title: Travis Scott

text: Scott's performances have experienced a number of issues. At Lollapalooza in 2015, Scott was charged and arrested for disorderly conduct after inciting concertgoers to ignore security and rush the stage. That same year, at the Openair Festival in Switzerland, he encouraged fans to attack a man who took his shoe while he was crowd-surfing, by stopping the concert and repeatedly telling the crowd to "fuck him up", while also spitting on him.


title: Travis Scott

text: In 2017, he was arrested for similar conduct to his Lollapalooza behavior after a performance in Northwest Arkansas. That same year, a fan sued Scott and the organizers of a 2017 concert at Terminal 5 in Manhattan after falling from a balcony and being dragged on stage, blaming the fall on a crowd surge. In 2019, three people were trampled and injured as a crowd rushed to enter the compound at Astroworld.


title: Travis Scott

text: On November 5, 2021, at least ten people died and hundreds were injured in a crowd crush moving toward the stage during Scott's performance at the Astroworld Festival in NRG Park in his hometown of Houston, Texas. On the first night, a crowd crush occurred, resulting in the deaths of at least nine people and the cancellation of the second night of the festival. In video footage of the incident, Scott is seen doing the following: continuing to perform despite chants from the crowd pleading for him to stop; observing at least one audience member had been hurt, then ordering security for a brief moment to "help, jump in real quick, keep going", only to continue with the rest of the show for the following hour; encouraging people to "get wild" and "crazy", despite an ambulance passing through the crowd that was pulling out lifeless bodies. Victims killed ranged from 9 to 27 years old.


title: Travis Scott

text: In the aftermath of the crush, news outlets highlighted Scott's history of dangerous disregard for audience safety. "Rolling Stone" featured a statement from a fan who had been paralyzed during a 2017 show; "The New York Times" took note of Scott's 2015 guilty plea for reckless endangerment after he encouraged fans to climb security barricades; a "Los Angeles Times" article contained analysis by safety experts arguing that the deaths were preventable. Among other points of criticism was the fact that Scott halted his performance in 2015, when an audience member stole his shoe, ordering the crowd to beat up the person responsible. Shortly after, a lawsuit was announced by the concertgoers. It was started by Kristian Paredes, who filed for $1,000,000 due to the injuries he received.


title: Travis Scott

text: The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Scott has nine nominations.


