For God and Ulster (English) | |||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Newry | ||
| Language official |
English | ||
| others | Irish, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi | ||
| Religion main |
Protestantism | ||
| others | Catholicism, nonobservance & atheism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam | ||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic (1998-2022); monarchy (since 2022) | ||
| Monarch | Zara | ||
| Established | 1998 | ||
| Currency | cel | ||
| Organizations | Celtic Alliance | ||
Tiocfaidh ár lá (Irish) ("Our day will come") | ||||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Derry | |||||||
| Language official |
English, Irish | |||||||
| others | Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi | |||||||
| Religion main |
Catholicism | |||||||
| others | Protestantism, nonobservance & atheism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam | |||||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic | |||||||
| Currency | cel | |||||||
Northern Ireland is a former constituent part of the United Kingdom created from the Irish counties that were predominantly Protestant and thus didn't secede like the rest of Ireland. After Doomsday, ethno-religious conflict tore the province apart and crippled its emergency government. The Republic of Ireland and fragments of the UK government worked for years to bring peace and order, and this cooperation served as the basis for the Celtic Alliance. In 1998, with a great deal of controversy, Northern Ireland was divided into two republics, called East and West Ulster, and both became full Alliance members. The west was annexed to the Republic of Ireland in 2015. The east ceased to be a republic in 2022 when Queen Zara of Northumbria was enthroned as its monarch.
Today, no political entity called Northern Ireland exists, but the two halves of the former province share a history and face many common struggles. Few people seriously question the 1998 partition, but it left many lasting issues that remain to be addressed. The "Northern Ireland issue" continues to be a major topic in the politics of the Celtic Alliance and, to an extent, in the wider British Isles.
History[]
Before Doomsday[]
Doomsday[]
The province was hit by by one 100-kt nuclear strike and two tactical strikes of around 10 kt each.
- Belfast- 100-kt strike on the city, tactical strike on the docks.
- Ebrington Barracks, Londonderry - tactical strike.
- Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn - tactical strike.
The first most people knew of the Soviet strikes were a blinding flash, followed by a loud bang and a searingly hot hurricane wind. Within hours most people outside County Fermanagh had woken up found out that their lights were not working, turned on their radios and found they were all dead, as were their cars when they tried to use them.
By the morning everyone knew something was up and that several places in the province were no more. Casualties were widespread and Belfast was largely destroyed. Food rationing, fuel rationing, constant police surveillance and martial law in built up areas (including the ruins of Belfast and Derry\Londonderry) and the closure of all boarders took place within a few hours of the event as the military, police and the more level-headed councilors tried to take over the recovery within their local areas. The first week would see many nuking related deaths and the widespread looting of shops by starving and desperate people.
Emergency government was supposed to devolve to a Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) in a bunker on the southwestern outskirts in Belfast. The HQ's personnel immediately contacted the Irish government for support. Irish personnel entered the country and facilitated the evacuation of Belfast. Fallout from the strikes in central Belfast made it impossible for government to function at that location. With Irish and British military support, the HQ's personnel relocated to the Massereene Barracks in Antrim on the shore of Lough Neagh. The emergency administration was functioning within a week of the attacks. All parts of the province acknowledged its authority, for now.
Sir John Hermon, Chief Constable of the RUC, survived the attack and played an important role in the implementation of emergency rule. He publicly met with the IRA's Matt Devlin, and both pledged to put their differences aside in the face of the atomic war. Doomsday thus caused a cease-fire in Northern Ireland as all sides scrambled to help their neighbors survive. In the initial months after Doomsday, British forces imposed lockdowns across the nation and stricter martial law in conflict zones.
British military and police, acting on behalf of the emergency HQ, were the sole authority in the region, taking charge of food distribution and other civil-defence measures. It was British forces in County Antrim that moved into Belfast to try to impose some sort of order as survivors streamed out of the city. Even as the religious factions reached a tentative truce, the outskirts of Belfast were plagued with rioting, looting, and disorder. It would not take long for the situation to careen out of control.
The First Six Months[]
All commerce and nearly all communication were lost with a presumably dead UK. In Northern Ireland, many fled from around the major cities, fearful of future strikes, and headed for the countryside. Surviving British troops and the RUC tried to keep order, and it did not take long for the Republicans to become fearful of a Loyalist takeover.
