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Partition of Ireland
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The partition of Ireland between the north-eastern six counties and the rest of Ireland took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The entire island of Ireland provisionally became the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922. However, the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised its right to opt out of the new Dominion the following day.
Partition created two territories on the island of Ireland: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Today the former is still known as Northern Ireland while the latter is known as Ireland (or, if differentiation between the state and the whole island is required, the state can be referred to as the Republic of Ireland).
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The partition of Ireland between the north-eastern six counties and the rest of Ireland took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The entire island of Ireland provisionally became the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922. However, the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised its right to opt out of the new Dominion the following day.
Partition created two territories on the island of Ireland: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Today the former is still known as Northern Ireland while the latter is known as Ireland (or, if differentiation between the state and the whole island is required, the state can be referred to as the Republic of Ireland). Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom, while the remainder of Ireland is a sovereign state.
Partition
Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 the island of Ireland was partitioned into two autonomous regions Northern Ireland (six north-eastern counties) and Southern Ireland (the rest of the island) on 3 May 1921.
The Parliament and Governmental institutions for Northern Ireland were quickly established afterwards. In contrast, the Parliament and Governmental institutions for Southern Ireland failed to function or take root. This was because of the political circumstances in Southern Ireland at the time – with the very large majority of Irish Members of Parliament giving their allegiance to Dáil Éireann and supported the Irish War of Independence.
That Irish War of Independence ultimately led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Treaty was given legal effect in the United Kingdom through the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. Under that Act, at 1pm on 6 December 1922, the King (at a meeting of his Privy Council at Buckingham Palace) signed a proclamation establishing the new Irish Free State.
The Irish Free State then established encompassed the whole island of Ireland. Therefore on 6 December 1922 Northern Ireland stopped being part of the United Kingdom and became part of the newly created Irish Free State. This remarkable constitutional episode arose because of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the legislation introduced to give that Treaty legal effect.
However, the Treaty and the laws which implemented it also allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the Irish Free State. Under Article 12 of the Treaty, Northern Ireland could exercise its opt out by presenting an address to the King requesting not to be part of the Irish Free State. Once the Treaty was ratified, the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had one month (dubbed the Ulster month) to exercise this opt out during which month the Irish Free State Government could not legislate for Northern Ireland, holding the Free State’s effective jurisdiction in abeyance for a month.
Realistically, it was always certain that Northern Ireland would opt out and rejoin the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, speaking in the Parliament in October 1922 said that “when the 6th of December is passed the month begins in which we will have to make the choice either to vote out or remain within the Free State.” He said it was important that that choice was made as soon as possible after 6 December 1922 “in order that it may not go forth to the world that we had the slightest hesitation”. On 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State) the Parliament demonstrated its lack of hesitation by resolving to make the following address to the King so as to opt out of the Irish Free State:
Discussion in the Parliament of the address was short. Prime Minister Craig left for London with the memorial embodying the address on the night boat that evening, 7 December 1922. The King received it the following day, The Times reporting:
With this, Northern Ireland had left the Irish Free State and rejoined the United Kingdom - after just over two days as part of the Irish Free State. If the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had not made such a declaration, under Article 14 of the Treaty Northern Ireland, its Parliament and government would have continued in being but the Oireachtas would have had jurisdiction to legislate for Northern Ireland in matters not delegated to Northern Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act. This, of course, never came to pass.
On 13 December 1922 Prime Minister Craig addressed the Parliament informing them that the King had responded to the Parliament’s address as follows:
Origins from 1886
In the United Kingdom general election, 1885 the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party won the balance of power in the House of Commons, in an alliance with the Liberals. Its leader, Charles Stewart Parnell convinced William Gladstone to introduce the First Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886. Immediately an Ulster Unionist Party was founded and organised demonstrations in Belfast against the Bill, fearing that separation from the United Kingdom would bring industrial decline and religious intolerance. Randolph Churchill proclaimed: the Orange card is the one to play, and that: Home Rule is Rome Rule.
In the more rural parts of Ireland a "Land War" (1879-1890) was under way, supported by nationalists, that had led to sporadic violence. The Representation of the People Act 1884 had enlarged the popular franchise, and unionist property-owners were concerned that their interests would be reduced by a new Irish political class.
