60 Fun Facts About Northern Ireland

What is the capital city of Northern Ireland?

It stands on the River Lagan and is the second-largest city on the island of Ireland after Dublin.

How many historic counties make up Northern Ireland?

Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone; the other three Ulster counties are in the Republic.

In which year was Northern Ireland created by the partition of Ireland?

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 came into force on 3 May that year.

What was Northern Ireland's population at the 2021 census?

That is about 3% of the UK's population and 27% of the island of Ireland's.

The Giant's Causeway consists of roughly how many interlocking basalt columns?

They formed from an ancient volcanic fissure eruption during the Paleogene period.

In which year was the Giant's Causeway declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

It lies in County Antrim about three miles from the town of Bushmills.

Which lake, the largest in the British Isles, sits at the centre of Northern Ireland?

It supplies about 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water and its bed is owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury.

What is the highest mountain in Northern Ireland?

It rises 850 metres in the granite Mourne Mountains.

Which mountain range in Northern Ireland has extensive gold deposits?

They are an extension of the Caledonian mountain belt.

As of 2020, about what percentage of Northern Ireland was woodland, among Europe's lowest?

Most of it is non-native conifer plantation.

What is Northern Ireland's only native reptile?

It is widely distributed in heaths, bogs and sand dunes.

What was the highest temperature ever recorded in Northern Ireland, at Armagh Observatory in July 2021?

Belfast's average daytime maximum is only 17.5 C in July.

The Harland & Wolff shipyard is famous for building which trio of White Star liners?

A visitor centre opened in 2012 on the site where the ships were built.

What are the two giant yellow Krupp cranes at the Harland & Wolff shipyard nicknamed?

They serviced a graving dock built for post-war ships of up to 333,000 tonnes.

The 2012 Titanic Quarter visitor centre is exactly as tall as which feature of the ship?

It stands 126 feet (38 m) high on the former Harland & Wolff site.

When Belfast gained city status in 1888, it was the world's biggest centre for manufacturing what?

By the 1900s its shipyards were building up to a quarter of all UK tonnage.

What is Northern Ireland's second-largest city?

Its old walled city sits on the west bank of the River Foyle.

Why is Derry nicknamed the Maiden City?

It survived three 17th-century sieges, most famously the Siege of Derry of 1688-89.

Which holy man from Donegal is traditionally regarded as the founder of Derry?

He came from Tir Chonaill, the old name for most of modern County Donegal.

What 1607 event saw Ulster's Gaelic nobles flee to Europe, opening the way for the Plantation of Ulster?

Their lands were confiscated and settled by English-speaking Protestants from Britain.

Roughly how many Ulster Presbyterians emigrated to the American colonies between 1717 and 1775?

Their descendants are known as Scotch-Irish Americans.

The 1795 Battle of the Diamond led to the founding of which Protestant fraternity?

It grew out of clashes between the Peep o' Day Boys and the Catholic Defenders in Armagh.

Which 1801 act merged the Kingdom of Ireland with Great Britain in response to the 1798 rebellion?

The United Irishmen who led the rising were a cross-community republican group founded by Belfast Presbyterians.

Why did most unionists want the new Northern Ireland reduced from nine counties to six?

The Long Committee had originally planned a government for all nine Ulster counties.

Roughly what were the religious proportions of Northern Ireland's population when it was created?

The border was drawn deliberately to give a decisive Protestant majority.

How many people were killed in the Troubles in Ulster of 1920-22 that accompanied partition?

More than 10,000 people, mostly Catholics, became refugees.

Which political grouping governed Northern Ireland without interruption for its first fifty years?

Every prime minister of those governments was a member of the Orange Order.

Which British PM secretly offered in June 1940 to encourage Irish unity if Ireland joined the Allies?

De Valera declined, and his rejection was not made public until 1970.

Which two leaders held the first meeting between Northern Ireland's and the Republic's heads of government, in 1965?

The IRA's Border Campaign of 1956-62 had failed shortly before.

How many people were killed during the roughly thirty years of the Troubles?

There were over 36,900 shooting incidents and 16,200 bombings between 1969 and 2003.

NICRA, which campaigned against discrimination from 1967, modelled itself on which foreign example?

Many unionists saw NICRA as an Irish republican front.

