ULSTER, one of the four provinces into which Ireland is divided. It consists of the northern portion of the island, and embraces the following counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone. This province had anciently petty kings of its own. It was subjected to the English in the reign of Henry II. by John de Courcy, the first who bore the title of earl of Ulster: but it afterwards threw off the yoke, and was never entirely reduced till the reign of James I. when great numbers of Scots, by his encouragement, came and settled in it; and from them the greater part of the present inhabitants of the province are descended.