Northern Ireland officially came into existence in 1921 when the partition of the island of Ireland took legal effect.
It followed decades of turmoil between nationalists, who wanted independence from British rule, and unionists, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom.
Partition was viewed by the British government as a compromise solution, with the border dividing the 32-county island into two separate jurisdictions – the six-county Northern Ireland, which remained in the UK; and the Irish Free State, which is now the Republic of Ireland.
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