Editing Ulster (section)

==History==

===Early history===
{{Further|History of Ireland}}
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2012}}
Ulster is one of the [[provinces of Ireland|four Irish provinces]]. Its [[place names in Irish|name]] derives from the [[Irish language]] {{lang|ga|Cúige Uladh}} ({{IPA|ga|ˌkuːɟə ˈʊlˠə|pron}}), meaning 'fifth of the [[Ulaid]]h', 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]].
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&nbsp;feet (180 m) in diameter and 15&nbsp;feet (4.5 m) high, in the centre of which there is a [[dolmen]].<ref name="Riordain 66">{{cite book|last=Riordain|first=S. O.|year=1966|edition=reprint|title=Antiquities of the Irish Countryside|series=University Paperbacks|location=London|publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd}}</ref>

The Boyne and its tributary the Blackwater were the traditional southern boundary of the province of Ulster and appear as such in the {{lang|ga|[[Táin Bó Cúailnge]]}}. According to historian Francis John Byrne the [[Ulaid]] 'possibly still ruled directly in [[County Louth|Louth]] as far as the Boyne in the early seventh century'<ref>p. 113, Byrne, Francis John, Irish kings and high-kings, Batsford, 1987, {{ISBN|0-7134-5882-8}}</ref> when [[Congal Cáech]] made a bid for the [[High King of Ireland|kingship of Tara]]. In 637, the [[Battle of Moira]], known archaically as the Battle of Magh Rath, was fought by the Gaelic High King of Ireland Domhnall II against his foster son King Congal Cáech of Ulster, supported by his ally Domhnall the Freckled ({{langx|ga|Domhnall Brecc}}) of [[Dalriada]]. The battle was fought near the Woods of Killultagh, just outside the village of Moira in what would become County Down. It was allegedly the largest battle ever fought on the island of Ireland, and resulted in the death of Congal and the retreat of Domhnall Brecc.

In early medieval Ireland, a branch of the [[Northern Uí Néill]], the {{lang|ga|[[Cenél nEógain]]}} of the province of [[Ailech]], gradually eroded the territory of the province of Ulaidh until it lay east of the [[River Bann]]. The {{lang|ga|Cenél nEógain}} would make {{lang|ga|Tír Eóghain}} (most of which forms modern [[County Tyrone]]) their base. Among the [[High King of Ireland|High Kings of Ireland]] were [[Áed Findliath]] (died 879), [[Niall Glúndub]] (died 919), and [[Domnall ua Néill]] (died 980), all of the Cenél nEógain. The province of Ulaidh would survive restricted to the east of modern Ulster until the Norman invasion in the late 12th century. It would only once more become a province of Ireland in the mid-14th century after the collapse of the Norman [[Earldom of Ulster]], when the [[O'Neill]]s who had come to dominate the Northern Uí Néill stepped into the power vacuum and staked a claim for the first time the title of "king of Ulster" along with the Red Hand of Ulster symbol. It was then that the provinces of Ailech, Airgialla, and Ulaidh would all merge largely into what would become the modern province of Ulster.

[[File:Bronze statue - geograph.org.uk - 821113.jpg|260px|thumb|A bronze statue commemorating The [[Flight of the Earls]] at [[Rathmullan]] in north [[County Donegal]].]]
[[Domnall Ua Lochlainn]] (died 1121) and [[Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn]] (died 1166) were of this dynasty. The [[Meic Lochlainn]] were in 1241 overthrown by their kin, 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 Ireland|Norman invasion]] of Ireland in the twelfth century, the east of the province fell by conquest to Norman barons, first [[John de Courcy|De Courcy]] (died 1219), then [[Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster|Hugh de Lacy]] (1176–1243), who founded the [[Earl of Ulster|Earldom of Ulster]] based on the modern counties of Antrim and Down.

In the 1600s Ulster was the last redoubt of the traditional [[Gaels|Gaelic]] way of life, and following the defeat of the Irish forces in the [[Nine Years War (Ireland)|Nine Years War]] (1594–1603) at the [[battle of Kinsale]] (1601), [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]'s English forces succeeded in subjugating Ulster and all of Ireland.

