Ulster Unionist Party

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Ulster Unionist Party Largest Loyalist party in Northern Ireland. It developed in the late 19th century to defend the six northern provinces of Ulster from Irish home rule and to maintain the union with Britain. Almost exclusively Protestant, it was the ruling party in Northern Ireland from 1922 until the imposition of direct rule from Westminster in 1972. In 1998, the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, became first minister of Northern Ireland.

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