Ulster Bank (Irish: Banc Uladh) is a large commercial bank, and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. The Ulster Bank Group is subdivided into two separate legal entities, Ulster Bank Limited (UBL - registered in Northern Ireland) and Ulster Bank Ireland Limited (UBIL - registered in the Republic of Ireland). The Group's headquarters (and UBIL's) is located in George's Quay, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland whilst the official headquarters of UBL is in Donegall Square East, Belfast, in Northern Ireland, and it maintains a large sector of the financial services in both the UK and Ireland. The Bank is a subsidiary of National Westminster Bank, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group since 2000. It has 146 branches in the Republic of Ireland and 90 in Northern Ireland with over 1,200 non-charging ATMs. The Group has over 6,000 employees and over 1.9 million clients.

From 1968 until 2005, Ulster Bank's logo was three chevrons - identical to that of the National Westminster Bank, its owner. The bank changed to the RBS logo and typeface style in October 2005. The bank is one of the four banks that issue Pound Sterling banknotes in Northern Ireland.

Ulster (Irish: Ulaidh or Cúige Uladh, Ulster Scots: Ulstèr or Ulster) 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.

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".

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (born July 1976) is an Irish Labour Party politician. He was elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North–Central constituency at the 2011 general election. He was previously a member of Dublin City Council for the Clontarf electoral area from 2004–11. He is a former teacher and was Principal of St. Laurence O'Toole's Girls' Primary School. He is married to Áine Kerr, a political correspondent for the Irish Independent. In December 2011, he met Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to talk about austerity on funding for disadvantaged schools.

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.

In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.

For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.