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Ulster Banner

Northern Ireland has not had its own unique official flag since 1972, when its government was prorogued. Due to the division of the population along religious and political lines, a wide variety of flags can be seen flying from lamposts and private houses across Northern Ireland.

The Flag of the Government of Northern Ireland

prorogued The "Ulster Banner" was the official name given to the Northern Ireland flag (a St. George's cross defaced with a red hand, a six pointed star, and a crown) which many foreigners associate with Northern Ireland. This flag is referred to by unionists as the "Red Hand Flag", or the "Ulster Flag" (not to be confused with the provincial Flag of Ulster). In 1924, the Government of Northern Ireland was granted arms by Royal Warrant and had the right to display these arms on a flag or banner. This right was exercised for the Coronation in 1953. Between 1953 and 1972, this flag was the arms of the Government of Northern Ireland and commonly used during this period as a de facto civil flag. It ceased to have official government sanction when the Parliament of Northern Ireland was dissolved by the British government in 1972. 1972 The flag is based on the ancient provincial flag of Ulster. The open thumb on this flag (compared to the closed thumb on the provincial flag) is thought to be present to differentiate between the six counties of Northern Ireland and the nine counties of the province of Ulster. The yellow background became white, to more closely resemble the flag of England. The crown symbolises the loyalty of Ulster unionists to the British Monarchy. There is a dispute as to the meaning of the star, with some maintaining it is the Star of David, and others say it represents the six counties that make up Northern Ireland. Despite the current lack of governmental sanction, the flag is used extensively within the unionist community, along with the Union Flag. The unionist community also fly a number of modified "Red Hand" banners; versions which place the Union Flag in the Canton, and one superimposes both the red hand and the outline of a map of Northern Ireland on the Union Flag. It is regularly displayed by fans of the Northern Ireland football team, and the Ulster rugby team. Some Ulster rugby supporters also display the Flag of Ulster. The flag is still, somewhat controversially, used to represent the region at the Commonwealth Games and UEFA competitions.

Displaying the flag

In Northern Ireland, each community uses its own flags to declare its allegiance and mark its 'territory', often in a manner that is deliberately provocative. Thus it is the "Ulster Banner" and the Union Flag that are flown by unionists, while the tricolour is often used to represent nationalist defiance. Under the 1998 Belfast Agreement, flags continue to be a source of disagreement in Northern Ireland. The Agreement states that: :All participants acknowledge the sensitivity of the use of symbols and emblems for public purposes, and the need in particular in creating the new institutions to ensure that such symbols and emblems are used in a manner which promotes mutual respect rather than division. Nationalists have pointed to this to argue that the use of the Union Flag for official purposes should be restricted, or that the tricolour should be flown alongside the British flag on government buildings. However all signatories to the Agreement also declare their acceptance of the "principle of consent" (i.e. that there will be no change to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland unless a majority votes for it), and unionists argue that this provision amounts to recognising that the Union Flag is the only legitimate official flag in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless some level of compromise has been achieved. The Union Flag is no longer flown over Parliament Buildings and state offices except on a limited number of 'named days' (honouring, for example Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday). One exception is Lisburn, where the council has decided to fly the Union Flag every day of the year.

A new flag?

Although the idea of a new flag for Northern Ireland has been discussed from time to time, it has little popular support, as most unionists and loyalists do not wish to see Northern Ireland's links with Britain and the Crown undermined. Similarly, most nationalists and republicans do not recognise Northern Ireland as a viable separate entity, and therefore, see no reason for it to have any symbols.

External links


- [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-ulste.html FOTW: Northern Ireland]
- [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/symbols/flags.htm CAIN: Flags in Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.democraticdialogue.org/working/flags.htm Flagging concern: the controversy over flags and emblems]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/773579.stm Tension over flag flying] at BBC News
- [http://green.carisenda.com/niflag.html Flag of Northern Ireland] Flash animation of Northern Ireland flag make up Northern Ireland Category:Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

:For an explanation of often confusing terms like Ulster, (Republic of) Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. It is situated on the island of Ireland and shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, and is the only part of the United Kingdom with an external land border. It was created by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. It covers 14,139 km² (5,459 mi²) in the northeast of the island of Ireland, about a sixth of the total area of the island, and has a population of 1,685,000 (April 2001) — between a quarter and a third of the island's total population.

Demographics and politics

:Main article: Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland A majority of the present-day population (59%, according to a [http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/2004/Political_Attitudes/NIRELAND.html 2004 survey]) wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, but a significant minority (22%) want to see a united Ireland. It is common to refer to the majority "community" as Unionists and the the minority "community" as Nationalists, though there are many who hold a position on the border that is at odds with the label of their "community" or reject these labels completely. The make-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly reflects these divisions within the population. Of the 108 members, 59 are Unionists and 42 are Nationalist (the remaining seven are classified as "other"). Although Protestants are still in the majority, the plurality by religious denomination are Roman Catholics, followed by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland, with the Methodist Church of Ireland coming fourth. The two opposing views of British unionism and Irish nationalism are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are predominantly Protestant and often descendants of mainly Scottish but also English settlement in previous centuries, while nationalists are predominantly Catholic and usually descend from the population predating such settlement. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1921–1972) gave rise to the nationalist civil rights movement in the 1960s. Many unionists argue that any discrimination was not just because of religious or political bigotry, but also the result of more complex socio-economic, socio-political and geographical factors. This eventually led to a long-running conflict known as The Troubles and the political unrest has gone through its most violent phase in recent times between 1968–1994. The main actors have been the Provisional IRA and other republican groups determined to end the British presence, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, British army and various loyalist paramilitary groups who were defending it. As a consequence of the worsening security situation, self-government for Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. Since the mid 1990s, the main paramilitary group, the Provisional IRA, has observed an uneasy ceasefire. Following negotiations, the Belfast Agreement of 1998 provides for an elected Northern Ireland Assembly, and a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive comprising representatives of all the main parties. These institutions have been suspended since 2002 because of unionist impatience at the pace of Sinn Fein's movement away from its associations with the Provisional IRA, which reached breaking point after PSNI allegations of spying by people working for Sinn Fein at the Assembly, although nobody was convicted after a high-profile police operation. On 28 July, 2005, the Provisional IRA declared an end to its campaign and have since decommissioned what is thought to be all of their arsenal. This act was performed in accordance with the Belfast Agreement 1998, and under the watch of the International Decommissioning Body and two external church witnesses. Many unionists remain skeptical, however.

