many onerous restrictions). Protestants, including some 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 rebellion 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 neighbors, due to their civil rights now being respected by both the state and their Anglican Neighbors.

Industrialisation, Home Rule and partition[link]

Royal Avenue, Belfast. Photochrom print circa 1890-1900.

In the 19th century, Ulster had the only large-scale industrialisation and became the most prosperous province on the island. In the latter part of the century, Belfast overtook Dublin as the island's largest city. Belfast became famous in this period for its huge dockyards and shipbuilding — and notably for the construction of the RMS Titanic. Sectarian divisions in Ulster became hardened into the political categories of unionist (supporters of the Union with Britain; mostly, but not exclusively, Protestant) and nationalist (advocates of the Repeal of the Bill of Union 1900 ; usually, though not exclusively, Catholic). Northern Ireland's current politics originate from these late 19th century disputes over Home Rule that would have devolved some powers of government to Ireland, and which Ulster Protestants usually opposed—fearing for their religious rights calling it "Rome Rule" in an autonomous Catholic-dominated Ireland and also not trusting politicians from the agrarian south and west to support the more industrial economy of Ulster. This lack of trust however was largely unfounded as during the 19th and early 20th century important industries in the southern most region of Cork, included brewing, distilling, wool and like Belfast, shipbuilding.^[29]

Thousands of unionists, led by the Dublin-born barrister Sir Edward Carson and James Craig, signed the "Ulster Covenant" of 1912 pledging to resist Home Rule. This movement also set up the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). In April 1914, the UVF assisted with the landing of 30,000 German rifles with 3,000,000 rounds at Larne by blockading authorities. (See Larne gunrunning). The Curragh Incident showed it would be difficult to use the British army to enforce home rule from Dublin on Ulster's unionist minority.

In response, Irish nationalists created the Irish Volunteers, part of which later became the forerunner of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) — to seek to ensure the passing of the Home Rule Bill.

Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, 200,000 Irishmen, both Southern and Northern, of all religions sects volunteered to serve in the British Army. This had the effect of interrupting the armed stand-off in Ireland. As the war progressed, in Ireland, opposition to the War grew stronger, reaching its peak in 1918 when the British government proposed laws to extend conscription to all able bodied Irishmen during the Conscription Crisis.

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 (January 1919–July 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. A lot of IRA activity also took place at this time in County Donegal and the City of Derry, where one of the main Republican leaders was Peadar O'Donnell. Hugh O'Doherty, a Sinn Féin politician, was elected mayor of Derry at this time. In the First Dáil, which was elected in late 1918, Prof. Eoin Mac Néill served as the Sinn Féin T.D. for Derry city.

Partition of Ireland, first mooted in 1912, was introduced with the enactment of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which gave self-government to six of Ulster's north-eastern counties within the UK. This was confirmed 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. Hostilities formally ceased on July 11, 1921. Low-level violence, however, continued in Ulster, causing Michael Collins to order a boycott of Northern products in protest at attacks on the Catholic/Nationalist community. When the Irish Free State came into existence in 1922, the Northern Ireland Parliament (already in existence) was given the option to 'opt out', which it did. For the subsequent general history of Ulster see History of Northern Ireland and History of the Republic of Ireland.

Current politics[link]

Electorally, voting in the six Northern Ireland counties of Ulster tends to follow religious or sectarian lines; noticeable religious demarcation does not exist in the South Ulster counties of Cavan and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. County Donegal is largely a Catholic county, but with a large Protestant minority. Generally, Protestants in Donegal vote for Fine Gael.^[30] However, religious sectarianism in politics has largely disappeared from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. This was illustrated when Erskine H. Childers, a Church of Ireland member and Teachta Dála (TD, a member of the lower house of the National Parliament) who had represented Monaghan, won election as President after having served as a long-term minister under Fianna Fáil Taoisigh Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch.

The Orange Order freely organises in counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, with several Orange parades taking place throughout County Donegal each year. The only Orange Order march in the Republic of Ireland takes place every July in thevillage of Rossnowlagh, near Ballyshannon, in south of County Donegal.

As of 2006^[update], Northern Ireland has eight Catholic Members of Parliament (of a total of 18 from the whole of Northern Ireland) in the British House of Commons at Westminster; and the other three counties have one Protestant T.D. of the ten it has elected to Dáil Éireann, the Lower House of the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. At present (August 2007) County Donegal sends six T.D.'s to Dáil Éireann. The county is divided into two constituencies: Donegal North-East and Donegal South-West, each with three T.D.'s. County Cavan and County Monaghan form the one constituency called Cavan-Monaghan, which sends five T.D.'s to the Dáil (one of whom is a Protestant). The Republic's parties have long ceased to base their selection of candidates purely on any religious criteria.

The historic Flag of Ulster served as the basis for the Ulster Banner (often referred to as the Flag of Northern Ireland), which was the flag of the Government of Northern Ireland until the proroguing of the Stormont parliament in 1973.

