It was merged into County Antrimin 1777. 3. After the 1567 death and 1570 attainder of Shane O'Neill, much of Clandeboy was added to the surviving English enclaves to form the new counties of Antrim and Down, preparing for an abortive private English plantation. They formed local majorities of the population in the Finn and Foyle valleys (around modern County Londonderry and east Donegal), in north Armagh and in east Tyrone. Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, lying in the northeastern quadrant of the island of Ireland, on the western continental periphery often characterized as Atlantic Europe. County Town:Antrim First Created: Early 14thCentury Population:618,108 County Antrim covers an area of 3,046 km. Severe rioting lasted for two months and seemed to centre on the tricky question of why Northern Ireland, composed of six north-eastern counties in Ireland, is part of the United Kingdom. In 1607, the chieftains left Ireland to seek Spanish help for a new rebellion, in the Flight of the Earls. The counties were also used as the administrative unit of local government introduced in Ireland under the 1898 Local Government Act along with county boroughs. 1. Most of the land colonised was forfeited 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 settlement was to be completed within three years. The official language is English. The settlers were also required to maintain arms and attend an annual military 'muster'.[45]. Northern Ireland is divided into six counties, namely: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry[n 1] and Tyrone. 1613 – Ulster after the creation of County Londonderry, from the merger of County Coleraine, the North West Liberties of Londonderry (1), Loughinsholin (2), and North East Liberties of Coleraine (3). The Tudor conquest of Ireland began in the 1540s, during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and lasted for the next sixty years, only being completed after sustained warfare in the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), which broke the power of the semi-independent Irish chieftains. Each county is divided into a number of baronies, midway between a county and a parish. Log in. However, ministers chosen to serve in the plantation were required to take a course in the Irish language before ordination, and nearly 10% of those who took up their preferments spoke it fluently. According to the Lord Deputy Chichester, the plantation would 'separate the Irish by themselves...[so they would], in heart in tongue and every way else become English', Padraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest, Ireland, 1603–1727, p43, NIcholas Canny, Making Ireland British 189–200, Padraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest, Ireland 1603–1727, p48, All previous figures from Canny, Making Ireland British, p 211, Gillespie, Raymond. Highland Gaelic Scottish mercenaries known as gallowglass (gallóglaigh) had been doing so since the 15th century and Presbyterian lowland Scots had been arriving since around 1600. [16] The region was almost wholly rural and had few towns or villages. Secondly, the six counties in Northern Ireland had a protestant majority and did not wish to join the largely Catholic Republic. [21] The wars fought among Gaelic clans and between the Gaelic and English undoubtedly contributed to depopulation.[22]. With the murder of the last de Burgh earl in 1333, the resulting Gaelic recovery expanded Clandeboy and eroded the earldom's territory until by the 15th century only the areas of Carrickfergus and coastal enclaves in Down remained.[6]. They are County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry and County Tyrone. Counties in Ireland … Livery companies from the City of London were coerced into investing in the project, as were City of London guilds which were granted land on the west bank of the River Foyle, to build their own city on the site of Derry (renamed Londonderry after them) as well as lands in County Coleraine. [51] Of those Catholics who did convert to Protestantism, many made their choice for social and political reasons. The British forces fought an inconclusive war with the Ulster Irish led by Owen Roe O'Neill. [4] They saw the plantation as a means of controlling, anglicising[5] and "civilising" Ulster. [56] Historian Gerard Farrell writes that the plantation stoked a "smoldering resentment" among the Irish, who believed they had been "unfairly dispossessed of their lands by force and legal chicanery". The strong Ulster Scots accent originated through the speech of lowland Scots settlers evolving and being influenced by both Hiberno-English and Irish Gaelic. Many British Protestant settlers went to Virginia or New England in America rather than to Ulster. Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties of Ireland, and remains part of the United Kingdom following the independence of the other twenty-six counties as the Irish Free State in 1922. It has 32 counties and four provinces. O Siochru, Micheal, God's Executioner, Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland, Faber & Faber, London 2008. Most of this land was deemed to be forfeited (or escheated) to the Crown because the chieftains were declared to be attainted. [61] The initial leader of the rebellion, Felim O'Neill, had actually been a beneficiary of the Plantation land grants. This was a failure and sparked conflict with the Irish, in which the English massacred the O'Neills of Clannaboy and massacred the MacDonnells of Antrim. By the 1630s, there were 20,000 adult male British settlers in Ulster, which meant that the total settler population could have been as high as 80,000. Republicans, particularly supporters of the Provisional IRA referred to the conflict as ‘the war’, and portrayed it as a guerrilla war of … The administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished as local government areas in Northern Ireland in 1972 and replaced with twenty-six unitary councils, many of which cross county boundaries. Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The second major influence on the Plantation was the negotiation among various interest groups on the British side. [1] Each county would have an associated county town, with county courts of quarter sessions and assizes. Bartlett writes that a hatred for the planters grew with the influx of settlers from the 1620s, and the increasing marginalization of the Irish. [27] John Davies, the Attorney-General for Ireland, used the law as a tool of conquest and colonization. [77], 17th century colonisation of northern Ireland, Continued migration from Scotland to Ulster. Northern Ireland was retained as part of the UK, and the rest of Ireland, became an independent state, and was known as the Irish Free State in 1922, and after 1949, the Republic of Ireland. [53] Irish Gaelic writers bewailed the plantation. [40] The main reason for this was that Undertakers could not import enough English or Scottish tenants to fill their agricultural workforce and had to fall back on Irish tenants. Sir, - Ireland is an island surrounded by water. The six administrative counties and two county boroughs remain in use for some purposes, including car number plates. [19], Michael Perceval-Maxwell estimates that by 1600 (before the worst atrocities of the Nine Years' War) Ulster's total adult population was only 25,000 to 40,000 people. In the 1630s, Presbyterians in Scotland staged a rebellion against Charles I for trying to impose Anglicanism. Lenihan, Padraig, Consolidating Conquest, Ireland 1603–1727, Pearson, Essex 2008. [58] However, in the 1640s, the Ulster Plantation was thrown into turmoil by civil wars that raged in Ireland, England and Scotland. In regards to Northern Ireland the cities of Belfast and Londonderry became county boroughs. The Titanic was made in Harlan… 211,826 = 210,782 county plus 1,044 county borough. Most of the Scottish planters came from southwest Scotland, but many also came from the unstable regions along the border with England. [20] Others estimate that Ulster's population in the year 1600 was about 200,000. During the 18th century, rising Scots resentment over religious, political and economic issues fueled their emigration to the American colonies, beginning in 1717 and continuing up to the 1770s. Northern Ireland is sometimes referred to as Ulster, although it includes only six of the nine counties which made up that historic Irish province. Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, (although it is also described by official sources as a province or a region), situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland.It was created as a separate legal entity on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. In revenge for the massacres of Scottish colonists, the army committed many atrocities against the Catholic population. These six counties are those that chose to become separate, independent entities after opting out of the Irish Free State in 1922. The plan was that moving Borderers (see Border Reivers) to Ireland (particularly to County Fermanagh)[citation needed] would both solve the Border problem and tie down Ulster. [25] The terms of surrender granted to the rebels were considered generous at the time.[26]. The total number of counties in the island of Ireland is 32, with Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland often respectively called "the Six Counties" and "the Twenty-Six Counties", especially by Irish nationalists opposed to the partition of Ireland. This set up a semiautonomous parliament in Belfast and a Crown-appointed governor advised by a cabinet of the prime minister and 8 ministers, as well as a 12-member representation in the House of Commons in London. In the midst of this, Gaelic Irish landowners in Ulster, led by Felim O'Neill and Rory O'More, planned a rebellion to take over the administration in Ireland. Northern Ireland, is of fairly recent origin, coming out of the partition of the island of Irelandin 1921. The Scottish Presbyterian army sided with the King and the Laggan Army sided with the English Parliament. [28] Davies used this as a means to confiscate land, when other means failed. However another 4,000 Scottish adult males had settled in unplanted Antrim and Down, giving a total settler population of about 19,000. A colonization of Ulster had been proposed since the end of the Nine Years' War. Moreover, the planters were barred from selling their lands to any Irishman and were required to build defences against any possible rebellion or invasion. What are now the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were formed in 1922. Stewart states that "The fear which it inspired survives in the Protestant subconscious as the memory of the Penal Laws or the Famine persists in the Catholic. [5] This process lasted a period from the 13th to 17th centuries; however, the number and shape of the counties that would form the future Northern Ireland would not be defined until the Flight of the Earls allowed the shiring of Ulster from 1604. In the northwest of Ulster, the colonists around Derry and east Donegal organised the Laggan Army in self-defence. [2] In 1607 Sir Randall MacDonnell settled 300 Presbyterian Scots families on his land in Antrim. [50][page needed] Nevertheless, conversion was rare, despite the fact that, after 1621, Gaelic Irish natives could be officially classed as British if they converted to Protestantism. Northern Ireland is divided into six former local government divisions called counties, namely: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. [38], Despite the fact that the Plantation had decreed that the Irish population be displaced, this did not generally happen in practice. [29], The Plantation of Ulster was presented to James VI & I as a joint "British", or English and Scottish, venture to 'pacify' and 'civilise' Ulster, with at least half the settlers to be Scottish. Six largely rural administrative counties based on these were among the eight primary local government areas of Northern Ireland from its 1921 creation until 1973. The rebellion prompted Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, to plan a much bigger plantation and to expropriate the legal titles of all native landowners in the province. Some of the undertakers and settlers however were Catholic and it has been suggested that a significant number of the Scots could speak Gaelic. Many of the Gaelic Irish practiced "creaghting" or "booleying", a kind of transhumance whereby some of them moved with their cattle to upland pastures during the summer months and lived in temporary dwellings during that time. In 1584, Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir John