1. Northern Ireland

2. 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 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

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

4. The Ulster Covenant, 28 September 1912

5. 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
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

6. 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
– last days of British rule in ‘the south’ before Anglo-Irish Treaty leads to IRA ceasefire
1922 – Irish Free State formed; civil war begins

7. Devolution in Northern Ireland
– Devolved Parliament & Government (later based at and known as Stormont) to deal with ‘transferred’ matters; London retained ‘reserved’ and ‘excepted’ matters.
– Civil war ends in the South with victory for pro-Treaty forces
1937 – Irish Free State renames itself ‘Eire’
– Eire neutral; NI at war as part of UK
1949 – Eire finally leaves the Commonwealth/ Republic of Ireland formed

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

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

10. 1945 – Labour Government at Westminster establishes a Welfare State; Unionist Government in Stormont reluctantly follows
– 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

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

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

13. Brian Faulkner and the NI Government resign, Direct Rule imposed – William Whitelaw becomes 1st Secretary of State for NI, March 1972

14. 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
– Sunningdale Agreement for ‘power-sharing’ in NI and a Council of Ireland collapses amid Unionist/Loyalist opposition
1975 – Constitutional Convention
– ‘Rolling Devolution’ and new Assembly (boycotted by Nationalists, wound up 1986)

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

16. 1985 - Anglo-Irish Agreement
1993 – ‘UK has no selfish, strategic interest in NI’
1993 – Downing Street Declaration by UK & RoI
st IRA Ceasefire
nd IRA Ceasefire
1998 – Good Friday Agreement & Referendum
1998 – Assembly Election
1999 – Devolved assembly begins

22. 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

23. Northern Ireland Assembly
Unicameral assembly but not sovereign (Westminster can over-rule)
Quadrennial elections 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)

24. 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’
Assembly suspended 4 times with Direct Rule re-imposed during the suspensions

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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.