Ireland and Northern Ireland
Ahh, the lasting scent of Irish Spring. The Irish never quit.
Two bordering countries on the North Atlantic island of Ireland.
Well, Northern Ireland is kind of a country. It’s also often called a province, or just a region.
Regardless, IT is part of the United Kingdom. Ireland is not.
Ireland, aka the Republic of Ireland, has officially been around since 1937 and has been at least a somewhat independent country since December 6, 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the Irish War of Independence.
Oh hey speaking of the Irish War of Independence, this video is a collaboration with the channel Jabzy, who has just released a video about the Easter Rising, which kicked off the entire Irish revolutionary period.
Be sure to check out his video when you’re done watching THIS ENTIRE VIDEO.
DON’T CLICK AWAY YOU PUNK.
I’m sorry about that. So yeah, anyway, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The capital cities and biggest cities in both, Dublin and Belfast, are along the east coast of the island, and just a two hour trip apart by car.
But Dublin is more than twice as big as Belfast. (D-1.3 million, B- 700,000)
And the Republic of Ireland as a whole has 2 and a half times more people than Northern Ireland.
In terms of land area, Ireland is about five times bigger. Northern Ireland has less than 3% of the United Kingdom’s population.
Around 1/3 of Ireland residents live in or near Dublin, and just over 1/3 of Northern Ireland residents live in or near Belfast.
Both are more rural than most of the rest of Europe.
Both have little islands around them. Aw, how cute.
Both are green. Very green. Due to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, both get A LOT OF FREAKING RAIN.
Well, mostly in the western portions. It’s also cloudiest out west. Ireland does get more precipitation overall.
But yeah, that’s why the whole island is so green. And the whole island also has a temperate oceanic climate.
That good ol’ Gulf Stream moderates the temperatures so it never gets too terribly cold there despite being way up there.
Look at that latitude, baby. It’s way north.
So far north that it gets lots of daylight in the summer and lots of darkness in the winter.
And yeah, since Northern Ireland is...uh...further north, it gets a bit colder and darker in the winter.
Wait, if they both get so much rain...where are all the trees?
Eh, humans have wiped them out. Forests once covered 80% of Ireland. Now they cover just 1%.
Both have mountains scattered throughout, although none of them are particularly tall.
The western coast of Ireland is a bit more dramatically rugged.
Look at that. Woah I kind of want to go there right now.
Oh yeah, tourism is bigger in Ireland compared with Northern Ireland.
English is the most popular language in both. However, both also have the Irish language and some speak Ulster Scots.
All throughout Ireland you’ll see signs in both English and Irish.
Some in Ireland also apparently speak this secret language called Shelta that’s a mix of both Irish and English.
The biggest religion in both is Christianity, but there is a pretty important difference.
The majority in Ireland identify as Roman Catholic, while the majority in Northern Ireland identify as Protestant.
More on why this is a bit later, but it is important to recognize that Catholics will likely outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland within the next few years, AND both Ireland and Northern Ireland have a quickly growing population of those not identified with any religion at all.
Ireland residents are younger, on average.
Related to this, Ireland has a much higher birth rate. It actually has the highest birth rate in the EU.
The cost of living is higher, on average, in Ireland.
In fact, things are about 38% more expensive in Dublin than in Belfast.
This is probably due to a stronger economy in Ireland. Ireland has one of the strongest economies in the world.
Its GDP per capita is more than THREE TIMES Northern Ireland’s GDP per capita. (I- 76,908, NI- 23,700)
In fact, it has the fifth highest GDP per capita in the world.
However, using GDP per capita to compare the economies of both is a bit unfair due to all the multinational corporations based in Ireland.
Ireland has really low corporate taxes, so that’s why so many multinational corporations have moved operations there.
Top industries in Ireland include finance, technology, and pharmaceuticals.
Top industries in Northern Ireland include the services, construction, and agriculture, although it is famous for its shipbuilding heritage.
Ireland has a higher minimum wage. (I-1,656.20 EUR per month vs NI-1,524.52 EUR per month)
Northern Ireland has a lower unemployment rate. (NI- 2.9%, I- 4.6%) But Ireland has a lower poverty rate. (I- 8%, NI- 14%)
Both are part of the European Union...uh...well that’s about to change.
Northern Ireland will be leaving the EU soon due to Brexit, and currently politicians are negotiating to make sure this border still stays as open as possible for trade in order to not hurt the economies of both.
And yeah, so due to being part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland doesn’t really have to worry about the deficit when it pays for public programs. Ireland does.
Both Ireland and Northern Ireland residents get universal healthcare, but more use it in Northern Ireland.
Due to fees and long waiting times, around 40% of citizens in Ireland have private health insurance, which is the highest percentage in Europe.
The life expectancy is slightly higher in Ireland. (I-81.6, NI-80.4)
Ireland is more ethnically diverse, especially due to having more immigrants in recent decades.
Both pride themselves in having a high percentage of residents with college degrees.
Most of the differences between the two are because of relatively recent history.
But let’s go back a ways.
The earliest folks to live on the island of Ireland got there between 8000 BC and 7000 BC.
The Celts first arrived around 1200 BC, and you could say their impact is still felt quite a bit today.
Ok, it’s felt a lot.
