Area: 14,120 sq km

Population

Population (1993): 1,631,800.

  Northern Ireland is the second most sparsely populated part of the UK after Scotland, with 317 people per square mile (122 per square kilometre).

Ulster's population is much younger than the national average, with particularly large differences in the 5-15, 45-65 and over-80 age ranges. There are no significant ethnic minorities (e.g, black, Asian or Chinese).

Education

Participation in further and higher education is high - 79% of youngsters continue their schooling past the age of 16 - and examination attainment levels are good.

Around 30% of Northern Ireland's pupils who stayed on at school after the age of 16 gained two or more A levels, the highest level in the UK.

Education historically tends to have been split on a sectarian basis but there are increasing attempts to integrate schools.

Economy

Due to Ulster's historic problems, investment levels have been poor. This has led to the highest levels of unemployment in the UK and the lowest figures for gross domestic product figure in the UK (81.6 compared with a UK average of 100).

Northern Ireland has a very different class distribution to the UK, with a larger number in unskilled and skilled manual occupations.

Since the beginning of 1997 however, millions of pounds have been invested in Northern Ireland's economy by companies convinced the peace process will work.

Outside Belfast and Londonderry, Ulster is predominantly rural and has a strong agricultural economy with dairy products and beef both important.

Belfast and Dublin are connected by a good rail line and trains also connect Ulster's capital with Londonderry and the ferry port of Larne, which links with Stranraer in Scotland.

The main M1 motorway runs west from Belfast as far as Dungannon and there are dual carriageway trunk roads to Londonderry and the Irish border.

The two communities

Protestants outnumber Catholics although there has been significant inter-marriage.

In the 1991 census, 38.4% of the population regarded themselves as Catholic, 50.6% as Protestant while 3.8% professed no religion and 7.3% refused to say.

Catholics are in the majority in some parts of Ulster - Derry city, County Fermanagh, County Armagh and parts of Belfast - while making up less than 10% of the population in other areas: Larne and the County Antrim coast, Bangor and North Down, east Belfast.

Protestants are overwhelmingly Presbyterian and have religious, cultural and familial links with Scotland.

An important part of the Unionist community's culture are the Orange Lodges - being a meeting place for ordinary Protestant men. The nationalist community is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. In recent years there has been an increase in tit-for-tat church and lodge burnings.

Founded in 1970, the Alliance Party is non-sectarian and broadly liberal. It wants a strong Northern Ireland Assembly with a high degree of devolved powers on the lines of the Scottish Parliament.

It has no MPs but six members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and is led by Sean Neeson.

Ian Paisley: Ulster's No man

Ian Paisley: 'Ulster is British'

By BBC News Online's Gary Duffy

For more than three decades, Rev Ian Paisley has been a towering figure on Northern Ireland's political stage.

He first attracted major public attention in 1963 when he organised a protest march against the decision to lower the union flag at Belfast City Hall to mark the death of Pope John.

Stormont: Paisley opposed power sharing executive in 1974.

Fierce opposition to the Catholic Church combined with a determination to resist the cause of Irish nationalism have always been the cornerstone of Mr Paisley's beliefs.

With his large stature and booming preacher's voice, the Democratic Unionist leader is undoubtedly the most easily recognisable figure among Northern Ireland's politicians. He was elected an MP in 1970, and an MEP in 1979.

His opponents have always had to endure angry public denunciations and accusations of betrayal. In the 1960s, the moderate Prime Minister Terence O'Neil was berated as a traitor to the unionist cause.

His critics claimed Mr Paisley's words inflamed sectarian passions and may have encouraged some people to turn to violence.

The DUP leader insisted he could not be held responsible for the actions of others, even if they may at one time have been his followers.

Resisted Dublin influence

  In later years, when direct rule was imposed from London, successive secretaries of state for Northern Ireland had to endure his wrath.

Mr Paisley resisted any agreement which he believed would extend the influence of the Irish Republic into the affairs of Northern Ireland.