The Gaelic leaders of Ulster, the [[O'Neill dynasty|O'Neills]] and [[O'Donnell]]s, finding their power under English [[suzerainty]] limited, decamped ''en masse'' in 1607 (the [[Flight of the Earls]]) to [[Roman Catholic]] Europe. This allowed the [[British monarchy|English Crown]] to plant Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish [[Plantations of Ireland|planter]]s, a process which began in earnest in 1610.

===Plantations and civil wars===
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The [[Plantation of Ulster]] ({{langx|ga|Plandáil Uladh}}) was the organised [[colonisation]] (or [[Plantation (settlement or colony)|plantation]]) of Ulster by people from Great Britain (especially [[Presbyterians]] from [[Scotland]]). Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606,<ref name="A.T.Q. Stewart 1989. Page 38">{{cite book|first=A. T. Q.|last=Stewart|title=The Narrow Ground: The Roots of Conflict in Ulster|location=London|publisher=Faber and Faber Ltd|edition=Rev.|year=1989|url=https://archive.org/details/thenarowgroundstewart|isbn=978-0-571-15485-2|page=38}}</ref><ref name="Cyril Falls 1996. Pages 156-157">{{cite book|first=Cyril|last=Falls|title=The Birth of Ulster|location=London|publisher=Constable and Company Ltd|year=1996|isbn=978-0-09-476610-5|pages=156–157}}</ref><ref name="Perceval-Maxwell">{{cite book|first=M.|last=Perceval-Maxwell|title=The Scottish Migration to Ulster in the Reign of James I|location=Belfast|publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation|year=1999|isbn=978-0-901905-44-4|page=89}}</ref> while the official plantation controlled by [[James I of England|King James I of England]] (who was also King James VI of Scots) began in 1609. All land owned by Irish chieftains, the [[O'Neill dynasty|Ó Neills]] and [[O'Donnell dynasty|Ó Donnells]] (along with those of their supporters), who fought against the [[English Crown]] in the [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years War]], were confiscated and used to settle the colonists. The Counties [[County Donegal|Tyrconnell]], [[County Tyrone|Tyrone]], [[County Fermanagh|Fermanagh]], [[County Cavan|Cavan]], [[County Coleraine|Coleraine]] and [[County Armagh|Armagh]] comprised the official Colony.<ref>T. A. Jackson, p. 51.</ref> However, most of the counties, including the most heavily colonised Counties [[County Antrim|Antrim]] and [[County Down|Down]], were privately colonised.<ref name="A.T.Q. Stewart 1989. Page 38"/><ref name="Cyril Falls 1996. Pages 156-157"/><ref name="Perceval-Maxwell"/> These counties, though not officially designated as subject to [[Plantation]], had suffered violent depopulation during the previous wars and proved attractive to Private [[Colonialists]] from nearby Britain. The efforts to attract colonists from England and Scotland to the Ulster Plantation were considerably affected by the existence of British colonies in the Americas, which served as a more attractive destination for many potential emigrants.<ref>Tommy McKearney, "Northern Ireland: From Imperial Asset to International Encumbrance", in Journal of World-Systems Theory, vol. 22 issue 1, p. 110; http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/636/741 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222211848/http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/636/741 |date=22 February 2019 }}</ref>

The official reason for the Plantation is said to have been to pay for the costly [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]],<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/plantation/planters/es10.shtml Wars and Conflicts – Plantation of Ulster – English and Scottish Planters – 1641 Rebellion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026131712/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/plantation/planters/es10.shtml |date=26 October 2017 }} BBC History</ref> but this view was not shared by all in the English government of the time, most notably the [[English Crown]]-appointed [[Attorney-General for Ireland]] in 1609, [[John Davies (poet, born 1569)|Sir John Davies]]:{{blockquote|