title: Travis Scott

text: The Latin Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Scott won one award from one nomination.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer who holds both American and Gabonese citizenship. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the second highest-grossing actor of all time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an Academy Honorary Award in 2022 as "A cultural icon whose dynamic work has resonated across genres and generations and audiences worldwide".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson started his career on stage making his professional theatre debut in "Mother Courage and her Children" in 1980 at The Public Theatre. From 1981 to 1983 he originated the role of Private Louis Henderson in "A Soldier's Story" Off-Broadway. He also originated the role of Boy Willie in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" in 1987 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. He returned to the play in the 2022 Broadway revival playing Doaker Charles. Jackson early film roles include "Coming to America" (1988), "Goodfellas" (1990), "Patriot Games" (1992), "Juice" (1992), "True Romance" (1993), and "Jurassic Park" (1993), "Menace II Society" (1993), and "Fresh" (1994). His collaborations with Spike Lee lead to greater prominence with films such as "School Daze" (1988), "Do the Right Thing" (1989), "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Oldboy" (2013), and "Chi-Raq" (2015).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson's breakout role was in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994) which earned him a BAFTA Award win and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He further collaborated with Tarantino, acting in "Jackie Brown" (1997), "Django Unchained" (2012), and "The Hateful Eight" (2015). He's known for having appeared in a number of big-budget films, including "Die Hard with a Vengeance" (1995), "A Time to Kill" (1996), "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996), "The Negotiator" (1997), "Deep Blue Sea" (1999), "Unbreakable" (2000), "Shaft" (2000) and its reboot (2019), "XXX" (2002), "S.W.A.T." (2003), "Coach Carter" (2005), "Snakes on a Plane" (2006), "" (2014), "" (2017), and "Glass" (2019).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: He also gained widespread recognition as the Jedi Mace Windu in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy (1999–2005), later voicing the role in the animated film "" (2008) and the video game "" (2011). With his permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury; he subsequently played Fury in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with a cameo appearance in "Iron Man" (2008), as well as guest-starring in the television series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." He will reprise this role in the upcoming Disney+ series "Secret Invasion", which is set to premiere in early 2023. Jackson has provided his voice for several animated films, documentaries, television series, and video games, including Lucius Best / Frozone in the Pixar films "The Incredibles" (2004) and "Incredibles 2" (2018).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1948, the only child of Elizabeth Harriett (née Montgomery) and Roy Henry Jackson. He grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri, and later died of alcoholism. Jackson met him only twice during his life. He was raised by his mother, a factory worker and later a supplies buyer for a mental institution; he was also raised by his maternal grandparents, Edgar and Pearl Montgomery, as well as extended family. According to DNA tests, Jackson partially descends from the Benga people of Gabon, and he became a naturalized citizen of Gabon in 2019. He attended several segregated schools and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. He played the French horn, piccolo, trumpet, and flute in the school orchestra. He developed a stutter during childhood and learned to "pretend to be other people who didn't stutter". He still uses the word "motherfucker" to get through a speech block. He still has days where he stutters. Initially intent on pursuing a degree in marine biology, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After joining a local acting group to earn extra points in a class, he found an interest in acting and switched his major. Before graduating in 1972, he co-founded the Just Us Theatre.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jackson attended King's funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers. He then travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join an equal rights protest march. In a 2005 "Parade" interview, he said, "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn't shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different—not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence." In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including Martin Luther King Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance. The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony. He was suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions. He would later return to the college to earn a BA in drama in 1972. While he was suspended, he took a job as a social worker in Los Angeles. He decided to return to Atlanta, where he met with Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and others active in the Black Power movement. He began to feel empowered with his involvement in the movement, especially when the group began buying guns. However, before he could become involved with any significant armed confrontations, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI warned her that he would die within a year if he remained with the group. In a 2018 interview with "Vogue", he denied having been a member of the Black Panther Party.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson initially majored in marine biology at Morehouse College before switching to architecture. He later settled on drama after taking a public speaking class and appearing in a version of "The Threepenny Opera". Jackson began acting on the stage, including "Home" and "A Soldier's Play". He appeared in several television films, and made his feature film debut in the blaxploitation independent film "Together for Days" (1972). After these initial roles, Jackson moved from Atlanta to New York City in 1976 and spent the next decade appearing in stage plays, including the premiers of "The Piano Lesson" and "Two Trains Running" at the Yale Repertory Theater. Jackson developed addictions to alcohol and cocaine, which prevented him from proceeding with the two plays to Broadway (actors Charles S. Dutton and Anthony Chisholm took his place).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: After a 1981 performance in the play "A Soldier's Play", Jackson was introduced to director Spike Lee, who cast him for small roles in "School Daze" (1988) and "Do the Right Thing" (1989). He also worked for three years as a stand-in for Bill Cosby on "The Cosby Show". Throughout his early film career, mainly in minimal roles in films such as "Coming to America" (1988) and various television films, Jackson was mentored by Morgan Freeman.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson played a minor role in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas", as real-life Mafia associate Stacks Edwards. Having overdosed on heroin several times, he switched to cocaine. His family entered him into a New York rehabilitation clinic. After he completed rehabilitation, he appeared in "Jungle Fever" as a crack cocaine addict. Jackson said that the role was cathartic, commenting, "It was a funny kind of thing. By the time I was out of rehab, about a week or so later I was on set and we were ready to start shooting." His performance was so acclaimed that the jury of 1991 Cannes Film Festival added a special "Supporting Actor" award just for him. Following this role, Jackson became involved with the comedy "Strictly Business" and dramas "Juice" and "Patriot Games". He then moved on to two other comedies: "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1" (his first starring role) and "Amos & Andrew". Jackson worked with the director Steven Spielberg in 1993's "Jurassic Park".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: After a turn as the criminal Big Don in 1993's "True Romance"—written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott—Tarantino asked Jackson to play Jules Winnfield in "Pulp Fiction" (1994). Jackson was surprised to learn that the part had been specifically written for him: "To know that somebody had written something like Jules for me. I was overwhelmed, thankful, arrogant—this whole combination of things that you could be, knowing that somebody's going to give you an opportunity like that." "Pulp Fiction," Jackson's thirtieth film, made him internationally recognized and he received praise from critics. "Entertainment Weekly" wrote: "As superb as Travolta, Willis, and Keitel are, the actor who reigns over "Pulp Fiction" is Samuel L. Jackson. He just about lights fires with his gremlin eyes and he transforms his speeches into hypnotic bebop soliloquies." For the Academy Awards, Miramax Films pushed for, and received, the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Jackson. He also received a Golden Globe nomination and won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Role.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: After "Pulp Fiction", Jackson received multiple scripts to review: "I could easily have made a career out of playing Jules over the years. Everybody's always sending me the script they think is the new "Pulp Fiction"." With a succession of poor-performing films such as "Kiss of Death", "The Great White Hype", and "Losing Isaiah", Jackson began to receive poor reviews from critics who had praised his performance in "Pulp Fiction". This ended with his involvement in the two box-office successes, "Die Hard with a Vengeance", starring alongside Bruce Willis in the third installment of the "Die Hard" series; and "A Time to Kill", where he played a father put on trial for killing two men who raped his daughter. For "A Time to Kill", Jackson earned an NAACP Image for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture and a Golden Globe nomination for a Best Supporting Actor.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Quickly becoming a box office star, Jackson continued with three starring roles in 1997. In "187" he played a dedicated teacher striving to leave an impact on his students. He received an Independent Spirit award for Best First Feature alongside first-time writer/director Kasi Lemmons in the drama "Eve's Bayou", for which he also served as executive producer. He worked again with Tarantino on "Jackie Brown" and received the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival and a fourth Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the arms merchant Ordell Robbie. In 1998, he worked with established actors: Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman in "Sphere;" and Kevin Spacey in "The Negotiator", playing a hostage negotiator who resorts to taking hostages himself when he is falsely accused of murder and embezzlement. In 1999, Jackson starred in the horror film "Deep Blue Sea", and as Jedi Master Mace Windu in George Lucas' "". In an interview, Jackson claimed that he did not have a chance to read the script for the film and did not learn he was playing the character Mace Windu until he was fitted for his costume (though he later said that he was eager to accept any role, just for the chance to be a part of the "Star Wars" saga).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: On June 13, 2000, Jackson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7018 Hollywood Blvd. He began the next decade of his film career playing a Marine colonel put on trial in "Rules of Engagement", co-starred with Bruce Willis for a third time in the supernatural thriller "Unbreakable", and starred in the 2000 remake of the 1971 film "Shaft". He reprised both of the latter roles in 2019, his "Unbreakable" character Mr. Glass in "Glass" and Shaft in another film titled "Shaft". Jackson's sole film in 2001 was "The Caveman's Valentine", a murder thriller directed by Lemmons in which he played a homeless musician. In 2002, he played a recovering alcoholic, attempting to keep custody of his kids while fighting a battle of wits (in "Changing Lanes") with Ben Affleck's character. He returned for "", seeing his minor supporting role develop into a major character. Mace Windu's purple lightsaber in the film was the result of Jackson's suggestion; he wanted to be sure that his character would stand out in a crowded battle scene. Jackson then acted as an NSA agent, alongside Vin Diesel in "XXX", and as a kilt-wearing drug dealer in "The 51st State". In 2003, Jackson again worked with John Travolta in "Basic" and then as a police sergeant alongside Colin Farrell in the television show remake "SWAT" A song within the soundtrack was named after him, entitled "Sammy L. Jackson" by Hot Action Cop. Jackson also appeared in HBO's documentary "Unchained Memories", as a narrator along many other stars like Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Based on reviews gathered by Rotten Tomatoes, in 2004 Jackson starred in both his lowest and highest ranked films in his career. In the thriller "Twisted", Jackson played a mentor to Ashley Judd. The film garnered a 2% approval rating on the website, with reviewers calling his performance "lackluster" and "wasted". He then lent his voice to the computer-animated film "The Incredibles" as the superhero Frozone. The film received a 97% approval rating, and Jackson's performance earned him an Annie Award nomination for Best Voice Acting. He made a cameo in another Quentin Tarantino film, "".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In 2005, he starred in the sports drama "Coach Carter", where he played a coach (based on the actual coach Ken Carter) dedicated to teaching his players that education is more important than basketball. Although the film received mixed reviews, Jackson's performance was praised despite the film's storyline. Bob Townsend of the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" commended Jackson's performance, "He takes what could have been a cardboard cliché role and puts flesh on it with his flamboyant intelligence." Jackson also returned for two sequels: "", this time commanding Ice Cube, and the final "Star Wars" prequel film, "". His last film for 2005 was "The Man" alongside comedian Eugene Levy. On November 4, 2005, he was presented with the Hawaii International Film Festival Achievement in Acting Award.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: On January 30, 2006, Jackson was honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre; he is the seventh African American and 191st actor to be recognized in this manner. In an interview that year, he said that he chooses roles that are "exciting to watch" and have an "interesting character inside of a story", and that in his roles he wanted to "do things [he hasn't] done, things [he] saw as a kid and wanted to do and now [has] an opportunity to do". He next starred opposite actress Julianne Moore in the box office bomb "Freedomland", where he depicted a police detective attempting to help a mother find her abducted child while quelling a citywide race riot. Jackson's second film of the year, "Snakes on a Plane", gained cult film status months before it was released based on its title and cast. Jackson's decision to star in the film was solely based on the title. To build anticipation for the film, he also cameoed in the 2006 music video "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" by Cobra Starship. On December 2, 2006, Jackson won the German Bambi Award for International Film, based on his many film contributions. In December 2006, Jackson starred in "Home of the Brave", as a doctor returning home from the Iraq War.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: On January 30, 2007, Jackson was featured as narrator in Bob Saget's direct-to-DVD "Farce of the Penguins". The film was a spoof of the box office success "March of the Penguins" (which was narrated by Morgan Freeman). Also in 2007, he portrayed a blues player who imprisons a young woman (Christina Ricci) addicted to sex in "Black Snake Moan", and the horror film "1408", an adaptation of the Stephen King short story. Later the same year, Jackson portrayed an athlete who impersonates former boxing heavyweight Bob Satterfield in director Rod Lurie's drama, "Resurrecting the Champ". In 2008, Jackson reprised his role of Mace Windu in the CGI film, "", followed by "Lakeview Terrace" where he played a racist cop who terrorizes an interracial couple. In November of the same year, he starred along with Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes (who both died before the film's release) in "Soul Men". In 2008, he portrayed the villain in "The Spirit", which was poorly received by critics and the box office. In 2009, he again worked with Quentin Tarantino when he narrated several scenes in the World War II film "Inglourious Basterds".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In 2010, he starred in the drama "Mother and Child" and portrayed an interrogator who attempts to locate several nuclear weapons in the direct-to-video film "Unthinkable". Alongside Dwayne Johnson, Jackson again portrayed a police officer in the opening scenes of the comedy "The Other Guys". He also co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones for a film adaptation of "The Sunset Limited".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Throughout Jackson's career, he has appeared in many films alongside mainstream rappers. These include Tupac Shakur ("Juice"), Queen Latifah ("Juice"/"Sphere"/"Jungle Fever"), Method Man ("One Eight Seven"), LL Cool J ("Deep Blue Sea"/"S.W.A.T."), Busta Rhymes ("Shaft"), Eve ("xXx"), Ice Cube ("xXx: State of the Union"), Xzibit ("xXx: State of the Union"), David Banner ("Black Snake Moan"), and 50 Cent ("Home of the Brave"). Additionally, Jackson has appeared in five films with actor Bruce Willis (National Lampoon's "Loaded Weapon 1", "Pulp Fiction", "Die Hard with a Vengeance", "Unbreakable", and "Glass") and the actors were slated to work together in "Black Water Transit" before both dropped out.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In 2002, Jackson gave his consent for Marvel Comics to design their "Ultimate" version of the character Nick Fury after his likeness. In the 2008 film "Iron Man", he made a cameo as the character in a post-credit scene. In February 2009, Jackson signed on to a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios which would see him appear as the character in "Iron Man 2", "Thor", "", and "The Avengers", as well as any other subsequent film they would produce. He reprised the role in "" (2014) and "" (2015). In February 2015, Jackson stated that he only has two movies left on his Marvel contract following "Age of Ultron". In 2018 and 2019, Jackson made cameo appearances as Fury in the Avengers sequels "" and "", and starred as a younger, de-aged Fury in "Captain Marvel" alongside Brie Larson.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Among his more recent film roles, Jackson appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained", which was released December 25, 2012, Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", which was released in 70mm on December 25, 2015, and Jordan Vogt-Roberts' "", which was released on March 10, 2017. In 2019, Jackson reprised his "Unbreakable" role as Mr. Glass in the film "Glass", and his Shaft role in "Shaft", both sequels to his 2000 films. Also in 2019, he appeared in the Brie Larson film "Unicorn Store", and had a prominent role as Fury in the Marvel film "". Additionally, he reprised his role as Fury in a cameo appearance on the ABC television series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in 2013 and the season finale in 2014.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In 2020, he appeared in the television documentary series "Enslaved". He also appeared in the 2021 movie "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" alongside Chris Rock. After an eleven year absence from the stage Jackson is set to return to Broadway as Doaker Charles in a revival of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" opposite John David Washington and Danielle Brooks. The 2022 production will be directed by Jackson's wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: He is set to produce a live-action film adaptation of "Afro Samurai", and will play the role of Sho'nuff in a remake of "The Last Dragon". He is set to reprise his MCU role as Nick Fury in the upcoming Disney+ series "Secret Invasion", and in "The Marvels", the sequel to "Captain Marvel".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: He's known for his extensive voice roles including Whiplash in "Turbo" (2013), the title character of the anime series "Afro Samurai" (2007), and in the video game "" (2004). He also narrated the acclaimed documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" (2016).


