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The Partition of Ireland took place in May 1921, following the enactment in December 1920 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and was accepted in the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922 that ended the Anglo-Irish War and the union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .

The partition created two territories on the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom, and the Irish Free State, which was at that stage a Crown Dominion, later to become a republic.

Contents 1 Background 1914-22 2 Boundary Commission 1922-25 3 1937 Constitution 4 Revision in 1998 5 See also 6 External links

Main articles: Anglo-Irish War, Anglo-Irish Treaty, Southern Ireland, Irish Free State, and Irish Republic

The Government of Ireland Act 1914, which reached the statute books with Royal Assent but was never implemented due to the outbreak of World War I, would have given home rule to the entire island of Ireland.

Based on the policy of Walter Long, and the new principles of self-determination applied at the Versailles Peace Conference, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created two Home Rule parliaments: a Parliament of Northern Ireland which functioned and a Parliament of Southern Ireland which did not. The Anglo-Irish Treaty laid the basis of the Irish Free State but allowed the Parliament of Northern Ireland to opt out, which was made possible following the election results of May 1921, and reconfirmed by a parliamentary vote on 7 December 1922.

Provision was made in the 1920 Act for a Council of Ireland that would work towards uniting the two parliaments within 50 years; effectively by 1971. This became defunct following the election results in the south in May 1921, and the Second Dáil ignored the Act. The Irish Republic had been declared in Dublin in January 1919, based on Sinn Féin's 1918 manifesto which had deplored: ..the contemplated mutilation of our country by partition.

Whilst the Partition of Ireland came to be one of the most contentious issues in Anglo-Irish relations and in the internal politics of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and its successor states, it was not the most controversial aspect of the Anglo-Irish treaty in the Irish Free State in 1921. Anti-Treaty opposition was mostly focused on the retention of the British monarch as the Irish head of state and the Oath of Allegiance, which included a pledge of fidelity to him and his heirs.

Some Irish nationalists have argued that, when the Irish Free State was founded on 6 December 1922, it included Northern Ireland until the latter voted to remain separate; which it did on 7 December. This theory could appear to make Northern Ireland technically a part of the Free State for a day, but this ignores the divisions aroused by the Anglo-Irish War and by the prior existence of the northern parliament. Further, it was acknowledged and regretted in the Dáil Treaty Debates (December 1921-January 1922) that the Treaty only covered the part of Ireland that became the Free State; the Treaty was ratified by the Dáil, and accepted by the Third Dáil elected in 1922. Others theorise that, had it not opted out in 1922, Northern Ireland could have become a self-governing part of the Free State; a prospect likely to be impractical and unwelcome to both nationalists and unionists. By December 1922 the Free State was also involved in a civil war, and its future direction appeared uncertain.

In the background, the Anglo-Irish War launched in Tipperary in 1919 by the Irish Volunteers (later the Irish Republican Army) had spread into Ulster, causing hundreds of deaths, a boycott in the south of goods from Belfast, and re-ignition of inter-sectarian conflict. Following the Truce of July 1921 between the IRA and the British Government, these attacks continued. In early 1922, despite a conciliatory meeting between Michael Collins and James Craig, Collins covertly continued his support for the IRA in Northern Ireland. Attacks on Catholics in the north by loyalist mobs in 1920-22 worsened the situation. Long's solution of two states on the island largely seemed to reflect the reality on the ground; there was a complete breakdown of trust between the unionist élite in Belfast and the leaders of the then-Irish Republic in Dublin. No attempt had been made since 1919 to persuade unionists that ending the link to Britain and joining the republic would be beneficial to them.

Main article: Boundary Commission (Ireland)

The Anglo-Irish Treaty contained a provision that would establish a boundary commission, which could adjust the border as drawn up in 1920. Most leaders in the Free State, both pro- and anti-Treaty, assumed that the commission would award largely nationalist areas such as County Fermanagh, County Tyrone, South Londonderry, South Armagh and South Down, and the City of Derry to the Free State, and that the remnant of Northern Ireland would not be economically viable and would eventually opt for union with the rest of the island as well. In the event, the commission's decision was delayed until 1925 by the Irish Civil War and it opted to retain the status quo. The report of the Commission (and thus the terms of the agreement) has yet officially to be made public: the detailed article explains the factors believed to have been involved.

Later, the new Constitution of Ireland in 1937 and the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, when combined with the UK responses, tended to reinforce the feeling of partition. In 1966 the Irish Taoiseach Seán Lemass visited Northern Ireland in secrecy, leading to a return visit to Dublin by Terence O'Neill; it had taken four decades to achieve such a simple meeting. The impact was further reduced when both countries joined the European Economic Community in 1973.

In terms of electoral results alone, the unionist parties in Northern Ireland have received the majority of votes cast in every election since 1921. However, the sizeable nationalist minority has felt excluded and has generally supported the irredentist claims in the 1937 Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. These claims were varied by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, allowing that partition will last as long as a majority of voters in Northern Ireland want to retain it, along with greater respect for the nationalist community.

• Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland
• Boundary Commission (Ireland)
• Common Travel Area
• History of Ireland (1801-1922)
• History of Northern Ireland
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• Irish Civil War
• Northern Ireland referendum, 1973
• Repartition of Ireland
• Republic of Ireland-United Kingdom border

• Partition and the Birth of Northern Ireland (BBC History)
• The Partition of Ireland (Workers Solidarity Movement -An anarchist organisation which supports the IRA)
• Ireland, Partition of (MSN Encarta)
• James Connolly: Labour and the Proposed Partition of Ireland (Marxists Internet Archive)
• The Socialist Environmental Alliance: The SWP and Partition of Ireland (The Blanket)
• Sean O Mearthaile Partition — what it means for Irish workers (The ETEXT Archives)
• Northern Ireland Timeline: Partition: Civil war 1922 - 1923 (BBC History)
• Home rule for Ireland, Scotland and Wales (LSE Library)
• Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland ((Provisional) Sinn Féin)
• HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (History World)