LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Northern Ireland
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Driving standards in Northern Ireland are among the lowest in Europe and the death toll per head of population is annually among the highest on the continent. By tradition Northern Irish drivers believe themselves to be much better drivers than they actually are. This overconfidence being cited as the biggest cause of the high accident rate in the Province. Newly qualified drivers can be identified on the roads by 'R' ( meaning Restricted to 45 MPH on all roads)the plates that must be displayed on their Car for a period of twelve months after qualifying. 'R' drivers are widely disliked by other drivers and often unfairly described as dangerous due to their newly qualified status. In truth 'R' drivers are the least likely to cause an accident as their newly gained driving skills make them on average 30% safer on the road than a driver in the Province with five years experience.
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Apart from the five months of the power-sharing Executive in 1974, Northern Ireland was governed from Westminster until 2 December 1999 when the Northern Ireland Executive set up under the Belfast Agreement took over responsibility of government. Difficulties over decommissioning forced the government to impose direct rule again between February and May 2000.
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Despite a reputation as unsafe, Northern Ireland has one of the lowest crime rates among industrialized countries. According to statistics from the U.N. International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS 2004), Northern Ireland has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe (lower than the United States and the rest of the United Kingdom). In fact, the results of the latest ICVS show that Japan is the only industrialized place safer than Northern Ireland. Almost all visitors experience a trouble-free stay.
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The whole of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is persistent across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5 °C (43.7 °F) in January and 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in July. The damp climate and extensive deforestation in the 16th and 17th centuries resulted in much of the region being covered in rich green grassland.
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The Unionist parliament at Stormont, which had governed Northern Ireland since the foundation of the State in 1921, sat for the last time on Tuesday 28 March 1972. Conservative Prime Minster Edward Heath had decided to strip the parliament of its power and introduce direct rule from Westminster. He was responding to the worsening security situation that was aggravated when paratroopers, deployed by the Stormont government, shot dead 13 unarmed civilians during a civil rights march in Derry. Two days later an angry crowd burned down the British Embassy in Dublin and in February an Official IRA bomb at the Aldershot HQ of the Parachute Regiment killed three civilians. This was followed by an assassination attempt on a Northern Ireland government minister.
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Shortly before Britain's general election on June 7, Northern Ireland's first minister David Trimble announced that he would resign on July 1 if the IRA did not start disarming. The announcement helped bolster his position among his constituents, and Trimble managed to hold on to his seat in the British Parliament. However, his pro-British Ulster Unionist Party fared badly overall. In the weeks that followed, the IRA took no steps to dismantle its arsenal, and Trimble resigned as planned.
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