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In addition to films, Jackson also appeared in several television shows, a video game, music videos, as well as audiobooks. Jackson had a small part in the Public Enemy music video for "911 Is a Joke". Jackson voiced several television show characters, including the lead role in the anime series, "Afro Samurai", in addition to a recurring part as the voice of Gin Rummy in several episodes of the animated series "The Boondocks". He was in the Pilot for Ghostwriter. He guest-starred as himself in an episode of the BBC/HBO sitcom "Extras". He voiced the main antagonist, , in the video game "". Jackson also hosted a variety of awards shows. He has hosted the MTV Movie Awards (1998), the ESPYs (1999, 2001, 2002, and 2009), and the Spike TV Video Game Awards (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2012). In November 2006, he provided the voice of God for "The Bible Experience", the New Testament audiobook version of the Bible. He was given the lead role because producers believed his deep, authoritative voice would best fit the role. He also recorded the Audible.com audiobook of "Go the Fuck to Sleep". For the Atlanta Falcons' 2010 season, Jackson portrayed Rev. Sultan in the Falcons "Rise Up" commercial.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: He also appeared in the Capital One cash-back credit card commercials. Jackson too appeared in a Sky Broadband Shield commercial, Sky UK’s broadband service as Nick Fury to promote Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He also played Nick Fury in an ad for the video game Marvel Snap. Jackson released a song about social justice with KRS-One, Sticky Fingaz, Mad Lion & Talib Kweli about violence in America called "I Can't Breathe" which were the last words said by Eric Garner.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Throughout the 1990s, A.C. Neilson E.C.I., a box office–tracking company, determined that Jackson appeared in more films than any other actor who grossed $1.7 billion domestically. By 2011, the films that featured Jackson as a leading actor or supporting co-star had grossed a total of $2.81 to $4.91 billion at the North American box office. This placed him as the seventh-highest-grossing lead actor and the second-highest-grossing actor, behind only voice actor Frank Welker. The 2009 edition of "The Guinness World Records", which uses a different calculation to determine film grosses, stated that Jackson is the world's highest-grossing actor, with $7.42 billion generated across 68 films. Subsequently, as of 2022, according to data crunched by the Golden Globes, this total has ballooned out to more than $27 billion grossed across 152 movies, locking him in as the highest-grossing actor, and second-highest grossing person in film in general behind Stan Lee, who was primarily known for his cameo work.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In 1980, Jackson married actress and producer LaTanya Richardson, whom he met while attending Morehouse College. The couple have a daughter named Zoe (born 1982). In 2009, they started their own charity to help support education. Jackson has said that he watches his own films in cinemas: "Even during my theater years, I wished I could watch the plays I was inwhile I was in them! I dig watching myself work." He also enjoys collecting the action figures of the characters he portrays in his films, including Jules Winnfield, Shaft, Mace Windu, and Frozone.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson is bald but enjoys wearing wigs in his films. He said about his decision to shave his head, "I keep ending up on those 'bald is beautiful' lists. It's cool. You know, when I started losing my hair, it was during the era when everybody had lots of hair. All of a sudden, I felt this big hole in the middle of my afro. I couldn't face having a comb over so I had to quickly figure what the haircut for me was." His first bald role was in "The Great White Hype". He usually gets to pick his own hairstyles for each character he portrays. He poked fun at his baldness the first time he appeared bald on "The Tonight Show", explaining that he had to shave his head for one role, but then kept receiving more and more bald roles and had to keep shaving his head so that wigs could be made for him. He joked that "the only way [he's] gonna have time to grow [his] hair back is if [he's] not working". He is noted for often wearing a Kangol hat in public.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson has a clause in his contracts that allows him to play golf during film shoots. He has played in the Gary Player Invitational charity golf tournament to assist Gary Player in raising funds for children in South Africa. He is a keen basketball fan, supporting the Toronto Raptors and the Harlem Globetrotters. He has supported English football team Liverpool FC since appearing in "The 51st State", which was shot in Liverpool, and also supports Irish football team Bohemian FC.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Jackson campaigned during the 2008 Democratic Primary for Barack Obama in Texarkana, Texas. He said, "Barack Obama represents everything I was told I could be growing up. I am a child of segregation. When I grew up and people told me I could be president, I knew it was a lie. But now we have a representative... the American Dream is a reality. Anyone can grow up to be a president." He also said, "I voted for Barack because he was black. That's why other folks vote for other peoplebecause they look like them." In December 2012, he compared his "Django Unchained" character, a villainous house slave who sides with his white oppressors, to black conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and said that the character had "the same moral compass as Clarence Thomas does". Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn "Roe v. Wade" in June 2022, he again criticized Thomas, referring to him as "Uncle Clarence" and asking how Clarencewho is married to white attorney Ginni Thomasfeels about overturning "Loving v Virginia", a Supreme Court ruling which allowed interracial marriages.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: In June 2013, Jackson launched a joint campaign with Prizeo in an effort to raise money to fight Alzheimer's disease. As part of the campaign, he recited various fan-written monologues and a popular scene from the AMC series "Breaking Bad". In August 2013, he started following a vegan diet for health reasons, explaining that he is "just trying to live forever". He attributed his weight loss to the diet. He had largely abandoned the diet by March 2017, but still praised and recommended it. He launched a campaign called "One for the Boys", which teaches men about testicular cancer and urges them to "get themselves checked out".


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: He was given Gabonese citizenship in 2019 as he descends partially from the country's Benga ethnic group. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson encouraged people to wear face masks as part of California's "Your Actions Save Lives" campaign. Along with Dwayne Johnson, he also encouraged those who had recovered from COVID-19 to donate their blood to help others fighting the virus. He additionally appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to read a satirical book, "Stay the Fuck at Home", which spread awareness of social distancing.


title: Samuel L. Jackson

text: Over his career, Jackson has received various awards for his performances on film. At the 44th Cannes Film Festival he received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" (1991). He received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994). He also received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for the performance as well. At the 48th Berlin International Film Festival, he received Silver Bear for Best Actor for his leading performance in Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" (1997). In 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Jackson as one of its Academy Honorary Award recipients as "A cultural icon whose dynamic work has resonated across genres and generations and audiences worldwide." At the 12th Annual Governors Awards, friend and actor Denzel Washington presented Jackson with his Oscar.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Jelena Noura "Gigi" Hadid ( ; born April 23, 1995) is an American model, television personality, founder, creator, and director of the clothing line ""Guest In Residence"". In November 2014, she made her debut in the Top 50 Models ranking at Models.com. In 2016, she was named International Model of the Year by the British Fashion Council. Over the span of four years, she has made thirty-five appearances on international "Vogue" magazine covers.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Born in Los Angeles, she began her modeling career as a child model for Baby Guess. She signed to IMG Models in 2013 and made her New York Fashion Week debut the following year. She has appeared in numerous high fashion campaigns, editorials and is a spokesmodel for Maybelline.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Jelena Noura Hadid was born on April 23, 1995, in Los Angeles, California, to Palestinian Jordanian real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid and Dutch former model Yolanda Hadid (née Van den Herik). Through her father, she claims descent from Daher Al Omer, Prince of Nazareth and Sheik of Galilee. She has a younger sister, Bella, and a younger brother, Anwar, both of whom are also models. She also has two older paternal half-sisters; Marielle and Alana. She and her siblings were raised on a ranch in Santa Barbara. The family moved to Beverly Hills after ten years.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In 2013, she graduated from Malibu High School, where she was the captain of the school's varsity volleyball team, as well as an equestrian. Following high school, she moved to New York City to study criminal psychology at The New School. She suspended her studies to focus on her modeling career.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Hadid's modeling career began when she was two years old after being discovered by co-founder of Guess, Paul Marciano. She started modeling for Baby Guess before stopping to concentrate on school. She eventually returned to modeling in 2011. She resumed working with Marciano, and was named the face of a Guess campaign in 2012. She has shot three campaigns with Guess as an adult.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: After signing to IMG Models in 2013 Hadid made her New York Fashion Week debut in February 2014, walking for Desigual. In the same month she got her break in high fashion on the cover of Carine Roitfeld's "CR Fashion Book". On July 15, 2014, she starred alongside actor and model Patrick Schwarzenegger in fashion designer Tom Ford's Eyewear autumn/winter campaign. She co-hosted the Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards event that was held in New York City on September 5, 2014. She has also starred in campaigns for Tom Ford F/W 2014, Tom Ford Velvet Orchard Fragrance and Tom Ford Beauty 2014. She was featured on the cover of "Galore" magazine in 2014.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She appeared in the 2015 Pirelli Calendar. In that same year she was also the brand ambassador for Australian fashion swimwear label Seafolly. In January 2015 she was named the "Daily Front Row"s Model of the Year and a Maybelline brand ambassador. In March 2015 she and her then-boyfriend Cody Simpson were featured as a part of fashion photographer Mario Testino's project "Towel Series." By May 2015 she had walked for designers Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Michael Kors, Jean Paul Gaultier and Max Mara. She appeared in the music video for Taylor Swift's song "Bad Blood", which was released in the same month. She has made several appearances alongside her younger sister Bella. In December 2015 she made her first appearance at the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show".


