Designed and built by unionist Freemasons at exactly the moment they were plotting partition the ship contained many coded references to their secret political goal The most obvious of these were the watertight compartments any four of which could flood without sinking the vessel Likewise Northern Ireland was designed to stay afloat even if four counties filled up with Catholics The decision to include lifeboats for only twothirds of the people on board reflected the idea of Northern Ireland itself as a lifeboat for only twothirds of the people on board But there were lifevests for everyone which frankly was more than some of them deserved