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.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Discovery of the True Cause Why Ireland Was Never Entirely Subdued Nor Brought Under Obedience of the Crown of England Until the Beginning of His Majesty's Happy Reign|first=John|last=Davies|editor=Morley, Henry|publisher=George Routledge and Sons, Ltd|location=London|year=1890|pages=218–219}}</ref>}}

The Plantation of Ulster continued well into the 18th century, interrupted only by the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]]. This Rebellion was initially led by [[Phelim O'Neill|Sir Phelim O'Neill]] ({{langx|ga|Sir Féilim Ó Néill}}), and was intended to overthrow British rule rapidly, but quickly degenerated into attacks on colonists, in which dispossessed Irish slaughtered thousands of the colonists. In the ensuing [[Irish Confederate Wars|wars]] (1641–1653, fought against the background of [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms|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]] ({{langx|ga|Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill}}) inflicted a defeat on a Scottish [[Covenanter]] army at [[battle of Benburb|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 [[Connacht|Connaught]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro100.shtml |title=A Short History of Ireland |publisher=[[BBC]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113032754/https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro100.shtml |archive-date=13 November 2012 }}</ref>

Forty years later, in 1688–1691, the [[Williamite War in Ireland|Williamite War]] was fought, the belligerents of which were the [[Williamite]]s and [[Jacobitism|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 [[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV of France]] and his allies, and a European-wide coalition, the [[Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg)|Grand Alliance]], led by [[William III of England|Prince William of Orange]] and [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire]], supported by the [[Holy See|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 [[James II of England|King James II]] was allied.

The majority of Irish people were "Jacobites" and supported James II due to his 1687 [[Declaration of Indulgence (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]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tim|last=Harris|title=Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 1685–1720|location=London|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7139-9759-0|page=440}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=A 'Beleaguered Protestant'?: Walter Harris and the Writing of ''Fiction Unmasked'' in Mid-18th-Century Ireland|first=Eoin|last=Magennis|pages=6–111|journal=Eighteenth-Century Ireland|volume=13|year=1998|doi=10.3828/eci.1998.8 |jstor = 30064327|s2cid=256129781 }}</ref> However, James II was deposed in the [[Glorious Revolution]], and the majority of Ulster [[Colonialists]] ([[Williamite]]s) backed [[William III of England|William of Orange]]. 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 Roman Catholics.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rabushka|first=Alvin|year=2008|title=Taxation in Colonial America, 1607–1775|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/taxatio_rab_2008_00_1086/page/279 279]|isbn=978-0-691-13345-4|url=https://archive.org/details/taxatio_rab_2008_00_1086/page/279}}</ref>

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 [[Siege of Derry|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 28 July 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 [[Ulster loyalism|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 (sociology)|power]] on religious grounds. [[Roman Catholics]] (descended from the indigenous Irish) and [[Presbyterians]] (mainly descended from Scottish colonists) both suffered discrimination under the [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|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===
Considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots (who became commonly known as "Scots-Irish" in America) emigrated to the North American 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 Mountains|Appalachian]] regions and the [[Ohio Valley]]. Here they lived on the frontiers of America, carving their own world out of the wilderness. The Scots-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from [[Pennsylvania]] to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Author (and US Senator) [[Jim Webb]] puts forth a thesis in his book ''Born Fighting'' to suggest that the character traits he ascribes to the Scots-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&nbsp;million Americans claimed Scots-Irish ancestry. 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 Scots-Irish settled, and are in complementary distribution with the areas which most heavily report Scots-Irish ancestry.

