High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A United Ireland is the idea of a sovereign state covering all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which covers 6 counties. The phrase "26+6=1" often refers to the desire to unify the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland with the 6 counties of Northern Ireland into a single state.