Introduction to Northern Ireland

The terms Ulster, Northern Ireland, "the six counties," and "the North" are used interchangeably in Ireland for this small, ruggedly beautiful, and historically troubled land. The fact that nobody knows quite what to call it is appropriate given the seemingly endless struggle that has gone on for the soul of this place.

For many years, visitors to Ireland avoided the North, for obvious reasons. In fact, the vast majority of Irish people have never crossed the border into Ulster, and that's a pity. This is a colorful, exciting region, with vibrant towns and a countryside of breathtaking beauty. The way the locals treat you may come as a surprise -- in fact, we'll go out on a limb and say that rural Northern Ireland is, in many ways, friendlier to visitors than the Republic. In part because of its relatively low tourism numbers, you'll find you are very welcome here, whereas, in the southern counties, the overwhelming flow of visitors has taken a toll on that famous Irish faílte (welcome).

Belfast and Derry, the North's only cities of any size, are both quite manageable, with complex political situations and grand historical monuments. But the main draw here is the magnificent countryside: the cool greens of the Glens of Antrim, the rugged Mourne Mountains, and the famously craggy coastline culminating in the lunar Giant's Causeway.

Still, the Troubles are obviously the elephant in the Northern Irish living room. It would be a unique visit that ignored politics entirely, whether it's the unforgiving murals in west Belfast or the strident graffiti that startles you in even the most bucolic village. Everybody picks a side in the Sisyphean effort to claim this rocky soil for God and country. But whose God and which country? You may as well have a quick rundown of the history of it all, if only so that you can tell your UVFs from your IRAs.

The strife in Northern Ireland can be traced back 800 years. In fact, there's an apocryphal story about a phone call between two friends -- an Irish politician and an English parliamentarian -- at the start of the Irish civil war in the 1920s. According to lore, the Englishman asked his Irish friend, "Is it true that there's an uprising in Ireland?" and the Irishman replied, "Aye, 'tis true." "When did it start?" the Englishman asked. "When Strongbow invaded Ireland," the Irishman said. "When will it end?" asked the Englishman. "When Cromwell gets out of hell." The story alludes to the fact that when the English first invaded Ireland in the 12th century, they were led by the earl of Pembroke, nicknamed "Strongbow." They never really left, and the Irish have never quit trying to get rid of them.

Over the centuries, the British waged a largely futile effort to make Ireland, and the Irish, British. Their tactics included outlawing the Irish language, banning Catholicism, and barring Catholics from landownership; finally, in the mid-1600s, Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army went for the more basic approach of killing them in droves. British families were brought over to take their land -- essentially, physically replacing Irish Catholics with British Protestants -- in a process the Irish called "planting." The descendants of those British settlers, generally speaking, form the Protestant population of Northern Ireland today.

After centuries of struggle, Ireland finally won independence of a sort from Britain in 1921, in the aftermath of the 1916 Rebellion. After much arguing, it was decided that the island would be divided. Twenty-six Irish counties would form an independent, free state (now the Republic of Ireland), while six counties in the Ulster province with predominantly Protestant populations would become Northern Ireland and remain a part of the United Kingdom.

When the six counties were detached from the rest of the island, two conflicting ideological bodies emerged: Unionists, associated with the Protestant majority, who want to remain a part of the United Kingdom, and Nationalists, associated with the Catholic minority, who want the whole of Ireland united as one independent nation. Of course, being a Unionist or a Nationalist doesn't imply approval of the violence. In fact, the overwhelming majority of Northern Irish people, regardless of whether they want British rule or Irish rule, oppose the use of violence.

After the division, the British police and government in Ulster were quite brutal toward the Catholic minority. Things came to a head in the late 1960s when the minority Catholic population began an intense civil rights campaign. Their marches and demonstrations were crushed by the authorities, sometimes with disproportionate levels of violence, thus setting the stage for the re-emergence of the Irish Republican Army, a violent paramilitary Nationalist group that first appeared early in the 20th century. This modern battle between the British authorities and the Irish resistance that became known as the Troubles began in 1969 and would not end for nearly 30 years.

Throughout the 1970s, violence was a fact of everyday life in Northern Ireland. By the 1980s, the violence was sporadic, if still shocking, and in the 1990s, the Northern Irish people -- stunned by the sheer horror of an IRA bombing in the town of Omagh that killed 29 civilians on a busy shopping street -- had had enough.

With the personal involvement of U.S. President Bill Clinton urging them to find a peaceful solution to their disagreements, on May 22, 1998, Northerners and their fellow islanders in the Republic voted to accept the Belfast Agreement, universally known as the "Good Friday Agreement." It dismantled the claims of both Ireland and Britain to the North and acknowledged the sovereign right of the people of Northern Ireland to take charge of their political destiny, effectively separating their government from London.

For nearly a decade after that peace agreement was signed, there was virtually none of the terrorism that once shattered the peace, but the issues that divide the people remained unresolved.

In 2009, violence flared again in this region, in a series of brutal murders and attacks on British soldiers, on people involved on one side or the other of the political landscape, and even on some who seemed to have no involvement in the struggle at all.

When this guide was published the situation seemed calmer, but it was clear that nothing had really been settled. A spinoff faction of the IRA, which calls itself the "Real IRA," took responsibility for most of the attacks, and the people of the north fear the start of the tit-for-tat attack-reprisal-attack terrorism that once made the country such a deadly place.

Still, from a visitor's perspective, the violence has always been remarkably contained. Like diplomats, foreigners have always had a kind of immunity. Derry and Belfast at their worst have always been safer for visitors than almost any comparable American city, and the Ulster countryside was then, and is now, as idyllic and serene as Vermont. When we've marveled at this, more than one Northern Irish person has told us, "It isn't your fight."

The North: To Go or Not to Go?

The North is not for everyone. It's not a peaceful place, but it is an extremely beautiful and fascinating one. This is not a war zone -- even with the changing political landscape and the sporadic outbreaks of violence Ulster is generally safe for travelers.

Because of that, our advice is: go. But go cautiously. And follow these basic rules:

• Don't discuss the political situation with anyone you don't know well.
• Don't get involved in political arguments.
• Don't travel deep into West Belfast.
• Consider touring the Shankill and Falls roads with an organized tour, rather than on your own.
• If you think a neighborhood looks unsafe, turn around and walk away.

Most of Northern Ireland is perfectly safe for visitors, and you're very unlikely to see any violence at all. But remain alert and aware just the same.

Keeping Your Irish Up

If you want to brush up on your knowledge of Northern Ireland, Newshound (www.nuzhound.com) is an indispensable resource. Run by American expat John Fay, this is an extremely well-organized catalog of news articles culled from international newspapers, covering everything from the Troubles to dining and shopping in Belfast. A vast array of articles about the Republic (click "NewsoftheIrish") includes culture, travel, and even dining reviews from Dublin to Donegal. The site is intelligent, user-friendly, and searchable.