According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, 400,000 people in the US were of Irish birth or ancestry in 1790 when the first US Census counted 3,100,000 white Americans. According to the encyclopaedia, half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster, and half from the other three provinces of Ireland.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Miller|first=Randall M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o7bkGF4DytgC&q=half+of+these+Irish+Americans+were+descended+from+Ulster&pg=PA333|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America [4 volumes]|date=2008-12-30|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-06536-1|language=en}}</ref>

===Republicanism, rebellion and communal strife===
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2014}}
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 "[[Scotch-Irish American|Scots Irish]]" or "[[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch-Irish]]".{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

Political tensions resurfaced, albeit in a new form, towards the end of the 18th century. In the 1790s many Roman Catholics and [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]], in opposition to [[Protestant Ascendancy|Anglican domination]] and inspired by the American and French [[revolutions]] joined 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]], [[County Antrim|Antrim]] and [[County Down|Down]]. Paradoxically however, this period also saw much sectarian violence between Roman 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 Roman Catholics), notably the "[[Battle of the Diamond]]" in 1795, a faction fight between the rival "[[Defenders (Ireland)|Defenders]]" (Roman Catholic) and "[[Peep O'Day Boys]]" (Anglican), which led to over 100 deaths and to the founding of the [[Orange Institution|Orange Order]]. This event, and many others like it, came about with the relaxation of the [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|Penal Laws]] and Roman 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 Roman Catholic community, used violence to intimidate Roman Catholics who tried to enter the linen trade. Estimates suggest that up to 7000 Roman 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 [[County Mayo]], which have many similarities to [[Ulster Irish]] not found elsewhere in Connacht. Loyalist militias, primarily [[Anglicanism|Anglicans]], also used violence against the [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irishmen]] and against Roman Catholic and Protestant [[Irish republicanism|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 [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|rebellion]], and following the gradual abolition of official religious discrimination after the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]] in 1800, [[Presbyterians]] came to identify more with the State and with their Anglican neighbours, due to their civil rights now being respected by both the state and their Anglican neighbours.

The [[1859 Ulster Revival]] was a major [[Christian revival]] that spread throughout Ulster.

===Industrialisation, Home Rule and partition===
[[File:Royal Avenue Belfast2.jpg|right|thumb|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]] briefly overtook [[Dublin]] as the island's largest city. Belfast became famous in this period for its huge [[dockyard]]s and [[shipbuilding]] – and notably for the construction of the [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']]. [[Sectarian]] divisions in Ulster became hardened into the political categories of ''[[unionist (Ireland)|unionist]]'' (supporters of the Union with Britain; mostly, but not exclusively, Protestant) and ''[[Irish nationalist|nationalist]]'' (advocates of repeal of the 1800 Act of Union, usually, though not exclusively, Roman Catholic). Northern Ireland's current politics originate from these late 19th century disputes over [[Irish Home Rule Movement|Home Rule]] that would have devolved some powers of government to Ireland. At least a dozen large scale sectarian disturbances/riots occurred in Belfast during the 19th century.<ref>Owen, John (1921), ''History of Belfast'', Belfast, W. & G. Baird, pgs 272 & 422.</ref> Ulster Protestants usually opposed Home Rule — fearing for their religious rights calling it "Rome Rule" in an autonomous Roman 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 southernmost region of Cork included brewing, distilling, wool and like Belfast, shipbuilding.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/32717516/1919-Cork-Its-Trade-and-Commerce |page=168 |title=Cork: Its Trade and Commerce |date=1919 |website=Scribd }}</ref>
[[File:1918 United Kingdom general election (Ireland) map - winning party vote share by constituency.svg|230px|right|The results of the [[1918 Irish general election]], in which Sinn Féin and the Irish Parliamentary Party won the majority of votes on the island of Ireland, shown in the color green and light green respectively, with the exception being primarily in the East of the province of Ulster.]]
Thousands of unionists, led by the Dublin-born barrister [[Sir Edward Carson]] and [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]], signed the "[[Ulster Covenant]]" of 1912 pledging to resist Home Rule. This movement also set up the [[Ulster Volunteers|Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF). In April 1914, the UVF assisted with the landing of 30,000 [[Imperial Germany|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 republicans created the [[Irish Volunteers]], part of which became the forerunner of the [[Irish Republican Army (1917–22)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) – to seek to ensure the passing of the [[Home Rule Act 1914|Home Rule Bill]]. Upon the outbreak of [[Ireland and World War I|World War I]] in 1914, 200,000 Irishmen, both Southern and Northern, of all religious 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 of 1918|Conscription Crisis]].

