Northern Ireland

C

Natural Resources

Ireland is not rich in minerals. Small-scale coal mining has been pursued sporadically at Coalisland, in central Northern Ireland, and at Ballycastle in the north. Farmers and other rural people harvest peat for fuel, but very few deposits are broad or deep enough to justify commercial exploitation. Limestone and gravel are extensively quarried. Some 6 percent of Northern Ireland’s land area is forested, much of it planted in recent times.

D

Climate

Northern Ireland’s climate is temperate, with warm winters and cool summers. In January the average daily temperature is around 4°C (39°F), and in July it is about 15°C (59°F). Annual precipitation is about 1,100 mm (42 in), spread fairly evenly throughout the year. Spring is normally the driest season. Overcast skies are the norm: Average daily hours of clear skies range from less than two from November to January to around six in May and June. Northern Ireland tends to be breezy, and gales are common in spring and fall.

III

Population

The total population of Northern Ireland is 1,710,000 (2004). The overall population density is 121 persons per sq km (313 persons per sq mi). The area that is now Northern Ireland was thinly populated before 1700, but the population grew rapidly from about 1750, doubling in the period from 1750 to 1790. By 1821, when the first census was taken, it had risen to 1.38 million, and the population reached 1.64 million in 1841. The region was affected to a lesser extent than other parts of Ireland by the island’s widespread potato blight and subsequent famine of 1845 to 1850. Nonetheless, the population fell sharply to 1.43 million by 1851 and continued to decline steadily as a result of emigration, dropping to a low of 1.25 million in 1911. During the 20th century the population increased slowly but steadily as a result of lower death rates, continuing high birth rates, and a decline in the rate of emigration.

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. Almost half of the province’s population lives in the greater Belfast area. Founded on the sandy mouth of the Lagan River in 1613 by settlers from Britain, Belfast took its name from Beal Feirsde (Irish for “the mouth of the sandbank”). Belfast remained a small trading port until about 1800. It subsequently became a major industrial city, growing from about 20,000 people at the beginning of the 1800s to a peak of 443,671 in 1951.

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Northern Ireland’s second largest city, Londonderry (Derry), is much smaller. Derry (Irish Doire, for “place of the oaks”), a small community centered around a 6th-century abbey, was rebuilt by British settlers in 1613. Soon thereafter the town granted charters to several London merchant companies to develop the area, and the official name of the city became Londonderry. This name was never fully accepted or used by Catholics, who in general still refer to the city as Derry. The city is therefore often referred to in books and other text sources as Londonderry/Derry or Derry/Londonderry.

The only other urban center designated as a city is Armagh, which is actually a small town. Armagh owes its prominence to its historic role as the center of Christianity in Ireland and the home of both the Catholic and Anglican primates of all Ireland. Major towns include the market centers of Coleraine (headquarters of the University of Ulster), Dungannon, Enniskillen, Omagh, and Strabane; the ports of Larne and Newry; and the historic linen manufacturing towns of Ballymena, Lurgan, and Portadown.

A

Ethnicity and Religion

The main defining components of ethnicity in Northern Ireland are religious and political affiliation. In general, Catholics/nationalists regard themselves as Irish, and Protestants/unionists regard themselves as British.

The 1991 census recorded Catholics as 38 percent of the population. However, 7 percent of the population declined to identify a religious affiliation. Therefore, most demographers agree that Catholics actually represent about 41 percent of the population. The largest Protestant groups are Presbyterians (21 percent of the total population), followed by the Anglican members of the Church of Ireland (18 percent), and Methodists (4 percent). Of the remaining 16 percent of the population, about half belong to other Protestant denominations, often of a fundamentalist and strongly political character influenced by American evangelicalism. Several of these denominations have grown in membership since the 1960s. The remaining 8 percent of the people are either members of non-Christian religions or claim no religious affiliation.

B

Language

Almost all residents of Northern Ireland speak English. Only a tiny percentage speak Irish, a Gaelic language, except in remote upland areas in the Glens of Antrim, the Mourne Mountains, and the Sperrin Mountains, where Irish is more widely spoken. The Catholic and nationalist community has tended to become more enthusiastic about learning Irish as a second language during periods of heightened political activity—for example, from 1900 to 1920 and from 1970 to the present day. Recent government policies and the expansion of university education have encouraged mutual respect for the two cultural traditions in the province. This has boosted the Irish language movement, as well as the rise in popularity of Ulster-Scots, or Ullans, among the Protestant community. See also Celtic Languages.