Although the bill was defeated, Gladstone remained undaunted and introduced a Second Irish Home Rule Bill in 1892 that, on this occasion, passed the Commons. Accompanied by similar massed Unionist protests, Joseph Chamberlain called for a (separate) provincial government for Ulster even before the bill was rejected by the House of Lords. The seriousness of the situation was highlighted when Irish Unionists throughout the island assembled conventions in Dublin and Belfast to oppose the Bill and the proposed partition.
When in 1910 the Irish Party again held the balance of power in the Commons, Herbert Asquith introduced a Third Home Rule Bill in 1912. The unheeded Unionist protests of 1886 and 1893 flared up as before, not unexpectedly. With the protective veto of the Lords removed by the Parliament Act 1911, Ulster armed their Ulster Volunteers in 1914 to oppose enactment of the Bill and what they called its "Coercion of Ulster", threatening to establish a Provisional Ulster Government. Nationalists and Republicans remained uninterested in Unionist's concerns, brushed aside their defiance as bluff, saying that Ulster will have no choice but to follow.
Background 1914–22
The Home Rule Act reached the statute books with Royal Assent in September 1914 but was suspended on the outbreak of World War I for one year or for the duration of what was expected to be a short war. Originally intended to grant self-government to the entire island of Ireland as a single jurisdiction under Dublin administration, the final version as enacted in 1914 included an amendment clause for six Ulster counties to remain under London administration for a proposed trial period of six years, yet to be finally agreed. This was belatedly conceded by John Redmond leader of the Irish Party as a compromise in order to pacify Ulster Unionists and avoid civil war, but was never intended to imply permanent partition.
After the Great War Lloyd George tasked the Long Committee to implement Britain’s commitment to introduce Home Rule which was based on the policy of Walter Long, the findings of the Irish Convention and the new principles of self-determination applied at the Paris Peace Conference. Meanwhile in Ireland, nationalists won the overwhelming majority of the seats in the 1918 (United Kingdom) parliamentary election and declared unilaterally an independent (all-island) Irish Republic. (Unionists won a majority of seats in Ulster.) Britain refused to accept the secession and the Irish War of Independence followed. These events together resulted in the enactment of a Fourth Home Rule Act, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which created two Home Rule parliaments: a Parliament of Northern Ireland which functioned and a Parliament of Southern Ireland which did not. The Anglo-Irish Treaty established a de jure basis for an Irish Free State and allowed the Parliament of Northern Ireland to opt out. Both sides ratified the treaty and Northern Ireland promptly exercised its right to remain within the United Kingdom.
Provision was made in the 1920 Act for a Council of Ireland that would work towards uniting the two parliaments within 50 years (effectively by 1971). This became defunct following the election results in the Free State in May 1921, and was dissolved in 1925. Irish ratification of the Treaty was highly contentious and led directly to the Irish Civil War.
Some Irish nationalists have argued that, when the Irish Free State was founded on 6 December 1922, it included Northern Ireland until the latter voted to remain separate; which it did on 7 December. This theory could appear to make Northern Ireland technically a part of the Free State for a day, but this ignores the divisions aroused by the Anglo-Irish War and by the prior existence of the northern parliament. Further, it was acknowledged and regretted in the Dáil Treaty Debates (December 1921–January 1922) that the Treaty only covered the part of Ireland that became the Free State; the Treaty was ratified by the Dáil, and accepted by the Third Dáil elected in 1922. Others theorise that, had it not opted out in 1922, Northern Ireland could have become a self-governing part of the Free State; a prospect likely to be impractical and unwelcome to both nationalists and unionists. By December 1922 the Free State was also involved in a civil war, and its future direction appeared uncertain.
In any case, opinion of Northern Ireland Unionists had hardened during the Anglo-Irish War. This had caused hundreds of deaths in Ulster, a boycott in the south of goods from Belfast, and re-ignition of inter-sectarian conflict. Following the Truce of July 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and the British Government, these attacks continued. In early 1922, despite a conciliatory meeting between Michael Collins and James Craig, Collins covertly continued his support for the IRA in Northern Ireland. Attacks on Catholics in the north by loyalist mobs in 1920–22 worsened the situation as did attacks on Protestants in the south. Long's solution of two states on the island largely seemed to reflect the reality on the ground: there was already a complete breakdown of trust between the unionist leaders in Belfast and the leaders of the then Irish Republic in Dublin.