He opposed the Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 and was deeply involved in the Ulster Workers' Strike which brought down the power-sharing administration in 1974.

He also resisted the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 and the agreement reached at Stormont on Good Friday in 1998.

He remained fiercely opposed to any attempt to let Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, take up ministerial posts, or to set up cross-border bodies between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Now in his 70s, Mr Paisley remains an energetic campaigner for the unionist cause, who has a loyal and devoted following.

Paisley: relentless campaigner

But his relentless opposition to most of the significant attempts to reach a settlement in Northern Ireland over the past 30 years has won him many enemies as well.

In 1999, he caused outrage by using parliamentary privilege to name people he alleged were behind a massacre in Northern Ireland 23 years earlier.

While his party opposed the Good Friday Agreement, they entered the new Northern Ireland Assembly, where they denounced the policies of the Ulster Unionist First Minister David Trimble.

Three decades on, Mr Paisley's determination to resist any compromise which might in his view weaken Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom remained absolute.

Peter Robinson, DUP

Democratic Unionist Party

The DUP was founded in 1971 by the Rev Ian Paisley and William Boal, an MP who defected from the Official Unionists in protest at the policies of the then Prime Minister Terence O'Neill.

Mr Paisley had previously been leader of the Protestant Unionist Party.

It currently has two MPs - party leader Mr Paisley and Peter Robinson after gaining 14% of the province's vote at the 1997 general election. Another prominent member of the party is Ian Paisley Jr.

The DUP won 20 seats in the first elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The DUP is more vociferous than the UUP in its defence of the union and regards any concessions to nationalists or the Republic as treachery. It is also strongly anti-Catholic in the religious sense, with Mr Paisley denouncing the Pope regularly.

It is opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.

Northern Ireland Women's Coalition

A non-sectarian party dedicated to a stable settlement and to promoting the role of women in Northern Ireland. It has no MPs but won two seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Progressive Unionist Party

The PUP is linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force, a banned paramilitary group.

As well as wanting the early release of UVF prisoners, the PUP dislikes what it sees as too many concessions to republicans during the peace process. However, it supports the Good Friday agreement.

Its leader is David Ervine. It has two representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly, but no MPs.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein is a republican party devoted to establishing a united Ireland. It therefore advocates strong cross-border bodies and the maintenance of the Republic's territorial claim to Northern Ireland, though backs the Good Friday deal.

The current form of the party dates back to 1970 when Provisional Sinn Fein split off from Official Sinn Fein, which became the Workers' Party. This split mirrored the split in the IRA into Official and Provisional wings.

Unionists say that Sinn Fein and the IRA are strongly linked, but the party denies this and was angry when suspended from the peace talks in February after the IRA was blamed for two murders by the RUC.

Its two MPs are party president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. At the 1997 general election, it won 16% of the vote.

Sinn Fein won 18 seats at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Gerry Adams: Between war and peace

Gerry Adams: key figure in the republican movement

By BBC News Online's Gary Duffy

Few politicians in recent Irish history have divided opinion as much as Gerry Adams.

  To his followers, he is regarded as one of the best leaders the republican movement has ever had.

To his unionist critics, he is nothing more than an apologist for IRA gunmen.

A former barman, the Sinn Fein president comes from a strongly republican family.

Martin McGuinness: Close ally of Gerry Adams

In security circles, it is believed he has held senior positions in all branches of the republican movement, including the IRA - but he has never been convicted of membership of that organisation.

Interned by the British government in 1971, he was considered important enough within the republican leadership to be released in July 1972, to take part in secret talks in London with Willie Whitelaw.

In 1984, he was shot and wounded when loyalist gunmen opened fire on his car in Belfast city centre.

Mr Adams has been the key figure in developing the political strategy of the republican movement along with his close colleague Martin McGuinness.

Hunger strike

In 1979, he said that the aims of republicans could not be achieved simply by military means.

