Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is created …• After centuries of Anglo-Norman/English/British

involvement, the ‘Kingdom’ of Ireland was incorporated into the UK in 1800 by Act of Union.

• Ireland’s relationship to/within the UK (and England beforehand) was always contested, periodically by violent revolt e.g. 1798 uprising & the C19th campaign by the IRB & IRA (known as the ‘Fenians’)

• Gladstone spoke of ‘local patriotism’ calling for ‘Home Rule’ for Ireland within UK but his ruling Liberal Party was divided; a Conservative House of Lords blocked Home Rule twice in 1886 and 1893, while Unionists in Ulster threatened revolt

John Redmond & Arthur Griffith (1856-1918 ) (1871-1922)

The Ulster Covenant, 28 September 1912

• 1912 – 3rd attempt at Home Rule by a Liberal Government helped by Labour & moderate Irish nationalists in Westminster; Unionists opposed to Home Rule (‘Rome Rule’) for Ireland

• Home Rule Bill suspended for duration of WWI

• 1916 - Easter Rebellion in Dublin – rebel leaders executed by the British for treason, alienating the vast majority of ordinary Irish people

• 1918 – last all-Ireland election within the UK; triumph for Sinn Fein but also Unionists in North

• 1919 – mounting civil unrest and violence

• 1920 – Government of Ireland Act and Partition

• Two new Irish parliaments formed based on devolution – only Unionists attend the southern Parliament but it is ignored by Sinn Fein which continues to sit illegally in its Dail Eireann

• The Northern Parliament convenes, dominated by Unionists; Northern Nationalists remain away

• Unionists come to see devolution as a way of preserving the Union with Great Britain

• 1921 – Devolved Government formed in Belfast

• 1920-1 – last days of British rule in ‘the south’ before Anglo-Irish Treaty leads to IRA ceasefire

• 1922 – Irish Free State formed; civil war begins

Devolution in Northern Ireland

• 1921-72 – Devolved Parliament & Government (later based at and known as Stormont) to deal with ‘transferred’ matters; London retained ‘reserved’ and ‘excepted’ matters.

• 1922-3 – Civil war ends in the South with victory for pro-Treaty forces

• 1937 – Irish Free State renames itself ‘Eire’

• 1939-45 – Eire neutral; NI at war as part of UK

• 1949 – Eire finally leaves the Commonwealth/ Republic of Ireland formed

Stormont (opened 1932)Home of the NI Parliament & Government

James Craig & Eamonn de Valera(1871-1940) (1882-1975)

• 1945 – Labour Government at Westminster establishes a Welfare State; Unionist Government in Stormont reluctantly follows

• 1956-62 – Operation Harvest (the IRA’s ‘Border campaign’) withers away but the 1960s witness increasing sectarian tensions inside NI over civil rights and Catholics’ experience of discrimination in public housing & employment

• 1969 – UK Government introduces the Army to NI to ‘aid the civil power’ amid mounting unrest

• 1971 – Stormont introduces internment; sharp escalation in civil unrest and terrorist violence

• 1972 – Stormont abolished. Direct rule starts

From Civil Rights to Civil War? Life goes on in Ulster ….

Bloody Sunday & Bloody Friday(30 January and 21 July 1972)

Brian Faulkner and the NI Government resign, Direct Rule imposed – William

Whitelaw becomes 1st Secretary of State for NI, March 1972

Direct Rule in Northern Ireland

• 1972 – Worst single year of ‘the Troubles’

• Direct Rule established as a ‘temporary’ measure pending restoration of some form of devolved settlement that commands cross-community consent and agreement

• 1973-4 – Sunningdale Agreement for ‘power-sharing’ in NI and a Council of Ireland collapses amid Unionist/Loyalist opposition

• 1975 – Constitutional Convention

• 1980-2 – ‘Rolling Devolution’ and new Assembly (boycotted by Nationalists, wound up 1986)

The ‘Sunningdale’ Power-sharing Executive, Dec.1973-May 1974

• 1985 - Anglo-Irish Agreement

• 1993 – ‘UK has no selfish, strategic interest in NI’