Debate on Ulster Month
As described above, under the Treaty it was provided that Northern Ireland would have a month - the "Ulster Month" - during which its Houses of Parliament could opt out of the Irish Free State. There was some debate on when that Ulster Month should run from: From the date that the Treaty was ratified (in March 1922 via the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act) or the date that the Constitution of the Irish Free State was approved and the Free State established (6 December 1922).
When the Irish Free State (Agreement) Bill was being debated on 21 March 1922, amendments were proposed which would have provided that the Ulster Month would run from the passing of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act and not the Act that would establish the Irish Free State. Essentially, those who put down the amendments wished to bring forward the month during which Northern Ireland could exercise its right to opt out of the Irish Free State. They justified this view on the basis that if Northern Ireland could exercise its option to opt out at an earlier date, this would help to settle any state of anxiety or trouble on the Northern Ireland frontier. The Treaty was ambiguous on whether the month should run from the date the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified or the date that the Irish Free State was established. The British Government took the view that the Ulster Month should run from the date the Irish Free State was established and not beforehand, Viscount Peel for the Government remarking:
Viscount Peel continued by saying the Government desired that there should be no ambiguity and would to add a proviso to the Irish Free State (Agreement) Bill providing that the Ulster month should run from the passing of the Act establishing the Irish Free State. He further explained that the members of the Parliament of Southern Ireland had agreed to put that interpretion upon it. He noted that he had received from Mr. Arthur Griffith the following letter dated 20 March 1922:
Boundary Commission 1922–25
The Anglo-Irish Treaty contained a provision that would establish a boundary commission, which could adjust the border as drawn up in 1920. Most leaders in the Free State, both pro- and anti-Treaty, assumed that the commission would award largely nationalist areas such as County Fermanagh, County Tyrone, South Londonderry, South Armagh and South Down, and the City of Derry to the Free State, and that the remnant of Northern Ireland would not be economically viable and would eventually opt for union with the rest of the island as well. In the event, the commission's decision was made for it by the inter-governmental agreement of 3 December 1925 that was published later that day by Stanley Baldwin. As a result the Commission's report was not published; the detailed article explains the factors involved.
The Dáil voted to approve the agreement, by a supplementary Act, on 10 December 1925 by a vote of 71 to 20.
Division of Territorial Waters
The exact division of territorial waters as between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State was to be a lingering matter of controversy for a number of years. Section 1(2) of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 defined the respective territories of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland as follows:
At the time of that Act, both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland were to remain parts of the United Kingdom. Perhaps because of this, the Act did not explicitly address the position of territorial waters although Section 11(4) provided that neither Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland would have any competence to make laws in respect of “Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons (except so far as they can consistently with any general Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom be constructed or maintained by a local harbour authority)”.
When the territory that was Southern Ireland ultimately became a separate self-governing dominion outside the United Kingdom known as the Irish Free State, the status of the territorial waters naturally took on a significance it had not had before. The Northern Ireland Unionists were conscious of this matter from an early stage. They were keen to put it beyond doubt that the territorial waters around Northern Ireland would not belong to the Irish Free State. In this regard, Captain James Craig, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland put the following question in the British House of Commons on 27 November 1922 (the month before the establishment of the Irish Free State):
In response the Attorney General, Sir Douglas Hogg, said that “I have considered the question, and I have given an opinion that that is so [i.e. the territorial waters do go with the counties]".