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She appeared on several magazine covers, including "Vogue" (United States, Paris, Italy, Britain, Japan, Spain, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, China), "Schön!", "Numéro", "Allure", "W Magazine" and "Teen Vogue," as well as "The Wall Street Journal", "Elle" (Canada), "Dazed" and "Harper's Bazaar" (United States, Malaysia). She has also shot editorials for "VMAN", "Elle" (United States), "Grazia", "Cleo", "Vogue", "Sports Illustrated", "Paper Magazine", "Vanity Fair" and "V Magazine". She has also starred in campaigns for Guess, Versace, Penshoppe, Balmain F/W 2015, Topshop, Max Mara, and Stuart Weitzman.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In 2016 she walked for Versace, Chanel, Elie Saab, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Miu Miu, Balmain, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Fenty x Puma, Isabel Marant, and Giambattista Valli. In January 2016 she became the global brand ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger, fronting campaigns for underwear, apparel and fragrances. In April 2016, Hadid starred in an interactive campaign including a commercial for the BMW M2. She hosted the 2016 iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards in Toronto on June 19, 2016. She co-designed a capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger called "Gigi by Tommy Hilfiger", which was released in the fall of 2016 at New York Fashion Week. During the Fall 2016 Fashion Weeks in New York, Milan and Paris, she opened five shows and closed seven. In October her boot collection for Stuart Weitzman titled the Gigi Boot was revealed, and she became a brand ambassador for Reebok, fronting the "#PerfectNever" campaign.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: On November 20, 2016 she hosted the American Music Awards alongside "Saturday Night Live" alum Jay Pharoah. She received backlash for an impression of former First Lady Melania Trump during the show, and later apologized. In December 2016 she made her second appearance at the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show", earning her wings for the first time, and in the same month she won the award for International Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, presented to her by Donatella Versace.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Hadid started off the Spring/Summer campaign season starring in Fendi and Moschino campaigns. she also was the face of the S/S 2017 campaign for Max Mara accessories, Stuart Weitzman and DSQUARED. The second Tommy Hilfiger and Hadid ready-to-wear collection was presented in February 2017 for the Spring season. She was the photographer of the Versus (Versace) Spring/Summer 2017 campaign which featured her then-boyfriend, singer Zayn Malik, and model Adwoa Aboah. She also photographed a special summer edition of "V Magazine" titled "Gigi's Journal", which featured Polaroids of fashion industry colleagues, celebrities and close friends.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She was featured on four March 2017 "Vogue" covers; American, British, Chinese, and the inaugural edition of "Vogue Arabia". She also appeared on the covers for "CR Fashion Book" (Spring/Summer 2017), "Jolie" (April 2017) and "The Daily" (Spring 2017). She featured on the May 2017 covers for the Netherlands editions of "Vogue", "Cosmopolitan" and "Glamour" as well as the June/July 2017 cover of "American Harper's Bazaar". She has starred in editorials for "American Vogue" (April 2017) and "LOVE Magazine" (Spring/Summer 2017).


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She scored her second "American Vogue" cover in August 2017, sharing the cover with her then-boyfriend, Zayn Malik. During Fall/Winter 2017 Fashion Month in New York, Milan and Paris, she opened the shows for Jeremy Scott, Anna Sui, Versus (Versace), Alberta Ferretti, Missoni, H&M and Balmain; and closed the shows for Isabel Marant, Moschino, Max Mara and Anna Sui. She also released the first season of two new collaborations with Vogue Eyewear and Messika Jewelry. At the "Daily Front Row's" third annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards, she was honored for the Best Design Debut for her collection with Tommy Hilfiger. She ended 2017 by being named one of "Glamour"'s Women of the Year, alongside Nicole Kidman, Solange Knowles, Muzoon Almellehan and others.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She started 2018 with multiple high fashion campaigns, including Valentino, Moschino, Versace and Fendi. She also went on to release her second collaboration with both Vogue Eyewear and Messika Jewelry. In February, during fashion week, she presented the fourth and last season of her capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger in Milan.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She appeared on many different international Vogue covers in 2018, including "British Vogue" in March, "Vogue Italia" in May and "Vogue Brazil" in September. She also scored multiple American covers, including the "Harper's Bazaar" May issue, "V Magazine"'s Fall Preview Cover V114, and "W Magazine". She also covered "LOVE Magazine"'s 10th Anniversary edition, "Chaos 69", and "Chaos True Originals – Disney Special".


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In November 2018, she announced her first collaboration with Reebok designing sneakers for the brand, starting with limited release on December 7 and the full collection to be released later in February 2019. She also returned to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show for the third time in the same month. In early 2019, she appeared on more international Vogue covers, including "Vogue Czechoslovakia", "Vogue Arabia", and "Vogue Hong Kong".


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In October 2019, she filmed an episode for Food Network cooking competition "Beat Bobby Flay". She teamed up with chef Anne Burrell against chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay. The episode was aired in June 2020. She guest-starred in an episode of "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?". The episode was aired on October 1, 2020, on streaming service Boomerang.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Gigi Hadid announced she would be the founder and creative director of clothing line "Guest In Residence" via Instagram in 2022.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In January 2016, Hadid participated in "MasterChef" and raised $25,000 for Global Lyme Alliance, an organization centered on the pseudoscientific diagnosis of Chronic Lyme disease. In October 2016 she joined other celebrities in supporting the BBC's Children in Need's T-shirt philanthropy project. The shirt, designed by Giles Deacon, sold for $15 with 70% of all the proceeds going to the charity.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In January 2017, after former President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13780 (commonly known as a "Muslim Ban"), Hadid and her sister, Bella, protested among others in New York City.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Hadid announced in May 2018 that she will be working closely with Unicef to help children around the world. On August 25, she went on her first mission with UNICEF to visit their programing in Bangladesh. The trip fell on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Rohingya refugee crisis.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: On May 3, 2020, Hadid and other celebrities joined forces to play a virtual charity tennis match on Facebook Gaming. Organized by IMG Tennis, the participants all received $25,000 to donate to a charity of their choice. The winners received an additional $1 million to donate. Hadid played for the non-profit organization Feeding America. In June 2020, Hadid auctioned off some of her clothes as part of a charity auction organized by "British Vogue" that benefitted NHS Charities Together and the NAACP.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Hadid has shown support for the Black Lives Matter movement. A percentage of the sales from her quarantine editorial with "V Magazine", "Gigi's Journal Part II", were donated to four organizations; the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the NAACP, the ACLU, and Campaign Zero. The organizations also received personal donations from Hadid.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In 2022, Hadid pledged to donate her earnings from the Fall 2022 shows to help Ukrainian victims of the Russian invasion.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Ukrainian self-styled prankster Vitalii Sediuk lifted her off the ground from behind in 2016 under the pretense of a prank, and she was commended on how she defended herself from him.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: On November 7, 2022, Hadid deleted her Twitter account saying on Instagram, "For a long time, but especially with its new leadership, it’s becoming more and more of a cesspool of hate & bigotry, and its not a place I want to be a part of."


title: Gigi Hadid

text: Hadid dated Australian singer Cody Simpson from 2013 to May 2015. She appeared in his music videos for "Surfboard" and "Flower". She subsequently dated American singer Joe Jonas from May to November 2015, during which time she directed his band DNCE's music video for "Cake by the Ocean".


title: Gigi Hadid

text: She began dating English singer Zayn Malik in late 2015, although they have broken up and reconciled multiple times. She appeared in Malik's music video for "Pillowtalk". They starred on the August 2017 cover of "American Vogue", making them the third couple to appear together on a "Vogue" cover. It courted controversy because of "Vogue" misnaming them as gender fluid, for which "Vogue" apologized. They also did a Versus (Versace) campaign as a couple, with Hadid as the photographer. In April 2020, she confirmed that she and Malik were expecting their first child during an interview on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," after rumors began to circulate of her pregnancy. Their daughter was born in September 2020. The family spent a majority of their time on a farm in rural New Hope, Pennsylvania, where Hadid's mother and younger sister also own land.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In October 2021, Malik entered a no contest plea to four charges of harassment against her mother Yolanda. He was sentenced by a Pennsylvania court to 360 days of probation, and to complete anger management and domestic violence programs. She and Malik reportedly ended their relationship following the incident. Since September 2022, Gigi has been linked with Leonardo DiCaprio as they were photographed together on the streets of Paris.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In 2017, Hadid attempted to travel to Shanghai to participate in the 2017 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show but ultimately could not, as her Chinese visa was reportedly revoked after an online video showing her doing a slant-eyes gesture in imitation of Buddha was criticized as racist by Chinese internet users. Victoria's Secret declined to comment when asked whether she pulled out of the fashion show on her own, was asked to by the company, or whether Chinese authorities applied any pressure.