Poor food hygiene caused both salmonella and E-Coli food poisoning across the province with in a fortnight of Doomsday, with dysentery and tuburculosis hitting the refugee camps and ruined cites 2 months later. Disease, starvation, cholera and a shoot-to-kill order against looters by the army and constabulary caused chaos and many deaths over the next 4 months.
Six weeks after the attacks, conflict once again began to flare up as both the IRA and the UVF saw an opportunity to assert control over the nation - leading to three way firefights between the two factions and British forces. Irish forces were stretched thin. Initially Ireland had lent support to British units, but now they were needed to keep order among the growing camps of refugees, both along the Northern Irish border and along the coasts.
British morale collapsed as more news of the scale of devastation came across the sea, together with confirmation that British authority had survived in the highlands of Scotland. Many troops began to question their role in the region. Many units, often with their commanding officer, begin abandoning their posts and trekked eastward in a bid to find anything to sail away from the region. Larne became the gathering spot for what became an evacuation, done en masse and with minimal order. From February to April 1984, troops from across Ireland made their way to Larne. They left behind much equipment, of which a large portion fell into the hands of the UDR, with the remainder split between the IRA and the UDA/UVF.
Regional Contacts[]
Doomsday fractured the government of the United Kingdom, and the few surviving officials scattered to different emergency sites across the country. The Massereene HQ managed to make radio contact with some but not all of these sites, including both the Prime Minister's office on the Isle of Portland and the royal yacht, keeping the Queen and her husband safe at anchor off the Scottish highlands. Every HQ was struggling to keep its personnel safe and try to alleviate the suffering of survivors in its immediate vicinity. Swaths of Britain were without any clear governing authority.
Refugees began to come across the Irish Sea. Most wanted to settle in the Republic, but some landed in Northern Ireland, with County Down becoming the site of several large camps. Northern Ireland was suffering, but most of Britain was worse. A large number came from around Birkenhead, Liverpool and Southport. Most of South Wales was crumbling and those who could were fleeing.
Other areas were emerging relatively intact. An emergency government in Aberystwyth was effectively governing much of Wales, including Gwynedd, Ceredigion, the Llŷn Peninsula and the Isle of Anglesey. The Scottish Highlands were mostly intact, including many of the regions closest to Ireland: Galloway, the Inner Hebrides, the Kintyre Peninsular, Knapdale, Islay, the Isle of Arran, Lochaber and Ross-shire. The Isle of Man was suffering from refugees and nuclear contamination, but its national government was still functioning, now essentially as an Irish protectorate.
For now, no one in any of these places could do much to help in Northern Ireland. But these early contacts paved the way for future cooperation.
The Troubles[]
The flag of the Ulster Volunteer Force
A IRA "Sniper at Work" sign in Crossmaglen in 1993.
Feelings were mixed toward the British forces leaving. On the one hand was a sense of betrayal, but on the other a feeling of the chains being unshackled. The RGHQ continued to operate, as did the constabulary and a small core of British forces, but now to govern the country the legal authorities found that they had no choice but to work directly with the militias.
The UDR (which at this point had begun the transformation into being a more well-trained arm of the UDA) took control over the distribution of resources to Protestant communities. This led to surge of support for the IRA among the Catholic community, and the IRA became the de facto ruling faction in Catholic neighborhoods and villages. Compounding the issue was the fact that UDR units came to have a heavy presence in Western Ulster, the location of the best farmland - as well as major Catholic communities. As 1984 became 1985, sporadic firefights continued, but open war had not yet begun.
The spark was lit on May 1, 1985. Police found a dead Irish aid worker outside Newry. His throat was cut, he was kneecapped with a gun, his body was desecrated with a half-burnt edition of An Phoblacht and the words "King Billy says: "No surrender to the IRA!"." were chalked on the path beside him. The UVF claimed responsibility for it the next day and expressed concerns that the Republic of Ireland was trying to take over the province. After predictable retaliatory attacks, the UVF began a concerted effort of mass deportations. Catholic families were forced from their homes and land throughout UVF-controlled areas, especially in Eastern Ulster.