However, this interpretation that the territorial waters went with the counties was later disputed by Irish Governments. A good summary of the Irish position was given by the then Taoiseach, Mr. Jack Lynch, during a Dáil debate on 29 February 1972:
A particular dispute arose between the Government of the Irish Free State of the one part and the Northern Ireland and UK Governments of the other part over territorial waters in Lough Foyle. Lough Foyle lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the then Irish Free State. A court case in the Free State in 1923 relating to fishing rights in Lough Foyle held that the Free State’s territorial waters ran right up to the shore of County Londonderry. In 1927, illegal fishing on Lough Foyle had become so grave that Northern Ireland Prime Minister, James Craig entered into correspondence with his Free State counterpart, W. T. Cosgrave. Craig indicated to Cosgrave that he proposed to introduce a Bill giving the Royal Ulster Constabulary powers to stop and search vessels on Lough Foyle. Cosgrave asserted all of Lough Foyle was Free State territory and that as such a Bill of that nature would be rejected by the Free State and its introduction would create “a very serious situation”. Cosgrave then raised the matter with the British government.
It appears that the territorial dispute between Ireland and the United Kingdom concerning Lough Foyle (and similarly Carlingford Lough) may still not have been settled. As recently as 2005, when asked to list those areas of EU member states where border definition is in dispute, a British Government minister responding for the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs stated: "Border definition (ie the demarcation of borders between two internationally recognised sovereign states with an adjoining territorial or maritime border) is politically disputed [between] Ireland [and the] UK (Lough Foyle, Carlingford Lough—quiescent)" It appears moves have been made on the Irish side to settle the issue. During Dail debates on the Carlingford Fisheries Bill, a contributor to the debate stated that he welcomed "the Bill’s aim of defining the area of jurisdiction over the Foyle." However, it appears that the Carlingford Fisheries Act 2007 ultimately remained silent on the point.
Partition and sport
Following partition some social and sporting bodies divided but others did not. Today in Ireland many sports, such as boxing, rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling, are organised in an all-island basis, with a single team representing Ireland in international competitions. Other sports, such as association football, have separate organising bodies in Northern Ireland (Irish Football Association) and the Republic of Ireland (Football Association of Ireland). At the Olympics, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either the Republic of Ireland team (which competes as "Ireland") or United Kingdom team (which competes as "Great Britain"). Selection usually depends on whether his or her sport is organised on an all-Ireland, a Northern Ireland, or a UK basis. Sports organised on an all-Ireland basis are affiliated to the Republic of Ireland’s Olympic association, whereas those organised on a Northern Ireland or UK basis are generally affiliated to the UK’s Olympic association.
Partition and rail transport
Rail transport in Ireland was seriously affected by partition. The railway network on either side of the Border relied on cross-border routes, and eventually a large section of the Irish railway's route network was shut down. Today only the cross-border route from Dublin to Belfast remains, and counties Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Tyrone have no rail services.
1937 Constitution: Ireland/Éire
De Valera came to power in Dublin in 1932 and drafted a new Constitution of Ireland which in 1937 was adopted by referendum in the Irish Free State. It accepted partition only as a temporary fact and the irredentist articles 2 and 3 defined the 'national territory' as: 'the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas, thereby incorporating Northern Ireland without its consent. The state itself was officially renamed 'Ireland' (in English) and 'Éire' (in Irish), but became referred to casually in the United Kingdom as "Eire" (sic). The English-language preamble described the population as: "We, the people of Éire".
To unionists in Northern Ireland, the 1937 constitution made the ending of partition even less desirable than before. Most were Protestants, but article 44 recognised the 'special position' of the Roman Catholic Church. Further, the preamble referred to: "...our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial, Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,"; this was an independence that unionists had opposed, and seemed to imply in an insulting fashion that Jesus had sustained only the Irish independence movement, and never the unionist cause. All spoke English, but article 8 stipulated that the new 'national language' and 'first official language' was to be Irish, with English as the 'second official language'.
The Constitution was approved only by the electorate of the Free State, and by a relatively slim majority of about 159,000 votes. Considering the unionist vote in the following year, it is debated by historians whether the Constitution would have been approved by an all-Ireland 32-county electorate.
Decades later the text giving a 'special position' to the Roman Catholic Church was deleted in the Fifth Amendment of 1973. The irrendentist texts in Articles 2 and 3 were deleted by the Nineteenth Amendment in 1998, as part of the Belfast Agreement.
