Editing Ulster (section)

===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.