Symbols

Today, Northern Ireland comprises a diverse patchwork of community rivalries, represented in some areas by whole communities where lamp posts and some homes fly the flags of the countries to which they hold allegience. The Union Flag and former Flag of Northern Ireland therefore appear in some loyalist areas, with the Irish national flag, the tricolour appearing in some republican areas. Even the kerbstones in less affluent areas get painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange, depending on whether a local community expresses nationalist/republican or unionist/loyalist sympathies. As a constituent part of the United Kingdom, the only "official" flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Flag. The Northern Ireland Flag (also known as the 'Ulster Banner' or 'Red Hand Flag') is no longer official, due to the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1972. Unionists tend to use the Union flag, the 'Ulster Banner' or paramilitary flags, while nationalists typically use the Irish Tricolour. Some unionists also occasionally use the flags of secular and religious organizations they belong to. The 'Ulster Banner' is based on the flag of Ulster. Some groups, including the Irish Rugby Football Union have used the Flag of St. Patrick as a symbol of Ireland which lacks the same nationalist or unionist connotations, but even this is felt by some to be a loyalist flag, as it was used to represent Ireland during British rule and is used by some British army regiments. No universally acceptable symbol has yet been found. Foreign flags are also found, such as the Palestinian flags in some Nationalist areas and Israeli flags in some Unionist areas. The official national anthem of Northern Ireland remains God Save The Queen. At some cross-community events, however, the Londonderry Air, also known as the tune of Danny Boy, may be played as a neutral, though unofficial, substitute.

Geography and climate

Danny Boy :Main article: Geography of Ireland, Geography of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland was covered by an ice sheet for most of the last ice age and on numerous previous occasions, the legacy of which can be seen in the extensive coverage of drumlins in Counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and particularly Down. The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 392 km² the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh. There are substantial uplands in the Sperrin Mountains (an extension of the Caledonian fold mountains) with extensive gold deposits, granite Mourne Mountains and basalt Antrim Plateau, as well as smaller ranges in South Armagh and along the Fermanagh–Tyrone border. None of the hills are especially high, with Slieve Donard in the dramatic Mournes reaching 848 metres, Northern Ireland's highest point. The volcanic activity which created the Antrim Plateau also formed the eerily geometric pillars of the Giant's Causeway. The Lower and Upper River Bann, River Foyle and River Blackwater form extensive fertile lowlands, with excellent arable land also found in North and East Down, although much of the hill country is marginal and suitable largely for animal husbandry. The valley of the River Lagan is dominated by Belfast, whose metropolitan area includes over a third of the population of Northern Ireland, with heavy urbanisation and industrialisation along the Lagan Valley and both shores of Belfast Lough. The whole of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is persistent across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5°C (43.7°F) in January and 17.5°C (63.5°F) in July. The damp climate and extensive deforestation in the 16th and 17th centuries resulted in much of the region being covered in rich green grassland. Highest maximum temperature: 30.8°C (87.4°F) at Knockarevan, near Belleek, County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 and at Belfast on 12 July 1983. Lowest minimum temperature: -17.5°C (0.5°F) at Magherally, near Banbridge, County Down on 1 January 1979. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/nireland/#temperature]

The Counties in Northern Ireland

1979 Northern Ireland consists of six counties:
- County Antrim
- County Armagh
- County Down
- County Fermanagh
- County Londonderry (Political, Geographical Term) \ County Derry (Nationalist & Irish geographic usage)
- County Tyrone These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead there are twenty-six districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents, even in the case of those named after the counties from which they derive their name. Fermanagh District Council most closely follows the borders of the county it takes its name from. Though Coleraine borough council for example derives its name from the town of Coleraine in County Londonderry.

Towns and villages

Main articles: Towns in Northern Ireland and Villages in Northern Ireland See also the list of places in Northern Ireland for all villages, towns and cities
- Ahoghill, Armagh, Antrim
- Ballycastle, Ballyclare, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Ballynahinch, Banbridge, Bangor, Belfast, Bushmills
- Carnmoney, Carrickfergus, Castlerock, Comber, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon
- Derry/Londonderry, Donaghadee, Downpatrick,Dromore, Dundonald, Dungannon, Dungiven
- Enniskillen
- Glengormley
- Hillsborough, Holywood
- Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Lurgan
- Magherafelt
- Newcastle, Newry, Newtownards, Newtownstewart
- Omagh
- Portrush, Portstewart, Portadown, Portaferry, Poyntzpass
- Strabane
- Warrenpoint

Places of interest

Warrenpoint
- The Mountains of Mourne
- Lough Neagh, the biggest lake in the British Isles, 153 square miles
- Lough Erne
- Strangford Lough
- Carlingford Lough
- The Giant's Causeway
- The Glens of Antrim
- Fermanagh Lakeland
- The Sperrin Mountains
- National parks of Northern Ireland
- National Trust Properties in Northern Ireland
- Dromore, County Down

Variations in Geographic nomenclature

Many people inside and outside Northern Ireland use other names for the entity, as part of a linguistic agenda to define the nature of the state from their historic, cultural or political viewpoint. The most common names used are

Unionist/Loyalist


- Ulster - to suggest that Northern Ireland has an older ancestry that predates its founding in 1921, dating back both to the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century and to the millennium-old province of Ulster, one of four provinces on the island of Ireland. The province of Ulster covers a greater landmass than Northern Ireland: 6 of its counties are in Northern Ireland, 3 in the Republic of Ireland.
- The Province - to again link to the historic Irish province of Ulster, with its mythology.
- Northern Ireland - Many more liberal-minded Protestants who reject the extreme form of Unionism prefer to use the official name of the state. Ulster is both inaccurate and, in their view, has very orangist overtones.

