Partition of Ireland 1920-22

The partition of Ireland in 1921 created the political division whose consequences shaped the Troubles half a century later. For CCEA students in Northern Ireland, this is foundational local history — understanding why Northern Ireland exists and why its creation was contested from the start.

Background: Ireland before 1920

Ireland had been part of the United Kingdom since the Acts of Union (1800). By the early twentieth century, Irish politics was dominated by two competing demands:

• Home Rule: a devolved Irish parliament within the UK, sought by the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) led by John Redmond.
• Unionist opposition: Ulster Protestants, concentrated in the northeast, were deeply opposed to Home Rule, fearing Catholic and nationalist domination. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed in 1913, with 100,000 members, to resist Home Rule by force.

The Home Rule Bill was passed in 1914 but suspended for the duration of WWI — a delay that transformed Irish politics.

The Easter Rising 1916 and its aftermath

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers launched an armed uprising in Dublin, seizing the GPO and other buildings. The Rising was militarily suppressed within a week, but the British government's decision to execute 15 leaders (including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly) transformed public opinion. The executed men became martyrs; the moderate IPP was swept aside; Sinn Fein (under Eamon de Valera) replaced them as the dominant nationalist force.

In the December 1918 general election, Sinn Fein won 73 of Ireland's 105 seats. The elected Sinn Fein MPs refused to take their seats at Westminster and instead declared themselves the Dáil Éireann (Irish parliament) in Dublin in January 1919.

The Irish War of Independence 1919-21

The Irish Republican Army (IRA), under the military direction of Michael Collins, waged a guerrilla campaign against the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and British forces. Key features:

• Collins' intelligence network disrupted British intelligence; IRA flying columns conducted ambushes in the countryside.
• The British government deployed the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries — irregular forces notorious for reprisals against civilians (burning of Cork, Kilmichael ambush, Bloody Sunday November 1920 — British agents killed by Collins followed by Black and Tan killings at Croke Park).

The Government of Ireland Act 1920

Before the War of Independence concluded, the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act (1920), which:

• Partitioned Ireland into two separate jurisdictions.
• Created a Parliament of Northern Ireland (covering the six northeast counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Tyrone) — to come into being in June 1921.
• Proposed a separate Parliament of Southern Ireland (for the other 26 counties) — never functioned, as Sinn Fein boycotted it.

The six counties were chosen because they contained the largest unionist majority — though Fermanagh and Tyrone had nationalist majorities. This was a deliberate choice to make Northern Ireland as large as possible while still maintaining a unionist majority.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty (December 1921)

After a truce was called in July 1921, Irish delegates led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins negotiated with the British government (led by Lloyd George) in London. The resulting Anglo-Irish Treaty (signed 6 December 1921) established:

• The Irish Free State — a self-governing dominion with the same constitutional status as Canada. Not a republic — members of the Irish parliament had to swear an oath of allegiance to the King.
• Partition was confirmed: Northern Ireland could opt out of the Free State, which it did immediately.
• A Boundary Commission would determine the exact border between North and South — nationalists hoped it would transfer large areas (including Fermanagh and Tyrone) to the Free State.

The Boundary Commission reported in 1925 but proposed only minor adjustments — a huge disappointment for nationalists in both parts of Ireland.

The Irish Civil War 1922-23

The Treaty was bitterly divisive. The key issue was the oath of allegiance — to republican purists, swearing loyalty to a British king was a betrayal of the republic proclaimed in 1916.

The Dáil approved the Treaty by 64 votes to 57 (January 1922). De Valera led the anti-Treaty republicans out of the Dáil. Fighting broke out in June 1922 between pro-Treaty forces (the new Irish Free State army) and anti-Treaty IRA.

The civil war lasted until May 1923. It was more destructive than the War of Independence:

• Michael Collins was killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork (22 August 1922).
• The Free State government executed 77 anti-Treaty IRA prisoners during the conflict — more than the British had executed in the entire War of Independence.
• The bitterness of the civil war shaped Irish party politics for generations (Fine Gael descended from pro-Treaty; Fianna Fáil from anti-Treaty).

Legacy for Northern Ireland

• Partition created a six-county state with a built-in unionist majority but a large nationalist minority (approximately one-third of the population).
• The new Northern Ireland state was born amid violence and communal fear — the Belfast pogrom of 1920-22 killed over 450 people.
• Nationalist and Catholic communities never fully accepted the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state — this alienation lay beneath the surface until it erupted again in the civil rights era of the 1960s.