How many unarmed men were shot dead by the British Army in Derry on Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972?

A fourteenth man died of his injuries months later, and fifteen others were wounded.

In the 1973 border poll, what percentage of votes cast favoured Northern Ireland staying in the UK?

Only about 1% of Catholics voted after a nationalist boycott.

Which Northern Irish movement against paramilitary violence won the 1976 Nobel prize?

They organised large demonstrations calling for an end to paramilitary violence.

On what date was the Good Friday Agreement signed?

It restored self-government on the basis of power sharing and was ratified by referendums on both sides of the border.

On which date in 2005 did the Provisional IRA declare an end to its armed campaign?

Its arsenal was decommissioned under the watch of an international commission and two church witnesses.

Which two men became First Minister and deputy when devolution returned in May 2007?

The former hardline enemies became known as the Chuckle Brothers.

Who became the first Irish nationalist to serve as First Minister of Northern Ireland, in February 2024?

Sinn Fein had become the largest party in the Assembly at the 2022 election with 27 seats.

Which sport is the notable exception to Northern Ireland's usual all-Ireland governing bodies and teams?

Rugby, cricket and golf are all organised on an all-island basis.

Which unofficial anthem does the Northern Ireland team use at the Commonwealth Games?

The football team, by contrast, uses God Save the King.

Whose goal beat hosts Spain 1-0 at the 1982 World Cup, one of Northern Ireland's greatest results?

Northern Ireland topped their first-stage group despite having Mal Donaghy sent off.

Which Northern Irish Manchester United winger was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968?

The scout who found him at 15 telegrammed Matt Busby: I think I've found you a genius.

Which Northern Irish course is the only one outside Great Britain to have hosted The Open?

Royal County Down is Golf Digest's top-rated course outside the United States.

Which Northern Irish golfer won the 2010 U.S. Open, the first European to do so since 1970?

Northern Ireland then had three major champions in the space of 14 months.

Rory McIlroy completed the career grand slam by winning which tournament in 2025?

He was born in Holywood, County Down, and added a second consecutive Masters in 2026.

In which year did the Irish language become an official language of Northern Ireland?

The Act repealed 1737 legislation that had banned Irish in the courts.

The former Northern Ireland flag with a red hand and crown, used by unionists, is known as what?

It has had no official status since 1972.

On which date are the biggest loyalist parades of the marching season held each summer?

The Eleventh Night before it sees towering bonfires lit in loyalist areas.

Approximately how many political murals have been documented in Northern Ireland since the 1970s?

Even kerbstones are painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange in some areas.

What date on Bushmills whiskey labels refers to a royal distilling licence rather than the distillery's founding?

The distillery company itself was formed in 1784 and rebuilt after a fire in 1885.

Which Ulster Cycle hero is Conchobar mac Nessa's nephew and star of the Cattle Raid of Cooley?

Conchobar ruled from Emain Macha, now Navan Fort near Armagh.

Northern Ireland's farms feed roughly how many people, several times its own population?

Cattle and sheep dominate; 79 per cent of farms have some cattle.

Northern Ireland's capital, the UK's second-largest tech hub outside London, has what share of its jobs in tech?

Fujitsu, SAP, IBM and Microsoft all have a presence in the city.

Which two Gaelic chieftains led the alliance against English rule in the Nine Years' War?

Despite early successes and Spanish support they were defeated, and the nobles' confiscated lands were planted with Protestant settlers.

Which cross-community republican group, founded by Belfast Presbyterians, led the 1798 rebellion?

Its suppression prompted the Acts of Union that created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.

How many MLAs are elected from each of Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies?

Assembly elections use the single transferable vote; the same 18 constituencies each send one MP to Westminster by first past the post.

What is the rail gauge used across the whole island of Ireland, unique in Europe?

The broad gauge has forced distinct rolling-stock designs; the only preserved line of it is the Downpatrick and County Down Railway.

Which route is the UK's busiest single-track railway, praised by Michael Palin?

It carries about 3 million passengers a year; Palin called it 'one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world'.

What is the surface area of Lough Neagh?

The last ice age also left extensive drumlin fields, especially in County Down.

Roughly how many visitors did Northern Ireland welcome in 2019?

They spent over £1 billion, and 167 cruise ships docked at its ports that year.