# What exactly is the status of Northern Ireland vis-a-vis the UK. Is it still part of the UK?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 23, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305 "2014-08-23T17:42:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/21 "2014-08-26T13:40:04Z")
> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> The diagram in [This type of diagram](http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/04/the-great-british-venn-diagram/) is just plain wrong. The Irish Republic has not been part of The UK since independence in 1922. It also misses the smaller islands out altogether. The second illustration is far more useful.
What? The diagram you link to shows the Republic of Ireland as being _outside_ the UK - which is correct - and Northern Ireland as being inside the UK - which is also correct.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/22 "2014-08-26T16:11:11Z")
> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> The diagram in [This type of diagram](http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/04/the-great-british-venn-diagram/) is just plain wrong. The Irish Republic has not been part of The UK since independence in 1922. It also misses the smaller islands out altogether. The second illustration is far more useful.
Agreed that the first diagram is incomplete and the second is more useful, but it appears you’ve misread the first one, as **UDS** points out. It’s not wrong.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/23 "2014-08-26T17:14:17Z")
Definitely part of the UK. It’s even in the name, as **Quartz** notes.
> [@dofe](#):
>
> Quote:
> Since 1998, Northern Ireland has devolved government within the United Kingdom. **The UK Government and UK Parliament are responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Reserved matters are a list of policy area (such as civil aviation, units of measurement, and human genetics), which Parliament may devolve to Northern Ireland Assembly at some time in future. Excepted matters (such as international relations, taxation and elections) are never expected to be considered for devolution.** On all other matters, the Northern Ireland Executive together with the 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly may legislate and govern for Northern Ireland.
>
> In sum, Northern Ireland is still part of the UK, but has self-government except for the areas bolded above.
I would add “defense, intelligence and counterterrorism” to the list of excepted matters.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/24 "2014-08-26T19:14:27Z")
The demographic reality in Northern Ireland is slowly moving towards majority nationalist but even when you have that who knows what percentage of those from a nationalist background would vote to leave UK and throw in lot with the Republic? You also have the not insignificant issue of there still being something like 900,000+ Northern Irish people with little or no interest in joining the republic, some of whom might take up arms to prevent unification happening. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if I live to see a united Ireland.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/25 "2014-08-26T19:40:37Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> …I would be (pleasantly) surprised if I live to see a united Ireland.
Looks like you just have a decade to go… but it might not be pretty: [Irish Unification of 2024 | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Irish_Unification_of_2024)
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/26 "2014-08-27T07:13:09Z")
> [@iljitsch](#):
>
> I once took the train from Dublin to Belfast, though, and I had my passport out and everything when I deboarded, but nobody cared…
Gardaí (Irish police) do sometimes board Belfast-to-Dublin trains/buses on this side of the border for immigration checks. I’ve never heard of any white person being subject to one, though.
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### Author:  [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/27 "2014-08-27T21:51:44Z")
I believe the Irish Republic altered its constitution as part of the Good Friday agreement to alter its claim over the whole island of Ireland, which had existed since the foundation of the Republic, to accommodate the wishes of those in the North. It also recognised cross border powers. On the UK side, Northern Ireland was devolved and granted its own government assembly. The constitutions of the Irish Republic and the UK were thus in agreement.
It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to achieve that settlement but it effectively stabilised the politics of Northern Ireland and signaled an end the ‘The Troubles’ as they were know.
All nation states have constitutional issues of one sort or another. This one had been around for a very long time indeed.
I’m not sure what the rules are exactly regarding people from Ireland working in the UK and vice versa. I guess that might come under the EU rules, which provide for free movement and free mobility of labour. But the free travel area between Ireland the UK existed long before the EU. It has never been much of an issue. People go back and forth all the time. You just need some form of photo ID at the ports.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/28 "2014-08-28T01:13:14Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#):
>
> . . . I’m not sure what the rules are exactly regarding people from Ireland working in the UK and vice versa. I guess that might come under the EU rules, which provide for free movement and free mobility of labour. But the free travel area between Ireland the UK existed long before the EU. It has never been much of an issue. People go back and forth all the time. You just need some form of photo ID at the ports.
Irish citizens have the same right to reside, work (and indeed vote) in the UK as UK citizens do. And vice versa, except that UK citizens in Ireland do not get to vote in Irish presidential elections (because Irish citizens in the UK don’t get to vote for the UK head of state. It’s all about reciprocity.)
If you are travelling between Ireland and Britain you may need photo ID because the carrier will want it, as a security measure, but there is no general border requirement to show ID. You can cross the land border between Ireland and the UK without any kind of ID - indeed, without formalities of any kind, in practice. I have crossed it many, many times and have never been stopped or spoken to.
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### Author:  [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/29 "2014-08-28T01:22:08Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#):
>
> On the UK side, Northern Ireland was devolved and granted its own government assembly.
Devolved… Thats a strangely negative term… its the same as racism.
“If those celts want to go backward, they can run their own country !”
Can a mod delete all references to the term “Devolved”. I treat it as bad as the N word.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/30 "2014-08-28T02:15:26Z")
> [@Isilder](#):
>
> Devolved… Thats a strangely negative term… its the same as racism.
> “If those celts want to go backward, they can run their own country !”
>
> Can a mod delete all references to the term “Devolved”. I treat it as bad as the N word.
“Devolve” is not a negative term. It goes back to the fifteenth century and origionally meant to roll down or to unroll. From there it came tor refer to property passing on death from one generation to the next (“on his death leaving no sons, the land devolved upon his nephew”) and, from there, it came to refer to any property, power, duty or obligation which was passed on by the original holder to someone else. “Devolved government” is so called in the UK because it involves the local exercise of powers which were formerly exercised by the central government in Westminster, but which Westminister has now delegated to locally-based governmental authorities. There is no reason for the mods to eliminate the term. it is accurate, and not pejorative.
It is, incidentally, a much older word that “evolve” (to roll out of) which didn’t make it into the English language until about 200 years later.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/31 "2014-08-28T03:36:07Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> …UK citizens in Ireland do not get to vote in Irish presidential elections (because Irish citizens in the UK don’t get to vote for the UK head of state. It’s all about reciprocity.)…
_Nobody_ gets to vote on the UK head of state.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/32 "2014-08-28T04:12:51Z")
> [@Isilder](#):
>
> Devolved… Thats a strangely negative term… its the same as racism.
> “If those celts want to go backward, they can run their own country !”
>
> Can a mod delete all references to the term “Devolved”. I treat it as bad as the N word.
[Moderating]
No, of course not. Politically, the word has no such connotation, except to yourself.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/33 "2014-08-28T04:16:42Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> _Nobody_ gets to vote on the UK head of state.
Precisely.
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/34 "2014-08-28T05:29:57Z")
UK citizens don’t get to vote on Irish referenda, either.
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### Author:  [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-the-status-of-northern-ireland-vis-a-vis-the-uk-is-it-still-part-of-the-uk/696305/35 "2014-08-30T13:41:49Z")
Thank you all. Very helpful.,
davidmich
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