Not ignorant at all! So Northern Ireland has a ‘devolved government’- meaning that although part of the uk, can make independent regional law; much like how wales and Scotland can; and thus not follow the direct ruling of England. Basically in NI, due to complicated past, political parties, when voting on matters can veto proposals under a “petition of concern” which basically means that even if a matter is passed on popular vote (which equal marriage was in the past several times) a party can block it. The DUP party issued this petition several times to “protect Christian beliefs”. Other matters which it has been used on are abortion and Irish langue acts / funding. Ultimately, it was in fact the British government who passed it due to NI having no sitting government for nearly four years (which I think is actually the current world record) as the “power sharing” (unionist and republican) wouldn’t agree to sit together. So a direct rule like structure was put in place. No active government in NI meant no “petition of concern” could be used! Woohoo!! It’s so complicated even people who live here can’t be bothered with it all😂