These abuses unleashed waves of attacks and the end of any pretense of cooperation. The last remaining British authorities, the command of the HQ in Antrim, barricaded themselves inside their base before fleeing in the middle of the night, following the deserted soldiers who had gone to Scotland. Northern Ireland collapsed in acrimony and chaos as hostile camps of militants and paramilitaries took over every part of the country.
Battles and attacks[]
As the Troubles once again engulfed the country, the UDF and UVF gained complete control over eastern Ulster and launched campaigns to capture the west and push out the remaining Catholic population. The fighting became a genocide as Catholic communities in Western Ulster launched pogroms of their own to expel the Protestants toward the east and capture much-needed farmland. Derry and Enniskillen became early Catholic bases of operation as the small Protestant population either fled or were pushed out.
Notable clashes between the Republicans and Loyalists in the ensuing years include:
- Lisburn- A IRA letter bomb and parcel bomb in 1985.
- Cappagh- A IRA letter bomb in 1985
- Newry- a UVF letter bomb in 1985.
- Poitz Parz- A IRA parcel bomb in 1986.
- Loughgall- A IRA grenade attack in 1986.
- Crossmaglen- A IRA mortar attack in 1986.
- Poitz Parz- A INLA letter bomb in 1987.
- Newry- a UVF car bomb and letter bomb in 1987.
- Cappagh- A IRA parcel bomb in 1987.
- Poitz Parz- A IRA letter bomb in 1987.
- Greysteel- A UDA machinegun massacre in 1987.
- Catslerock- A UVF machinegun massacre in 1987.
- Castelrock- A UDA grenade attack in 1987.
- Banbridge INLA machinegun massacre in 1987.
- Eniskillin- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces in 1988.
- Limavady- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces 1989.
- Banbridge- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander 1990.
- Derry\Londonderry- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander volunteers in 1990.
- Derry\Londonderry- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander volunteers in 1991.
- Portrush- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Greysteel- A UDA machinegun massacre in 1991.
- Catslerock- A UVF machinegun massacre in 1991.
- Castelrock- A UDA grenade attack in 1991
- Banbridge IRA machinegun massacre in 1991.
- Newtownards- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander and a few Kintyre volunteers 1991.
- Antrim- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Omargh- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Oban, Scotland- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Plockton, Scotland- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Armagh- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander 1991.
- Derry\Londonderry- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Lancastrian volunteers 1991.
- Coleraine- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander volunteers 1991.
- Lisburn- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Newry- A UVF letter bomb in 1991.
- Maydown- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander 1991.
- Markethill- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces\a few Scottish Highlander and Manx volunteers 1991.
- East Belfast - A IRA letter bomb and car bomb in 1991.
- West Belfast - A UVF letter bomb and car bomb in 1992.
- East Belfast - A IRA letter bomb and car bomb in 1992.
- West Belfast - A UVF letter bomb and car bomb in 1993.
- East Belfast - A IRA letter bomb and car bomb in 1993.
- Poitz Parz- A IRA parcel bomb in 1986.
- Antrim- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Omargh- A IRA letter bomb in 1991.
- Cappagh- A IRA letter bomb in 1993.
- Poitz Parz- A IRA letter bomb in 1993.
- Poitz Parz- A INLA letter bomb in 1993.
- Omagh- A IRA letter bomb and car bomb 1994.
- Newry- a UVF car bomb and letter bomb in 1994.
- Greysteel- A UDA machinegun massacre in 1994.
- Catslerock- A UVF machinegun massacre in 1994.
- Castelrock- A UDA grenade attack in 1994.
- Banbridge INLA machinegun massacre in 1994.
- West Belfast - A UVF letter bomb and car bomb in 1994.
- East Belfast - A IRA letter bomb and car bomb in 1994.
- West Belfast - A UVF letter bomb and car bomb in 1995.
- Cappagh- A IRA letter bomb in 1995.
- Poitz Parz- A IRA letter bomb in 1995.
- Craigavon- A IRA car bomb 1995.
- Carickfurgus- a IRA car bomb 1995.
- Lisburn- A INLA letter bomb and parcel bomb in 1995.
- Cappagh- A INLA letter bomb in 1995
- Newry- a UVF letter bomb in 1995.