Nationalist/Republican


- North of Ireland - to link Northern Ireland to the rest of island, by describing the state as being in the 'north of Ireland' and so by implication playing down Northern Ireland's links with Britain. (The northernmost point in Ireland, in County Donegal, is in fact in the Republic.)
- The Six Counties - language which avoids using the name given to the state by the British-enacted Government of Ireland Act, 1920. (The Republic is similarly described as the Twenty-Six Counties.) Some of the users of these terms contend that using the official name of the region would imply acceptance of the legitimacy of the Government of Ireland Act.
- The Occupied Six Counties. The Republic, whose legitimacy is not recognised by republicans who oppose the Belfast Agreement, is described as being "The Free State", referring to the Irish Free State, the Republic's old name.

The use of language for Northern Ireland geography

Disagreement on nomenclature, and the reading of political symbolism into the use or non-use of a word, also attaches to some urban centres. The most famous example is whether Northern Ireland's second city should be called Derry or Londonderry. Choice of language and nomenclature in Northern Ireland often reveals the cultural, ethnic and religious identity of the speaker. The first Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Seamus Mallon was criticised by unionist politicians for calling the region the "North of Ireland" while Sinn Féin has been criticised in some newspapers in the Republic for referring to the "Six Counties". Those who do not belong to any group but lean towards one side often tend to use the language of that group. Supporters of unionism in the British media (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) regularly call Northern Ireland "Ulster" while nationalist and republican-leaning media outlets in Ireland (such as Daily Ireland) almost always use "North of Ireland" or the "Six Counties". State institutions and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland, particularly those pre-dating the 1980s, often used the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster the Ulster Orchestra, and BBC Radio Ulster. Many news bulletins since the 1990s have opted avoid all contentious terms and use either the official name, Northern Ireland, or the shorter term, "the North". For Northern Ireland's second largest city, broadcasting outlets which are unaligned to either community and broadcast to both use both names interchangeably, often starting a report with "Londonderry" and then using "Derry" in the rest of the report. However within Northern Ireland, print media which are aligned to either community (the Belfast Newsletter is aligned to the unionist community while the Irish News is aligned to the nationalist community) generally use their community's preferred term. British newspapers with unionist leanings, such as the Daily Telegraph[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F06%2F16%2Fnblud16.xml], usually use the language of the unionist community, while others, such as The Guardian use the terms interchangeably [http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,184915,00.html] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,1394346,00.html] The media in the Republic of Ireland use the nomenclature preferred by nationalists, eg [http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0609/northviolence.html RTÉ News]. The division in nomenclature is seen particularly in sports and religions associated with one of the communities. Gaelic games and football (soccer) use Derry in club names for example. Nor is there clear agreement on how to decide on a name. When the nationalist-controlled local council voted to re-name the city "Derry" unionists objected, stating that as it owed its city status to a Royal Charter, only a charter issued by Queen Elizabeth II could change the name. Queen Elizabeth refused to intervene on the matter and thus the council is now called "Derry City Council" while the city is still officially "Londonderry". Nevertheless, the council has printed two sets of stationery - one for each term - and their policy is to reply to correspondence using whichever term the original sender used. At times of high communal tension, each side regularly complains of the use of the nomenclature associated with the other community by a third party such as a media organisation, claiming such usage indicates evident "bias" against their community.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland economy is the smallest of the four economies making up the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of Northern Ireland; for events before 1900 see History of Ireland. The area now known as Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. From serving as the bedrock of Irish resistance in the era of the plantations of Queen Elizabeth and James I in other parts of Ireland, it became itself the subject of major planting of Scottish and English settlers after the Flight of the Earls in 1607 (when the native Gaelic aristocracy left en masse for Catholic Europe). The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541-1801) was incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a central parliament, government and monarchy based in London. In the early 20th century Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Unionists were in a minority on the island of Ireland as a whole, but were in the majority in the four counties of Armagh, Antrim, Down, and Londonderry, thereby forming a narrow majority in the northern province of Ulster. The clash between the House of Commons and House of Lords of the controversial budget of Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, produced the Parliament Act 1911 which enabled the veto of the Lords to be overturned. Given that the Lords had been the unionists' main guarantee that a Home Rule Act would be enacted, because of the majority of pro-unionist peers in the House, the Parliament Act made Home Rule a likely prospect in Ireland. Opponents to Home Rule, from Conservative Party leaders like Andrew Bonar Law and Lord Randolph Churchill to militant unionists in Ireland threatened the use of voilence, producing the Larne Gun Running in 1912, when they smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for the Ulster Volunteer Force. Churchill famously told a unionist audience in Ulster that "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right." The prospect of civil war on Ireland was seen by some as likely. In 1914 the Third Home Rule Act, which contained provision for a temporary partition, received the Royal Assent. However its implementation was suspended for the duration of the intervening First World War, which was only expected to a few weeks but lasted four years. But the time it concluded, the Act was seen as dead in the water, with public opinion in the majority nationalist community having moved from a demand for home rule to something more substantial, independence. Lloyd George proposed in 1919 a new bill which would divide Ireland into two Home Rule areas, twenty-six counties being ruled from Dublin, six being ruled from Belfast, with a shared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland appointing both executives and a Council of Ireland, which Lloyd George believed would evolve into an all-island parliament.

Partition of Ireland, partition of Ulster

In United Kingdom law, Ireland was partitioned in 1921 under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Six of the nine Ulster counties in the northeast formed Northern Ireland and the remaining three counties joined those of Leinster, Munster and Connacht to form Southern Ireland. Whilst the former came into being, the latter had only a momentary existence to ratify (in UK law) the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War. Under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was provisionally scheduled to be included in the Irish Free State, though it could opt-out should the Parliament of Northern Ireland elect to do. As expected it did so immediately. Once that happened, as provided for, an Irish Boundary Commission came into being, to decide on the territorial boundaries between the Irish state and the Northern Ireland home rule region. Though leaders in Dublin expected a substantial reduction in the territory of Northern Ireland, with nationalist areas like Derry, Armagh, Tyrone and urban territories like Derry and Newry moving to the Free State, it appears that the Boundary Commission decided against this. The British and Irish governments agreed to leave the boundaries as they were defined in the 1920 Act.