The Celts hooked up with the native folks on the island and developed a distinct culture based on wonderful poetry, a pagan faith, and a tradition of kicking butt and kidnapping foreigners.
Well, one of the dudes they kidnapped, in the early fifth century, was a bishop later famously known as Saint Patrick.
He was enslaved, managed to escape, but then returned to begin preaching Christianity to the Irish people.
He ended up building a lot of churches and was VERY successful converting pagans to Catholicism.
Oh, and he managed to drive all snakes out of Ireland.
Just kidding. That never happened. There were never any snakes in Ireland.
So thus began the Irish Catholic tradition.
The Vikings raided the island regularly during the Early Middle Ages, but later the Normans took over big chunks of it and creating the Lordship of Ireland.
This was the beginning of Ireland’s long, complicated, and sometimes violent relationship with England.
After the Normans lost most of their control, the island was made up of a bunch of little kingdoms, few ever gaining that much territory.
After the Tudor conquest of Ireland, England was able to gain control over all of the Kingdom of Ireland.
During the reign of King James, folks from Great Britain came over and colonized parts of Ireland to try to make it more Protestant and less Catholic...you know, to try to reduce the number of rebellions.
Most of the colonists ended up coming from Scotland. In most cases, the colonists just straight up took land for themselves.
They were most successful at stealing land with the Plantation of Ulster, which was where most of Northern Ireland currently is.
Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, Irish rebellions continued. Things got really crazy with the Irish Rebellion of 1798, but that event ultimately led to a union.
That’s right, Ireland and Great Britain stopped fighting and joined forces to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which existed all the way up to 1921.
1921? Why does that year ring a bell in this video?
Oh yeah, because that was the year of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the Irish War of Independence.
Orange- Now hold up man, you just skipped over The Great Famine
Oh yeah, the Great Famine
The Irish Potato Famine. Why do you care, you’re an orange?
Orange- I can’t forget my potato brothers and sisters. Solidarity.
Ok, anyway, that was from 1845-1849, and it devastated the island, causing the entire population to fall by as much as 25%.
The really tough times of the 1800s led to a deeper split between those who wanted Irish independence, aka the nationalists, and those who wanted to stay with Britain, or unionists.
And it was this split that eventually led to the division of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1920.
After the establishment of the Irish Free State, Northern Ireland was like, nah, we’re staying with Great Britain.
There was actually a civil war from between 1922 and 1923 all over Ireland between those who wanted to stay with Britain and those who wanted to leave it.
When Ireland became a full-on independent republic and Northern Ireland didn’t join them, this angered pro-Republic, mostly Catholic Irish on both sides of the border.
The now Catholic minority in Northern Ireland experienced discrimination during the 1930s through the 1950s.
This ended up escalating in the 1960s in what became known as The Troubles, a series of conflicts between paramilitary Unionist forces who remained loyal to the United Kingdom and paramilitary Nationalist forces who wanted Northern Ireland back with the rest of the republic, that lasted through the 1990s.
This was a political and nationalistic conflict, not a religious one, and unfortunately for the residents of Northern Ireland, much of this violence took place within their borders.
In 1998, both sides did sign a peace agreement known as the Good Friday Agreement, which said that if a majority of Northern Ireland citizens voted to rejoin Ireland, they could do so.
So far, this hasn’t happened.
Since the Good Friday Agreement, while there are still visual reminders of the The Troubles like the peace lines separating Republican and Nationalist neighborhoods, things have been relatively peaceful.
Attractions in Ireland include The Cliffs of Moher, Killarney National Park, Ring of Kerry, Benbulbin, and Blarney Castle.
Attractions in Northern Ireland include The Giant’s Causeway, The Glens of Antrim, Ards Peninsula, Lough Erne, and Dunluce Castle.
Yeah, did I mention both Ireland and Northern Ireland have lots of castles?
Now, I will end this video with this big question. Will Ireland and Northern Ireland ever reunite?
Especially with Brexit, this question has once again come up.
"In my only circumstance,
I'm traveling from Southern Ireland
to the North every day
and, uh, a border would be a big issue."
However, it doesn’t look like this will be happening any time soon.
According to polls over the past several decades, the majority of Northern Ireland residents prefer to stay with the UK instead of supporting a United Ireland.
However, over the next few years we could very well see a referendum where Northern Ireland residents vote on it.
Before they did vote on it, they would logically have to watch this video first.
So check it out.
My band, Electric Needle Room, just released a new album.
It's a children's album.
It's called "Just Kidding Around."
And my daughters actually performed on it. I'm really excited about its release.
You can find it everywhere music is.
I put the links below so you can find it and listen to it.
What’s the craic? Again, this video is a collaboration with the terrific channel Jabzy.
I now give you permission to go over to his channel to watch his video about the Easter Rising, which is part of his famous 3-minute history series.
Be sure to subscribe to his channel as well while you’re over there.
Thank you to Dom from the channel Cogito, who is from Ireland, and Lee from the channel The Singing History Teachers, who is originally from Northern Ireland, for reading over my script to make sure I didn’t sound too idiotic.
So, what do YOU think?
Should Ireland and Northern Ireland be reunited and it feels so good?
Or is it way too soon to even consider such a silly notion?
Buh bye now. I love you.