Навчальний посібник для студентів ос «Бакалавр» галузі знань 03 «Гуманітарні науки»

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 

17 
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 June–August 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. 

жүктеу/скачать 4,66 Mb.

Достарыңызбен бөлісу: