54 Fun Facts About Northern Ireland

What is the capital city of Northern Ireland?

Belfast 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?

Six counties form Northern Ireland; the other three counties of the old province of Ulster went to the south at partition.

Which law created Northern Ireland in 1921?

The Government of Ireland Act, passed in 1920, set up one parliament for Northern Ireland and another for Southern Ireland.

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

1.9 million people were counted on census day, 21 March 2021, up from about 1.8 million in 2011.

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

About 40,000 columns, most of them hexagonal, formed when lava cooled and cracked some 50 to 60 million years ago.

In legend, an Irish giant built the Giant's Causeway so he could reach a rival giant in which country?

Scotland: legend says the giant built it across the North Channel to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner, and matching basalt columns rise at Fingal's Cave on Staffa.

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

Lough Neagh's bed is privately owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who said in 2023 that he was open to selling it.

What is the highest mountain in Northern Ireland?

Slieve Donard rises 850 metres, and the hand-built Mourne Wall, which encloses the Silent Valley Reservoir's catchment, runs up to a small stone tower on its summit.

Which mountain range in Northern Ireland has extensive gold deposits?

They are an extension of the Caledonian mountain belt.

What is Northern Ireland's only native reptile?

The viviparous lizard, Ireland's only native land reptile, is unusual among reptiles: it incubates its eggs inside its body and gives birth to live young.

Which warm ocean current helps give Northern Ireland milder winters than many places at the same latitude?

Heat carried by the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift keeps Ireland milder in winter than many places at the same latitude, such as Newfoundland.

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

Olympic, Titanic and Britannic: Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage, and Britannic, serving as a hospital ship, sank after hitting a German mine in 1916.

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

Samson and Goliath tower over the shipyard, and Samson, the younger crane from 1974, is actually taller than Goliath, at 106 metres against 96.

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

Its hull: the museum stands 38 metres (126 feet) high, the same height as the ship's hull, and its angular facade is mostly clad in 3,000 silver aluminium shards.

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

Linen made Belfast the centre of world linen production, and Queen Victoria granted it city status in 1888.

Which famous fantasy author was born in Ulster in 1898?

C. S. Lewis, an atheist from age 15, returned to Christianity in 1931 after a late-night walk along Oxford's Addison's Walk with his friends Tolkien and Hugo Dyson.

Why is Derry nicknamed the Maiden City?

Its walls were never breached, even when King James II's army besieged the city for 105 days in 1689 and failed to storm them.

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

Colmcille, better known as St Columba, later sailed from Ireland with twelve companions and founded the famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona.

Which 1607 event opened the way for the Plantation of Ulster?

The Flight of the Earls carried about 100 Gaelic nobles, relatives and followers from Rathmullan in County Donegal to the Continent.

Which US president was born to Scots-Irish Presbyterian parents who had emigrated from near Carrickfergus in County Antrim?

Andrew Jackson's parents left Ulster for the Carolinas in 1765, two years before he was born, and the Andrew Jackson Centre near Carrickfergus now tells their story.

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

The Orange Order was founded straight after the battle, when the victorious Peep o' Day Boys met at James Sloan's in Loughgall, County Armagh.

Which law, taking effect in 1801 after the 1798 rebellion, abolished the Parliament of Ireland?

The Acts of Union merged the Kingdom of Ireland with Great Britain, so Irish MPs sat instead in an enlarged Parliament at Westminster.

Why did most unionists want some Ulster counties kept out of Northern Ireland?

To secure a larger Protestant majority, unionists gave up Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, whose nationalist majorities would have left them a much narrower lead.

Which body did Irish nationalists hope would shrink Northern Ireland, only for it to propose minor changes in 1925?

The Irish Boundary Commission recommended only small transfers in both directions, so the three governments kept the existing border and suppressed its report.

Over 500 people died in the 1920-22 violence that accompanied partition; which community made up most of the refugees?

Catholics, the new state's minority, made up most of the refugees, as more than 10,000 people were driven from their homes.

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

The Ulster Unionists governed from 1921 until 1972, when Britain suspended the Northern Ireland Parliament and imposed direct rule.

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

Winston Churchill's government sent envoy Malcolm MacDonald to Dublin with the offer, but de Valera turned it down, and it stayed secret until 1970.

Which two premiers held secret talks in January 1965, easing North-South tensions in Ireland?

