Lecture notes
The Government of Ireland Act
These are notes about the Government of Ireland Act which formed Northern Ireland
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Government of Ireland ActWho was satisfied with the act?
Need to consider the reactions of:
1. British Government
2. Ulster Unionists
3. Southern Unionists
4. Nationalists
British Government
Arguably, the Government of Ireland act was a great achievement British
Government, mainly because it got the Ulster problem off their backs.
BOYCE-as far as British Conservative opinion was concerned, the fate of Ulster was
always secondary to what were regarded as the interests of England and the British
Empire.
Lloyd George’s government was divided on the draft bill submitted to the Long
Committee.
Lloyd George suggested a six county settlement, and cabinet members such as
Bonar Law and Lord Birkenhead supported this.
Despite some support, they felt that the government's aim should be ‘a united
Ireland with a separate parliament of its own bound by the closest ties of Great
Britain
It was argued that the prospects of such eventual unity would be greatly diminished
by the exclusion of six counties instead of nine.
Lord Balfour of Burleigh and four fellow peers declared in a letter to The Times that
‘our wish to see Ulster satisfied does not blind us to the fact this is an imperial and
not simply an Irish question.’
It was believed that a nine county ulster would merge easily with the south, and
since the principle of Irish unity was popular in the United States and the
dominions, according to Laffan, David Lloyd George’s cabinet believed they should
‘at least facilitate it even if they could not achieve it’.
Nevertheless, the securing of a Bill still remained an achievement of the British, as
they could finally put the Ulster question to rest and deal with problems that were
arising internationally after the First World War had ended.
Ulster Unionists
YES-Satisfied
Ulster Unionists, led by Sir James Craig, were quite satisfied, since they had won the
battle for the more “ethnographic” six county bloc as against the original nine
county split envisaged by the drafting committee under Walter Long.
Ulster Unionists feared that a nine county excluded area would be too precarious,
and a number believed that within a few years a growing Catholic population would
outvote them into an all-Ireland state.
Unionists reluctantly accepted the six county Home Rule parliament believing that it
offered them the best chance of remaining in the United Kingdom.
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