Provinces of Ireland in the context of "Dunlewey"

Ulster English, also called Northern Hiberno-English or Northern Irish English, is the variety of English spoken mostly around the Irish province of Ulster and throughout Northern Ireland. The dialect has been influenced by the local Ulster dialect of the Scots language, brought over by Scottish settlers during the Plantation of Ulster and subsequent settlements throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It also coexists alongside the Ulster dialect of the Irish (Gaelic) language, which also influenced the dialect.

The two major divisions of Ulster English are Mid-Ulster English, the most widespread variety, and Ulster Scots English, spoken in much of northern County Antrim along a continuum with the Scots language. South Ulster English is a geographically transitional dialect between Mid-Ulster English and English spoken south of Ulster, in the Republic of Ireland.

Ulster Protestants are an ethnoreligious group in the Irish province of Ulster, where they make up about 43.5% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers who arrived from Great Britain in the early 17th century Ulster Plantation. This was the settlement of the Gaelic, Catholic province of Ulster by Scots and English speaking Protestants, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England. Many more Scottish Protestant migrants arrived in Ulster in the late 17th century. Those who came from Scotland were mostly Presbyterians, while those from England were mostly Anglicans (see Church of Ireland). There is also a small Methodist community and the Methodist Church in Ireland dates to John Wesley's visit to Ulster in 1752. Although most Ulster Protestants descend from Lowland Scottish people (some of whose descendants consider themselves Ulster Scots), many descend from English, and to a lesser extent, from Irish, Welsh and Huguenots.

Since the 17th century, sectarian and political divisions between Ulster Protestants and Irish Catholics have played a major role in the history of Ulster, and of Ireland as a whole. It has led to bouts of violence and political upheaval, notably in the Irish Confederate Wars, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the Williamite War, the Armagh disturbances, Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Irish revolutionary period, and the Troubles. Today, the vast majority of Ulster Protestants live in Northern Ireland, which was created in 1921 to have an Ulster Protestant majority, and in the east of County Donegal. Politically, most are unionists, who have an Ulster British identity and want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh; Ulster Scots: Plantin o Ulstèr) was the organised colonisation (plantation) of Ulster – a province of Ireland – by people from Great Britain during the reign of King James VI and I.

Small privately funded plantations by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while the official plantation began in 1609. Most of the land had been confiscated from the native Gaelic chiefs, several of whom had fled Ireland for mainland Europe in 1607 following the Nine Years' War against English rule. The official plantation comprised an estimated half a million acres (2,000 km) of arable land in counties Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal, and Londonderry. Land in counties Antrim, Down, and Monaghan was privately colonised with the king's support.

United Ireland (Irish: Éire Aontaithe), also referred to as Irish reunification or a New Ireland, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland (legally described also as the Republic of Ireland) has jurisdiction over the majority of Ireland, while Northern Ireland, which lies entirely within (but consists of only 6 of 9 counties of) the Irish province of Ulster, is part of the United Kingdom. Achieving a united Ireland is a central tenet of Irish nationalism and Republicanism, particularly of both mainstream and dissident republican political and paramilitary organisations. Unionists support Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom and oppose Irish unification.

Ireland has been partitioned since May 1921, when the Government of Ireland Act 1920 came into effect, creating two separate jurisdictions—Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland—within the United Kingdom. Southern Ireland never fully functioned and was soon replaced by the Irish Free State in 1922, which became independent, while Northern Ireland opted to remain part of the UK. The Anglo-Irish Treaty, which led to the establishment in December 1922 of a dominion called the Irish Free State, recognised partition, but this was opposed by anti-Treaty republicans. When the anti-Treaty Fianna Fáil party came to power in the 1930s, it adopted a new constitution which claimed sovereignty over the entire island. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had a united Ireland as its goal during the conflict with British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries from the 1960s to the 1990s known as The Troubles. The Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998, which ended the conflict, acknowledged the legitimacy of the desire for a united Ireland, while declaring that it could be achieved only with the consent of a majority of the people of both jurisdictions on the island, and providing a mechanism for ascertaining this in certain circumstances.