Following the 1981 hunger strike in which 10 republicans died, Sinn Fein's base was given renewed strength, and from this point on the republican movement came to place increasing emphasis on its political strategy.

Mr Adams was elected party president in 1983 and under his leadership the party took the historic step of abandoning its policy of abstention from the Irish Parliament.

He was also elected MP for west Belfast in 1983, losing the seat to Joe Hendron of the SDLP in 1992, then regaining it in 1997. He has never taken his place at Westminster.

Mr Adams began a series of contacts with the SDLP leader John Hume, which were eventually to form a central part of what became known as the peace process.

At the same time the UK and Irish governments continued intensive negotiations, which led to the Downing Street declaration in 1993.

Docklands bomb, 1996: Death, destruction and an end to the first IRA ceasefire.

The first IRA ceasefire came the following year.

When this collapsed in February 1996, with a huge bomb attack in London, it raised more questions than answers about the depth of the Sinn Fein president's knowledge of IRA intentions - and his ability to influence the military wing of republicanism.

With the ceasefire restored, Mr Adams eventually led his party into the multi-party talks at Stormont which concluded with the Good Friday Agreement.

He has persuaded his supporters to contemplate steps many people had thought impossible, including taking their places in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, which was set up under the agreement.

The astonishing rate of change in Northern Ireland's political climate also made possible a meeting with the Ulster Unionist Party and its leader David Trimble.

In the run-up to the deadline for the formation of a new executive or cabinet for the Assembly in March 1999, he insisted that the IRA could not be persuaded at this point to give up its arms.

He told the BBC if he tried to do so he would be "laughed out of the room".

Despite substantial unease within the republican movement about the direction of his strategy, Mr Adams remains a pivotal figure in the peace process.

Social Democratic and Labour Party

John Hume, SDLP

The SDLP is the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. It won 24% of the vote at the 1997 general election and has three MPs, including party leader John Hume.

Mr Hume was instrumental in getting the peace process under way by holding talks with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and with the British government.

The SDLP won 24 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, making it the second-largest party. Mr Hume declined to become Deputy First Minister, allowing his own number two, Seamus Mallon, to take up that post.

The party is left of centre and favours strong cross-border bodies. It supports the Good Friday deal.

Ulster Democratic Party

The UDP has strong links with the banned loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters. One of its central policies is the release of UFF prisoners.

The UDP left the peace talks in January 1998 after the UFF admitted taking part in the killing of three Catholics. If it had not left, it would have been suspended as parties are not allowed in the talks if groups to which they are linked take part in violence. The UDP was re-admitted in February and signed up to the deal.

The UDP leader is Gary McMichael. It has no MPs and to the surprise of many failed to win any Northern Ireland Assembly seats.

Ulster Unionist Party

The UUP is the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland with 10 MPs. Its leader is David Trimble, who took over from James Molyneaux in 1995. At the 1997 general election, it won 33% of the popular vote.

It took 28 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, making Mr Trimble the First Minister.

The UUP was formerly the Official Unionist Party, and as such it formed the government of Northern Ireland from 1921 until 1972, when direct rule from London was imposed.

The central plank of UUP policy is maintaining the link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. It is willing to tolerate North-South bodies as long as they have no executive powers.

Mr Trimble was instrumental in signing the Good Friday deal, but many members of his party including some MPs remain opposed.

United Kingdom Unionist Party

The UKUP was set up in 1995 by its sole MP, Bob McCartney, a former member of the UUP.

And although the party won five seats in the Assembly, one held by Mr McCartney, his four colleagues have left to set up a new party which they hope to call the Northern Ireland Unionist Party.

The breakaway group has promised to remain hostile to the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr McCartney supports the link with the UK and opposes any moves to involve the Irish Republic in Northern Ireland's affairs. His central premise is that Northern Ireland should become more British and remain part of the UK simply because the majority of its citizens want it that way.

