Irlanda del Norte

"Irlanda del Norte (oficialmente en inglés, Northern Ireland; en irlandés: Tuaisceart Éireann) es el nombre oficial de una de las naciones constituyentes del Reino Unido, que se encuentra en el noreste de la isla de Irlanda conformada por 6 condados. Su capital, Belfast, tiene 333 000 habitantes. Limita al norte con el océano Atlántico, al este con el canal del Norte, al sudeste con el mar de Irlanda, y al sur, sudoeste y oeste (con 360 km de frontera) con la República de Irlanda. Actualmente su jefa de Estado es la reina Isabel II del Reino Unido, mientras que su jefe de Gobierno es Peter Robinson, un miembro del Partido Unionista Democrático. Robinson y su partido comparten gobierno, desde el 8 de mayo de 2007, con el número dos del Sinn Féin, Martin McGuinness. La mayoría de los católicos son nacionalistas partidarios de pertenecer a la República de Irlanda, de igual manera que la mayoría de los protestantes están a favor de ser parte del Reino Unido.[cita requerida] Según el punto de vista ideológico, la preferencia por el nombre, tipo de entidad y la bandera de Irlanda del Norte, es diferente. Los nacionalistas la llaman The North of Ireland («El norte de Irlanda»), o «los seis condados», y ondean la bandera de Irlanda verde, blanca y naranja porque no reconocen Irlanda del Norte como su propio país, y para ellos es parte de Irlanda. Los unionistas la llaman el «Úlster», Northern Ireland («Irlanda del Norte») o «la provincia», y utilizan una bandera parecida a la de Úlster, con los colores de la bandera inglesa, llamada Ulster Banner."

"Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann [tuct en] ; Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a top-level constituent unit of the United Kingdom in the northeast of Ireland. It is as a country, province, region, or "part" of the United Kingdom, amongst other terms. Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the UK's population. Established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the British government. Northern Ireland co-operates with the Republic of Ireland in some areas, and the Agreement granted the Republic the ability to "put forward views and proposals" with "determined efforts to resolve disagreements between the two governments". Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland's population were unionists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom, most of whom were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain; however, a significant minority, mostly Catholics, were nationalists who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule. Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a distinct Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed both by a large minority of Catholics and Protestants and by many of those who are non-aligned. For most of the 20th century, when it came into existence, Northern Ireland was marked by discrimination and hostility between these two sides in what First Minister of Northern Ireland David Trimble called a "cold house" for Catholics. In the late 1960s, conflict between state forces and chiefly Protestant unionists on the one hand, and chiefly Catholic nationalists on the other, erupted into three decades of violence known as the Troubles, which claimed over 3,500 lives and caused over 50,000 casualties. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including the decommissioning of weapons, although sectarianism and religious segregation still remain major social problems and sporadic violence has continued. Northern Ireland has historically been the most industrialised region of Ireland. After declining as a result of the political and social turmoil of the Troubles, its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. The initial growth came from the "peace dividend" and the links and increased trade with the Republic of Ireland, continuing with a significant increase in tourism, investment and business from around the world. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17.2% in 1986, dropping to 6.1% for JuneAugust 2014 and down by 1.2 percentage points over the year, similar to the UK figure of 6.2%. 58.2% of those unemployed had been unemployed for over a year. Prominent artists and sports persons from Northern Ireland include Van Morrison, Rory McIlroy, Joey Dunlop, Wayne McCullough and George Best. Some people in Northern Ireland prefer to identify as Irish (e.g., poet Seamus Heaney and actor Liam Neeson) while others prefer to identify as British (e.g. actor Kenneth Branagh). Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, with Northern Ireland sharing both the culture of Ireland and the culture of the United Kingdom. In many sports, the island of Ireland fields a single team, a notable exception being association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games."