Complex sentence: The area of Northern Ireland was seen as the maximum area within which Ulster Protestants/unionists could be expected to have a safe majority, despite counties Fermanagh and Tyrone having slight Catholic/Irish nationalist majorities.
Split into simpler sentences: The area of Northern Ireland was seen as the maximum area within which Ulster Protestants/unionists could be expected to have a safe majority. This was in spite of the fact that counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had slight Catholic/Irish nationalist majorities.