The UKUP is opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.

The Workers' Party

A republican socialist party formerly known as Sinn Fein - the Workers' Party, It changed its name in 1982 in a bid to remove all associations with traditional Irish republicanism.

Operating on both sides of the border, it had six members of the Irish parliament in 1992 but they left to form a new party, the Democratic Left.

Its aim is to establish a socialist, unitary state in Ireland.

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Irish Republican Army The main republican paramilitary group, the IRA was founded nearly 80 years ago to fight for an independent Ireland. The IRA has historic links to Sinn Fein.

In 1969, the IRA split into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA. The Official IRA took a more socialist line while the Provisionals became more militant, initially defending Catholics against loyalist attacks then going on the offensive.

  The Official IRA still exists, but when people refer to the IRA nowadays, they usually mean the Provisional IRA. This group restored its ceasefire in July 1997 - a move which allowed Sinn Fein to join the peace talks.

In April 1998, a statement by the IRA said: "Let us make it clear that there will be no decommissioning by the IRA. This issue ... is a matter only for the IRA, to be decided upon and pronounced upon by us."

The IRA only agrees with some aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, but has largely maintained its second ceasefire.

Prisoners belonging to the IRA are eligible for early release under the Agreement and some have been freed. Sinn Fein has 18 seats in the assembly with the prospect of two seats on the executive.

Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters The UFF has been used as a cover name for the UDA, though both organisations are now outlawed.

Formed in 1971, the UDA was an umbrella organisation for loyalist groups and had thousands of members at its peak. Although most killings were claimed by the UFF, the UDA was banned in 1992 for being primarily engaged in terrorism.

The group has been on ceasefire since 1994 and is pro-talks and pro-Agreement. However, its political wing the Ulster Defence Party won no seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The ceasefire was breached in January 1998, when the UFF carried out three killings following the murder of loyalist leader Billy Wright in the Maze Prison. The UFF has links with the Ulster Democratic Party and as a result, the UDP was suspended from the peace process for a time.

Since then, its ceasefire has remained intact. UFF prisoners are eligible for early release and some have been released.

UVF: The group has been on ceasefire since 1994

Ulster Volunteer Force The name dates back to a Protestant force formed to oppose Home Rule in 1912. It was revived in 1966 in opposition to liberal unionism and stated its mission was to kill IRA members.

It is believed to be a smaller organisation than the UFF. Responsible for dozens of killings, the UVF was behind the 1994 shootings of Catholics watching a World Cup match in Loughnisland, County Down.

The UVF has links with the Progressive Unionist Party. It is for the Good Friday Agreement and has been on ceasefire since 1994.

Prisoners belonging to the UVF are eligible for early release under the terms of the agreement and some have been released. The Progressive Unionist Party won two seats on the assembly

Continuity IRA A hard-line republican group violently opposed to any deal not based on a united Ireland.

It was responsible for the 1996 bombing of the Killyhelvin Hotel in Enniskillen and the security forces linked it to attacks in 1998, such as the Moira and Portadown bombs in February.

The security forces believe the Continuity IRA is linked to Republican Sinn Fein, which split off from the main party in 1986, though that party denies having a military wing.

The Real IRA This dissident republican faction has emerged as one of the most dangerous groups opposed to the Good Friday settlement.

Omagh: 29 people died in the bomb in August 1998

It is reportedly led by the man who resigned as the IRA's quartermaster-general in October 1997 after he broke with Sinn Fein because of its support for the peace process.

Reports have put its membership, which is based largely in the Irish Republic, at between 50 to 70 dissidents.

It is believed to be responsible for a series of attacks, including a 500lb car bomb which devastated the market town of Banbridge, Co Armagh in August 1998.

In May 1998, following a mortar attack on a police station in Co Fermanagh, it declared that a "war machine is once again being directed at the British Cabinet".