title: Gigi Hadid

text: In late January 2019, she was sued by the independent photo agency business Xclusive for sharing an October 2018 photo of herself without the photographer's permission. In 2017, photographer Peter Cepeda took a photo of her, which she later posted on Instagram. He filed a lawsuit against her the following September and it was later settled outside of court.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2021, its population was 1,903,100, making up about 27% of Ireland's population and about 3% of the UK's population. The Northern Ireland Assembly (colloquially referred to as Stormont after its location), established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. Northern Ireland cooperates with the Republic of Ireland in several areas.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland was created in May 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties. As was intended, Northern Ireland had a unionist majority, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom; they were generally the Protestant descendants of colonists from Britain. Meanwhile, the majority in Southern Ireland (which became the Irish Free State in 1922), and a significant minority in Northern Ireland, were Irish nationalists and Catholics who wanted a united independent Ireland. Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed by a significant minority from all backgrounds.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During the conflict of 1920–22, the capital Belfast saw major communal violence, mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians. More than 500 were killed and more than 10,000 became refugees, mostly Catholics. For the next fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Unionist Party governments. There was informal mutual segregation by both communities, and the Unionist governments were accused of discrimination against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority. In the late 1960s, a campaign to end discrimination against Catholics and nationalists was opposed by loyalists, who saw it as a republican front. This unrest sparked the Troubles, a thirty-year conflict involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces, which claimed over 3,500 lives and injured 50,000 others. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including paramilitary disarmament and security normalisation, although sectarianism and segregation remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The economy of Northern Ireland was the most industrialised in Ireland at the time of Partition of Ireland, but declined, a decline exacerbated by the political and social turmoil of the Troubles. Its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. The initial growth came from the "peace dividend" and increased trade with the Republic of Ireland, continuing with a significant increase in tourism, investment, and business from around the world. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17.2% in 1986, dropping to 6.1% and down by 1.2 percentage points over the year, similar to the UK figure of 6.2%.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, with Northern Ireland sharing both the culture of Ireland and the culture of the United Kingdom. In many sports, Ireland fields a single team, with the Northern Ireland national football team being an exception to this. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The region that is now Northern Ireland was long inhabited by native Gaels who were Irish-speaking and predominantly Catholic. It was made up of several Gaelic kingdoms and territories and was part of the province of Ulster. In 1169, Ireland was invaded by a coalition of forces under the command of the English crown that quickly overran and occupied most of the island, beginning 800 years of foreign central authority. Attempts at resistance were swiftly crushed everywhere outside of Ulster. Unlike in the rest of the country, where Gaelic authority continued only in scattered, remote pockets, the major kingdoms of Ulster would mostly remain intact with English authority in the province contained to areas on the eastern coast closest to Great Britain. English power gradually eroded in the face of stubborn Irish resistance in the centuries that followed; eventually being reduced to only the city of Dublin and its suburbs. When Henry VIII launched the 16th century Tudor re-conquest of Ireland, Ulster once resisted most effectively. In the Nine Years' War (1594–1603), an alliance of Gaelic chieftains led by the two most powerful Ulster lords, Hugh Roe O'Donnell and the Earl of Tyrone fought against the English government in Ireland. The Ulster-dominated alliance represented the first Irish united front (prior resistance had always been localized). Despite being able to cement an alliance with Spain and major victories early on, inevitable defeat was virtually guaranteed following England's victory at the Siege of Kinsale. In 1607, the rebellion's leaders fled to mainland Europe alongside much of Ulster's Gaelic nobility. Their lands were confiscated by the Crown and colonized with English-speaking Protestant settlers from Britain, in the Plantation of Ulster. This led to the founding of many of Ulster's towns and created a lasting Ulster Protestant community with ties to Britain. The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began in Ulster. The rebels wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to roll back the Plantation. It developed into an ethnic conflict between Irish Catholics and British Protestant settlers and became part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–53), which ended with the English Parliamentarian conquest. Further Protestant victories in the Williamite-Jacobite War (1688–91) solidified Anglican Protestant rule in the Kingdom of Ireland. The Williamite victories of the Siege of Derry (1689) and Battle of the Boyne (1690) are still celebrated by some Protestants in Northern Ireland. Many more Scots Protestants migrated to Ulster during the Scottish famine of the 1690s.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Following the Williamite victory, and contrary to the Treaty of Limerick (1691), a series of Penal Laws were passed by the Anglican Protestant ruling class in Ireland. The intention was to disadvantage Catholics and, to a lesser extent, Presbyterians. Some 250,000 Ulster Presbyterians emigrated to the British North American colonies between 1717 and 1775. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million Scotch-Irish Americans now living in the United States, along with many Scotch-Irish Canadians in Canada. In the context of institutional discrimination, the 18th century saw secret, militant societies develop in Ulster and act on sectarian tensions in violent attacks. This escalated at the end of the century, especially during the County Armagh disturbances, where the Protestant Peep o'Day Boys fought the Catholic Defenders. This led to the founding of the Protestant Orange Order. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was led by the United Irishmen; a cross-community Irish republican group founded by Belfast Presbyterians, which sought Irish independence. Following this, the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain pushed for the two kingdoms to be merged, in an attempt to quell sectarianism, remove discriminatory laws, and prevent the spread of French-style republicanism. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in 1801 and governed from London. During the 19th century, legal reforms known as the Catholic emancipation continued to remove discrimination against Catholics, and progressive programs enabled tenant farmers to buy land from landlords.


title: Northern Ireland

text: By the late 19th century, a large and disciplined cohort of Irish Nationalist MPs at Westminster committed the Liberal Party to "Irish Home Rule"—self-government for Ireland, within the United Kingdom. This was bitterly opposed by Irish Unionists, most of whom were Protestants, who feared an Irish devolved government dominated by Irish nationalists and Catholics. The Government of Ireland Bill 1886 and Government of Ireland Bill 1893 were defeated. However, Home Rule became a near-certainty in 1912 after the Government of Ireland Act 1914 was introduced. The Liberal government was dependent on Nationalist support, and the Parliament Act 1911 prevented the House of Lords from blocking the bill indefinitely.


title: Northern Ireland

text: In response, unionists vowed to prevent Irish Home Rule, from Conservative and Unionist Party leaders such as Bonar Law and Dublin-based barrister Edward Carson to militant working class unionists in Ireland. This sparked the Home Rule Crisis. In September 1912, more than 500,000 Unionists signed the Ulster Covenant, pledging to oppose Home Rule by any means and to defy any Irish government. In 1914, unionists smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for use by the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), a paramilitary organisation formed to oppose Home Rule. Irish nationalists had also formed a paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. It sought to ensure Home Rule was implemented, and it smuggled its own weapons into Ireland a few months after the Ulster Volunteers. Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Unionists were in a minority in Ireland as a whole, but a majority in the province of Ulster, especially the counties Antrim, Down, Armagh and Londonderry. Unionists argued that if Home Rule could not be stopped then all or part of Ulster should be excluded from it. In May 1914, the UK Government introduced an Amending Bill to allow for 'Ulster' to be excluded from Home Rule. There was then debate over how much of Ulster should be excluded and for how long. Some Ulster unionists were willing to tolerate the 'loss' of some mainly-Catholic areas of the province. The crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, and Ireland's involvement in it. The UK Government abandoned the Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill, the Suspensory Act 1914, suspending Home Rule for the duration of the war, with the exclusion of Ulster still to be decided.


title: Northern Ireland

text: By the end of the war (during which the 1916 Easter Rising had taken place), most Irish nationalists now wanted full independence rather than home rule. In September 1919, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George tasked a committee with planning another home rule bill. Headed by English unionist politician Walter Long, it was known as the 'Long Committee'. It decided that two devolved governments should be established—one for the nine counties of Ulster and one for the rest of Ireland—together with a Council of Ireland for the "encouragement of Irish unity". Most Ulster unionists wanted the territory of the Ulster government to be reduced to six counties so that it would have a larger Protestant unionist majority. They feared that the territory would not last if it included too many Catholics and Irish nationalists. The six counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh comprised the maximum area unionists believed they could dominate. The area that was to become Northern Ireland amounted to six of the nine counties of Ulster, in spite of the fact that in the last all Ireland election (1918 Irish general election) counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had Sinn Fein/Nationalist Party (Irish Parliamentary Party) majorities.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Events overtook the government. In the 1918 Irish general election, the pro-independence Sinn Féin party won the overwhelming majority of Irish seats. Sinn Féin's elected members boycotted the British parliament and founded a separate Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), declaring the independent Irish Republic covering the whole island. Many Irish republicans blamed the British establishment for the sectarian divisions in Ireland, and believed that Ulster Unionist defiance would fade once British rule was ended. The British authorities outlawed the Dáil in September 1919, and a guerrilla conflict developed as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began attacking British forces. This became known as the Irish War of Independence.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Meanwhile, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 passed through the British parliament in 1920. It would divide Ireland into two self-governing UK territories: the six northeastern counties (Northern Ireland) being ruled from Belfast, and the other twenty-six counties (Southern Ireland) being ruled from Dublin. Both would have a shared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who would appoint both governments and a Council of Ireland, which the UK Government intended to evolve into an all-Ireland parliament. The Act received royal assent that December, becoming the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It came into force on 3 May 1921, partitioning Ireland and creating Northern Ireland. Elections to the Northern parliament were held on 24 May, in which Unionists won most seats. Its parliament first met on 7 June and formed its first devolved government, headed by Unionist Party leader James Craig. Republican and nationalist members refused to attend. King George V addressed the ceremonial opening of the Northern parliament on 22 June.


