Ireland has two different systems of license plates or license plates, and they are not compatible at all. Northern Ireland as a jurisdiction has clung to an outdated system, outdated in other parts of the UK. And while reading an Irish license plate can be relatively easy, even intuitive, the same can’t be said for the wheeled brothers up north. The reason is that Northern Ireland has a different system. Not just from the Republic, because, to a large extent, it is also substantially different from the system used in the rest of the UK.
Northern Ireland: a tuition backwater
With regard to vehicle registrations, Northern Ireland must certainly be the most conservative part of the British Isles… as the state still uses the old ‘national system’ today. This was created for the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as early as 1903. And it has been phased out everywhere, both in the UK and Ireland.
This system is based on the two-letter county and city codes, with the I or Z assigned to Ireland (which, at the time, was still a political entity). Each of these codes was originally followed by a number, ranging from 1 to 9999. When they were exhausted, a new code was assigned, and in 1957 the system ran out of codes and numbers, so the sequence was reversed from January 1958. Rapid growth in road traffic depleted this system even faster, and in January 1966 the first new style license plates were introduced and are still in use today.
Current Northern Ireland license plate numbers are based on a letter system, followed by the county or city code, followed by up to four numbers.
The optical design of a northern Irish license plate
License plates that adhere to Northern Ireland law come in two colors: those on the front of a vehicle have black characters on a white background, those on the rear of the vehicle use a yellow background . On the left side of the number plate, you may see the EU blue stripe with a GB country code… or you may not as the addition of this stripe is completely optional. Strong Republicans would not be seen dead with that stripe, but the omission of the stripe is not a declaration of allegiance.
Occasionally you may see cars that have a blue stripe without the EU symbol, instead sporting a Union Jack, or even the old Northern Ireland flag, often complete with an NI code, are illegal. Variants with the IRL country code are also illegal.
City and county codes on Northern Ireland license plates
Here’s another throwback to the old days… Northern Ireland’s counties (Antrim, Armagh, Derry (or Londonderry, if you prefer), Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone) were effectively replaced by ‘council areas’ a few decades ago. But they are still the basis of the encryption in the registry. And here they are, alphabetically:
Special registers in Northern Ireland
Numbers 1 through 999 are generally considered “prized records” and are only issued on special request (and for a special fee). So are the numbers 1111, 2222, 3333, 4444, 5555, 6666, 7777, 8888, and 9999. Any other number between 1000 and 9998 is assigned simply on a first-come, first-served basis.
As for the county and city codes, there are only two special sequences reserved:
- LTZ: used for buses built in Northern Ireland, but intended for transport to London, and
- QNI – Used for all “age undetermined” vehicles as well as kit cars.
Vehicles used by security forces are registered with normal plates, vehicles used by the British Army are registered within the UK system on army plates.