Ulster (/ˈʌlstər/; Irish: Ulaidh [ˈʊlˠiː, ˈʊlˠə] or Cúige Uladh [ˌkuːɟə ˈʊlˠə, - ˈʊlˠuː]; Ulster Scots: Ulstèr or Ulster) is one of the four historical provinces of Ireland, located in the northern part of the island. It is made up of nine counties, with six of these comprising Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom), while the remaining three are in the Republic of Ireland.

It is the second-largest (after Munster) and second-most populous (after Leinster) of Ireland's four traditional provinces, with Belfast being its biggest city. Unlike the other provinces, Ulster has a high percentage of Protestants, making up almost half of its population. English is the main language and Ulster English the main dialect. A minority also speak Irish, and there are Gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking regions) in County Donegal which is home to a quarter of the total Gaeltacht population of the Republic of Ireland. There are also large Irish-speaking networks in southern County Londonderry and in the Gaeltacht Quarter, Belfast. Ulster-Scots is also spoken extensively in the counties Antrim, Down, Londonderry, Tyrone and Donegal. Lough Neagh, in the east, is the largest lake in the British Isles, while Lough Erne in the west is one of its largest lake networks. The main mountain ranges are the Mournes, Sperrins, Blue Stack (Croaghgorms) and Derryveagh Mountains.

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, part of the Wicklow Mountains range. Dublin is the largest city by population on the island of Ireland; at the 2022 census, the city council area had a population of 592,713, while the city including suburbs had a population of 1,263,219, County Dublin had a population of 1,501,500. Various definitions of a metropolitan Greater Dublin Area exist.

A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Dublin expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, renamed Ireland in 1937. As of 2018, Dublin was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha minus", which placed it among the top thirty cities in the world.

Munster (Irish: an Mhumhain [ə ˈwuːnʲ] or Cúige Mumhan [ˌkuːɟə ˈmˠuːnˠ]) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (Irish: rí ruirech). Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties.

Munster has no official function for local government purposes. For the purposes of the ISO, the province is listed as one of the provincial sub-divisions of the State (ISO 3166-2:IE) and coded as "IE-M". Munster covers an area of 24,675 km (9,527 sq mi). Its population was 1,373,346 in 2022, with Cork being the largest city. Other significant urban centres in the province include Limerick and Waterford.

County Kilkenny (Irish: Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the county. At the 2022 census the population of the county was 103,685. The county was based on the historic Gaelic kingdom of Ossory (Osraighe), which was coterminous with the Diocese of Ossory.

This article lists some of the attested Gaelic kingdoms of early medieval Ireland prior to the Norman invasion of 1169-72.

For much of this period, the island was divided into numerous clan territories and kingdoms (known as túatha). These túatha often competed for control of resources and thus they continually grew and shrank (in both size and number). In addition to kingdoms or túatha, Gaelic Ireland was also divided into five prime overkingdoms (Old Irish cóiceda, Modern Irish cúige). These were Ulaid (in the north), Connacht (in the west), Laighin (in the southeast), Mumhan (in the south) and Mide (in the centre).

Ulster Irish (endonym: Gaeilg Uladh or Irish: Gaeilic Uladh, Standard Irish: Gaeilge Uladh) is the variety of Irish spoken in the province of Ulster. It has much in common with Scottish Gaelic and Manx. Within Ulster there have historically been two main sub-dialects: West Ulster and East Ulster. The Western dialect is spoken in parts of County Donegal and was once spoken in parts of neighbouring counties, hence the name 'Donegal Irish'. The Eastern dialect was spoken in most of the rest of Ulster and northern parts of counties Louth and Meath.

County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, from Irish Aontroim, meaning 'lone ridge') is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 3,086 square kilometres (1,192 sq mi) and has a population of 651,321, as of the 2021 census. County Antrim has a population density of 211 people per square kilometre or 546 people per square mile. It is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland.

The Glens of Antrim offer isolated rugged landscapes, the Giant's Causeway is a unique landscape and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bushmills produces whiskey, and Portrush is a popular seaside resort and nightlife area. The majority of Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, is in County Antrim, with the remainder being in County Down.