It was responsible for the Omagh bombing in 15 August 1998 in which 29 people died. The group apologised for the civilian deaths claiming it was aiming for commercial targets.

The Real IRA called a ceasefire less than a month after the Omagh atrocity. The ceasefire has not been recognised.

Irish National Liberation Army Formed in 1975, mainly from disaffected members of the IRA unhappy at the ceasefire. The INLA is a relatively small group and its attacks seem to come in waves.

At times in its history it has operated in concert with other republican groups - three of the 10 republican hunger strikers who died in 1981 were in the INLA. Now, however, it has the reputation even among republican militants of being extreme.

Billy Wright: Murdered in 1997

It first became known internationally when it planted the bomb which killed Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave at the House of Commons in 1979.

The group was responsible for the murder of leading loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright inside the Maze Prison on 27 December 1997. The killing sparked off a cycle of violence which lasted for several weeks.

In August 1998, in the wake of the Omagh bomb, the group called its own ceasefire. The ceasefire has not yet been recognised.

Direct Action Against Drugs DAAD is believed by the security forces to be a cover name for the IRA. It was responsible for the murder of Brendan Campbell in February 1998 and has been linked to a number of other killings dating back to 1995.

It carried out seven murders during the first IRA ceasefire.

Loyalist Volunteer Force Extreme loyalist group formerly led by Billy Wright, who was killed in the Maze prison at Christmas 1997. It is believed to be formed mainly from loyalists dissatisfied with other paramilitary organisations.

Members of the LVF at the Maze were questioned about the murder in March of one of their comrades, David Keys, after he was questioned about a double murder at a pub in Poyntzpass.

In March 1998, the group threatened Protestants who colluded in the peace process. In May, it declared an "unequivocal" ceasefire to encourage people to vote No in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement.

The LVF ceasefire has now been recognised and their prisoners will be eligible for early release, although none have yet been set free.

Red Hand Defenders This dissident loyalist group emerged during the Drumcree crisis of summer 1998.

They carried a bomb blast that led to the death of a Portadown policeman in September 1998 before murdering a Catholic man in north Belfast a month later.

Other acts of violence, such as a pipe bomb attack in February 1999, were fairly crude before they were put on the proscribed list in March.

But within two weeks the group showed a new level of ability in the car bomb murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson in Lurgan.

Orange Volunteers Like the Red Hand group, this group is thought to be made up of dissidents from the LVF and UFF.

In December the two groups caused confusion when both admitted carrying out the same grenade attack on a pub in County Antrim.

A month earlier eight hooded men, armed with grenades and claiming to be Orange Volunteers, put on a show of strength for a television crew.

They claim to have attacked Catholic businesses and have threatened to murder IRA prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement.

Other towns in the district include:

  Dungiven with its Augustinian priory and its castle.

The name Dungiven means "Given's fort" and it is a pleasant market town situated where the rivers Roe, Owenreagh and Owenbeg converge at the foot of the 1535 foot Benbradagh mountain next to the magnificent Glenshane Pass, the road rising to 1000 feet on its way towards Belfast.
Dungiven's Augustinian Priory was founded in 1100 A.D. It contains the finely carved tomb of Cooey-na-Gal O'Cahan, a local chieftain who died in 1385.

Near Dungiven is the beautiful Banagher Glen, popular with ornithologists. It leads up to the magnificent Altaheglish Reservoir, an impressive lake set up in the mountains, surrounded by forest.

   Ballykelly contains some of the most interesting buildings erected in Ulster by the Plantation companies.

Between Limavady and Ballykelly is the Rough Fort, a prehistoric earthwork fort in the care of the National Trust. Nearby is Sampson's Tower, a fortified structure built by public subscription in memory of Arthur Sampson who for 40 years was an agent of the London Fishmonger's Company.

  Other villages and hamlets include Aghanloo, Bellarena, Bolea, Burnfoot, Drumsurn, Feeny, Glack, Gortnaghey, Greysteel and Myroe.

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