Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a constitute unit of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the northeast of the island of Ireland. It is variously described as a country, province, region, or "part" of the United Kingdom, amongst other terms. Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland's population were unionists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom, most of whom were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain; however, a significant minority, mostly Catholics, were nationalists who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule. Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a distinct Northern Irish identity is claimed both by a large minority of Catholics and Protestants and by a majority of those who are non-aligned.

Links To Peel
During the punk era of the late 70's, a significant amount of bands from Northern Ireland came to Peel's attention due to the work of Terri Hooley of the Good Vibrations label, who signed upcoming punk bands from the area. One of those bands, the Undertones released Teenage Kicks in 1978, which became Peel's all time favourite track. Other bands from Northern Ireland during the punk era also got Peel's attention including Stiff Little Fingers. Peel was very supportive of many 70's punk bands in Northern Ireland and would criticise major record labels in not signing them. On one show on 11 September 1978, he criticised major record labels in their reluctance of signing bands from Northern Ireland:

 'Well, I don't know if it's cowardice or indolence that's stopped any of the major record companies from signing any of the excellent bands from Northern Ireland, or perhaps it's because places like Derry and Belfast may not immediately seem to be the kind of places where it's worth going on record company expenses for a weekend.'

Peel rarely visited Northern Ireland, possibly due to the long distance by car and ferry, as well as his fear of flying, but did visit the area in 2001 to make a TV documentary about the Undertones called The Story Of The Undertones: Teenage Kicks.

The Undertones Teenage Kicks lyrics, "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat", was painted on the Bridge End flyover into East Belfast in 2004 to commemorate Peel, but was removed by the Department for Social Development (DSD) for unknown reasons.