Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was formed by the Government of Ireland Act 1920–1. It comprises the six counties of the north-east of the island: Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone. To ensure a protestant majority, the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster were rejected as the boundary. Fermanagh and Tyrone, though possessing small catholic majorities, were included to provide a credible geographical entity. The British government had preferred an all-Ulster option, hoping that partition would therefore be temporary. Initially, loyalist opinion was opposed to the establishment of a separate province; but once Northern Ireland had been set up, it was seen as the crucial bulwark against Irish unification.

The artificial character of the province is demonstrated by the awkwardness of its title: parts of Donegal in the Free State/Republic are further north. It is frequently referred to as ‘the six counties’, ‘Stormont’, or ‘the Northern Statelet’, terms revealing the bias of the observer. The decision to draw the boundary according to county lines made little social, economic, or geographical sense. The natural hinterland of the city of Derry is Co. Donegal; Newry was cut off from much of its locale; isolated enclaves of catholics or protestants were created; border areas such as south Armagh saw no justification for being included in the new province; the erratic border itself divided farms, towns, and communities.

The circumstances of the province's formation dictated its turbulent subsequent history. The catholic minority, always over 30 per cent of the population, never accepted partition and usually boycotted the Belfast Parliament. The emerging Free State refused to recognize Northern Ireland. An IRA offensive in early 1922 threatened to destabilize the nascent province. In the Anglo-Irish treaty of December 1921, provision was made for a boundary commission, holding out hope of a substantial alteration of frontier. The commission did not meet until 1925 and no changes were finally made. Not surprisingly, the province established itself along the lines of a protestant state for a protestant people, with a heavy emphasis on security considerations.

After 1925, the province's future seemed more assured but still few concessions were made to the minority. Economic development was retarded by over-dependence on the British Treasury and by over-reliance on declining traditional industries. The government was dominated by narrow landed and commercial interests; all were members of the Orange order and preoccupied with appeasing their protestant constituents. Sir James Craig was prime minister 1921–40, Lord Brooke 1943–63. Unionist confidence was increased by their contribution in supplying bases and ports for Atlantic convoys, contrasting with the Free State's neutrality. However, lack of foresight and general incompetence in government circles caused the effects of German bombing of Belfast to be severe; embarrassingly, fire services had to be secretly begged from Dublin.

The declaration of an Irish republic in 1948 caused the constitutional status of the province to be clarified in the Ireland Act of 1949. Dependence on Britain was increased by the new welfare state; unemployment became the worst in the UK; the disparity between west and east of the province grew wider. But the abject failure of the IRA offensive 1956–62 appeared to remove any immediate threat and increased catholic acceptance of the province. Terence O'Neill's attempts, as premier from 1963, to modernize the economy and reform the sectarian basis of the province highlighted all inherent tensions. Unionists divided over his reforms and the catholic minority demanded more substantial changes, mounting their first effective challenge via the civil rights movement from 1967. Police and special constabulary's reaction to civil rights demonstrations, together with the unionist backlash, resulted in major riots in Derry city and Belfast, and the belated intervention of British troops to restore order and ensure more fundamental reforms. The security situation deteriorated rapidly in 1969–72, resulting in further polarization of the two communities, the alienation of the catholic population from the British army, and the formation of the Provisional IRA. The British government's declaration of direct rule from Westminster in 1972 was followed by the establishment of a power-sharing executive in January 1974, which was brought down as a consequence of the loyalist strike within five months.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a continuous, if limited, IRA offensive against both the security forces and the economy; the growth of loyalist paramilitary retaliation; spates of sectarian assassinations and bombings in the province, in Britain, and occasionally in the Republic. Abortive attempts to restore some form of devolved government only revealed the extent to which violence had hardened divisions. Demands for political status for republican prisoners in 1981 led to further catholic alienation and support for Sinn Fein. While direct rule saw a considerable diminution in governmental discriminatory practices, little progress was made on economic performance. Unionist suspicions concerning British government intentions increased and the British taxpayer was progressively alarmed about the expense of continued involvement.

By 1985 and the Anglo-Irish agreement, attention turned to co-operation between the Republic and the British government on security and political matters. The level of violence, particularly by protestant paramilitaries, increased. A sense of exhaustion after 25 years of conflict, better Anglo-Irish government communications, European and American concern, and, finally, negotiations between the SDLP and Sinn Fein leaders, John Hume and Gerry Adams, all contributed to the Downing Street declaration of December 1993, the IRA cease-fire of August 1994, and the loyalist paramilitary one two months later. After a referendum, administration was handed back in 1998 to a Northern Ireland Assembly of 108 members, of which 24 represented SDLP and 18 Sinn Fein. But hopes for the peace process in the 21st cent. were jeopardized by the reluctance of the IRA to begin serious disarmament, which led to the dissolution of the Assembly in 2003 and the re-imposition of direct rule. Devolved government was restored in 2007 with the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein sharing power.

Michael Hopkinson

Bibliography

Buckland, P. , A History of Northern Ireland (Dublin, 1981);
Wichert, S. , Northern Ireland since 1945 (1991).