• 1993 – Downing Street Declaration by UK & RoI

• 1994-6 1st IRA Ceasefire

• 1997- 2nd IRA Ceasefire

• 1998 – Good Friday Agreement & Referendum

• 1998 – Assembly Election

• 1999 – Devolved assembly begins

Northern Ireland Referendum on Belfast 'Good Friday' Agreement, 22 May 1998

No28.88%

Yes71.12%

Yes No

Northern Ireland Referendum on the Belfast Agreement - Breakdown by Religion

4

28.88

96

5571.12

45

0

25

50

75

100

Catholic Protestant Overall

Religion

%

Republic of Ireland Referendum on Belfast 'Good Friday' Agreement, 22 May 1998

No5.61%

Yes94.39%

Yes No

NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY ELECTION 1998:SEATS BY PARTY

UUP

PUP

DUP

UKUP

IND U

SDLP

SF

AP

WC

NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2003: SEATS BY PARTY

UUPDUPALLIANCEOTHERSSDLPSF

Devolution-plus in Northern Ireland• Good Friday Agreement based on the ‘consent’ principle

and on giving effect to three strands– Internal devolution based on power-sharing Assembly

with a 12 member Executive– Cross-border dimension - all-Ireland inter-governmental

North-South ministerial council (12 areas of cooperation and mutual interest)

– British Isles dimension - British-Irish Council linking all sovereign & devolved bodies across archipelago; British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference between the UK and Irish Govts

– ‘Confidence building’ measures: ‘reform’ of the police and criminal justice system; decommissioning of terrorist arsenals; Human Rights and Equality Commission; release of convicted terrorist prisoners

• Northern Ireland Assembly– Unicameral assembly but not sovereign (Westminster

can over-rule)– Quadrennial elections - 108 MLAs elected by Single

Transferable Vote form of PR– MLAs designate themselves as ‘Unionist’, ‘Nationalist’ or

‘Other’ - consociationalist– Primary legislation on transferred matters– No fiscal powers to levy taxation although power over

the ‘Regional rate’ (property tax)– Discretion over devolved NI public spending– Key decisions by weighted majority (60% of those

present and voting; at least 40% of both nationalist and Unionist delegations)

• Northern Ireland Executive– Diarchy of First and Deputy First Minister – one from each

main community– 10 Ministers, drawn by the d’Hondt form of PR from the

Assembly – a ‘Grand Coalition’?

• Continued failure to secure decommissioning of terrorist weapons, and paramilitary activities led to Unionist refusal to share power with Sinn Fein

• Republicans claimed Unionists don’t want to share power with them; & UK Govt ‘deceitful’

• 2000-03 - Assembly suspended 4 times with Direct Rule re-imposed during the suspensions

• 2003 – New election finally held but result ensures that suspension remains

• Internal NI institutions and cross-border bodies supposed to be mutually interdependent

• Despite suspension of the Assembly and Executive, North-South bodies continue to work

• Under devolution, unlike Scotland or Wales, little evidence emerged of major policy divergences from UK government partly due to small policy capacity, regular suspensions & mistrust both between the parties and of the NI Civil Service which was so powerful under Direct Rule

Alternatives?

• ‘United’ Ireland – little prospect in the short-medium term – and, what would it mean anyway?

• Full integration into the UK – difficult in a UK with growing internal devolution

• Independence for Northern Ireland - unviable• Repartition of the island of Ireland - unviable• Joint UK/Irish authority/sovereignty - possible• European authority or UN protectorate – v.unlikely• Continued ‘Direct Rule’ from London – most likely• Internal subsidiarity – empowering local government• Demographic change – will the minority one day out

number the majority? Even so, this does not imply an automatic support for an all-Ireland state.

Conclusions• Ireland (& later Northern Ireland) has long had a chequered

relationship with England (& the UK)

• Partition was a ‘solution’ of sorts – for almost 50 years, Ireland ceased to be a major issue in British politics – NI was ‘hermetically’ sealed off

• Discrimination & inter-communal violence/terror forced the UK Govt to intervene to seek a new dispensation to satisfy both communities

• 1998 Belfast Agreement offered a way forward at last but has stalled indefinitely – but at least the worst excesses of terrorism have eased somewhat.