1925 to the present

In the mid 1940s, to encourage the Irish state to join with the Allies, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered Taoiseach Éamon de Valera Irish unity but, believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer. The British did not inform the Northern Ireland government that they had made the offer to the Dublin government. The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee to the Parliament and Government that Northern Ireland would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without consent of the majority of its citizens, and this was most recently reaffirmed by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This status was echoed in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, which was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic, was amended in 1999 to remove a claim to sovereignty over the whole of Ireland (in Article 2), a claim qualified by an acknowledgement of British rule in the northeast. The new Articles 2 and 3, added to the Bunreacht to replace the earlier articles, implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in Northern Ireland. An acknowledgement that a decision on whether to remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland rests with the people of Northern Ireland was also central to the Belfast Agreement, which was signed in 1998 and ratified by plebiscites held simultanously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. However, many unionist leaders equivocate when asked if they would peacefully accept a reunited Ireland if a majority in Northern Ireland sought it. A plebiscite within Northern Ireland on whether it should remain in the United Kingdom, or join the Republic, was held in 1973. The vote went heavily in favour of maintaining the status quo with approximately 57% of the total electorate voting in support, but most nationalists boycotted the poll. Though legal provision remains for holding another plebiscite, and former Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble some years ago advocated the holding of such a vote, no plans for such a vote have been adopted as of 2005.

Culture

:See Culture of Northern Ireland, Culture of Ulster, Culture of Ireland, Culture of the United Kingdom With its improved international reputation, Northern Ireland has recently witnessed rising numbers of tourists who come to appreciate the area's unique heritage. Attractions include cultural festivals, musical and artistic traditions, countryside and geographical sites of interest, pubs, welcoming hospitality and sports (especially golf and fishing). In 1987, pubs were allowed to open on Sundays, despite vocal opposition.

Languages

The Mid Ulster dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows influence from both the West Midlands and Scotland, thereby giving it a distinct accent compared to Hiberno-English, along with the use of such Scots words as wee for 'little' and aye for 'yes'. Some jocularly call this dialect phonetically by the name Norn Iron. There are supposedly some minute differences in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics, the best known of which is the name of the letter h, which Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch", as in British English, and Catholics tend to pronounce as "haitch", as in Hiberno-English. However, geography is a much more important determinant of dialect than ethnic background. English is by far the most widely spoken language in Northern Ireland. Under the Good Friday Agreement, Irish and Scots have official recognition on a par with that of English. Often the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland has met with the considerable suspicion of Unionists, who have associated it with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland, and more recently, with the republican movement in Northern Ireland itself. Ulster Scots comprises varieties of the Scots language spoken in Northern Ireland. Mac Póilin (1999: 116) states that "While most argue that Ulster-Scots is a dialect or variant of Scots, some have argued or implied that Ulster-Scots is a separate language from Scots. The case for Ulster-Scots being a distinct language, made at a time when the status of Scots itself was insecure, is so bizarre that it is unlikely to have been a linguistic argument." Chinese and Urdu are also spoken by Northern Ireland's Asian communities. According to the most recent census returns, Chinese is now the second most widely spoken language, though the 8000-strong Chinese community — while often referred to as the "third largest" community in Northern Ireland — is tiny by international standards.

See also


- List of Ireland-related topics
- List of United Kingdom-related topics

Further reading


- Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster (Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1996)
- Robert Kee, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism (Penguin, 1972–2000), ISBN 0140291652

External links


- [http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/ Discover Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Tourist Board]
- [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/ University of Ulster: Northern Ireland Conflict Archive]
- [http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections Elections in Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.onlineni.net Online NI]
- [http://www.whiteimage.com Art gallery featuring artists and scenes from Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of Ireland
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of Ireland and the UK
- [http://www.psa.ac.uk/cps/1996/payt.pdf Inconvenient Peripheries Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom Estate] The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and Cornwall’ by prof Philip Payton
- [http://www.walkingtree.com/ Mercator Atlas of Europe] Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
- [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/ Sutton Index of Deaths]
- [http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Geology%20files/Geol_index.html Geography in Action] The geology of Northern Ireland
- [http://www.victorsloan.co.uk/ Victor Sloan-Northern Ireland visual artist's works commenting on political, social and cultural concerns] Category:Disputed territories Ireland, Northern Category:History of Ireland Category:NUTS 1 Statistical Regions of Europe Category:NUTS 2 Statistical Regions of Europe ko:북아일랜드 ja:北アイルランド simple:Northern Ireland

Prorogation

A prorogation is the period between two sessions of a legislative body. When a legislature or parliament is prorogued, it is still constituted (that is, all members remain as members and a general election is not necessary), but all orders of the body (bills, motions, etc.) are expunged. In the British and Canadian parliamentary systems, this is usually due to the completion of the agenda set forth in the Speech from the Throne. Legislatures and parliaments, once prorogued, remain in recess until summoned again by the Queen, Governor General, or Lieutenant Governor, and a new session is begun with a Speech from the Throne.

St George's Cross

The St George's cross, a red cross on a white background, is the national flag of England and was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims (Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries), and on or about 1277 it officially became the national flag of England. After England joined with Scotland by the Act of Union 1707 a Union Flag was created which was used for all national matters, but the flag of England (as opposed to the United Kingdom) remains St George's Cross, and continues to be used when showing allegiance to England alone — primarily nowadays at events such as international football and rugby competitions, in particular the 2003 World Cup, where the English Rugby Union Side were crowned World Champions. Saint George is the patron saint of England, and various other countries and regions. The St George Cross is also the symbol of Milan, Genoa, Freiburg and Montreal; and used, for example, in the [http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escut_de_Barcelona flag of the city of Barcelona] in Spain, and it appears on the flag of Georgia. The Lega Nord, a popular Italian political party campaigning for the independence of Northern Italy, also uses the St George Cross as an official symbol. The flag of St George is also the rank flag of an Admiral in the Royal Navy, and civilian craft are forbidden to fly it. However, ships which took part in the rescue operation at Dunkirk during World War II are allowed to fly it as a jack. St George's flag is not to be confused with the flag of the Red Cross. The flag of St George has a red cross which reaches from edge to edge of the flag. The flag of the red cross, like the Swiss flag, has a cross which does not reach the edges. St George's Cross should not be confused with the Cross of St. George, a military distinction in Russia, and a civil distinction – the highest honour – in Catalonia.

