Talk:Northern Ireland

Any objections to me re-writing the current lead, which reads: Northern Ireland is a region in the British Isles, north from the Republic of Ireland and west from England. It is currently occupied by the United Kingdom... to something less controversial - "occupied by" is a view of one part of the community there. And NI is actually west of Scotland :P Anton Sweeney 13:16, 9 October 2007 (CDT)

good idea. Richard Jensen 13:43, 9 October 2007 (CDT)

Claiming Irish citizenship

Recently a statistic has been added to the lead of this article which I haven't been able, on a quick search, to corroborate. It states that "around 40% of the population [of Northern Ireland] claim" Irish citizenship. As far as I'm led to believe, an application has to be made to the government of the Republic of Ireland in order to claim citizenship thereof. In the case of citizens of Northern Ireland, I believe this is usually granted. Obtaining a passport from the RoI would presumably indicate approval of Irish citizenship. However, many people who regard themselves as British first or equally British and Irish will apply for Irish passports simply due to how easy they are to obtain when it is necessary to travel. Many of these people also have British passports. The claim that 40% of the population has done this, if true (and if this is perhaps the measurement which led to the statistic of 40%), might appear to indicate a preference given the context of the lead - something we cannot assume.

The statistic itself seems to be at odds with the most recent publication of the Life and Times Survey, which suggests that those people of Northern Ireland who consider themselves to be Irish (and that is a very subjective noun or adjective - see my note on this below) as an exclusive preference is somewhat short of 40%, standing at only 18%. Combining this with the next strongest preference, "More Irish than British", we reach 35% - still short of the 40% figure in the article.

A note on the subjective nature of the noun or adjective, "Irish". By virtue of the fact that my ancestors come from Ireland, I regard myself as Irish. The fact is, however, that "Irish" is also the description of a citizen of the Republic of Ireland. I do not consider myself a citizen of that country: in that specific context, I am not "Irish". Many people of a similar ideology as myself would freely describe themselves as Irish in a given context and may well apply for an Irish passport. This act does not necessarily mean that they consider themselves necessarily as "Irish" in terms of nationality, or that they consider themselves as "Irish" above their consideration that they are British citizens. A stark statistic of "40%" quoted in the context of the current version of this article might suggest that 40% of the people of Northern Ireland consider themselves to be Irish citizens (citizens of the Republic of Ireland) above any other consideration. This is the reason why I believe the figure should be sourced and put into proper context in the article.

I also think that suggesting that "Protestants are British" and "Catholics are Irish" is oversimplifying the situation. It may be a trend, but it is only a very loose one, open to change over the years. For example, in the same survey results, the figures suggest that less than half of Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland feel they are exclusively "Irish" (again, a subjective thing), while only 35% of Protestants in Northern Ireland feel they are exclusively British. Less than two in five people in Northern Ireland seem to consider themselves exclusively one or the other. To put it another way, a majority of people (between 58% - 62%) consider themselves to be of some mixture in relation to the given nouns or adjectives. --Mal McKee 04:03, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Establishment of the Assembly

I'm not sure that the Assembly was established by the Belfast Agreement, as stated in the lead. I think it was established by an act of parliament (Northern Ireland Act 1999 or something?). The Belfast Agreement, properly entitled in short form "The Agreement", led to the introduction of that act, which then established the Assembly. --Mal McKee 04:30, 7 December 2008 (UTC)