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Portrait of The Partition of Ireland

History · The 20th century

The Partition of Ireland

1920–1925

The division of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 divided Ireland into two home-rule jurisdictions, each with its own parliament: Northern Ireland of six north-eastern counties, and Southern Ireland of the remaining twenty-six. Partition took effect on 3 May 1921. The southern parliament was a dead letter, since Sinn Féin's candidates sat instead in the second Dáil, and the war of independence was settled by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921, which created the Irish Free State as a dominion. Northern Ireland exercised its right to opt out the day after the Free State came into being, and the promised Boundary Commission, which nationalists had expected to transfer Fermanagh and Tyrone southwards, reported in 1925 in terms so unwelcome that its report was suppressed and the existing border confirmed by agreement. The border survived the Free State's evolution into a republic, and returned to the centre of British and Irish politics after the 2016 EU referendum.

How to spot them

  • ▸Six counties out of the nine of the historic province of Ulster
  • ▸A parliament opened by George V in Belfast City Hall in June 1921, later housed at Stormont
  • ▸A commission of three, set up under Article 12 of a treaty, whose report was suppressed in 1925
  • ▸The three Ulster counties left on the other side of the line: Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal
  • ▸An oath of allegiance and a dominion status that split a movement and caused a civil war

What happened

The 1920 Act that created two home-rule parliaments where one had been intended (1920)

The Government of Ireland Act 1920, the fourth Home Rule Bill; the line took effect on 3 May 1921.

A covenant of 1912 signed by nearly half a million people, some reputedly in their own blood (1912)

The Ulster Solemn League and Covenant against Home Rule, organised by Edward Carson and James Craig.

The treaty of 6 December 1921 that made a dominion and required an oath to the Crown (1921)

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in London; Michael Collins said he had signed his own death warrant.

The commission of three under Article 12, whose 1925 findings were shelved and the border left as it was (1925)

The Irish Boundary Commission, chaired by Richard Feetham; its report was leaked to the Morning Post and suppressed.

A parliament opened by George V in Belfast City Hall on 22 June 1921, with a speech appealing for reconciliation (1921)

The opening of the Parliament of Northern Ireland; the king's speech helped open the way to a truce in July.

The 1937 constitution whose Articles 2 and 3 claimed the whole island as the national territory (1937)

Bunreacht na hÉireann; the claim was replaced by an aspiration to unity by consent in 1999.

The 1998 agreement that accepted the principle of consent and set up a north–south ministerial council (1998)

The Belfast or Good Friday Agreement, endorsed by referendums on both sides of the border.

The 2019 arrangement placing a customs and regulatory line in the Irish Sea to keep the land border open (2019)

The Northern Ireland Protocol, revised by the Windsor Framework in 2023.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Northern Ireland comprises Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone
  • •Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal are in the province of Ulster but outside Northern Ireland
  • •The Government of Ireland Act 1920 came into force on 3 May 1921; the elections to both parliaments were held later that month
  • •James Craig, later Viscount Craigavon, was the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, serving from 1921 until his death in 1940
  • •The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921; the Irish Free State came into being on 6 December 1922 and Northern Ireland opted out on 7 December
  • •The treaty split Sinn Féin and the IRA and led to the Irish Civil War of 1922–23, in which Michael Collins was killed
  • •The Boundary Commission's British-appointed chairman was Richard Feetham, a South African judge; Eoin MacNeill represented the Free State and resigned before the report
  • •The boundary was confirmed by a tripartite agreement of 3 December 1925 between London, Dublin and Belfast
  • •The Stormont parliament building at Belfast opened in 1932; the parliament was prorogued in 1972 and abolished in 1973 in favour of direct rule
  • •The Ireland Act 1949 and later the Northern Ireland Act 1998 guarantee that Northern Ireland remains in the United Kingdom unless a majority there consents otherwise

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