See also


- Flag
- Flag of England
- Flag of Georgia (country)
- Flag of Guernsey
- Flag of the United Kingdom
- Maritime flags Category:Flags of the United Kingdom

Unionists (Ireland)

In the context of Irish politics, Unionists are people in Northern Ireland, who wish to see the continuation of the Act of Union 1800, as amended by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, under which Northern Ireland, created in that latter Act, remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unionists are mostly, but not exclusively, from Protestant backgrounds in terms of religion. In the context of Irish history, the term refers to those who opposed home rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The terms Unionist and Loyalist are often used interchangeably; however, the term "loyalist" is often used in recent times to denote unionists who are not above breaking the law to maintain the status quo, or whose views are unusually hardline. Since the start of the Northern Ireland peace process, most unionists are reluctant to describe themselves as loyalists.

Irish Home Rule

Prior to 1912, Unionists wished to see the Act of Union 1800 (which had merged the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801) remain in place. They opposed Irish Home Rule, which mainstream Irish nationalists had sought since the 1860s. The Unionists of this period (especially outside Ulster) were almost entirely made up of the governing and landowning classes and the minor gentry. Home Rule would have involved Ireland having its own regional parliament while still remaining in the United Kingdom. This demand, the policy of nationalist leaders such as Isaac Butt. William Shaw, Charles Stewart Parnell, John Redmond and John Dillon, became the aim of the Nationalist Party, also known as the Home Rule League and later the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Home Rule League/Irish Parliamentary Party won the majority of Irish parliamentary seats in the Westminster parliaments from the 1870s to 1914. Various British governments introduced four successive Bills to set up an Irish Home Rule parliament in Dublin. The Irish Home Rule Bill 1886 never made it through the House of Commons but managed to destroy the Liberal Party government, with Whig and Radical elements leaving to form the Liberal Unionist Party in alliance with the Conservative Party. Eventually the two parties merged, calling themselves the Conservative and Unionist Party. The Irish Home Rule Bill 1893 passed in the Commons but succumbed to the veto of the House of Lords.The House of Lords had far more Conservatives than the House of Commons. The Home Rule Act 1914 passed (or at least passed all stages under the Parliament Act, 1911, which curbed the veto power of the Lords) but never came into force, due to the onset of World War I (1914–18). The fourth Bill, known as the Government of Ireland Act 1920, envisaged two Irish home rule states: Southern Ireland which would have had a nationalist majority, and Northern Ireland which would have a much smaller unionist majority. Only the latter became a reality, while the former became the Irish Free State. Irish unionists opposed Home Rule for many reasons. Much of their support in southern and western Ireland (the provinces of Munster, Leinster and Connacht) came from landed gentry who feared that a nationalist assembly would introduce property and taxation laws more suitable to a small island than the laws imposed from Westminster, which were designed for a much larger area, the entire United Kingdom. Some also feared that they would experience a similar sort of discrimination that the Protestant Parliament of Ireland up to 1800 had practised on Catholics, namely the notorious Penal Laws, or the more subtle discrimination that followed, although this is hard to credit as Ireland would have remained part of the UK. Others identified strongly with the Crown and British rule, and wished to see both continue unchanged in Ireland. However one should not presume that Irish unionist support came entirely from the landed gentry, or that all Protestants supported Unionism. Many working class and middle class Unionists and some gentrified Catholics supported the maintenance of the union, while many Protestants (most notably Charles Stewart Parnell) supported home rule. Other Unionists, particularly in Ulster, had economic fears, suspecting that a nationalist parliament in Dublin, on a predominantly agricultural island, would impose economic tariffs against industry. Parts of Ulster were then the most industrialised parts of Ireland and would have suffered. For much of the period up until 1920, though the Unionist support base predominated in four of the nine counties of Ulster (where Presbyterians and Anglicans outnumbered Roman Catholics), the Irish Unionist Party's leadership came from the rest of Ireland. Its most prominent leader, the Dublin-born barrister and politician Sir Edward Carson, opposed not merely Home Rule but any attempt to divide Ireland into two. Other southern Unionist leaders included the Earl of Middleton and the Earl of Dunraven. When, following the curbs placed on the power of the House of Lords in 1911 it became clear that home rule would come, Unionists, particularly in parts of Ulster, mounted a campaign that threatened to establish a Provisional Government of Ulster through the use of violence if Home Rule were to come about. They set up the Ulster Volunteer Force, the first modern Irish paramilitary organisation, and imported 25,000 rifles from Imperial Germany, to fight the British government. 90,000 men had joined by the middle of 1914. Irish Unionism received the support in the period from the 1880s to 1914 from leading English Conservative politicians, notably Lord Randolph Churchill and future British prime minister Andrew Bonar Law. Slogans such as Ulster Will Fight and Ulster Will Be Right expressed the determination of unionists to oppose Irish Home Rule by whatever means it deemed necessary.

