Editing Ulster (section)

===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]].