Perrott created six counties in Ulster, based largely on the boundaries of existing lordships; four of the six are now Northern Ireland: Armagh, Coleraine, Fermanagh, and Tyrone. There had been very few towns in Ulster before the Plantation. This argument therefore sees the Plantation as one of the long-term causes of the Partition of Ireland in 1921, as the north-east remained as part of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland. Interesting facts: 1. This name had the advantage that it did not attach blame to any of the participants and thus could be used neutrally. The County of the town of Carrickfergus remained separate from County Antrim until the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which also promoted the boroughs of Belfast and Derry to county boroughs separate from the adjoining administrative counties. [57], By the 1630s it is suggested that the plantation was settling down with "tacit religious tolerance", and in every county Old Irish were serving as royal officials and members of the Irish Parliament. By the time the process of turning local Irish kingdoms into baronies occurred throughout the whole of Ulster by the early 17th century as part of the Plantation of Ulster, it was already being used for taxation and administrative purposes. Another wave of Scottish immigration to Ulster took place in the 1690s, when tens of thousands of Scots fled a famine (1696–1698) in the border region of Scotland. Later 15th century – Boundaries of counties and lordships (black border) and minor lordships (grey border) in Ulster. The Grand Jury representment system would also be based on the barony.[5]. Six counties were involved in the official plantation – Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan and Armagh. Six largely rural administrative counties based on these were among the eight primary local government areas of Northern Ireland from its 1921 creation until 1973. They settled first mostly in Pennsylvania and western Virginia, from where they moved southwest into the backcountry of upland territories in the South, the Ozarks and the Appalachian Mountains.[70]. Cullen, Karen, Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s. Nearly everyone in Northern Ireland speaks English. [32], What was more, the new landowners were explicitly banned from taking Irish tenants and had to import workers from England and Scotland. "Gaelic Catholicism and the Plantation of Ulster", in, Brian MacCuarta,Age of Atrocity p155, Canny p177, Micheal O Siochru, God's Executioner, Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland, pp99, 128, 144, Karen Cullen, Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s, p176-179. [34], Scottish settlers had been migrating to Ulster for many centuries. One problem was language difference. [76] Seventeenth century English settlers also contributed colloquial words that are still in current use in Ulster. The other regional language is Ulster Scots, a variation of English which is spoken in Northern Ireland and is similar to Scots spoken in Scotland. In the early years following partition, the 26 counties were referred to as the Irish Free State. ", adding "We have in their stead an arrogant, impure crowd, of foreigners' blood". [17] Throughout the 16th century, Ulster was viewed by the English as being "underpopulated" and undeveloped. James had been King of Scotland before he also became King of England and needed to reward his subjects in Scotland with land in Ulster to assure them they were not being neglected now that he had moved his court to London. [30], Six counties were involved in the official plantation – Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan and Armagh. [6] The Bruce invasion (1315–18) saw the devastation of the Earldom of Ulster and its overlordship over the neighbouring Gaelic districts. [66], As a result, the English Parliamentarians (or Cromwellians) were generally hostile to Scottish Presbyterians after they re-conquered Ireland from the Catholic Confederates in 1649–53. [65], In addition to fighting the Ulster Irish, the British settlers fought each other in 1648–49 over the issues of the English Civil War. In 1609, Chichester had 1,300 former Gaelic soldiers deported from Ulster to serve in the Swedish Army. [3] Land in counties Antrim, Down and Monaghan was privately colonised with the king's support. [68] There was continuing English migration throughout this period, particularly the 1650s and 1680s, notably amongst these settlers were the Quakers from the North of England, who contributed greatly to the cultivation of flax and linen. 2. The London guilds planning to fund the Plantation of Ulster switched and backed the London Virginia Company instead. All sides committed atrocities against civilians in this war, exacerbating the population displacement begun by the Plantation. Their descendants prospered, and their refusal to join the rest of Ireland in accepting Home Rule led to the establishment of the state of Northern Ireland in 1921, consisting of the six Ulster counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh (replaced in the early 1970s by 26 local districts). The six counties date from the Kingdom of Ireland; five were created between 1570 and 1591 in the Tudor conquest of Ireland, while county Londonderry dates from 1613 and the Plantation of Ulster. For example, it is often stated that, civil wars that raged in Ireland, England and Scotland, MONEA CASTLE and DERRYGONNELLY CHURCH (Ulster-Scots translation), BBC History – The Plantation of Ulster – Religion, The Plantation of Ulster: Reaction of the natives, The Plantation of Ulster - A Poem on the Downfall of the Gaoidhil, Ulster since 1600: Politics, Economy, and Society, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, "Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, signed at London, 6 December 1921", Interview with Dr. John McCavitt, "Ulster Plantation", !Interview with Dr. John McCavitt, "Ulster Plantation", Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish language. Canny, Nicholas, Making Ireland British 1580–1650, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. [42], However, the Plantation remained threatened by the attacks of bandits, known as "wood-kern", who were often Irish soldiers or dispossessed landowners. 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