Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1.810.863.

Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland's population were unionists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom. Most of these were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain. However, a significant minority, mostly Catholics, were nationalists who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule.

For most of the 20th century, when it came into existence, Northern Ireland was marked by discrimination and hostility between these two sides. In the late 1960s, conflict between state forces and chiefly Protestant unionists on the one hand, and chiefly Catholic nationalists on the other, erupted into three decades of violence known as the Troubles, which claimed over 3.500 lives and caused over 50.000 casualties. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including the decommissioning of weapons and security normalisation, although sectarianism and religious segregation still remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued.

Northern Ireland has historically been the most industrialised region of Ireland. In many sports, the island of Ireland fields a single team, a notable exception being association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games.

The Royal Mail issues country definitives (originally: regional definitives) for the four countries in the United Kingdom showing local motives. The first definitives for Northern Ireland were issued in 1958. The stamp for the international tariff was affixed by myself. For some reason the stamp has also been cancelled with pen strokes.

Inside the envelope the Belfast Post Office sent me back my letter and the envelope I used to send the request. On the back of the envelope there are two more datestamps of Belfast.

Website of Royal Mail, definitives page: shop.royalmail.com/definitives.

Date sent: 14 April 2017

Date postmark: 18 April 2017

Date received: 20 April 2017

Number of days: 6

Envelope in collection: 3