Northern Ireland

C

Judiciary

The highest court is the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland, which consists of the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Crown Court. Lower courts include county courts with criminal and civil jurisdiction and magistrates’ courts for minor offences. The problems associated with terrorism in Northern Ireland led the British government in the 1970s to impose certain temporary, but highly controversial, powers, which require annual renewal by the British parliament. They include special powers of arrest for those suspected of certain terrorism-linked crimes, non-jury trials for terrorist offences, and the banning of alleged terrorist organizations.

D

Local Government

Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for the purposes of local government. Each district is run by a council responsible for a variety of administrative functions.

VI

History

For the history of Ireland before 1920, see Ireland: History.

A

Partition of Ireland

In 1920, when Ireland was granted home rule, six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster, northernmost of the four Irish provinces, were given the opportunity to separate politically from the rest of Ireland and remain part of the United Kingdom. Under the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which effected the partition of Ireland, the six counties became a separate political division of the United Kingdom, known as the province of Northern Ireland, with its own constitution, parliament, and administration for local affairs. The Irish Free State (later Éire, and now the Republic of Ireland) did not accept the separation as permanent, and the reunification of the island remained an element of the constitution until the referendum of May 1998 (see below).

The Protestant majority in Northern Ireland has consistently refused to consider a reunion. The boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was fixed in 1925. Most people in Northern Ireland saw partition from the Roman Catholic south and union with the United Kingdom as the safeguard of their Protestant religion and dominant political, economic, and social position. For many Irish Catholics, the creation of Northern Ireland was simply the latest of a very long line of British injustices inflicted upon the people of Ireland.

B

World War II and After

Northern Ireland participated in World War II, supplying military personnel and producing ships, aircraft, and cloth for military uniforms. The ports of Belfast and Londonderry (Derry) were of strategic importance to Allied shipping. Belfast was severely damaged in German air raids.

In 1949, when Éire became the Republic of Ireland, the British parliament affirmed the status of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom unless its own parliament were to decide otherwise. Although the Republic still claimed the six northern counties, its withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations was deemed a tacit acceptance of the partition. In 1955, however, the IRA began a campaign of terrorism aimed at securing the union of Northern Ireland with the Republic. Terrorist acts, mainly in border areas, continued through 1957 and 1958, gradually becoming less frequent in the early 1960s. In 1962 the government of the Republic of Ireland condemned terrorism as a means of achieving unification.

Persistent economic difficulties through the post-war years led to the formation in 1955 of a Northern Ireland Development Council, which met with considerable success. By the mid-1960s some 230 new firms had been founded and another 200 considerably expanded; also, social welfare programmes were inaugurated after the war by the UK government. However, the violence that erupted in the early 1970s and continued for over two decades has had an adverse effect on prosperity and economic development.