In the aftermath of World War I, the political party [[Sinn Féin]] ("Ourselves") won the majority of votes in the [[1918 Irish general election]], this political party pursued a policy of complete independent self-determination for the island of Ireland as outlined in the [[Sinn Féin Manifesto 1918|Sinn Féin campaign Manifesto of 1918]], a great deal more than the devolved government/[[Home Rule]] advocated by the (I.P.P) [[Irish Parliamentary Party]]. Following the Sinn Féin victory in these elections the [[Irish Declaration of Independence]] was penned and [[Irish Republicanism|Irish republicans]] launched a guerrilla campaign against British rule in what became the [[Irish War of Independence]] (January 1919 – July 1921). The fighting in Ulster during the Irish War of Independence generally took the form of street battles between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the city of Belfast. Estimates suggest that about 600 civilians died in this communal violence, the majority of them (58%) Roman Catholics (see [[The Troubles (1920–1922)]]). The IRA remained relatively quiescent in Ulster, with the exception of the south [[County Armagh|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, [[Eoin Mac Néill]] served as the Sinn Féin T.D. for [[Londonderry City (UK Parliament constituency)|Londonderry City]].

===1920 to present===
{{main|History of Northern Ireland}}
{{see also|Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland|Politics of the Republic of Ireland}}
[[Partition of Ireland]], first mooted in 1912, was introduced with the enactment of the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]], which gave a form of "Home rule" self-government to two areas, [[Southern Ireland (1921–22)|Southern Ireland]], with its capital at [[Dublin]], and "[[Northern Ireland]]", consisting of six of Ulster's central and eastern counties, both within a continuing [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. Dissatisfaction with this led to the [[Irish War of Independence]], which formally ceased on 11 July 1921. Low-level violence, however, continued in Ulster, causing [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]] in the south to order a boycott of Northern products in protest at attacks on the Nationalist community there. The Partition was effectively confirmed by the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] of 6 December 1921. One of the primary stipulations of the treaty was the transformation of Ireland into a self-governing British [[dominion]] called the [[Irish Free State]] (which later became the sovereign [[Republic of Ireland]]), but with the option of a continuation of the home rule institution of Northern Ireland, still within the United Kingdom, if the Northern Ireland Parliament (already in existence) chose to opt out of the Irish Free State. All parties knew that this was certain to be the choice of the Ulster Unionists who had a majority in the parliament, and immediately on the creation of the Free State they resolved to leave it.

Following the Anglo Irish treaty, the exact border between the new dominion of the Irish Free State and the future [[Northern Ireland]], if it chose to opt out, was to be decided by the [[Irish Boundary Commission]]. This did not announce its findings until 1925, when the line was again drawn around six of Ulster's nine counties, with no change from the partition of 1920.

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 Roman Catholic county, but with a large [[Protestant]] minority. Generally, Protestants in Donegal vote for the political party [[Fine Gael]] ("Family of the Irish").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/006991.html |title=The future's bright for Donegal's Orangemen |access-date=6 June 2008 |agency=Independent Irish |website=Intelligence |date=11 July 2004 |archive-date=17 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117120323/http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/006991.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> However, religious sectarianism in politics has largely disappeared from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. This was illustrated when [[Erskine Hamilton Childers|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 of Ireland|President]] after having served as a long-term minister under [[Fianna Fáil]] [[Taoiseach|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 major Orange Order march in the [[Republic of Ireland]] takes place every July in the village of [[Rossnowlagh]], near [[Ballyshannon]], in the south of County Donegal.

{{As of|2017}}, Northern Ireland has seven Roman Catholic members of parliament, all members of Sinn Féin (of a total of 18 from the whole of Northern Ireland) in the [[British House of Commons]] at [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|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 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 [[Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland|Government of Northern Ireland]] until the proroguing of the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland|Stormont]] parliament in 1973.