IRELAND, NORTHERN, a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a certain measure of local self-government. The capital city is Belfast on the river Lagan, which is an important centre of the shipbuilding, linen, tobacco, ropemaking, and distilling industries. A considerable trade in live-stock and agricultural produce is also carried on from this port. The following table shows the populations (census 1926) and areas of the counties and county boroughs composing Nnrfliprn Trpland • Under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, the Lord Lieu tenant summons, prorogues and dissolves parliament. He gives or withholds the Royal assent to bills passed by the Senate and House of Commons, subject to the following limitations:— "(I) He shall comply with any instructions given by His Majesty in respect of any such bill or order; and "(2) He shall, if so directed by His Majesty, reserve any such bill or order for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure, and a bill or order so reserved shall not have any force unless and until within one year from the day on which it was presented to the Lord Lieutenant for His Majesty's assent, the Lord Lieutenant makes known that it has received His Majesty's assent." Northern Ireland is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom by 13 members. For the purposes of local self government it has a parliament consisting of two houses (I) the Senate, composed of the lord mayor of Belfast, the mayor of Londonderry and 24 senators elected by the members of the House of Commons, and (2) the House of Commons, composed of 52 members who are elected by the same electors and in the same manner as the members returned by constituencies in North ern Ireland to the parliament of the United Kingdom, though until 1929 at general elections they were elected on the prin ciple of proportional representation, each elector having one trans ferable vote. Money bills can only originate in the House of Commons and may not be amended by the Senate. If the Senate reject, or fail to pass, or pass with amendments to which the House of Commons will not agree, a public bill which is sent up to the Senate at least one month before the end of the session, and if the House of Commons in the next session again pass the bill, with or without any amendments which have been made or agreed to by the Senate, and the Senate reject or fail to pass it, or pass it with amendments to which the House of Commons will not agree, provision is made for the holding of a joint session. The parliament has power generally to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Northern Ireland for matters ex clusively relating to the province. The Crown, armed forces, de I fence of the realm, relations with foreign States, etc., are excluded from its power; nor can it make laws interfering with religious equality, taking property without compensation, etc., within its own area. All executive power in Northern Ireland continues vested in the King, but is exercised by the Lord Lieutenant or other chief executive officers for the time being appointed in his place. Certain taxes, such as customs and excise duties, are re served to the imperial parliament ; the postal service, post office savings bank, etc., were reserved temporarily, pending the forma tion of the proposed Irish union. The Act abolishes the Supreme Court of Judicature for Ireland, and establishes the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland, consisting of two divi sions, the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Sir James Craig immediately made it clear that his policy was to preserve the existence of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom, and, while willing to contemplate com mon action with Southern Ireland under the Government of Ire land Act, to resist union with the rest of Ireland in any system which would involve separation from Great Britain and the aban donment of the representation of Northern Ireland in the Im perial Parliament. The first task of the Government was to re store internal order. Political and religious animosities, to which unemployment arising from the decline in trade and indus try had added fuel, had been kindled to a dangerous heat. Outbreaks of civil disorder leading to murder and arson had taken place. The anti-British party in Southern Ireland had undoubt edly contributed to increase the difficulties of the Government, presumably in the hope of forcing an all-Ireland form of govern ment by making government under the Act of 192o impossible. However, the disruption of this political party, which followed upon the Irish agreement of the winter of 1921-22, accompanied by an outbreak of civil war in Southern Ireland, actually eased the situation in Northern Ireland, as it caused the withdrawal of certain elements of disorder which, organized and introduced from outside, were now called off to take part in the quarrels of their leaders.
After the setting up of the Provisional Government in South ern Ireland, the Royal Irish Constabulary was disbanded under the Constabulary (Ireland) Act, 1922, which received the Royal Assent on Aug. 4, 2922 and modified the provisions of the Gov ernment of Ireland Act by providing for the disbandment of the constabulary, in lieu of the transfer to the Government of North ern Ireland of the members of the forces serving in that area. Before this disbandment was completed the Parliament of North ern Ireland had established a new police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and a considerable proportion of disbanded mem bers of the Royal Irish Constabulary received appointments in the new force. A large body of auxiliary police was also organized and, thanks to vigorous measures both in and out of Parliament, order was restored in a comparatively short time.
The Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1Q22, affected Northern Ireland (although she was not a party to the agreement thereby given legislative sanction) in the following ways. It purported to give Dominion status to Ireland as a whole. It put a stay upon the exercise of the powers of the parliament and Government of the Irish Free State, as respects Northern Ireland, until the ex piration of one month. It enabled Northern Ireland to vote her self out of the Free State by means of an Address presented to His Majesty by both houses of parliament of Northern Ireland, be fore the expiration of the month above referred to, and it at tached to the presentation of such an Address the consequence that a commission was to be set up consisting of three members, one to be appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland, and one (who was to be the chairman) to be appointed by the British Government, in order to "determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ire land and the rest of Ireland. It expressly preserved the Council of Ireland and the Irish Free State representation thereon, whilst depriving the Council of any powers in that State; and it offered to Northern Ireland, as an alternative to going out of the Free State, a continued existence under the Government of Ireland Act, subject to an over-riding jurisdiction of the parliament and government of the Irish Free State, in all matters in respect of which legislative power is withheld from the Parliament of Northern Ireland under that Act.
The majority of the points in which the constitution of North ern Ireland was affected by the setting up of the Irish Free State received attention from the Imperial legislature in the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1922, which came into force on the same day as the Act providing for the Free State Constitution. This Act contained various provisions which were to take effect in the event of Northern Ireland voting herself out of the Irish Free State under Article 12 of the original agree ment. This voting out was immediately accomplished, and thus authority was given for various constitutional changes. Subject to the provisions of the first schedule (Modification of the Gov ernment of Ireland Act, 192o, etc.) to the Act, the Government of Ireland Act was only to apply to Northern Ireland. This schedule provided for the appointment of a Governor of Northern Ireland, and for the application to him of the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act, 192o, with respect to the Lord Lieu tenant. A Privy Council of Northern Ireland was established and a Great Seal of Northern Ireland authorised. On Dec. 9, 1922 the Duke of Abercorn was appointed Governor of Northern Ireland.
The most important legislative achievement of the Government of Northern Ireland has been the Education Act of 1923. Based largely on the recommendation of a committee of enquiry ap pointed in 1921 under the chairmanship of Sir R. Lynn, M.P., the Act established the principle of popular control under the county borough and county councils as local education authorities, the latter having power to appoint administrative sub-areas under "regional committees." The Intoxicating Liquor Act of the same session was an important piece of temperance legislation and achieved considerable reform in the sale of intoxicating liquors.
The boundary commission occupied upwards of a year in vis iting, and hearing evidence in the various border districts in Ire land, and in considering the information so obtained. In Nov. 1925, on the eve of the promulgation of the report of the com mission, the Free State commissioner withdrew. A conference was then held in London between the three governments represented on the commission, and a further agreement was concluded on Dec. 3, 1925. By the agreement, the Ireland (Confirmation of Agreement) Act, 1925, the three Governments "being united in amity" and "being resolved mutually to aid one another in a spirit of neighbourly comradeship" achieved the settlement which is set out in Article r :— The powers conferred by the proviso to Article 12 of the said Articles of Agreement on the commission therein mentioned are hereby revoked, and the extent of Northern Ireland for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of the said Articles of Agreement, shall be such as was fixed by sub-section (2) of section one of that Act.
The Act also provided for the transfer from April r, 1926, of the Council of Ireland powers in relation to Northern Ireland to the Government of Northern Ireland. The constitution of North ern Ireland could now be described as being settled with finality.
The second parliament of Northern Ireland was elected in 1925, when Sir James Craig was again returned to power with a substantial majority over all other parties. All the Nationalist members of the Opposition had taken their seats before the close of the 1927-28 session. Only two members belonging to the Sinn Fein party still remained outside the House. The acceptance of the Parliament by the Nationalist party marks the abandon ment of the original policy of opposition by abstention and the commencement of a new policy of opposition by recognized con stitutional means. The establishment of a separate legislature has not led to a further differentiation of the law in Northern Ire land from that in other parts of the United Kingdom, but rather to the assimilation of the law in Northern Ireland to the law in Great Britain, and to the enlargement of the status of the subject in Northern Ireland to that of the subject in Great Britain. It is, perhaps, to this undertaking above all that the parliament of Northern Ireland, on a study of its statute-book, will be found to have addressed itself from its earliest inception. Particularly has social legislation in Northern Ireland kept pace with that at Westminster, adopting its various measures for unemployment insurance, and its comprehensive measure of 1925 for contribu tory old age pensions and pensions for widows and orphans of insured workers.