title: Northern Ireland

text: During 1920–22, in what became Northern Ireland, partition was accompanied by violence "in defence or opposition to the new settlement" – see The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922). The IRA carried out attacks on British forces in the north-east but was less active than in the south of Ireland. Protestant loyalists attacked the Catholic community in reprisal for IRA actions. In the summer of 1920, sectarian violence erupted in Belfast and Derry, and there were mass burnings of Catholic property in Lisburn and Banbridge. Conflict continued intermittently for two years, mostly in Belfast, which saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between Protestant and Catholic civilians. There was rioting, gun battles, and bombings. Homes, businesses, and churches were attacked and people were expelled from workplaces and mixed neighbourhoods. More than 500 were killed and more than 10,000 became refugees, most of them Catholics. The British Army was deployed and the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) was formed to help the regular police. The USC was almost wholly Protestant and some of its members carried out reprisal attacks on Catholics. A truce between British forces and the IRA was established on 11 July 1921, ending the fighting in most of Ireland. However, communal violence continued in Belfast, and in 1922 the IRA launched a guerrilla offensive in border areas of Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed between representatives of the UK Government and the Irish Republic on 6 December 1921. This created the Irish Free State. Under the terms of the treaty, Northern Ireland would become part of the Free State unless the government opted out by presenting an address to the king, although in practice partition remained in place.


title: Northern Ireland

text: As expected, the Parliament of Northern Ireland resolved on 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State) to exercise its right to opt out of the Free State by making an address to King George V. The text of the address was: Shortly afterwards, the Irish Boundary Commission was established to decide on the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Owing to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War, the work of the commission was delayed until 1925. The Free State government and Irish nationalists hoped for a large transfer of territory to the Free State, as many border areas had nationalist majorities, leaving the remaining Northern Ireland too small to be viable. However, the commission's final report recommended only small transfers of territory, and in both directions. The Free State, Northern Ireland, and UK governments agreed to suppress the report and accept the "status quo", while the UK Government agreed that the Free State would no longer have to pay its share of the UK national debt.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland's border was drawn to give it "a decisive Protestant majority". At the time of its creation, Northern Ireland's population was two-thirds Protestant and one-third Catholic. Most Protestants were unionists/loyalists who sought to maintain Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, while most Catholics were Irish nationalists/republicans who sought an independent United Ireland. There was mutual self-imposed segregation in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics such as in education, housing, and often employment.


title: Northern Ireland

text: For its first fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Unionist Party governments. Almost every minister of these governments were members of the Protestant Orange Order. Almost all judges and magistrates were Protestant, many of them closely associated with the Unionist Party. Northern Ireland's new police force was the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which succeeded the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). It too was almost wholly Protestant and lacked operational independence, responding to directions from government ministers. The RUC and the reserve Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) were militarized police forces due to the threat from the IRA. They "had at their disposal the Special Powers Act, a sweeping piece of legislation which allowed arrests without warrant, internment without trial, unlimited search powers, and bans on meetings and publications".


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Nationalist Party was the main political party in opposition to the Unionist governments. However, its elected members often protested by abstaining from the Northern Ireland parliament, and many nationalists did not vote in parliamentary elections. Other early nationalist groups which campaigned against partition included the National League of the North (formed in 1928), the Northern Council for Unity (formed in 1937) and the Irish Anti-Partition League (formed in 1945).


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Unionist governments, and some unionist-dominated local authorities, were accused of discriminating against the Catholic and Irish nationalist minority; especially over gerrymandering of electoral boundaries, the allocation of public housing, public sector employment, and policing. While some individual accusations were unfounded or exaggerated, there are enough proven cases to show "a consistent and irrefutable pattern of deliberate discrimination against Catholics". Decades later, Unionist First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, said it had been a "cold house" for Catholics.


title: Northern Ireland

text: In June 1940, to encourage the neutral Irish state to join with the Allies of World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill indicated to the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that the United Kingdom would push for Irish unity, but believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer. The British did not inform the Government of Northern Ireland that they had made the offer to the Dublin government, and de Valera's rejection was not publicised until 1970.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee that the region would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without the consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: From 1956 to 1962, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a limited guerrilla campaign in border areas of Northern Ireland, called the Border Campaign. It aimed to destabilize Northern Ireland and bring about an end to partition but failed.


title: Northern Ireland

text: In 1965, Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Terence O'Neill met the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass. It was the first meeting between the two heads of government since partition.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Troubles, which started in the late 1960s, consisted of about 30 years of recurring acts of intense violence during which 3,254 people were killed with over 50,000 casualties. From 1969 to 2003 there were over 36,900 shooting incidents and over 16,200 bombings or attempted bombings associated with The Troubles. The conflict was caused by the disputed status of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom and the discrimination against the Irish nationalist minority by the dominant unionist majority. From 1967 to 1972 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), which modelled itself on the US civil rights movement, led a campaign of civil resistance to anti-Catholic discrimination in housing, employment, policing, and electoral procedures. The franchise for local government elections included only rate-payers and their spouses, and so excluded over a quarter of the electorate. While the majority of disenfranchised electors were Protestant, Catholics were over-represented since they were poorer and had more adults still living in the family home.


title: Northern Ireland

text: NICRA's campaign, seen by many unionists as an Irish republican front, and the violent reaction to it proved to be a precursor to a more violent period. As early as 1969, armed campaigns of paramilitary groups began, including the Provisional IRA campaign of 1969–1997 which was aimed at the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the creation of a United Ireland, and the Ulster Volunteer Force, formed in 1966 in response to the perceived erosion of both the British character and unionist domination of Northern Ireland. The state security forces – the British Army and the police (the Royal Ulster Constabulary) – were also involved in the violence. The UK Government's position is that its forces were neutral in the conflict, trying to uphold law and order in Northern Ireland and the right of the people of Northern Ireland to democratic self-determination. Republicans regarded the state forces as combatants in the conflict, pointing to the collusion between the state forces and the loyalist paramilitaries as proof of this. The "Ballast" investigation by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has confirmed that British forces, and in particular the RUC, did collude with loyalist paramilitaries, were involved in murder, and did obstruct the course of justice when such claims had been investigated, although the extent to which such collusion occurred is still disputed.


title: Northern Ireland

text: As a consequence of the worsening security situation, the autonomous regional government for Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. Alongside the violence, there was a political deadlock between the major political parties in Northern Ireland, including those who condemned the violence, over the future status of Northern Ireland and the form of government there should be within Northern Ireland. In 1973, Northern Ireland held a referendum to determine if it should remain in the United Kingdom, or be part of a united Ireland. The vote went heavily in favour (98.9%) of maintaining the status quo. Approximately 57.5% of the total electorate voted in support, but only 1% of Catholics voted following a boycott organised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Troubles were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process that included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary organisations and the complete decommissioning of their weapons, the reform of the police, and the corresponding withdrawal of army troops from the streets and sensitive border areas such as South Armagh and Fermanagh, as agreed by the signatories to the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the "Good Friday Agreement"). This reiterated the long-held British position, which had never before been fully acknowledged by successive Irish governments, that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom until a majority of voters in Northern Ireland decides otherwise. The Constitution of Ireland was amended in 1999 to remove a claim of the "Irish nation" to sovereignty over the entire island (in Article 2).


title: Northern Ireland

text: The new Articles 2 and 3, added to the Constitution to replace the earlier articles, implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships within the rest of the United Kingdom and with the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in each jurisdiction. This aspect was also central to the Belfast Agreement which was signed in 1998 and ratified by referendums held simultaneously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. At the same time, the UK Government recognised for the first time, as part of the prospective, the so-called "Irish dimension": the principle that the people of the island of Ireland as a whole have the right, without any outside interference, to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent. The latter statement was key to winning support for the agreement from nationalists. It established a devolved power-sharing government, the Northern Ireland Assembly, located on the Stormont Estate, which must consist of both unionist and nationalist parties. These institutions were suspended by the UK Government in 2002 after Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) allegations of spying by people working for Sinn Féin at the Assembly (Stormontgate). The resulting case against the accused Sinn Féin member collapsed.


