Overview: Northern Ireland‘s problems are rooted in physical andhistorical geography: small resource base, peripheral location,violent conquest, repression and ruthless emargination of the nativepopulation by the Protestant settlers. At the time of partition, manyareas already had a Catholic majority, and the Catholic population isincreasing faster, thereby undermining the Protestant position.Britain gains no advantage by keeping Northern Ireland. Nevertheless,this solution is not going to be cheap, not merely because ofopposition by Protestant loyalists, but also because of the economicweakne
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