succeeded in coercing Irish delegates into accepting the Partition of Ireland and establishment of a Free State.

Of the nine counties of Ulster, Unionists had a clear majority in four counties. In spite of the ethical questions over democracy, Britain enforced Partition by taking two counties with Republican majorities and putting them with the four Unionist counties. The area was given a local parliament within the United Kingdom structure. To ensure a permanent Unionist rule, the state was set up on sectarian lines and the Unionist/Protestant majority was reinforced by the disenfranchisement of groups of Nationalists/Catholics. A blind eye was turned by the British government to continued state-endorsed civil rights violations. Born out of bloodshed and violence, the statelet was never at peace, and violence was endemic every decade until the advent of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s. Protest marches demanding “one man, one vote” were met by a sectarian Unionist/Protestant backlash.

British troops were once more sent into Northern Ireland to “keep the peace” but could not save the Unionist government, and the Stormont Parliament was abolished in 1972. But this did not stop the long campaign to reunify the country, which continues today. The reunification of Ireland is a cherished aspiration for the majority of Irish people.

The Irish Free State became the Irish Republic on April 18, 1949.

Irgalach

[I] Son of Lách. He commanded “three fifties” of elderly veteran warriors of Ulster. They volunteered to accompany Conchobhar Mac Nessa in the war against Ailill and Medb in order to give advice to the younger warriors.

Irish

The language of Ireland. It is now the first official language of the Irish Republic, spoken, at the last census of 1981, by 31.6 percent (1,018,312) of the population. It is estimated that there are a further 60,000 speakers in the Partitioned northeast of the country and maybe as many as a further 500,000 in other parts of the world. While it is an official language of the European Economic Community, it is not one of the seven working languages. It has no official standing, and is openly discouraged, in the Partitioned northeast, which remains part of the United Kingdom. There have been no census figures for the language taken there since Partition, although the British government, bowing to pressure from Europe