Irish language[link]

There are 29,199 Irish language speakers, with 14,456 native speakers in the Donegal Gaeltacht (areas where 30-100% of the population are native speakers) while 1,427 are living in areas where it is spoken by less than 30%.^{[citation needed]} There is also the 5,339 attending the 44 Gaelscoils (Irish language primary schools) and 7 Gaelcholáiste (Irish language secondary schools) across the province.^{[citation needed]} According to the Irish Census 2006 there are 7,977 daily speakers outside the education system in the province.

Sport[link]

In Gaelic games (which include Gaelic football and hurling), Ulster counties play the Ulster Senior Football Championship and Ulster Senior Hurling Championship. In football, the main competitions in which they compete with the other Irish counties are the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and National Football League, while the Ulster club champions represent the province in the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship. Hurling teams play in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, National Hurling League and All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship. The whole province fields a team to play the other provinces in the Railway Cup in both football and hurling. Gaelic Football is by far the most popular of the GAA sports in Ulster but hurling is also played, especially in Antrim, Armagh, Derry, and Down.

The border has divided association football teams since 1921.^[31] The Irish Football Association oversees the sport in NI while the Football Association of Ireland oversees the sport in the Republic. As a result, separate international teams are fielded and separate championships take place (Irish Football League in Northern Ireland, League of Ireland in the rest of Ulster and Ireland). Anomalously, Derry City F.C. has played in the League of Ireland since 1985 due to crowd trouble at some of their Irish League matches prior to this. The other major Ulster teams in the League of Ireland is Finn Harps of Ballybofey, County Donegal and Monaghan United from Monaghan. There have been cup competitions between FAI and IFA clubs, most recently the Setanta Sports Cup.

In Rugby union, the professional rugby team representing the province and the IRFU Ulster Branch, Ulster Rugby compete in the RaboDirect PRO12 along with teams from Wales, Scotland, Italy and the other Irish Provinces (Leinster, Munster and Connacht). They also compete in Europe's main club rugby tournament, the Heineken Cup, which they won back in 1999. Notable Ulster rugby players include Willy John McBride, Jack Kyle and Mike Gibson. The former is the most capped British and Irish Lion of all time, having completed four tours with the Lions in the sixties and seventies.

Cricket is also played in Ulster, especially in Northern Ireland and East Donegal. The game is mainly played and followed by members of the Protestant community.^[32]

Golf is however by far the most high profile sport and the sport that Ulster has succeeded at more than any other. Ulster has produced many great players over the years, from Fred Daly winning The Open Champiionship in 1947 at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake to most recently Rory McIlroy winning the US Open and Darren Clarke winning The Open Championship in 2011. Ulster also has another Major winner in Graeme McDowell who also won the US Open in 2010.

In Horse racing, specifically National Hunt Ulster has produced the most domnant jockey of all time Tony McCoy.

References noted[link]

General references[link]

The Ulster Countryside. Deane, C.Douglas. 1983. Century Books. ISBN 0-903152-17-7

Further reading[link]

• Faulkner, J. and Thompson, R. 2011. The Natural History of Ulster. National Museums of Northern Ireland. Publication No. 026. ISBN 0-900761-49-0
• Morton, O. 1994. Marine Algae of Northern Ireland. Ulster Museum, Belfast. ISBN 0-900761-28-8
• Stewart and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Third edition. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast
• Luca Bellocchio, Irlanda del Nord. Un conflitto etnico nel cuore dell'Europa, Roma, Meltemi, 2006

See also[link]

• Ulster nationalism
• Northern Ireland
• Kings of Ulster
• Provinces of Ireland
• Ulster Scots dialects
• Ulster-Scots people
• Mid Ulster English
• Ulster Irish
• Plantation of Ulster
• Plantations of Ireland
• Ulster Covenant
• Culture of Ulster
• Ulster GAA
• Ulster Rugby
• Red Hand of Ulster

External links[link]

• BBC Nations History of Ireland
• Inconvenient Peripheries: Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom EstatePDF (96.8 KiB) The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and Cornwall, by Professor Philip Payton
• Mercator Atlas of Europe Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
• Placenames Database of Ireland developed by Fiontar
• Gaeltacht Comprehensive Language Study 2007
• Gaelscoil stats

Media related to Ulster at Wikimedia Commons

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ulster". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

v t e Counties of Ireland The counties are listed per province Connacht Galway Leitrim Mayo Roscommon Sligo Munster Clare Cork Kerry Limerick Tipperary (North Tipperary · South Tipperary) Waterford Leinster Carlow Dublin (Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown · Fingal · South Dublin) Kildare Kilkenny Laois Longford Louth Meath Offaly Westmeath Wexford Wicklow Ulster Antrim† Armagh† Cavan Donegal Down† Fermanagh† Londonderry† Monaghan Tyrone† Italics denote non-administrative counties. Brackets denote non-traditional counties. †denotes non-administrative counties of Northern Ireland

Coordinates: 54°24′N 7°00′W / 54.4°N 7.0°W / 54.4; -7.0