BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP-8884, 21 December 2020 Parliament and Northern By David Torrance Ireland, 1921-2021 Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Historical background 3. Parliament of Northern Ireland 4. Northern Ireland, 1921-39 5. “Matters arising from a state of war”, 1939-45 6. Post-war Northern Ireland, 1945-50 7. Northern Ireland, 1950-66 8. The 1920 Act under pressure, 1966-72 9. Direct Rule, 1972-79 10. Northern Ireland, 1979-99 11. Northern Ireland, 1999-2021 Appendix 1: Government of Ireland Act 1920 timeline Appendix 2: Political leaders in Northern Ireland Appendix 3: Selected bibliography www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Parliament and Northern Ireland, 1921-2021 Contents 1. Introduction 6 2. Historical background 8 2.1 Third Home Rule Bill 8 2.2 Origins of partition 9 2.3 Government of Ireland Act 1914 11 2.4 New proposals 12 2.5 Government of Ireland Bill 14 2.6 An Act to “provide for the better Government of Ireland” 16 Powers 17 Restrictions 19 Financial provisions 19 Refusal to work the Act 20 Sovereignty 20 2.7 The 1920 Act as a “constitution” 21 2.8 Creating the new “state” 21 2.9 Elections to the Northern Parliament 23 2.10 First meetings of Parliament 24 State opening 25 2.11 Parliament of Southern Ireland 26 2.12 Negotiations 27 2.13 Anglo-Irish Treaty 29 2.14 The Irish Free State and “Ulster Month” 31 3. Parliament of Northern Ireland 34 3.1 House of Commons 34 3.2 Senate of Northern Ireland 36 3.3 Governor of Northern Ireland 37 3.4 Privy Council and Great Seal of Northern Ireland 40 3.5 Stormont 41 3.6 Royal Courts of Justice 43 3.7 Northern Ireland Civil Service 44 3.8 Representation at Westminster 46 3.9 Northern Ireland MPs at Westminster 46 3.10 Irish Boundary Commission, 1924-25 47 3.11 Changes to Royal Titles 50 4. Northern Ireland, 1921-39 52 4.1 Financial relations 52 Grant-in-aid from Westminster 53 Imperial Contribution 54 Colwyn Committee 55 Transferred revenue 57 4.2 Law and order 58 Special Powers Act 59 4.3 Case law 60 Belfast Corporation 60 Gallagher v Lynn 61 Ulster Transport Authority v James Brown 61 4.4 Social services 61 Unemployment Insurance Agreements 62 1938 financial agreement 63 3 Commons Library Briefing, 21 December 2020 4.5 Intergovernmental relations 64 4.6 1923 Speaker’s Ruling 66 4.7 Cross-border issues 67 4.8 Miscellaneous Provisions 69 4.9 Free State becomes Éire 71 4.10 Northern Ireland in the 1930s 72 5. “Matters arising from a state of war”, 1939-45 75 5.1 Defence Regulations 75 5.2 Intergovernmental relations 77 5.3 Scrutiny at Stormont 77 5.4 Reunification? 78 5.5 Conscription 79 5.6 Ulster Unionist Party 80 5.7 Imperial Contribution 80 5.8 Travel restrictions 81 5.9 Prolongation 82 5.10 Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1945 83 5.11 The “Ulster bridgehead” 83 6. Post-war Northern Ireland, 1945-50 85 6.1 Intergovernmental tensions 85 6.2 Financial relations 86 6.3 Social security 87 Interim agreement of 1946 88 Further Agreement, 1948 88 Health Services 89 6.4 Northern Ireland Act 1947 90 6.5 Anti-Partition League 92 6.6 Ireland Act 1949 94 6.7 Constitutional implications of the 1949 Act 96 7. Northern Ireland, 1950-66 98 7.1 Reopening the 1920 Act 98 7.2 Intergovernmental relations 99 7.3 Northern Ireland (Foyle Fisheries) Act 1952 100 7.4 Parity and Leeway 102 7.5 Dominion status 103 7.6 Northern Ireland Act 1955 104 7.7 The border 105 7.8 Disqualification from parliament(s) 105 7.9 Northern Irish peers 106 7.10 Northern Ireland Act 1962 107 7.11 “Treasury control” 108 7.12 Economic development 110 7.13 Northern Ireland at Westminster 111 7.14 Northern Ireland in the mid-1960s 112 8. The 1920 Act under pressure, 1966-72 114 8.1 Labour and Northern Ireland 114 8.2 Financial relations 116 8.3 Northern Ireland in 1966-68 116 8.4 Civil rights demonstrations 119 8.5 “Ulster at the crossroads” 121 8.6 UK government intervention 122 8.7 Ulster Defence Regiment 124 8.8 Discrimination 125 4 Parliament and Northern Ireland, 1921-2021 8.9 A new Prime Minister 127 8.10 50th anniversary of Northern Ireland 129 8.11 Northern Ireland in 1971 130 8.12 Financial relations 131 8.13 “Bloody Sunday” 132 8.14 Special Powers Act 134 8.15 “Turning point” 135 8.16 Direct rule is announced 137 9. Direct Rule, 1972-79 139 9.1 Direct Rule Phase I: 1972-73 139 9.2 Border Poll 140 Debate in Parliament 140 The Order 141 The referendum 141 9.3 Constitutional proposals 142 Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 143 Sunningdale Agreement 143 Executive is formed 144 9.4 Direct Rule Phase II: 1974-79 145 Orders in Council 146 Policy making under Direct Rule 147 The Northern Ireland Office 148 Northern Ireland Civil Service 148 Westminster committees and Direct Rule 149 Fiscal