Partition

The creation of the Unionist-dominated Northern Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the later creation of the Irish Free State in the territory the above Act had called Southern Ireland separated southern and northern unionists. Unionists were in the majority in four counties (Antrim, Derry, Down and Armagh) but insisted on control over the counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone as well. As these counties had a large land area but were thinly populated compared to the other four, it was felt that the slight dilution of the pro-Union population was worth it for the extra territory. The exclusion of three Ulster counties, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan from Northern Ireland, and hence the United Kingdom, left Ulster unionists there feeling isolated and betrayed. They established an association to canvass their fellow unionists to reconsider the border, but to no avail. Many assisted in the policing of the new region, serving in the B-Specials, while continuing to live in the Free State. See [http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/donegal.htm external link] Some unionists in the south simply adapted and began to associate themselves with the new southern Irish regime of William T. Cosgrave and Cumann na nGaedhael. On January 19th 1922, leading unionists held a meeting and unanimously decided to support fully the government of the new Free State. Many gained appointment to the Irish Free State Senate, where the Earl of Dunraven became speaker or Cathaoirleach (pronounced 'ka-here-loch'). One Unionist political family, the Dockrells, joined and became TDs (MPs) over a number of generations for Cumann na nGaedhael and its successor party, Fine Gael (the governing party in the 1920s, the main opposition from 1932 onwards). The single Ulster Protestant in the current Dáil is a member of Fine Gael. The Dublin borough of Rathmines had a unionist majority up to the late 1920s, when a local government re-organisation abolished all Dublin borough councils. However, having lost their privileged status, most Irish unionists simply withdrew from public life. The number of Protestants declined in the Irish Free State and in its successor state, the Republic of Ireland. IRA attacks in the 1920s drove away many who assisted the British in the Anglo-Irish War, in the process burning many historic homes as reprisals for the Crown forces' destruction of the homes and property of republicans, suspected or actual. Others had suffered disproportionately in World War I, losing their sons and heirs on the bloodied fields of Flanders and the Somme. Some that remained became victims of the Roman Catholic Church's Ne Temere decree imposed by Pope Pius X, which required Catholics in mixed marriages to ensure that all children of the marriage were brought up to follow the Church of Rome. This decree contributed greatly to the religious divide in Ireland, and is still in force. As a result, many eligible Protestant women, who because of the deaths of Protestant men in World War I were denied the availability of Protestant husbands, either married Catholics or remained unmarried, either way ending the Protestant family line. This reversed an earlier trend of Catholics becoming Protestant to avoid discrimination. A disingenuous tactic used by the British in the Anglo-Irish conflict was to draw attention to the religion of IRA victims if they were Protestant, and to play it down if they were Catholic. This was a crude but effective device, used to great effect in the press in Ireland and Britain, to portray the IRA as sectarian. In reality, the IRA killed anyone they believed was aiding the Crown forces, regardless of religion, and had many Protestant volunteers. In Castlederg in Tyrone, Protestants outnumbered Catholics in the local IRA at the time. Furthermore, land reform from the 1870s to the 1900s broke up many of the large estates. Protestant families, who had owned most of the land, saw it returned to their largely Catholic tenantry. Many chose in the 1920s to use their compensation money to settle in Britain, often in other estates they owned there. In addition, the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland from 1871 by an Act of Parliament led that Church to sell many of its estates and bishops' palaces, in the process laying off many Protestant workers who themselves then moved away. (Previously, the Church had had considerable wealth thanks to tithes (mandatory taxes) which the local Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist communities had to pay to the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. The loss of this money underlined the economic vulnerability of the Church of Ireland.) However, little evidence of widespread discrimination against Protestants in the Irish Free State/Éire exists. The first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde (1938–45), and the fourth, Erskine Hamilton Childers (1973-74), belonged to the Church of Ireland. Mary Robinson, the seventh had both Catholic and Protestant branches in her family and was married to a Protestant. Leading ex-Unionists like the Earl of Granard and the Provost of Trinity College Dublin gained appointment to the President of Ireland's advisory body, the Council of State. In contrast, anti-Catholic discrimination was widespread and actively encouraged at the highest level of government in Northern Ireland, even though Sir Edward Carson (now raised to the peerage as Lord Carson) had expressly urged the Northern Ireland Unionist prime minister, Sir James Craig to ensure absolute equality in the treatment of Roman Catholics, to ensure the stability of the new entity. (Craig openly encouraged discrimination against Catholics.) Boundaries demarcated electorates in such a way as to produce Protestant majorities in areas that would otherwise, by a fair drawing of boundaries, have produced nationalist councillors. Decades later, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, openly described the Northern Ireland of most of the twentieth century as a 'cold house of Catholics', a process he said the Belfast Agreement must change. Many unionist leaders, particularly in the DUP, continue to deny that discrimination ever took place. By the 1960s, belated attempts by a moderate new Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill to create equality created a backlash led by fundamentalist Protestant preacher and politician, the Rev. Ian Paisley. Nationalists launched a Civil Rights movement under John Hume, Austin Currie and Ivan Cooper. A collapse in government control, the controversial killing of 13 unarmed civilians by the British army Parachute Regiment in Derry/Londonderry on Bloody Sunday (30 January, 1972) and the emergence of the Provisional IRA, alongside Protestant paramilitary groups like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force, led to the suspension, then abolition, of the unionist-dominated Stormont parliament and government (1972). After two decades of brutal killing by paramilitary groups on both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland and the police and British army, a ceasefire and inter-community negotiations produced the Belfast Agreement (also known as the "Good Friday Agreement"), which attempted with mixed success to produce a power-sharing government for Northern Ireland, to which both the unionist and nationalist communities could give allegiance. While some commentators regularly use the religious terms 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' as interchangeable with 'nationalist' and 'unionist' in Northern Ireland, some differences do exist between them. Not all Catholics support nationalist causes, for example. The Ulster Unionist Party has Catholic members; one of its most respected MLAs (Member of the power-sharing Legislative Assembly) is Catholic. Many Catholics served in the former and current Northern Ireland police forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary and in the British army, although at no time did any of these organisations enjoy widespread support among Ulster Catholics. The Catholics who joined were often unionist, as all of these organisations opposed republicanism, sometimes violently. This put these people at odds with sentiment in their communities. One of the strangest events in Northern Ireland is that the anti-Catholic right-wing Protestant leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Rev. Ian Paisley, attracts some Catholic votes in his constituency in elections to the British and European Parliaments (he serves in both). That may be a personal quirk, due to his reputation as a good constituency MP who will help anyone, irrespective of their religion. In contrast his party, the DUP, has never had any Catholic members. The mildly nationalist SDLP, on the other hand, has often attracted sympathetic Protestants and had them elected. Sinn Féin has also had some Protestant members and elected officials, more often in the Republic. However it highlights the sheer nature of the complexity of Northern Ireland politics, and of the dangers of drawing simplistic 'Catholic = nationalist' 'Protestant = unionist' definitions in trying to understand Northern Ireland politics. Today, except for the minuscule Irish Unionist Alliance founded in the 1990s, southern Irish Unionism no longer exists as a political movement. Northern Ireland has a large number of unionist parties. The largest is now the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, MP. When Northern Ireland was formed in 1921, Protestants dominated the state. Recent census data shows that Protestants now account for less than half the population of Northern Ireland for the first time, with Catholics only a few per cent less. (Though few abroad realise it, Northern Ireland has citizens who are neither Catholic or Protestant. The third biggest group, interestingly, are the Chinese, and the province also has a small but long-standing Jewish community, with significant numbers of Hindus and Muslims of Indian and Pakistani birth or descent as well.) This does not mean that nationalists and unionists have equal numbers; some suggest that up to one fifth of Protestants harbour sympathies towards nationalism (even if they still vote for the mainstream Unionist parties or the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland), while as many as one-third of Catholics could be called 'soft unionists' (i.e., if given a choice and guarantees against discrimination, they'd prefer Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom rather than join with the Republic of Ireland, though they may vote for nationalist parties like the Social Democratic and Labour Party or the middle-of-the road Alliance Party.) Furthermore, a strong decline in the Catholic birthrate (through smaller family size, use of contraception or abortion, etc.) may slow down or even reverse the growth in the Catholic population. However that may be balanced in turn by an increased rate of emigration of young Protestants, often to study and then work in Britain. These young people are more likely to remain in the lands of their ancestors (England and Scotland) than nationalists. How these changes will affect the long-term number of Protestants and Catholics remains currently impossible to assess. Furthermore, until the issue is put to the test in a vote, it remains impossible to calculate with certainty how many Protestants in reality endorse nationalism and how many Catholics in reality endorse unionism (see Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland). One final historical point of interest: while southern unionism predominantly (though not exclusively) originated in Church of Ireland circles and the upper-middle to upper classes, northern unionism remains and has been predominantly (though not exclusively) associated with the working and middle classes and predominantly Presbyterian.