- Portaferry- IRA letter bomb in 1996
- Newry- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces in 1996.
- Armargh- A major battle between the Irish\Republican forces and the Loyalist forces in 1996.
Alliance[]
The war alarmed and horrified the Republic of Ireland, already pressed beyond its capacity by the aftermath of nuclear war and the collapse of the United Kingdom. As two emergency governments consolidated in northern Scotland - a UK fragment based in Taymouth and an autonomous state comprising the Outer Hebrides - the Republic sought their help. During the late months of 1985 and early 1986, these three parties talked with leaders from Northern Ireland who still wanted peace. They agreed to a framework for keeping order around the borders of Northern Ireland while working for a cease-fire and a restoration of civil government within it. This Scottish-Irish Alliance was confirmed in March 1986.
The Alliance was to work for another decade trying to solve the Troubles, proposing one solution after another. Domestic politics increased the challenge for Scottish and Irish leaders. The Scots were still under pressure to favour the Protestant side: on the one hand were the unionist militias themselves, who had to be shown that the peace process was beneficial to them; and on the other were observers in southern Scotland, with whom the Scottish government still hoped to reunite. Wigtownshire in particular was filling up with Ulster refugees, and with every move toward a solution that seemed to disfavour the Protestants, Wigtown threatened to cancel the planned re-annexation. Irish leaders, too, faced pressure to support the Catholic side, again not least of all from Ulster transplants across the border. These opposing interests helped make a solution elusive.
Meanwhile the province's population continued to decline. Thousands crossed the border into the south or the sea to Scotland. A few loyalists even departed for the Dominion of South Africa, making up a significant part of the final convoys to reach the new home of the exiled British king. As CA aid helped to install moderate regimes in some of the Northern Irish counties, some of the most militant departed. Southern Scotland became a new hotbed of unionist activity.
Partition[]
As the fighting dragged on, the battle lines stabilised. They ran from the River Roe in the north, down to Newtownstewart and Omagh in the west and then along the A5 south to Aughnacloy. In the south, the front lines are bound from Aughnacloy to Moy to Portadown before following the river Newry to Warrenpoint at its southmost point.
The developing Celtic Alliance served to entrench these lines. Just as the British had built "peace lines" between hostile neighborhoods in Belfast, now the Irish and Scottish forces found that it was easier to patrol a hard border than to prevent violence altogether. The East came to depend more on Scottish support, while the West looked to Eire. Their economic aid, meant to stop the people from starving, often inadvertently kept the fighting going, especially over the farmland as food had become vastly important.
By the middle of the 90s, peace was in sight. All sides had fought themselves to a standstill and most of the province was in ruins. Meanwhile northern Scotland and Wales were on the rebound thanks in no small part to the stability provided by the Alliance. Extremists were losing the support of an exhausted populace. New civil structures were functioning in many localities. The deportations had been a human rights catastrophe, but now many people felt safe on their respective sides of the partition line.
Dublin remained very clear in its desire to keep out of Ulster internally. In discussions it tried to remain impartial while still supporting the interests of Ulster's Catholics. Scotland too was forced to try to keep the Protestant Ulstermen happy in order to avoid further bloodshed. The final agreement allowed the Protestants to come out with more than half of Northern Ireland. Both sides grudgingly agreed to a series of further population exchanges. There was to be a hard border between East and West Ulster. Both regions would set up independent republican governments as the Alliance worked to bring basic infrastructure to the damaged regions and bring the farms back to life. There were now less than a million people in what had been Northern Ireland - half a million lay dead due to the effects of the nuclear attack and the decade-long bloodbath.
The peace was achieved in stages. East and West Ulster singed the 1996 Limavady Peace Accords, 1997 Carrikfurgus Declaration and 1998 Newry Agreement. Mediators from Denmark came to help mediate the final leg of the talks. The militias finally ceded the last of their administrative authority to two new civil governments, a Protestant- and Unionist-dominated state in Newry and a Catholic- and Republican-dominated one in Derry. Elected governments stepped into place in 1999.
Allied Nations[]
The Scottish-Irish Alliance had become the Celtic Alliance in 1993 in response to new members, Scilly and Mann, and in anticipation of future members in Wales and southern Scotland. The Alliance embraced pan-Celtism in the hope of creating a new identity that could bridge the divides in Northern Ireland and continued to use it even after small parts of England began to join in the second half of the 1990s.