Terence O'Neill hosted Sean Lemass for the talks, and the following month O'Neill made the return visit to Dublin.

Which republican hunger striker was elected to the UK Parliament weeks before he died in prison in 1981?

Bobby Sands won Fermanagh and South Tyrone while on hunger strike, died after 66 days without food, and more than 100,000 people lined his funeral route.

Which foreign example did NICRA, Northern Ireland's 1960s protest group, model itself on?

The US civil rights movement's protest songs, such as We Shall Overcome, were sung at NICRA marches, and NICRA adopted that song's title as a slogan.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan shared the 1976 Nobel prize for founding which Northern Irish movement?

The Peace People started out as Women for Peace, and it took its new name once journalist Ciaran McKeown had joined the movement.

Which former US Senate Majority Leader chaired the talks that produced the 1998 Good Friday Agreement?

George Mitchell steered the all-party talks to a deal on Good Friday, 10 April 1998, and voters on both sides of the border approved it on 22 May.

In July 2005, which paramilitary group formally announced an end to its armed campaign?

Two church witnesses, Father Alec Reid and the Reverend Harold Good, confirmed that September that the Provisional IRA's arsenal had been decommissioned.

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

Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, once hardline enemies, established such a good working relationship that the media dubbed them the Chuckle Brothers.

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

Michelle O'Neill took office after the First Minister's post had sat vacant for two years while the DUP refused to return to power-sharing.

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

Association football split in 1921, when the Leinster FA broke from the Irish Football Association and founded the Football Association of Ireland in Dublin.

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

Londonderry Air, later set to the words of Danny Boy, is a tune collected by Jane Ross of Limavady in the mid-19th century.

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

Gerry Armstrong scored just after half-time in Valencia, and Northern Ireland held on to win 1-0 even after Mal Donaghy was sent off.

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

George Best was just 15 when scout Bob Bishop spotted him, and he made his Manchester United debut in September 1963.

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

Royal Portrush first hosted The Open in 1951, then waited 68 years to host again, when Shane Lowry won in 2019.

Which Northern Irish golfer won the 2010 US Open, the first European winner since 1970?

Graeme McDowell won at Pebble Beach, and within 13 months Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke had also won majors for Northern Ireland.

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

The Masters: McIlroy led going into the final round, shot 73 as Justin Rose caught him, then won on the first playoff hole.

Which Nobel Prize-winning poet grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland?

Seamus Heaney grew up at Mossbawn, his family's farm, and won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature for works that 'exalt everyday miracles and the living past'.

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

The Ulster Banner lost official status when Northern Ireland's government was abolished in 1973, yet it still represents Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games.

Northern Ireland's biggest loyalist parades, held each July, celebrate which battle of 1690?

At the Battle of the Boyne, William III defeated James II, and huge bonfires are lit on the Eleventh Night before the Twelfth parades.

Which road, famous for its republican murals, is divided from the loyalist Shankill Road by peace walls?

The nationalist Falls Road and unionist Shankill Road run side by side, and the peace walls between them still stand long after the Troubles ended.

Which Irish whiskey's labels show 1608, the year of a royal distilling licence rather than its founding?

Bushmills's 1608 marks a licence King James I granted to landowner Sir Thomas Phillips, while the distillery company itself dates from 1784.

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

In the Cattle Raid of Cooley, the young Cuchulainn defended Ulster single-handedly against the invading armies of Queen Medb of Connacht.

Which fruit's orchards earned County Armagh its nickname, the Orchard County?

Apples: County Armagh is famous for Bramley cooking apples, and Armagh Bramleys carry the EU's Protected Geographical Indication status.

Which gull-winged sports car was built at a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, in the early 1980s?

About 9,000 DeLorean DMC-12s were built before the company went bankrupt in 1982, and the car later found fame as the time machine in Back to the Future.

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

Hugh O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell won the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598, but defeat at Kinsale, despite Spanish reinforcements, doomed their rebellion.

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

The Society of United Irishmen first campaigned for parliamentary reform, then turned to revolution after the government moved to suppress it.

Which voting system is used to elect members of the Northern Ireland Assembly?

Single transferable vote elects five MLAs in each of 18 constituencies, while the same 18 areas each send one MP to Westminster by first past the post.

Which cross-border train service links Northern Ireland's capital with Dublin?

The Enterprise launched in 1947 as a non-stop express, made possible by moving customs checks to the stations at each end of the line.