Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of the newly mobilized Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). This was countered on the Catholic
side by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which wanted all 32 of Ireland's counties to be
united in one Irish nation—their political goals were “Nationalist.”
In World War II, the Republic stayed neutral while the North enthusiastically supported
the Allied cause—winning a spot close to London's heart. Derry (a.k.a. Londonderry) be-
came an essential Allied convoy port, while Belfast lost more than 800 civilians during
four Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941. After the war, the split between North and South
seemed permanent, and Britain invested heavily in Northern Ireland to bring it solidly into
the UK fold.
