Partition of Ireland

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The Partition of Ireland took place in May 1921, following the enactment in December 1920 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and was accepted in the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922 that ended the Anglo-Irish War and the union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The partition created two territories on the island of Ireland: Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom, and the Irish Free State, which was at that stage a Crown Dominion, later to become the Republic of Ireland.

Contents

[edit] Origins from 1886

Charles Stewart Parnell worked intensively leading up to the general election of 1885 to win over British opinion to Home Rule for Ireland, in which his Irish Parliamentary Party won the balance of power in the House of Commons, in an alliance with the Liberals. Parnell convinced William Gladstone to introduce the First Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886. Immediately an Ulster Unionist Party was founded, and backed by the Conservative Party it organised violent demonstrations in Belfast against the bill fearing separation from the United Kingdom would bring economic decline and religious intolerance. Randolph Churchill proclaimed the Orange card is the one to play.

Although the bill was defeated Gladstone remained undaunted and introduced a Second Irish Home Rule Bill in 1893 which on this occasion passed the Commons. Accompanied by similar massed Unionist protests, Joseph Chamberlain called for a provincial government for Ulster even before the bill was rejected by the House of Lords. The seriousness of the situation highlighted when southern Unionists called conventions in Dublin and Belfast to oppose the bill and the proposed partition[1].

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, Ulster armed their Ulster Volunteers in 1913 to oppose enactment of the bill and its “Coercion of Ulster”, threatening the establishment of a Provisional Ulster Government. Nationalists and Republicans remained disinterested in Unionist's concerns, brushed their defiance as bluff aside, with Ulster will have no choice but to follow.

[edit] Background 1914-22

Main articles: Anglo-Irish War, Anglo-Irish Treaty, Southern Ireland, Irish Republic, Irish Free State, and Republic of Ireland

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 an expectedly 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 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. It resulted, during the course of the Anglo-Irish War, 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 laid the basis of the Irish Free State in the area of Southern Ireland and allowed the Parliament of Northern Ireland to opt out, which was made possible following the election results of May 1921, and reconfirmed by a parliamentary vote on 7 December 1922.

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 south in May 1921, and the Second Dáil ignored the Act. The Irish Republic had been declared in Dublin in January 1919, based on Sinn Féin's 1918 manifesto which had deplored "the contemplated mutilation of our country by partition." While the new republic sought freedom from Britain on the basis of self-determination, it rejected partition, because of the belief in the unity of Ireland.

Whilst the Partition of Ireland came to be one of the most contentious issues in Anglo-Irish relations after 1925 and in the internal politics of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and its successor states, it was not the most controversial aspect of the Anglo-Irish treaty in the Irish Free State in 1921. Anti-Treaty opposition was mostly focused on the retention of the British monarch as the Irish head of state and the Oath of Allegiance, which included a pledge of fidelity to him and his heirs.

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 a complete breakdown of trust between the unionist élite in Belfast and the leaders of the then-Irish Republic in Dublin.

[edit] Boundary Commission 1922-25

Main article: Boundary Commission (Ireland)

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 delayed until 1925 by the Irish Civil War and it opted to retain the status quo. The report of the Commission (and thus the terms of the agreement) has yet officially to be made public: the detailed article explains the factors believed to have been involved.

The Dáil voted to approve the Commission's decision, by a supplementary Act, on 10 December 1925 by a vote of 71 to 20.[2]

[edit] Partition and sport

Following partition many social and sporting bodies divided. Notably the Irish Football Association of affiliated soccer clubs founded in 1880 split when the clubs in the southern counties set up the "Irish Free State Football Association" in 1921-1936, which was then renamed the Football Association of Ireland. Both are members of FIFA.

However the Irish Rugby Football Union (founded in 1879) continues to represent that game on an all-Ireland basis, organising international matches and competitions between all four provinces. An element in the growth of Irish nationalism, the Gaelic Athletic Association was formed in 1884 and its sports are still based on teams that represent Ireland's 32 counties.

[edit] Arrest of De Valera in 1929

De Valera when leader of the opposition in the Irish Free State was arrested in Northern Ireland in February 1929. The ensuing Dáil debates aired the circumstances of partition at length.[3] The Dublin government's attitude had become a party political issue.

[edit] 1937 Constitution

Eamon 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'. The state itself was renamed 'Ireland' (in English) and 'Eire' (in Irish).

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. 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 by the southern electorate only, 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.

[edit] 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 Eamon de Valera. On their rejection, neither the London or Dublin governments publicized 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.'[4]

Clause ii of the offer promised a Joint Body to work out the practical and consititutional 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.[5]

[edit] 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.[6] 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 remain in the Commonwealth and it chose not to join NATO when it was founded in 1949. These widened the effect of partition but were in line with the evolving policy of Irish neutrality.

In 1966 the Irish 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.

[edit] 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 Foreign Minister in Dublin, and recalled in his 2006 essay.[7] 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.

[edit] 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".[8]

[edit] Revision in 1998

In terms of electoral results alone, the unionist parties in Northern Ireland have received the majority of votes cast in every election since 1921. However, the sizeable nationalist minority has felt excluded and has generally supported the irredentist claims in Articles 2 and 3 of the original 1937 Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. These claims were agreed to be varied by the Belfast Agreement of 1998 and ratified by referendum, to accept that partition will last as long as a majority of voters in Northern Ireland want to retain it. In turn, the nationalist community in Northern Ireland would enjoy 'parity of esteem' and participate in the institutions that govern them.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Patrick Maume, The long Gestation, Irish Nationalist Life 1891-1918, p. 10 (1999)
  2. ^ Dáil vote to approve the Boundary Commission negotiations
  3. ^ http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie:80/D/0028/D.0028.192902200002.html http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie:80/D/0028/D.0028.192902200028.html http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie:80/D/0028/D.0028.192902200041.html
  4. ^ Eds. O'Day A. & Stevenson J., Irish Historical Documents since 1800 (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992) p.201. ISBN 0-7171-1839-8
  5. ^ Longford, Earl of & O'Neill, T.P. Eamon de Valera (Hutchinson 1970; Arrow paperback 1974) Arrow pp.365-368. ISBN 0 09 909520 3
  6. ^ http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0115/D.0115.194905100042.html
  7. ^ Garret FitzGerald's essay of 2006
  8. ^ Statute Law Revision (pre-1922) Act, 2005

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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