in Southern Ireland, 13,000 to societies with headquarters in Northern Ireland, and 94,000 to societies in Great Britain. Of the 276,000 who reside in Northern Ireland it is estimated that 119,000 belong to societies with headquarters in Northern Ireland, 50,000 to societies with headquarters in Southern Ireland, and 107,000 to societies with headquarters in Great Britain.80
The transfer of the National Health Insurance to the governments of Northern and Southern Ireland, it was believed, would seriously affect the ability of insurance companies to operate, considering the geographical composition of their membership.
Despite the substantial opposition to the Government of Ireland Act, the British government continued with its implementation. Elections for the two new parliaments were set for May 1921. The Manchester Guardian summed up what it saw as the seriously flawed nature of the government’s actions:
To-day is the ‘appointed day’ under the Government of Ireland Act … The date of the elections must be fixed, the machinery for election under the novel system of proportional representation must be provided, and many other arrangements for the division of the administration and judicial machinery at present common to the whole of Ireland into separate parts must be begun. It is an extensive and a critical process, and will take place under conditions the most adverse imaginable. The grant of self-government to Ireland should have been an occasion full of rejoicing and hope, and so with a consenting Ireland it would have been. But Ireland has not consented; four-fifths of it has refused. The proffered gift is not welcomed; it is rejected, and rejected with anger and with scorn. An act which should have been an act of conciliation and friendship has taken on the guise simply of another exercise of power. It postulates calm and peace; it takes place in presence of the extremes of violence and in an atmosphere of hate. It forebodes not the cessation but the continuance of strife. Such are the fruits of a policy which has substituted force for statesmanship, which plants thorns and bids us gather grapes. It has brought us nothing but suffering, failure, and disgrace. Is there not yet some remnant of sense and courage among our governing men which shall suffice to put an end now, at long last, to this travesty of justice, this mockery of the very elements of wise statesmanship?81
The Government of Ireland Act came into effect on 3 May 1921. Three weeks later, elections were held for the two parliaments. Known as the ‘Partition Election’, it determined the make-up of the first parliament of the new entity that was Northern Ireland.
CHAPTER FOUR
Northern Ireland is Born
Although nationalists vehemently opposed the Government of Ireland Act, the nationalist parties still contested the election for Northern Ireland. Áine Ceannt, widow of executed Easter Rising leader Éamonn, disagreed with this decision, claiming that as Dáil Éireann was the only government she recognised, ‘no one else would order a general election’, and certainly not the British government whip.1 Some commentators have contended that ‘by participating in the Home Rule elections, Sinn Fein recognised partition and assisted in the establishment of a separate government for the six counties’.2 Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera
recognised the danger of contesting if Republicans and Nationalists couldn’t be sure of winning at least ten seats. If they couldn’t manage that, the British would claim that partition was justified, and it would be better to boycott the elections. But if they could realistically hope to win a quarter or so of the seats, ‘the arguments are altogether in favour of vigorously contesting … the representatives elected will become members of Dáil Éireann’. Failing to contest would also be taken as an acceptance of partition and would, according to de Valera, drive supporters into the Nationalist Party camp – ‘a result which might later have a dangerous reactionary effect, by contagion, on the South’.3
Sinn Féin sought cooperation with the United Irish League (UIL), led by Joseph Devlin. Sinn Féin and the UIL signed an agreement on 17 March on the basis of ‘accepting the principle of self-determination for Ireland, and abstaining from the Northern Parliament’. Both parties agreed to form an anti-partition ticket. They also agreed ‘that each party would advise its supporters to give their lower preference to the candidates of the other party’.4 All nationalists fought the election in Northern Ireland from an anti-partitionist stance, claiming partition would mean ‘national suicide’.5 According to Donal Hall:
considerable effort, funded in a large part by Sinn Féin in Dublin, was put into [the] advertising and circulation of anti-partition pamphlets. The economic difficulties which Northern Ireland would face were emphasised, particularly the danger of the destruction of its commercial and industrial industries by the loss of their market in the south and west of Ireland. Farmers were warned that their prosperity was in danger because the urban industrial vote exceeded their political strength in the region.6
Sinn Féin’s ‘campaign, while vast in scale, was also marked by its crudity and lack of reference to Unionist sensibilities’.7 Sinn Féin formed an internal sub-committee to run the propaganda campaign for the election in the north, with Sinn Féin and the Dáil contributing £1,000 each towards it. Membership of the sub-committee consisted of de Valera, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Jenny Wyse-Power, Erskine Childers and Seán MacEntee. The sub-committee published a newspaper they called the Unionist and distributed it to unionist strongholds.8 Unionists were warned by legitimate unionist newspapers, such as the Belfast Newsletter, that ‘the periodical is on the side of the enemy, and that the title has been adopted with the intention of deceiving Unionist electors’.9 The same newspaper also claimed Sinn Féin had signed a treaty with the Bolsheviks, ‘binding for ten years’, where the Bolsheviks would ‘provide the rebels with arms and to give their leaders permission to study military and naval problems in Russia’.10 Éamonn Donnelly, Sinn Féin organiser for Ulster, claimed the only effect their literature and leaflets would have on the unionist community would be ‘to bring them out to vote against us in great numbers’.11 Despite Sinn Féin’s wholehearted election campaign, it had to overcome considerable intimidation. It was an illegal organisation and of the nineteen candidates, eight were either in jail or interned, and seven were on the run. Its ‘candidates, organisers, and supporters were attacked; raids on the houses of Sinn Féin election organisers were carried out; and speakers and election agents were arrested’.12 Éamonn Donnelly accused opponents of ‘wholesale terrorism’ on the day of the election, 24 May 1921.13
Chastened by the results of local elections in 1920, unionists were determined to maximise their vote for the 1921 general election. Like the local elections, the PR system of voting was used for the general election – the first time it was used in a general election in Britain or Ireland. All unionist candidates were greatly assisted by the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council, which coordinated canvassing events with the men’s association, provided funding, held classes and showed films explaining the novel PR voting system.14 On the issue of women being selected as candidates, the president of the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council, the Duchess of Abercorn, ‘expressed the opinion that the time was not ripe for this, and the essential thing in the first Parliament was to preserve the safety of the Unionist cause, that much organisation and construction work would be necessary for which perhaps women had not the necessary experience, and except in the case of outstanding qualifications, men candidates were preferable’.15
Many members disagreed with her, believing women candidates were necessary to address issues such as ‘Poor Law reform, which will necessitate re-organisation of the system of Medical Relief, some form of provision for necessitous widows with children, and drastic reform of the laws affecting the unmarried mother and her child’.16 Two female unionist candidates did run – Dehra Chichester (she became Dehra Parker after 1928) and Julia McMordie – and both were elected.17 In fact, all forty unionist candidates were elected to the northern parliament.
Held on Empire Day, 24 May, the general election, with a turnout of 89 per cent, was an astounding victory for Ulster unionists, who won all but twelve of the fifty-two seats. Sinn Féin won just six
