The Northern Ireland Assembly , established by the Northern Ireland Act , holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government.
The government of Northern Ireland cooperates with the government of Ireland in several areas under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. Northern Ireland was created in , when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act , creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties.
As was intended by unionists and their supporters in Westminster , Northern Ireland had a unionist majority, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom; [ 20 ] they were generally the Protestant descendants of colonists from Britain.
Meanwhile, the majority in Southern Ireland which became the Irish Free State in , and a significant minority in Northern Ireland, were Irish nationalists generally Catholics who wanted a united independent Ireland.
The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During the conflict of β22 , the capital Belfast saw major communal violence , mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians.