British offer of unity in June 1940
However, during the Second World War, after the invasion of France, Britain made a qualified offer of Irish unity in June 1940, without reference to those living in Northern Ireland. The revised final terms were signed by Neville Chamberlain on 28 June 1940 and sent to Éamon de Valera. On their rejection, neither the London or Dublin governments publicised the matter.
Ireland/Éire would effectively join the allies against Germany by allowing British ships to use its ports, arresting Germans and Italians, setting up a joint defence council and allowing overflights.
In return, arms would be provided to Éire and British forces would cooperate on a German invasion. London would declare that it accepted 'the principle of a United Ireland' in the form of an undertaking 'that the Union is to become at an early date an accomplished fact from which there shall be no turning back.'
Clause ii of the offer promised a Joint Body to work out the practical and constitutional details, 'the purpose of the work being to establish at as early a date as possible the whole machinery of government of the Union'.
The proposals were first published in 1970 in a biography of de Valera.
1945–1973
In May 1949 the Taoiseach John A. Costello introduced a motion in the Dáil strongly against the terms of the UK Republic of Ireland Act 1949 that confirmed partition for as long as a majority of the electorate in Northern Ireland wanted it, styled as the Unionist Veto. This was a change from his position supporting the Boundary Commission back in 1925, when he was a legal adviser to the Irish government. A possible cause was that his coalition government was supported by the strongly republican Clann na Poblachta. From this point on, all the political parties in the Republic were formally in favour of ending partition, regardless of the opinion of the electorate in Northern Ireland.
The new Republic could not and in any event did not wish to remain in the Commonwealth and it chose not to join NATO when it was founded in 1949. These decisions broadened the effects of partition but were in line with the evolving policy of Irish neutrality.
In 1966 the Taoiseach Seán Lemass visited Northern Ireland in secrecy, leading to a return visit to Dublin by Terence O'Neill; it had taken four decades to achieve such a simple meeting. The impact was further reduced when both countries joined the European Economic Community in 1973. With the onset of The Troubles (1969–98) a 1973 referendum showed that a majority of the electorate in Northern Ireland did want to continue the link to Britain, as expected, but the referendum was boycotted by Nationalist voters.
Possibility of British withdrawal in 1974
Following the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969, the Sunningdale Agreement was signed by the Irish and British governments in 1973. This collapsed in May 1974 due to the Ulster Workers Council Strike, and the new British Prime Minister Harold Wilson considered a rapid withdrawal of the British army and administration from Northern Ireland in 1974–75 as a serious policy option.
The effect of such a withdrawal was considered by Garret FitzGerald, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs in Dublin, and recalled in his 2006 essay. The Irish cabinet concluded that such a withdrawal would lead to widescale civil war and a greater loss of life, which the Irish Army of 12,500 men could do little to prevent.
Repeal of the Union by the Dáil in 1983
Despite the ongoing dispute about partition, the original Acts of Union which merged Ireland and Britain into a United Kingdom from the start of 1801 have only been repealed in part. The British Act was repealed by the Irish Statute Law Revision Act 1983, a delay of 61 years. The Irish parliament's Act of 1800 was still not repealed in the last Revision Act of 2005; this was described in the Dáil committee debates as a "glaring omission". However, it may be better understood as reflecting the fact that the Parliament of the United Kingdom cannot legally repeal an Act of another parliament, the historic Parliament of Ireland, which itself has not existed since 1801.
Constitutional acceptance in 1998
In the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, Articles 2 and 3 declared that the "territory of the state is the island of Ireland, its outlying islands and its seas". Clearly, this was not the case in fact or in law, as determined by the terms of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921. This claim to the territory of Northern Ireland was deeply resented by its majority Unionist population. However, a part of the Belfast Agreement (1998), the Irish government agreed to propose an amendment to Irish Constitution and campaign in its favour in the necessary referendum. This, the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, changed Articles 2 and 3 was approved by a very large majority. Article 3 now states that "a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island. "
See also
External links
- (Workers Solidarity Movement - An anarchist organisation which supports the IRA)
- (MSN Encarta)
- (Marxists Internet Archive)
- (The Blanket)
- Sean O Mearthaile (The ETEXT Archives)
- (BBC History)
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- (History World)
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