Ulster (disambiguation)

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The territorial extent covered by the term Ulster may vary, reflecting the prevalent deep political and cultural divisions.

• By far the older meaning is in reference the province of Ulster, one of the four provinces on the island of Ireland, which bore this name since the early Middle Ages and which comprises nine counties - of which six are politically in Northern Ireland and the other three in the Republic of Ireland.
• Northern Ireland is often referred to as Ulster, mainly by the Unionist community. This definition of "Ulster", derived from the 1922 Partition of Ireland, implicitly or explicitly excludes the three counties on the other side of border. Moreover, the term "Ulster" in this context sometimes has not only a geographic but an ethnic/religious/political connotation. For example:
  • In the strict sense "Ulsterman"/"Ulsterwoman" could refer to all inhabitants of Ulster, whatever their religious and political affilations. In practice, however, these terms are usually used in reference to members of the Unionist community, and it would be rare to find members of the Nationalist community in Ulster either refering to themselves or refered to by others with that term.
  • In the Ulster Covenant, signed en masse by Unionists in 1912, as in Ulster 1912 - a poem by Rudyard Kipling supporting that Covenant - the concept of "Ulster" (here prefiguring the 1922 Partition) was clearly tied up with the Unionist cause. Male signatories of the Covenant identified themselves as "men of Ulster" who were concerned for "the material well-being of Ulster", while those who signed the seperate document for female signtories were "women of Ulster" wishing to "associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill" - all completely all ignoring the numerous men and women who resided in then pre-Partition Ulster and who were supportive of Home Rule.
  • For the Ulster Volunteers founded in 1912 to block Home Rule for Ireland and organised in 1913 into the Ulster Volunteer Force; the Ulster Division - later the 36th (Ulster) Division - which was formed from UVF men and which fought at France during the First World War; and the Ulster Tower war memorial erected at Thiepval in Northern France to cemmemorate the fallen of that division - the term "Ulster" was directly connected with the Unionist cause.
  • So it is the modern loyalist paramilitary group founded in 1966 which shares the name Ulster Volunteer Force or UVF and lays claims to a direct descendancy from the older organisation.
  • The "Ulster" which the paramilaries of the "Ulster Defence Association" are sworn to "defend" clearly does not include the Nationalist community. On the contrary, that community is the main enemy against whom the Unionist paramiltiries propose to defend what they conceive as "Ulster".
  • Similar attitudes, even if not so blatantly voiced, were prevalent in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Not by chance, as part of the reforms introduced following the Good Friday Agreement, the RUC was merged into the Police Service of Northern Ireland, a name avoiding the term "Ulster".
• UTV, the ITV broadcaster for Northern Ireland (also widely watched in the Republic of Ireland), was known as Ulster Television from its inception on October 31, 1959
• Radio Ulster, a BBC radio station based in Belfast
• The Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, known colloquially as "the Ulster"
• A kind of overcoat known as an ulster, manufactured by the Ulster Overcoat Company in Belfast, and worn by Sherlock Holmes

• An Ulster fry is a style of breakfast popular throughout the province of Ulster in Ireland.

The name Ulster also appears in other place-names originally named in honour of the Irish province:

• Ulster, Pennsylvania, United States of America
• Ulster County, New York, United States of America
• Ulster, New York, a town in Ulster County, NY
• Ulster Park, New York, United States of America
• New Ulster, the now defunct name of the northern part of New Zealand

See also: Irish Place Names in Other Countries

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