title: Northern Ireland

text: On 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA declared an end to its campaign and has since decommissioned what is thought to be all of its arsenal. This final act of decommissioning was performed under the watch of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and two external church witnesses. Many unionists, however, remained skeptical. The IICD later confirmed that the main loyalist paramilitary groups, the Ulster Defence Association, UVF, and the Red Hand Commando, had decommissioned what is thought to be all of their arsenals, witnessed by former archbishop Robin Eames and a former top civil servant.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Politicians elected to the Assembly at the 2003 Assembly election were called together on 15 May 2006 under the Northern Ireland Act 2006 to elect a First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and choose the members of an Executive (before 25 November 2006) as a preliminary step to the restoration of devolved government.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Following the election on 7 March 2007, the devolved government returned on 8 May 2007 with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin deputy leader Martin McGuinness taking office as First Minister and deputy First Minister, respectively. In its white paper on Brexit the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Belfast Agreement. Concerning Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK Government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".


title: Northern Ireland

text: The main political divide in Northern Ireland is between unionists, who wish to see Northern Ireland continue as part of the United Kingdom, and nationalists, who wish to see Northern Ireland unified with the Republic of Ireland, independent from the United Kingdom. These two opposing views are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are predominantly Ulster Protestant, descendants of mainly Scottish, English, and Huguenot settlers as well as Gaels who converted to one of the Protestant denominations. Nationalists are overwhelmingly Catholic and descend from the population predating the settlement, with a minority from the Scottish Highlands as well as some converts from Protestantism. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1921–1972) gave rise to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.


title: Northern Ireland

text: While some unionists argue that discrimination was not just due to religious or political bigotry, but also the result of more complex socio-economic, socio-political and geographical factors, its existence, and the manner in which nationalist anger at it was handled, were a major contributing factor to the Troubles. The political unrest went through its most violent phase between 1968 and 1994.


title: Northern Ireland

text: In 2007, 36% of the population defined themselves as unionist, 24% as nationalist, and 40% defined themselves as neither. According to a 2015 opinion poll, 70% express a long-term preference of the maintenance of Northern Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom (either directly ruled or with devolved government), while 14% express a preference for membership of a united Ireland. This discrepancy can be explained by the overwhelming preference among Protestants to remain a part of the UK (93%), while Catholic preferences are spread across several solutions to the constitutional question including remaining a part of the UK (47%), a united Ireland (32%), Northern Ireland becoming an independent state (4%), and those who "don't know" (16%).


title: Northern Ireland

text: Official voting figures, which reflect views on the "national question" along with issues of the candidate, geography, personal loyalty, and historic voting patterns, show 54% of Northern Ireland voters vote for unionist parties, 42% vote for nationalist parties, and 4% vote "other". Opinion polls consistently show that the election results are not necessarily an indication of the electorate's stance regarding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Most of the population of Northern Ireland are at least nominally Christian, mostly Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations. Many voters (regardless of religious affiliation) are attracted to unionism's conservative policies, while other voters are instead attracted to the traditionally leftist Sinn Féin and SDLP and their respective party platforms for democratic socialism and social democracy.


title: Northern Ireland

text: For the most part, Protestants feel a strong connection with Great Britain and wish for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Many Catholics however, generally aspire to a United Ireland or are less certain about how to solve the constitutional question. Protestants have a slight majority in Northern Ireland, according to the latest Northern Ireland Census. The make-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly reflects the appeals of the various parties within the population. Of the 90 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 37 are unionists and 35 are nationalists (the remaining 18 are classified as "other").


title: Northern Ireland

text: Since 1998, Northern Ireland has had devolved government within the United Kingdom, presided over by the Northern Ireland Assembly and a cross-community government (the Northern Ireland Executive). The UK Government and UK Parliament are responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Reserved matters comprise listed policy areas (such as civil aviation, units of measurement, and human genetics) that Parliament may devolve to the Assembly some time in the future. Excepted matters (such as international relations, taxation and elections) are never expected to be considered for devolution. On all other governmental matters, the Executive together with the 90-member Assembly may legislate for and govern Northern Ireland. Devolution in Northern Ireland is dependent upon participation by members of the Northern Ireland executive in the North/South Ministerial Council, which coordinates areas of cooperation (such as agriculture, education, and health) between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Additionally, "in recognition of the Irish Government's special interest in Northern Ireland", the Government of Ireland and Government of the United Kingdom co-operate closely on non-devolved matters through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are by single transferable vote with five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) elected from each of 18 parliamentary constituencies. In addition, eighteen representatives (Members of Parliament, MPs) are elected to the lower house of the UK parliament from the same constituencies using the first-past-the-post system. However, not all of those elected take their seats. Sinn Féin MPs, currently seven, refuse to take the oath to serve the King that is required before MPs are allowed to take their seats. In addition, the upper house of the UK parliament, the House of Lords, currently has some 25 appointed members from Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Northern Ireland Office represents the UK Government in Northern Ireland on reserved matters and represents Northern Ireland's interests within the UK Government. Additionally, the Republic's government also has the right to "put forward views and proposals" on non-devolved matters about Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Office is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland is a distinct legal jurisdiction, separate from the two other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom (England and Wales, and Scotland). Northern Ireland law developed from Irish law that existed before the partition of Ireland in 1921. Northern Ireland is a common law jurisdiction and its common law is similar to that in England and Wales. However, there are important differences in law and procedure between Northern Ireland and England and Wales. The body of statute law affecting Northern Ireland reflects the history of Northern Ireland, including Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the former Parliament of Northern Ireland and the Parliament of Ireland, along with some Acts of the Parliament of England and of the Parliament of Great Britain that were extended to Ireland under Poynings' Law between 1494 and 1782.


title: Northern Ireland

text: There is no generally accepted term to describe what Northern Ireland is: province, region, country or something else. The choice of term can be controversial and can reveal the writer's political preferences. This has been noted as a problem by several writers on Northern Ireland, with no generally recommended solution.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Owing in part to how the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland, came into being, there is no legally defined term to describe what Northern Ireland 'is'. There is also no uniform or guiding way to refer to Northern Ireland amongst the agencies of the UK Government. For example, the websites of the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the UK Statistics Authority describe the United Kingdom as being made up of four countries, one of these being Northern Ireland. Other pages on the same websites refer to Northern Ireland specifically as a "province" as do publications of the UK Statistics Authority. The website of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency also refers to Northern Ireland as being a province as does the website of the Office of Public Sector Information and other agencies within Northern Ireland. Publications of HM Treasury and the Department of Finance and Personnel of the Northern Ireland Executive, on the other hand, describe Northern Ireland as being a "region of the UK". The UK's submission to the 2007 United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names defines the UK as being made up of two countries (England and Scotland), one principality (Wales) and one province (Northern Ireland).


title: Northern Ireland

text: Unlike England, Scotland, and Wales, Northern Ireland has no history of being an independent country or of being a nation in its own right. Some writers describe the United Kingdom as being made up of three countries and one province or point out the difficulties with calling Northern Ireland a country. Authors writing specifically about Northern Ireland dismiss the idea that Northern Ireland is a "country" in general terms, and draw contrasts in this respect with England, Scotland and Wales. Even for the period covering the first 50 years of Northern Ireland's existence, the term "country" is considered inappropriate by some political scientists on the basis that many decisions were still made in London. The absence of a distinct nation of Northern Ireland, separate within the island of Ireland, is also pointed out as being a problem with using the term and is in contrast to England, Scotland, and Wales.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Many commentators prefer to use the term "province", although that is also not without problems. It can arouse irritation, particularly among nationalists, for whom the title province is properly reserved for the traditional province of Ulster, of which Northern Ireland comprises six out of nine counties. The BBC style guide is to refer to Northern Ireland as a province, and use of the term is common in literature and newspaper reports on Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. Some authors have described the meaning of this term as being equivocal: referring to Northern Ireland as being a province both of the United Kingdom and the traditional country of Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: "Region" is used by several UK government agencies and the European Union. Some authors choose this word but note that it is "unsatisfactory". Northern Ireland can also be simply described as "part of the UK", including by the UK government offices.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Many people inside and outside Northern Ireland use other names for Northern Ireland, depending on their point of view. Disagreement on names, and the reading of political symbolism into the use or non-use of a word, also attaches itself to some urban centres. The most notable example is whether Northern Ireland's second-largest city should be called "Derry" or "Londonderry".


title: Northern Ireland

text: Choice of language and nomenclature in Northern Ireland often reveals the cultural, ethnic, and religious identity of the speaker. Those who do not belong to any group but lean towards one side often tend to use the language of that group. Supporters of unionism in the British media (notably "The Daily Telegraph" and the "Daily Express") regularly call Northern Ireland "Ulster". Many media outlets in the Republic use "North of Ireland" (or simply "the North"), as well as the "Six Counties". "The New York Times" has also used "the North".