The Ulster Volunteers was an Irish unionist, loyalist paramilitary organisation founded in 1912 to block domestic self-government ("Home Rule") for Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom. The Ulster Volunteers were based in the northern province of Ulster. Many Ulster Protestants and Irish unionists feared being governed by a nationalist Catholic-majority parliament in Dublin and losing their links with Great Britain. In 1913, the militias were organised into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and vowed to resist any attempts by the British Government to impose Home Rule on Ulster. Later that year, Irish nationalists formed a rival militia, the Irish Volunteers, to safeguard Home Rule. In April 1914, the UVF smuggled 25,000 rifles into Ulster from Imperial Germany. The Home Rule Crisis was interrupted by the First World War. Much of the UVF enlisted with the British Army's 36th (Ulster) Division and went to fight on the Western Front.

After the war, the British Government decided to partition Ireland into two self-governing regions: Northern Ireland (which overall had a Protestant/unionist majority) and Southern Ireland. However, by 1920 the Irish War of Independence was raging and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was launching attacks on British forces in Ireland. In response, the UVF was revived. It was involved in some sectarian clashes and minor actions against the IRA. However, this revival was largely unsuccessful and the UVF was absorbed into the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), the new reserve police force of Northern Ireland.

County Armagh (Irish: Contae Ard Mhacha [ˌaːɾˠd̪ˠ ˈwaxə]) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders the Northern Irish counties of Tyrone to the west and Down to the east. The county borders Louth and Monaghan to the south and southwest, which are in the Republic of Ireland. It is named after its county town, Armagh, which derives from the Irish Ard Mhacha, meaning "Macha's height". Macha was a sovereignty goddess in Irish mythology and is said to have been buried on a wooded hill around which the town of Armagh grew. County Armagh is colloquially known as the "Orchard County" because of its many apple orchards.

The county covers an area of 1,327 km (512 sq mi), making it the smallest of Northern Ireland's six counties by size and the sixth-smallest county on the island of Ireland. With a population of 194,394 as of the 2021 census, it is the fourth-most populous county in both Northern Ireland and Ulster. It is the 10th most populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties, as well as the fifth-most densely populated. In addition to the city of Armagh and the western portion of the city of Newry, notable towns in the county include Lurgan, Portadown and Craigavon.

Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland (and formerly all of Ireland) within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland independent of the UK. Unlike other strands of unionism, loyalism has been described as an ethnic nationalism of Ulster Protestants and "a variation of British nationalism". Loyalists are often said to have a conditional loyalty to the British state so long as it defends their interests. They see themselves as loyal primarily to the Protestant British monarchy rather than to British governments and institutions, while Garret FitzGerald argued they are loyal to 'Ulster' over 'the Union'. A small minority of loyalists have called for an independent Ulster Protestant state, believing they cannot rely on British governments to support them (see Ulster nationalism). The term 'loyalism' is usually associated with paramilitarism.

Ulster loyalism emerged in the late 19th century, in reaction to the Irish Home Rule movement and the rise of Irish nationalism. Ireland had a Catholic majority who wanted self-government, but the province of Ulster had a Protestant and unionist majority, largely due to the Plantation of Ulster. Although not all unionists were Protestant, loyalists emphasised their British Protestant heritage. During the Home Rule Crisis (1912–14), loyalists founded the paramilitary Ulster Volunteers to prevent Ulster from becoming part of a self-governing Ireland. This was followed by the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and partition of Ireland: most of Ireland became an independent state, while most of Ulster remained within the UK as the self-governing territory of Northern Ireland. During partition, communal violence raged between loyalists and Irish nationalists in Belfast, and loyalists attacked the Catholic minority in retaliation for Irish republican activity.

County Donegal (/ˌdʌnɪˈɡɔːl, ˌdɒnɪˈɡɔːl/ DUN-ig-AWL, DON-ig-awl; Irish: Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small border with the rest of the Republic. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconnell or Tirconaill (Tír Chonaill), after the historical territory on which it was based. Donegal County Council is the local council and Lifford is the county town.

The population was 167,084 at the 2022 census.

County Cavan (/ˈkævən/ KAV-ən; Irish: Contae an Chabháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the historic Gaelic territory of East Breffny (Bréifne). Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county, which had a population of 81,704 at the 2022 census.