External links

Main Unionist parties


- [http://www.uup.org Ulster Unionist Party]
- [http://www.dup.org.uk Democratic Unionist Party]
- [http://www.allianceparty.org Alliance Party]

Nationalist/Republican parties


- [http://www.sdlp.ie Social Democratic & Labour Party]
- [http://sinnfein.ie Sinn Féin]

Constitutional Reform in the Republic of Ireland


- [http://www.reform.org Reform Movement]
- [http://www.irishunionism.org Irish Unionist Alliance] Category:History of Ireland 1801-1922 Category:History of Northern Ireland

Flag of Ulster

The Flag of Ulster, one of the four provinces of Ireland, consists of a red cross on a golden field (from the arms of Norman coloniser, John de Courcy), charged with a white shield and the red hand. The red hand is from the arms of the O Neill (hUa Néill, later Ó Néill) Kings of Ailech and Tir Eoghan.

The Uí Néill

The term Uí Néill denotes "grandsons/descendants of Niall", the ancestor noted being Niall of the Nine Hostages (Niall Noigíallach), an Connacht king active in the first half of the 5th century. His sons, grandsons and great-grandsons attacked the kingdoms of In Tuisceairt, Airgialla, Ulaid, Cenel Maine, Tethba, Mide and Leinster in the generations after his death, either ruling directly or via vassal kings. The dynasty subsequently divided into two main divisions: the Clann Cholman Kings of Mide, who later adopted the surname Ua Maél Séchlainn and ruled central Ireland; and the Uí Néill In Tuisceart (the Uí Néill of The North), who's senior line took the surname Ó Néill and ruled as Kings of Tir Eoghan till 1607. Coats of arms used by individuals bearing surnames of families of Uí Néill descent -(O'Cathain (now Keane), O'Maelsechlainn (now McLoughlin), Mac Loughlin (now McLaughlin), O'Catharnaigh of Donegal (now Kearney), O'Neill and O'Donnell, to name just a few - all feature the red hand in some manner, recalling their common descent.

Origin Legend

The story of the Red Hand of Ulster reputedly dates to the arrival of Heremon, Heber and Ir - sons of King Milesius of Spain (Galicia), who were dispatch to conquer Ireland in 504 BC. One of them supposedly cut off his hand and tossed it ashore, that he might be the one to have first claim to the land. There is another story about the hand belonging to one of two giants engaged in battle, whose hand was cut off in the process and left a red imprint on the rocks. Ultimately, the story derives from Celtic mythology, viz. the Silver Hand of Lir. However its actual original form was probably based on the division of the "Derbfhine", which came to place more importance on dynastic rather than "tuatha" affilliation as early as the 4th century, and was thus reflective of wider changes then current in Irish society (see Tanistry).

Present Forms and Uses

Tanistry.]] Irish nationalists in Ulster fly this flag on occasion, but not as often as the Tricolour. It is usually displayed alongside the flags of Leinster, Munster, Connacht, or as part of the combined flag of the Provinces of Ireland. The "Ulster Banner", the former flag of the Government of Northern Ireland, is based on this flag.

See also


- List of Irish flags Category:Ireland

1924

1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January


- January 7 - Great fire in London harbour
- January 8 - Heavy blizzards in England
- January 10 - British submarine L-34 sinks in the English Channel - 43 dead.
- January 12 - Gopinath Saha shoots a man he erroneously thinks is a Police commissioner of Calcutta, Charles Augustus Tegart - he is arrested soon after
- January 21 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
- January 22 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
- January 23 - Soviet Union officially declares that Lenin died January 21.
- January 25 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
- January 26 - Petrograd (St. Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad.
- January 27 - Lenin is buried in a mausoleum in the Red Square.

February


- February 1 - The United Kingdom recognizes Soviet Union.
- February 1 - Australian Loans Council meets for the first time
- February 4 - Mohandas Gandhi is released prematurely on medical grounds.
- February 5 - GMT: Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcasted for the first time.
- February 8 - Death penalty: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
- February 14 - IBM corporation founded.
- February 16-February 26 - Dock strike in US harbors.
- February 22 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.

March


- March 1 - Diana Vreeland, fashion editor and columnist, marries Thomas Reed Vreeland at St. Thomas's church in New York.
- March 3 - The 1400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of President Kemal Atatürk.
- March 9 - Italy annexes Fiume
- March 25 - Greece proclaims it is a republic.
- March 29 - Government of Raymond Poincaré starts in France.

April


- April 1 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch. However he was only in jail for nine months.
- April 1 - First revenue flight for Belgium's SABENA Airlines.
- April 6 - Fascists win elections in Italy with 2/3 majority.
- April 13 - Referendum in Greece favors the formation of Hellenic Republic.
- April 26 - Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his "death ray" in London but fails to convince British War Office
- April 27 - Group of Alawites kill some Christian nuns in Syria – French troops march against them.

May


- May 3 - The Aleph Zadik Aleph, the oldest Jewish youth fraternity, founded.
- May 4 - The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies held in Paris, France.
- May 10 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head the Bureau of Investigation.
- May 21 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a thrill killing.