matters and funding 149 Local government 150 9.5 Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention 151 9.6 Representation at Westminster 152 10. Northern Ireland, 1979-99 153 10.1 Party talks 153 10.2 Direct Rule 154 10.3 “Rolling devolution” 155 Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982-86 155 10.4 British-Irish relations 157 10.5 Anglo-Irish Agreement 157 Reactions to the Agreement 158 10.6 Downing Street Declaration 159 10.7 Framework Agreement 160 Northern Ireland Forum 161 10.8 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 162 10.9 Northern Ireland Act 1998 163 11. Northern Ireland, 1999-2021 165 11.1 The 1920, 1973 and 1998 Acts compared 165 Division of powers 166 Assembly procedure 167 Executive Committee 168 Financial arrangements 168 Sovereignty and legislative consent 169 Devolution in Northern Ireland, 2000-07 170 Devolution in Northern Ireland, 2017-20 170 The Sewel Convention 171 Speaker’s ruling 171 11.2 Intergovernmental relations 171 North-South Ministerial Council 172 5 Commons Library Briefing, 21 December 2020 British-Irish Council 172 British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference 172 Joint Ministerial Committee 172 United Kingdom Supreme Court 172 11.3 Northern Ireland and Brexit 173 11.4 Centenary of Northern Ireland 174 Appendix 1: Government of Ireland Act 1920 timeline 175 Appendix 2: Political leaders in Northern Ireland 176 11.5 Lords Lieutenant of Ireland 176 11.6 Chief Secretaries for Ireland 176 11.7 Governors of Northern Ireland 176 11.8 Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland 176 11.9 Chief Executive of Northern Ireland 176 11.10 Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland 176 11.11 First Ministers of Northern Ireland 177 11.12 Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland 177 11.13 Speakers of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 177 11.14 Speakers of the Senate of Northern Ireland 178 11.15 Speakers of the Northern Ireland Assembly 178 Appendix 3: Selected bibliography 179 6 Parliament and Northern Ireland, 1921-2021 1. Introduction It is one hundred years since the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (“the 1920 Act”) received Royal Assent. This partitioned the island of Ireland – part of the United Kingdom since 1801 – and created what is still known as “Northern Ireland”. As the historian Ivan Gibbons has written, the 1920 Act was “the single most important piece of British legislation of the twentieth century relating to Ireland in that it established a new constitutional and political arrangement (devolved government and partition) which exists to this day”. The focus of this paper are the constitutional aspects of the 1920 Act and the role of UK Parliament. It is not intended as a general history of Northern Ireland. The passage of the 1920 Act marked the beginning of a process rather than a single event. From 1921 until the introduction of Direct Rule in 1972, what many considered the “constitution of Northern Ireland” underwent significant changes. It was also contested, for the 1920 Act never achieved cross-community consent. Yet a lot of Northern Ireland’s early history has slipped from public consciousness. Events since the onset of the “Troubles” in 1969 have been extensively documented by historians, journalists and political scientists, the period prior to that less so. As another historian, Graham Walker, has observed, Northern Ireland “serves as a reminder that devolution and constitutional change has a long, complex, and fascinating history, and did not just appear magically at the end of the twentieth century”. Some features of the 1920 Act survive: the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast; separate Consolidated and National Insurance Funds; a distinct Northern Ireland Civil Service; and a distinctive division of excepted/reserved/transferred powers. Others do not, chiefly the bicameral Parliament of Northern Ireland, its single-party Government and vice-regal Governor. The Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive established by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Act 1998 represented a deliberate break with the institutions envisaged in 1920. This paper is also the story of the United Kingdom as it is currently constituted, for the Northern Ireland border created by the 1920 Act has been central to constitutional debate from the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 to the Brexit controversies of 2016-21. It too evolved. Originally intended as a boundary between two devolved parts of the UK, by the end of 1922 it instead separated two parts of the British Empire. Only in 1949, when the Republic of Ireland left the British Commonwealth, did it become an international boundary.