Northern Counties Special Zone

The Northern Counties Special Zone is a semi-autonomous region of the Republic of Ireland. It covers Counties Antrim, Armagh and Down, which used to be part of British Northern Ireland and still have a Protestant-majority population.

History

Taken by the Irish in an invasion during Operation Sea Lion, the Northern Counties are a “special zone” of the country, governed by Fianna Fáil hardliner Neil Blaney. The NCSZ is dominated by Irish Catholic and local Protestant unionist militias, with the most prominent being the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, the nationalist Irish Citizen Guard and the communist Irish Republican Army. At game start, the Troubles are ongoing between these groups.

In Game

National Focus

The Northern Counties Special Zone does not have a focus tree as of version 1.7.0a.

National Spirits

The Strangest Machine Daily Political Power Gain: -0.50 Stability: +5.00% Neil Blaney, the minister for the Northern Counties, has replicated his enormous success at Donegal establishing a Fianna Fáil political machine, this time in Ulster. How, precisely, he has done so remains a mystery to the Dublin government he nominally responds to. While his methods are admittedly shady, no one can complain he doesn't maintain "law and order"...

Rifles 'Round Every Corner War Support: -5.00% Division Attack on core territory: -5.0% Division Defense on core territory: -5.0% The tortuous and slow conquest of British Ulster enabled the planned creation of the stay-behind Auxiliary Units to succeed, unlike what was the case elsewhere in Britain. Dozens, if not hundreds of armament depots are spread out throughout the territory of the Northern Counties, providing ample supplies of weaponry to the Auxiliaries, which over time have evolved into protestant resistance groups, known under the umbrella name of the "Ulster Volunteer Force".

Politics

Cabinet

Cabinet Member	Role	Ideology	Traits/Effects
Neil Blaney	Head of State	Aristocratic Republicanism
Eddie MacAteer	Head of Government	Despotism	Silent Workhorse: Daily Political Power Gain: +0.15 Resource Gain Efficiency: +10.00%
Gerry Fitt	Foreign Minister	Progressivism	Political Appointment: Political Power Gain: +5% Foreign Subversive Activities Efficiency: +5%
Austin Currie	Economic Minister	Conservatism	Political Appointment: Political Power Gain: +5% Construction Speed: -5.00% Factory Output: -5.00%
Albert Kennedy	Security Minister	Despotism	Aggressive Fighter: Division Speed: +5.00% Division Attack: +5.0%

Political Parties

Political Party	Ideology	Popularity	Party Leader	Is ruling?
Fianna Fáil - Northern Counties Administrative Council (FF - NCAC)	Despotism	32%	Neil Blaney	Yes
Fine Gael - Northern Ireland (FG - Northern Ireland)	Liberal Conservatism	16%	Tom Gormley	No
Fianna Fáil - Moderates (FF - Moderates)	Paternalism	15%	Neil Blaney	No
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)	Ultranationalism	14%	Ian Paisley	No
Irish Republican Army - Marxist (IRA - M)	Communism	8%	UNKNOWN	No
The Labour Party - Northern Ireland (LP - Northern Ireland)	Progressivism	6%	Gerry Fitt	No
Irish Citizen Guard (ICG)	Fascism	5%	REDACTED	No
Irish Republican Army - Traditional (IRA - T)	Socialism	4%	UNKNOWN	No

Political Leaders

Leader	Ideology	Party	In power	Popularity
Neil Blaney	Aristocratic Republicanism	Fianna Fáil - Northern Counties Administrative Council (FF - NCAC)	Yes	32%
Ian Paisley	Stratocracy	Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)	No, can come to power if the UVF takes control	14%
Seamus Twomey	National Communism	Irish Republican Army - Marxist (IRA - M)	No, can come to power if the IRA takes control

Economy

The Northern Counties Special Zone has a starting GDP of $1.05 billion and a real GDP growth rate of -0.947% with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 56.4%. The Northern Counties Special Zone starts with starts with 4 production units; 3 are assigned to Military Factories and the last is unusable due to insufficient grid power.

Military

Branch	Manpower Used
Free Manpower	72.11K
Army	0
Air	0
Navy	0

Army

The Northern Counties Special Zone does not start with an army.

Flags

Flags
Flag	Country Name	Ideologies	Notes
	N.C.S.Z.	Aristocratic Republicanism
	Irish Republic	National Communism	IRA Takeover
	Ulster Volunteer Army	Stratocracy	UVF Takeover
	Orange State of Ulster	Interim Government	UVA victory in the War in Ulster

Trivia

In real life, Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom. Ireland did not get the land when it gained independence, largely due to the fact that it was largely populated by Protestants (whereas the majority of Ireland was - and still is - populated with Catholics). While Winston Churchill offered to return the territory if Ireland agreed to join the Allies and fight, but Éamon de Valera (also leader of Ireland at the time) refused, largely due to the fact that if he had accepted, it would have likely resulted in a civil war due to the differences between the two groups.