Peter's Guide To Politics in Northern Ireland

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The Creation of Northern Ireland

Why and how did the partiton come about? This page will briefly explain in my own words how Northern Ireland came to be.

Until the late 1850's there was no real, organised Nationalist party in Ireland. A Protestant lawyer by the name of Isaac Butt established the Home Government Association of Ireland in the late 1850's. This was attempt by Isaac Butt to have the restoration of Grattan's Parliament, the paliament that was in operation in Ireland until the 1801 Act of Union. However this greatly concerned Unionists as Grattan's parliament was controlled by the Protestant Ascendancy and this parliament, if created, would be predominantly controlled by Catholics and they feared that "Home Rule would be Rome Rule". Over the years the Home Government Association progressed into the Home Rule Party and a wealthy, Protestant Wicklow man Charles Stewart Parnell took over the leadership from Isaac Butt. Parnell was a much better politician than Butt and although he was still only looking for Home Rule he was more of a Nationalist than Butt "No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation...". Parnell was successful in getting a Home Rule Bill into the Commons but it was defeated. It was only at this stage that the Unionists began to organise themselves under Dublin man Edward Carson. Parnell succeeded in getting a second Home Rule bill into the Commons but it was defeated at the House of Lords. In a blow for the Home Rule Party now called the Irish Party Parnell was forced to resigned following revelations about his affair and was replaced by John Redmond and the Irish Unionists were much more organised now than they had been with James Craig joining Carson at the helm. The Ulster Unionist Party was set up to supplement, in Ulster, the work being done by the Irish Unionists. There were some spectacular election battles between the Unionists and Irish Party, in Monaghan T.M. Healy defeated his Unionist rival by a whisker leading him to proclaim "All Ulster is ours" and he called for people in the 28 Counties (at the time only a four county exclusion was being looked for) to rally against the Unionist cause

There was negotiations before John Redmond succeeded in getting an All-Ireland Third Home Rule through the House of Commons, between Redmond, Carson and the British government. Carson proposed an all Ulster exclusion while Redmond wanted a county by county plebiscite, however no agreement on Ulster was reached and now that the Lords had reduced powers they could not veto the Bill so it looked like Home Rule would become a reality. However it was not to be as World War 1 broke out and the Home Rule Bill was shelved until after the war. The two paramilitary organisations that had been set up, the UVF and the Irish Volunteers, agreed to send most of their troops to fight in the war with the Unionists looking for concessions on the Home Rule Bill which were vaguely promised. It's interesting to note than 90% of the Irish Volunteers went to fight in the War, taking the name the National Volunteers, and remaining 10% kept the name the Irish Volunteers, these were the more hardline. As the war dragged on it appeared more and more unlikely that Home Rule would become a reality so the militants within the Irish Volunteers and the smaller Irish Citizen Army under the leadership of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) organised a rebellion for Easter Sunday 1916. However when Volunteer leader Eoin MacNeil heard what was going on he was furious and refused to let the Volunteers take part and due to the confusion within the ranks of the Volunteers the Rising was postponed until the following day when the most of the British Forces would be at the races.

From the outset the Rising was doomed to failure as the rebels failed to take the British headquarters at Dublin Castle making the GPO the headquarters instead. When Padraig Pearse read out his proclamation the people in Dublin laughed. The rebels didn't have the support of the Irish people and when they surrendered ordinary Dubliners threw fruit at them in protest at what they'd done but once they saw the treatment that the Army had dealt them (all the leaders were executed except for Eamonn de Valera) the Irish people were furious and so seperation and not Home Rule became the main focus thus eliminating any chance the Irish Party had at establishing a deal with the Irish Unionists.

Although they'd been established in 1905 Sinn Fein were a tiny party until the Rising and there support exploded, after all the only surviving leader of the Rising, de Valera, was a member and subsequently elected later. At the next elections Sinn Fein decimated the Irish Party, who failed to win a seat and the Irish Unionists failed to win a seat outside of Ulster (except for two seats in Trinity College, Dublin). Sinn Fein refused to take there seats in Westminster instead setting up their own parliament in Dublin, they invited the Unionists to take part in the first Dail but they declined the invitation. So the only Irish voice in Westminster was that of the Unionists. Michael Collins was given the position as Minister For Intelligence and set about recruiting a guerilla style army. In 1919 the War of Independence errupted with the IRA ambushing British army officers and the British Army firing into the crowd at Croke Park. The British administration under David Lloyd George tried to put forward a solution by introducing The Government of Ireland Act, 1920 which split the country into two with a parliament of Northern Ireland and a parliament of Southern Ireland with a Council of Ireland to discuss the reintergration of the two states. Lloyd George envisaged a partitioned Ireland as a temporary solution.

When it became obvious that this was not acceptable to the Irish "government" the British entered into negotations which led to the controversial Treaty. The treaty didn't give Ireland a Republic but it gave them a "Free State" which was not a part of the UK but a part of the Commonwealth like Australia (the Commonwealth was more controlled that it is now). The question of Northern Ireland was put into the hands of a Boundary Commission, which all sides thought would make the North too small an economic entity and would have to join with the South.

The full implemenation of the Treaty was put on hold as Civil War broke out in Ireland but when it was resolved the Boundary Commission was established. One member was to come from the Free State, Education minister Eoin MacNeill was appointed. One member was to come from the North, but the Stormont government refused to go along with it so the Conservative Westminster government appointed a staunch Unionist to represent the Northern state. One member was to be an Independent arbitrator, the initial choice was a Canadian judge who made it clear he saw this as a glorious chance to re-unify Ireland but the Unionists complained and he was replaced by Mr. Justice Feetham, a confirmed Imperalist. Oddly enough the Free State government didn't protest at this decision. With two unionists versus one nationalist on the Commission it became clear that Ireland and Ulster would remain divided. In fact a document was leaked that gave an indication that some parts of Monaghan and Protestant East Donegal would be transferred to the Northern state and panic ensued down South. MacNeil resigned and he was replaced by Kevin O'Higgins, a tough man, and the three men signed an Agreement keeping the present border and transfer the powers of the Council of Ireland to the Northern state, thus giving Northern Ireland its first real air of permanency.