June


- June 1 - Harry Grindell Matthews returns from Paris to London - he tries to use a Pathe film to demonstrate that his death ray works
- June 2 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
- June 5 - Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
- June 8 - George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 PM. The two mountaineers were never seen alive again.
- June 10 - Fascists kidnap and kill Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
- June 12 - the Roundout Heist - Six men of Egan's Rats gang rob a mail train in Roundout, Illinois. Robbery is later found to have been an inside job
- June 16 - Whampoa Military Academy is founded.
- June 23 - American airman Russell L. Maughan flew from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit plane.

August-October


- August 18 - France begins to withdraw its troops from Germany.
- September 9 - Hanapepe Massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii
- September 9 - 8-hour work day in Belgium
- October 2 - The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
- October 19 - Abdul Azis declares himself protector of holy places in Mecca.
- October 22 - Toastmasters is founded.
- October 24 - British Foreign Office publishes Zinoviev Letter.
- October 25 - British authorities in India arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next two and half years

November


- November 4 - Fermin Romo of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
- November 4 - Calvin Coolidge defeats John W. Davis in the U.S. presidential election
- November 19 - In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies, reportedly of a heart attack, in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst).
- November 27 - In the New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

December


- December 12 - Failed communist takeover attempt in Estonia
- December 24 - Air crash in Croydon air field - 8 dead.
- December 24 - Albania becomes a republic.
- December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.

Unknown date


- Andre Breton founds surrealism, defining it as "pure psychic automatism"
- Voting in federal elections becomes compulsory in Australia
- US bootleggers begin to use Thompson SMGs
- Fritz Haarmann sentenced to death for 27 murders

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Sabine Baring-Gould, English composer and novelist (b. 1834)
- January 3 - Hank Stram, American football coach and broadcaster
- January 6 - Earl Scruggs, American musician
- January 11 - Roger Guillemin, French neuroendocrinologist, recpient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- January 11 - Sam B. Hall, American politician (d. 1994)
- January 11 - Slim Harpo, American musician (d. 1970)
- January 12 - Olivier Gendebien, Belgian race car driver (d. 1998)
- January 16 - Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
- January 19 - Jean-Francois Revel, French author
- January 21 - Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
- January 26 - Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
- January 27 - Sabu, Indian actor (d. 1963)
- January 29 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
- January 30 - Lloyd Alexander, American writer
- February 2 - Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-born producer and musician
- February 17 - Margaret Truman, American novelist
- February 19 - Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
- February 20 - Gloria Vanderbilt, American cosmetics entrepreneur
- February 21 - Robert Mugabe, first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
- February 23 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
- February 29 - Al Rosen, baseball player

March-May


- March 1 - Deke Slayton, astronaut (d. 1993)
- March 7 - Kobo Abe, Japanese novelist (d. 1993)
- March 15 - Walter Gotell, German actor (d. 1997)
- March 27 - Sarah Vaughan, American jaz singer (d. 1990)
- March 28 - Freddie Bartholomew, British actor (d. 1992)
- March 30 - Alan Davidson, British author (d. 2003)
- April 1 - Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey
- April 3 - Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
- April 3 - Doris Day, American actress
- April 4 - Gil Hodges, American baseball player (d. 1972)
- April 7 - Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer
- April 15 - Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
- April 24 - Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician
- April 25 - Albert King, American musician (d. 1992)
- May 11 - Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- May 12 - Tony Hancock, English comedian (d. 1968)
- May 18 - Priscilla Pointer, American actress
- May 19 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
- May 22 - Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, and songwriter

June-August


- June 1 - Dr. William Sloane Coffin, American clergyman
- June 3 - Torsten Wiesel, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 12 - George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st United States President
- June 18 - George Mikan, basketball player (d. 2005)
- June 20 - Chet Atkins, American country guitar player (d. 2001)
- June 20 - Audie Murphy, American World War II hero and actor (d. 1971)
- June 27 - Bob Appleyard, English cricketer
- June 29 - Flo Sandon's, Italian singer
- June 29 - Ezra Laderman, American composer
- July 4 - Eva Marie Saint, American actress
- July 5 - Janos Starker, Hungarian cellist
- July 13 - Carlo Bergonzi, Italian tenor
- July 14 - James W. Black, Scottish pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- July 19 - Stanley K. Hathaway, American politician
- August 1 - Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 2 - John Carroll O'Connor, American actor (d. 2001)
- August 3 - Leon Uris, American writer (d. 2003)
- August 12 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer
- August 12 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- August 15 - Robert Bolt, English writer (d. 1995)
- August 23 - Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 28 - Peggy Ryan, American actress (d. 2004)
- August 29 - Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter (d. 2005)
- August 31 - Buddy Hackett, American comedian and actor (d. 2003)

September-October


- September 2 - Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya
- September 4 - Joan Aiken, English writer (d. 2004)
- September 8 - Mimi Parent, Canadian painter (d. 2005)
- September 9 - Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist (d. 2003)
- September 11 - Tom Landry, American football player and coach (d. 2000)
- September 19 - Don Harron, Canadian entertainer
- September 22 - Charles Keeping, English illustrator (d. 1988)
- September 22 - Rosamunde Pilcher, English novelist
- October 1 - Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 1 - William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 2005)
- October 10 - Ed Wood, American filmmaker (d. 1978)
- October 11 - Mal Whitfield, American athlete
- October 12 - Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995)
- October 15 - Mark Lenard, American actor (d. 1996)
- October 21 - Celia Cruz, Cuban singer (d. 2003)

November-December


- November 13 - Motoo Kimura, Japanese population geneticist (d. 1994)
- November 19 - William Russell, British actor
- November 20 - Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician
- November 24 - Mel Patton, American athlete
- November 25 - Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, critic, and philosopher.
- December 2 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American politician
- December 25 - Rod Serling, American television screenwriter (d. 1975)
- December 25 - Atal Behari Vajpayee, tenth Prime Minister of India
- December 25 - Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (d. 2003)
- December 28 - Milton Obote, President of Uganda (d. 2005)
- Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, King of Malaysia
- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

Deaths


- January 21 - Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR (b. 1870)
- January 24 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1894)
- February 3 -