Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was formed by the Government of Ireland Act 1920–1. It comprised 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 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. The new 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 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. 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.

The declaration of an Irish republic in 1948 caused the constitutional status of the province to be clarified in the Ireland Act of 1949. 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. Police and special constabulary's reaction to civil rights demonstrations 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 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 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. Demands for political status for republican prisoners in 1981 led to further catholic alienation and support for Sinn Fein.

By 1985 and the Anglo‐Irish agreement, attention turned to co‐operation between the Republic and the British government on security and political matters. 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. have been jeopardized by the refusal of the IRA to begin serious disarmament. Assembly was suspended and direct rule reimposed.