title: Northern Ireland

text: Government and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland often use the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster, the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Orchestra, and BBC Radio Ulster.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Although some news bulletins since the 1990s have opted to avoid all contentious terms and use the official name, Northern Ireland, the term "the North" remains commonly used by broadcast media in the Republic.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland was covered by an ice sheet for most of the last ice age and on numerous previous occasions, the legacy of which can be seen in the extensive coverage of drumlins in Counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and particularly Down.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at the largest freshwater lake both on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh. The largest island of Northern Ireland is Rathlin, off the north Antrim coast. Strangford Lough is the largest inlet in the British Isles, covering .


title: Northern Ireland

text: There are substantial uplands in the Sperrin Mountains (an extension of the Caledonian mountain belt) with extensive gold deposits, granite Mourne Mountains and basalt Antrim Plateau, as well as smaller ranges in South Armagh and along the Fermanagh–Tyrone border. None of the hills are especially high, with Slieve Donard in the dramatic Mournes reaching , Northern Ireland's highest point. Belfast's most prominent peak is Cavehill.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The volcanic activity which created the Antrim Plateau also formed the geometric pillars of the Giant's Causeway on the north Antrim coast. Also in north Antrim are the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Mussenden Temple and the Glens of Antrim.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The Lower and Upper River Bann, River Foyle and River Blackwater form extensive fertile lowlands, with excellent arable land also found in North and East Down, although much of the hill country is marginal and suitable largely for animal husbandry.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The valley of the River Lagan is dominated by Belfast, whose metropolitan area includes over a third of the population of Northern Ireland, with heavy urbanisation and industrialisation along the Lagan Valley and both shores of Belfast Lough.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The vast majority of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, ("Cfb" in the Köppen climate classification) rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is very common across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are in January and in July. The highest maximum temperature recorded was , registered in July 2021 at Armagh Observatory's weather station. The lowest minimum temperature recorded was at Castlederg, County Tyrone on 23 December 2010.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland is the least forested part of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and one of the least forested countries in Europe. Until the end of the Middle Ages, the land was heavily forested. Native species include deciduous trees such as oak, ash, hazel, birch, alder, willow, aspen, elm, rowan and hawthorn, as well as evergreen trees such Scots pine, yew and holly. Today, only 8% of Northern Ireland is woodland, and most of this is non-native conifer plantations.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, and County Tyrone.


title: Northern Ireland

text: These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead, there are eleven districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents. These were created in 2015, replacing the twenty-six districts which previously existed.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Although counties are no longer used for local governmental purposes, they remain a popular means of describing where places are. They are officially used while applying for an Irish passport, which requires one to state one's county of birth. The name of that county then appears in both Irish and English on the passport's information page, as opposed to the town or city of birth on the United Kingdom passport. The Gaelic Athletic Association still uses the counties as its primary means of organisation and fields representative teams of each GAA county. The original system of car registration numbers largely based on counties remains in use. In 2000, the telephone numbering system was restructured into an 8-digit scheme with (except for Belfast) the first digit approximately reflecting the county.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The county boundaries still appear on Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Maps and the Philip's Street Atlases, among others. With their decline in official use, there is often confusion surrounding towns and cities which lie near county boundaries, such as Belfast and Lisburn, which are split between counties Down and Antrim (the majorities of both cities, however, are in Antrim).


title: Northern Ireland

text: In March 2018, "The Sunday Times" published its list of Best Places to Live in Britain, including the following places in Northern Ireland: Ballyhackamore near Belfast (overall best for Northern Ireland), Holywood, County Down, Newcastle, County Down, Portrush, County Antrim, Strangford, County Down.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland has traditionally had an industrial economy, most notably in shipbuilding, rope manufacture, and textiles, but the heaviest industry has since been replaced by services, primarily the public sector.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Seventy percent of the economy's revenue comes from the service sector. Apart from the public sector, another important service sector is tourism, which rose to account for over 1% of the economy's revenue in 2004. Tourism has been a major growth area since the end of the Troubles. Key tourism attractions include the historic cities of Derry, Belfast, and Armagh and the many castles in Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The local economy has seen contraction during the Great Recession. The Executive wishes to gain taxation powers from London, to align Northern Ireland's corporation tax rate with that of the Republic of Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: As in all of the UK, the economy of Northern Ireland was negatively impacted by the lockdowns and travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism and hospitality industry was particularly hard hit. These sectors "have been mandated to close since 26 December 2020, with a very limited number of exceptions" and many restrictions were continuing into April 2021. Hotels and other accommodations, for example, "closed apart from only for work-related stays". Some restrictions were expected to be loosened in mid April but tourism was expected to remain very limited.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Northern Ireland has underdeveloped transport infrastructure, with most infrastructure concentrated around Greater Belfast, Greater Derry, and Craigavon. Northern Ireland is served by three airports – Belfast International near Antrim, George Best Belfast City integrated into the railway network at Sydenham in East Belfast, and City of Derry in County Londonderry.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Major seaports at Larne and Belfast carry passengers and freight between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Passenger railways are operated by Northern Ireland Railways. With Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail), Northern Ireland Railways co-operates in providing the joint Enterprise service between Dublin Connolly and Lanyon Place. The whole of Ireland has a mainline railway network with a gauge of, which is unique in Europe and has resulted in distinct rolling stock designs. The only preserved line of this gauge on the island is the Downpatrick and County Down Railway, which operates heritage steam and diesel locomotives. Main railway lines linking to and from Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station and Lanyon Place railway station are:


title: Northern Ireland

text: The cross-border road connecting the ports of Larne in Northern Ireland and Rosslare Harbour in the Republic of Ireland is being upgraded as part of an EU-funded scheme. European route E01 runs from Larne through the island of Ireland, Spain, and Portugal to Seville.


title: Northern Ireland

text: The population of Northern Ireland has risen yearly since 1978. The population at the time of the 2021 census was 1.9 million, having grown 5% over the previous decade. The population in 2011 was 1.8 million, a rise of 7.5% over the previous decade. The current population makes up 2.8% of the UK's population (67 million) and 27% of the island of Ireland's population (7.03 million). The population density is 135 inhabitants / km.


title: Northern Ireland

text: As of the 2021 census, the population of Northern Ireland is almost entirely white (96.6%). In 2021, 86.5% of the population were born in Northern Ireland, with 4.8% born in Great Britain, 2.1% born in the Republic of Ireland, and 6.5% born elsewhere (more than half of them in another European country). In 2021 the largest non-white ethnic groups were black (0.6%), Indian (0.5%), and Chinese (0.5%). In 2011, 88.8% of the population were born in Northern Ireland, 4.5% in Great Britain, and 2.9% in the Republic of Ireland. 4.3% were born elsewhere; triple the amount there were in 2001.


title: Northern Ireland

text: At the 2021 census, 42.3% of the population identified as Roman Catholic, 37.3% as Protestant/other Christian, 1.3% as other religions, while 17.4% identified with no religion or did not state one. The biggest of the Protestant/other Christian denominations were the Presbyterian Church (16.6%), the Church of Ireland (11.5%) and the Methodist Church (2.3%). At the 2011 census, 41.5% of the population identified as Protestant/other Christian, 41% as Roman Catholic, 0.8% as other religions, while 17% identified with no religion or did not state one. In terms of background (i.e. religion or religion brought up in), at the 2021 census 45.7% of the population came from a Catholic background, 43.5% from a Protestant background, 1.5% from other religious backgrounds, and 5.6% from non-religious backgrounds. This was the first time since Northern Ireland's creation that there were more people from a Catholic background than Protestant. At the 2011 census, 48% came from a Protestant background, 45% from a Catholic background, 0.9% from other religious backgrounds, and 5.6% from non-religious backgrounds.


title: Northern Ireland

text: Several studies and surveys carried out between 1971 and 2006 have indicated that, in general, most Protestants in Northern Ireland see themselves primarily as British, whereas most Catholics see themselves primarily as Irish. This does not, however, account for the complex identities within Northern Ireland, given that many of the population regard themselves as "Ulster" or "Northern Irish", either as a primary or secondary identity.


title: Northern Ireland

text: A 2008 survey found that 57% of Protestants described themselves as British, while 32% identified as Northern Irish, 6% as Ulster, and 4% as Irish. Compared to a similar survey in 1998, this shows a fall in the percentage of Protestants identifying as British and Ulster and a rise in those identifying as Northern Irish. The 2008 survey found that 61% of Catholics described themselves as Irish, with 25% identifying as Northern Irish, 8% as British, and 1% as Ulster. These figures were largely unchanged from the 1998 results.


title: Northern Ireland

text: People born in Northern Ireland are, with some exceptions, deemed by UK law to be citizens of the United Kingdom. They are also, with similar exceptions, entitled to be citizens of Ireland. This entitlement was reaffirmed in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish governments, which provides that:


title: Northern Ireland

text: ...it is the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly [the two governments] confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland

text: As a result of the Agreement, the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland was amended. The current wording provides that people born in Northern Ireland are entitled to be Irish citizens on the same basis as people from any other part of the island.