Why does Northern Ireland want to be part of the Uk while the rest of Ireland (majority) doesnt?

Question

Basically this is a question as to why Northern Ireland want to be part of the British Isles and Ireland itself does not.

Answer 1

-wow that is a long ansewer....

- 16th century,  briton invaded ireland(east and south quarters)

- they started 'plantations' ie giving all the land and power to english/scotish protestants who they relocated to ireland for that purpous

-large irish landowners were forced to move to west(poor land)

- overall these plantations failed for a number of resons, and gradually irish people came back into controll again.

- learning from their mistakes during this time, england invaded what was the irish stronghold at the time, the north. this lead to a successfull plantation. so succesfull in fact that for a time ulster(north) was the most affluant area in ireland as far as industry and quality of life....so, the english/scottish planters stayed in controll(thanks in part to new percautions by briton)

- jump a few years. north is still fully controlled by briton. rest of ireland has givin controll to briton to maintain lands. in the rest of the country briton is becoming more of an absentee leader.

- ireland wants more freedom and it's representitives in the british government wanted 'home rule'

- this ment a government in ireland to rule ireland. but ireland would still not have an army(only the british one) and pay some taxes to briton.

- the people in ulster, who were protestants, wanted to stay in the UK as that meant they were the majority as protestants.

if ireland was a seprate country, roman catholics would be the majority. 'home rule is rome rule' and they feared prosecution.

- the rest of ireland wanted the whole of ireland to be free once again. rather than permanatly loose land to briton....

- this has carried on to todays problems andseperation....

Answer 2

Not everyone in Northern Ireland (NI) is happy about being part of the UK. That is what 'The troubles' were about.

The 16th and 17th centuries witnessed the "Plantations of Ireland" by the British. These involved confiscating land from the native Irish people, and giving it to Scottish and English settlers or 'planters'.

The most intensive, and successful of these plantations was in the northern part of the island (Ulster). Generally speaking, the descendants of these planters see themselves as British, and have more in common culturally with Britain than the rest of Ireland. They make up a slim majority in NI and respecting the democratic tradition; NI will remain part of the UK until that fact changes.

Answer 3

Because Ireland is a Catholic country and Northern Ireland is Protestant.  There's much more history involved, including wars of aggression by Britain against Ireland, but Britain's official church is the Anglican Church, which doesn't fit too well with the Catholic Church considering the two have different leaders (the Pope in Rome vs. the Archbishop of Canterbury)

Answer 4

Further to Michael's excellent answer - when the Irish Constitution was drawn up the Catholic Church was given a "Special Position" - this clause was removed after a referendum in 1973.

This clause had the effect of alienating many northern protestants, pushing them further to protestant Britain.