Moreover, it is to be noted that constitutional changes, either already made, such as the extension of the franchise to women on equal terms with men, or declared by the Government to be imminent, such as the abandonment of proportional representation and a reversion to single-member constituencies, bring electoral practice in Northern Ireland once more into line with that in Great Britain. (L.) Defence.—From the military point of view, Northern Ireland forms one of the district commands of the British army. The commander is a Major-General, with his headquarters at Belfast. The troops under his command include 4 battalions of infantry, a signal company and the usual departmental troops. There are also recruit depots for battalions of the British army which are recruited in Northern Ireland, one at Omagh, for 2 battalions, and one at Armagh, for one battalion. There is also a British coast
defence garrison at Lough Swilly, including a heavy battery of artillery, a fortress detachment of engineers, some signals, etc. There are no territorial or local troops in Northern Ireland. The strategic importance to the United Kingdom of all the harbours of Ireland is obvious to all students of the general problem of military defence. On this subject the late Admiral Mahan ex pressed his opinion that Ireland stands across "and controls" the approaches to the United Kingdom from the westward.
See also the British Army List (official). (G. G. A.) Finance.—The financial provisions of the Government of Ire land Act, 192o, were necessarily of an intricate and comprehensive character, as not only did that Act completely overthrow the whole system of finance in force since the Act of Union of 1800, but went further and set up in Ireland two Exchequers, each under an entirely separate jurisdiction. Subsequent events have considerably modified the operation of the 1920 Act and it is therefore not necessary to deal in this article with Northern Ire land's position as regards the Irish Free State but simply to con sider the relationship which exists under the Act between North ern Ireland and Great Britain, and the financial system which has been built up in Ulster since 1921.
The newly constituted State was not granted absolute financial autonomy. The Act of 192o contemplated two distinct classes of revenue, and two classes of expenditure, (r) purely local rev enue and expenditure and (2) taxation and expenditure which by reason of the wider issues involved, should not be delegated to a subsidiary authority. Under the first heading fall such duties as stamp duties, death duties and licence duties, together with ex penditure on services such as old age pensions, police, education, etc., while included in the second category are the more im portant duties of income tax and customs and excise, and ex penditure on the higher administration of justice, the Land Corn mission and certain other services.
During the post-War period the trade in live stock greatly in creased. Up to 1926 Ulster had escaped the ravages of foot-and mouth disease, and indeed was particularly free from outbreaks of animal diseases generally. During 1924 a total of 424,000 cattle, etc., were exported, chiefly to Great Britain.
The main industries of Northern Ireland are the manufacture of linen, shipbuilding, engineering, rope making and distilling. The linen industry normally employs directly or indirectly ap proximately 120,000 workers. Over 1,000,00o flax spindles are in use, representing one-third of the world's entire flax-spinning capacity; 40,000 looms are engaged in weaving. The major por tion of the shipbuilding industry is located at Belfast, where a large number of the world's most famous vessels have been built, including the well-known "Titanic" and "Olympic." During 1923, 12 mercantile steam vessels with a total tonnage of 75,782 were launched in the North Irish yards.
Over 5o important firms are engaged in Belfast and the imme diate vicinity in the manufacture of textile machinery of all kinds; heating, ventilating and drying plants and almost every variety of equipment for factories. There are some 12 modern distilleries operating in Ulster which together produced during the year ended March 31, 1924 a total of 2,534,426 proof gallons of spirits. A number of other industries are carried on. Belfast possesses the largest ropeworks in the world, which employ over 3,500 persons and can produce 35o tons per week of all classes of ropes and twines. Tobacco, soap, woollen goods, felt and aerated waters are also manufactured.
An analysis of the registered capital produces the following results:— Communications.—The principal ports of Ulster are Belfast, Londonderry, Coleraine and Newry, while in addition there are Royal Harbours at Donaghadee and Ardglass. Of these Belfast is the most important. Belfast Harbour covers 2,287 acres and possesses a total lineal quayage of 26,512 feet. There are in addi tion, five graving docks, the largest of which is 85oft. long and 96ft. wide at the entrance. During 1923 the number of vessels arriving at ports in Northern Ireland totalled 12,383 with an aggregate tonnage of 4,872,225.
Northern Ireland is exceptionally well provided with roads and a very marked increase in the use of motor transport has been noticeable in the post-War period. There were altogether 12,892m. of roads in 1925 consisting of : Main trunk roads and the more important inter-town miles routes ..... . . . . . . 1,023 Less important inter-town routes . . . . . .
All other roads ..... . . . . . 10,758 12,892 There are seven private railway undertakings situated wholly in Northern Ireland and five others extending into the Irish Free State. The total mileage in Northern Ireland in 1925 was as fol lows: standard gauge 815m., narrow gauge 301 miles. The author ised capital of the railways wholly in Ulster is £1,888,757 and of those partly in Ulster and partly in the Free State L11,141,356. The total receipts in 1923 amounted to £1,090,526 in the case of Ulster railways and £2,395,285 in respect of the others.