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 Northern Ireland is a country of outstanding natural beauty. Rolling green hills meet lush valleys. The mighty Atlantic ocean lashes against rocky coasts creating incredible designs. Charming villages give an aura of mystique and friendly people help you feel at home. | |||||
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  Northern Ireland is a land of immense variety, with wave swept coastal drives, hazy mountains, vast open moorland, loughs and glassy lakes.  Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim, on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. When Benandonner saw the size of the "baby", he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.  Northern Ireland often popularly referred to simply as Ulster is located on the island of Ireland and is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom.  Northern Ireland was created in 1922 when 26 of the 32 Irish counties seceded from the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State (which became the Republic of Ireland in 1948 following its departure from the Commonwealth). The remaining six counties all reside within the ancient Irish province of Ulster - three counties of which (Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal) are in the Republic of Ireland. For this reason Ulster is a popular colloquial alternative name for Northern Ireland, even if it is not in the strictest sense geographically accurate.  TITANIC RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on 10 April 1912. On 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.  Brief History The area that is now Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. From serving as the bedrock of Irish resistance in the era of the plantations of Queen Elizabeth and James I in other parts of Ireland, it became the subject of major planting of Scottish and English settlers after the Flight of the Earls in 1607 (when the Gaelic aristocracy fled to Catholic Europe). The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1801) merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a government and parliament based in London. David Lloyd George in 1919 proposed to divide Ireland into two areas, twenty-six counties being ruled from Dublin, six being ruled from Belfast. The island of Ireland was partitioned in 1921. Six of the nine Ulster counties (four with a unionist majority, two with a nationalist majority) in the north-east formed Northern Ireland and the remaining three counties (including County Donegal, which had a large Protestant minority and was the most northern county in all of Ireland) joined those of Leinster, Munster and Connacht to form Southern Ireland. The Troubles, starting in the late 1960s, consisted of about thirty years of recurring acts of intense violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and unionist community (principally Protestant). The violence was characterised by the armed campaigns of paramilitary groups, including the Provisional IRA campaign of 1969-1997 which was aimed at the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the creation of a new "all-Ireland", "thirty-two county" Irish Republic, and the Ulster Volunteer Force, formed in 1966 in response to the perceived erosion of both the British character and unionist domination of Northern Ireland.  Famous murals in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry - today great tourist attractions As part of the United Kingdom, people from Northern Ireland are British citizens. They are also entitled to Irish citizenship by birth which is covered in the 1998 Belfast Agreement between the British and Irish governments, which, provides that: it is the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly [the two governments] confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Today Economy is thriving. New industries are being created. Cities are being revitalised with millions being invested in regeneration. There is a new cultural vitality, pride and optimism. Instead of emigrating, brightest graduates are staying. Tourism is thriving too, with new visitors discovering humour, hospitality, scenery and quality of life.  Belfast City Hall - early morning | 
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