The alliance's main goals were related to trade, mutual aid, common defense and the restoration of peaceful civil government throughout the former UK. Mainstream opinion in Northern Ireland accepted the settlements and was grateful to the Alliance, despite the flaws and unsolved problems that remained. But news of the partition was deeply unpopular in most of Great Britain. Most English and Scots outside of Alliance territory saw the partition as unjust and the CA's expansion as an Irish plot to take over what was left of the UK.
Both halves of Northern Ireland became key members of the Alliance, seen as a bridge between Ireland and the member Nations of Great Britain.
Renegotiation[]
The compromises of 1998 came under question, especially as the 2000s wore on and other British fragments were transforming themselves into new nation-states. Almost no one in Northern Ireland wanted to be part of an independent republic. Republicans wanted full integration with Eire, while Unionists wished to restore connections with Great Britain, or at least its monarchy. The East's desire to restore the British Crown was hampered by the schism between the branches of the House of Windsor. But the West was ready for unification. Sinn Fein, which controlled the West's government without interruption, never took it out of its party manifesto. In 2008, the government openly called for it, and would continue to do so in the coming years.
In 2013, with tensions cooling in Scotland, a bill of unification went before West Ulster's assembly. This time, the Republic and the rest of the Alliance were willing to renegotiate. It prompted a special round of talks among all the members of the Alliance. In the end a favorable agreement allowed the west to move forward. Unification was accomplished in 2015. This did not provoke new violence in the east, as many had feared. Most Northern Irish had truly moved on from the days of the Troubles.
By the end of the decade, East Ulster too was ready to pursue a new status. Queen Zara of Northumbria had captured the hearts of many in Britain; she was now far more popular than her cousin William now ruling in South Africa. A firm consensus emerged in East Ulster to name her head of state. After another round of talks, a referendum and a suite of bills, the process was finally completed in 2022. On 23 September Zara came to Northern Ireland to ascend the throne at Hillsborough Castle. Both halves of Northern Island now had what they wanted, though the country had to be rent in two in order to achieve it.
Life today[]
Today both parts of the former Northern Ireland are largely peaceful, modestly successful and reasonably free from want or need. The economy is agricultural in nature, but light industry has been growing in the larger settlements fast since 2012.
Government[]
East and West Ulster received the same general form of government during their time as republics. Each was led by a President and Deputy President, initially elected every 2 years in a nationwide vote. Both republics changed this system in 2004 so that the officials were appointed as leaders of the largest parties of the largest and second largest Assembly "bloc" (understood to mean 'Unionist', 'Nationalist' and 'Other') for a 6 year term.
West Ulster[]
West Ulster has been part of the Republic of Ireland since 2015, but it remains an autonomous province and is unlikely ever to be completely dissolved into the Irish system of local government. It has kept in place the 2004 system, which guarantees representation for its Protestant minority, small though it might be.
East Ulster[]
In 2022 Ulster restored the British monarchy. In the run-up to the restoration, other forms and terms of British governance were reintroduced. But it too has kept a mechanism guaranteeing a place in the Cabinet for the Irish nationalist minority, the position of Deputy Prime Minister.
From 2000 the moderate and pro-Alliance Dalriadic party made gains in East Ulster. For a while the province had a tendency to elect Dalriadic members to the Celtic State Parliament, even as it continued to back staunch Unionists to the assembly at home. More recently Dal Riata has advanced at the national level as well, though it was set back by a new burst of unionism accompanying Queen Zara's restoration.
Religion[]
Population[]
| Name | 1983 Pop', Approx | Pop', Approx (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Antrim (excluding Belfast City Council's zone) | 294,208 | 267,000 |
| Down | 417,978 | 414,185 |
| County Fermanagh | 51,594 | 66,594 |
| Tyrone | 150,729 | 177,406 |
| Armagh | 133,230 | 125,815 |
| Derry/Londonderry | 197,278 | 165,000 |
| Belfast City | 297,983 | ~12,000 (evacuated and abandoned) |
| Total: | 1,543,000 | 1,245,000 |
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