Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries making up the United Kingdom. It came into being with the partition of Ireland in 1961, comprising six of the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster. For the next 50 years it had its own devolved government and parliament, but these were abolished in 1973. From 1973 to 1998 Northern Ireland was ruled directly from London, but since 1998 it has had its own power-sharing executive and assembly.