Numbers

The Six Counties

• Antrim
• Armagh
• Down
• Fermanagh
• Londonderry
• Tyrone

"The Six Counties" are located in the northeast of the island of Ireland.  In 1921, when Ireland was partitioned, these counties formed Northern Ireland and remained a part of the United Kingdom.

How It's Used

“She was a Belfast woman herself but long ago had made all the territory of the Six Counties her business ground.”

"Is it Derry, then? Or Londonderry? Is it the North of Ireland or Northern Ireland? Is it Sean or Sidney? Mabel or Maeve? Are the violently conflicting views of the Six Counties of the North rooted in race or sect, language or doctrine, poverty or pride or power lust? 'Whatever you say,' wrote Seamus Heaney famously of the painful case of Ulster, 'say nothing.'"

"The CPRS document would have outraged the Unionist government at Stormont. 'The fact that Northern Ireland is constitutionally part of the United Kingdom is no more or less relevant in terms of political realism than the fact that Algeria was part of metropolitan France,' it said. 'If the six counties ceased to be British ... the net saving to public expenditure would be considerable.'"

"Having overtaken the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party, Sinn Fein's next ambition is to be the largest party in the 'six counties', as it refers to Northern Ireland. This would bolster its case for a referendum on the constitutional status of the province."

"The Easter Rising, as it is known, was suppressed and its leaders executed, but it marked a significant step toward the creation of the Irish Republic in 1921.

"Twenty-six southern counties formed the republic while the six counties that make up Northern Ireland remained under British control, as they do to this day."

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