predicted that at least seventeen, if not half the seats, would be won by nationalists.18 Indicative of the lack of penetration of Sinn Féin in the north were the profiles of the six people elected under its banner: de Valera, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, Eoin MacNeill, Seán Milroy and Seán O’Mahony. Most of them were high-profile figures in the south, with O’Mahony the only one not also elected to a Southern Ireland constituency. The UIL result showed its dependence on Devlin, who won two of its six seats, in Antrim and West Belfast. The unionist victory prompted Carson to say to Bonar Law, the Conservative Party leader, that ‘It would take a very brave man … to take away Ulster’s parliament’.19 Winston Churchill similarly claimed, ‘From that moment the position of Ulster became unassailable.’20 The breakdown of the results showed the truly sectarian nature of the electorate. Ernest Clark sent John Anderson, the Under Secretary of Ireland in Dublin Castle, a letter with a table (see Table 1) showing ‘that the percentage of votes cast for the Unionists and the other party respectively was almost identical with the percentage of Protestants and Roman Catholics in the various constituencies’.21
The elected nationalists decided to abstain from taking their seats in the new Northern Ireland parliament, thus granting unionists a monopoly on proceedings.22 For the Southern Ireland parliament, not one seat was contested. Sinn Féin secured 124 seats – every seat except for the four seats in Dublin University.23 Sinn Féin used the occasion to elect a second Dáil.24 Outside of Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland Act was effectively ignored. Commenting on its one and only meeting, the Irish Times remarked, ‘The formal opening of the Southern Parliament in Dublin on June 28 was a subdued spectacle. Fifteen senators and four Commoners – the members for Trinity College – attended.’25
The northern parliament held its first official sitting on 7 June in Belfast’s City Hall, where the state opening was also held later in the month. Such was the makeshift nature of the new entity that a temporary home had to be found at the Presbyterian church in Ireland’s Assembly College from September 1921, with a permanent parliament in Stormont not opened until 1932.26 In October, the northern government decided not to install electric lighting in the temporary parliament, as it was not an ‘absolutely necessary’ expense.27 At the first meeting, Hugh O’Neill, was elected the speaker of the house.28 Four days later, twenty-four people were elected to the upper house, the senate. The senate consisted of twenty-six members, the other two were ‘the Lord Mayor of Belfast and Mayor of Londonderry – sitting ex officio’.29 Whilst the senators in the north were elected from the northern House of Commons, the southern senate had to include different minority groups. Patrick Buckland claims that ‘Ulster unionists justified this difference … by arguing that the circumstances of the minorities differed: the southern minority would be virtually unrepresented in the southern House of Commons, whereas northern nationalists and Catholics would have considerable representation in the northern House of Commons’.30 Joseph Devlin claimed this arrangement was ‘the most dishonest’ transaction he had heard in his life.31 James Craig, the Prime Minister, and his cabinet also took up office in early June. The cabinet consisted of Hugh Pollock as Minister of Finance, Richard Dawson-Bates as Minister of Home Affairs, Lord Londonderry as Minister of Education, John Andrews as Minister of Labour and Edward Archdale as Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Commerce.32 At the cabinet’s first meeting on 15 June, Northern Ireland’s twenty representatives for the Council of Ireland were selected – thirteen from the House of Commons and seven from the senate.33 That meeting was primarily concerned with arranging the state opening of the northern parliament by King George V a week later.
| Table 1. 1921 Northern Ireland general election vote breakdown per constituency, based on religion and political party | |||||||||||||
| Votes Polled (Excluding Spoiled Votes) 1st Preference | Percentage of Votes Polled | % of Population Census 1911 | |||||||||||
| Total | Unionist | Independent & Socialist | Nationalist | Sinn Féin | Nationalist & Sinn Féin | Unionist | Independent & Socialist | Nationalist | Sinn Féin | Nationalist & Sinn Féin | Protestant | Roman Catholic | |
| Antrim | 79949 | 64269 | – | 9448 | 6232 | 15680 | 80.39 | – | 11.82 | 7.79 | 19.611 | 79.5 | 20.5 |
| Armagh | 46532 | 25718 | 6857 | 13957 | 20814 | 55.27 | – | 14.74 | 29.99 | 44.73 | 54.67 | 45.33 | |
| Down | 81180 | 55930 | 1188 | 7644 | 16418 | 24062 | 68.90 | 1.46 | 9.42 | 20.22 | 29.64 | 68.44 | 31.56 |
| Fermanagh & Tyrone | 83701 | 37935 | – | 12591 | 33175 | 45766 | 45.32 | – | 15.43 | 39.25 | 54.68 | 43.40 | 56.60 |
| Derry | 53988 | 30330 | – | 7772 | 15886 | 23658 | 56.18 | – | 14.40 | 29.42 | 43.82 | 54.20 | 45.80 |
| Belfast not Queen’s University Belfast | 165514 | 127448 | 2813 | 16502 | 18751 | 35253 | 77.00 | 1.70 | 9.97 | 11.33 | 21.30 | 75.90 | 24.10 |
| Total | 510864 | 341630 | 4001 | 60814 | 104419 | 165233 | 66.87 | .79 | 11.90 | 20.44 | 32.34 | 65.60 | 34.40 |
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Source: PRONI – D1022/2/17 – Files of Correspondence, mainly
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