ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Direct rule over Northern Ireland

Okay kiddo, so a long time ago, there was a country called Ireland. But Ireland wasn't just one country, it was split into two parts. One part was called Northern Ireland and the other was called the Republic of Ireland.

Now, Northern Ireland was controlled by a big country called the United Kingdom. That means the people who lived in Northern Ireland had to follow the rules that the United Kingdom made, and they had to be ruled by the people who lived in the United Kingdom.

But it wasn't always like that. A while back, the people who lived in Northern Ireland didn't want to be ruled by the United Kingdom anymore. They wanted to have their own government that made their own rules. But the United Kingdom didn't want that to happen. They liked having control over Northern Ireland because it was important to them for a few reasons.

So the United Kingdom came up with a plan called "direct rule." That means they sent their own people to Northern Ireland to be in charge instead of letting the people who lived there run things. This was done to keep things under control and make sure everything stayed the way the United Kingdom wanted it to be.

So that's what direct rule over Northern Ireland is, in a nutshell. It's when the United Kingdom takes over rule of Northern Ireland to make sure things stay the way they want them to be.