Now, I normally stand back and chuckle at the ‘experts’ on PPrune when it’s obvious they don’t really understand the situation/. And I’m constantly amazed how normally rational, knowledgeable, and erudite individuals regurgitate the same hoary old nonsense about a subject they know little, or nothing about viz Northern Ireland! But in this case I couldn't really ignore the crass generalisations. So…
Firstly, contrary to what ‘melmothtw’ asserts Ireland was no more a sovereign country to be invaded as was England when the Danes’, Viking, Saxons’ and Norman invasions took place from the 8th Century onwards. Ireland was an island composed of a large number of warring clans, septs, tribes and ‘minor Kings’, and immigration both ways across the North Channel and the Irish Sea had been going on for generations. For evidence of both of these facts then please see the ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’ aka ‘The Cattle Raid of Cooley’. In fact, before the ‘arrival’ of the ‘English’ in 1155 there had already been Viking, Danish, and Norman incursions into Ireland.
It was only in 1155 that Pope Adrian IV issued the papal bull ‘Laudabiliter’, commissioning King Henry II to intervene in Ireland to assist in the reform of the Irish Church, and the Irish system of governance according to the Roman (Latin Rite) ecclesiastical system. So ironically, ‘England’s’ (sic) engagement in Ireland was at the behest of a Pope – somewhat ironic, don’t you think?
Secondly, was Northern Ireland, in the words (again) of ‘melmothtw’ ‘…calved off and annexed’? No, it was ultimately formed as a result of the 1918 General Election where, in what became the Republic of Ireland there were massive Sinn Fein returns viz they won 73 out the 105 seats contested. But in the old Province of Ulster (the nine counties) Unionists won 23 of the 38 seats contested, and within the area that eventually formed the six counties of the new Northern Ireland, Unionists won 23 out of the 30 seats contested. It’s called democracy!
However, this obvious, ahem, shall we say, difference of opinion led to the introduction of ‘The Government of Ireland Act 1920’ aka The Fourth Home Rule Bill. The Act was intended to partition Ireland into two self-governing polities: the six north-eastern counties were to form ‘Northern Ireland’, while the remainder of the country was to form ‘Southern Ireland’. Both territories were to remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and provision was made for the future reunification of the island through a Council of Ireland; but the island would remain part of the UK with a Dublin Parliament - in effect a sort of pre-1800 Act of Union model. The Act was passed by the British Parliament in November 1920, received Royal Assent in December 1920, and came into force on 3 May 1921.
As a result of a stalemate in the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921) between the (old) IRA, and the British Forces, ‘peace talks’ were held between Sinn Fein and the British Government leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921. This provided for the establishment of the Irish Free State (Saorstat Eireann) as a self-governing Dominion within the ‘community of nations known as the British Empire’; in effect a status ‘the same as that of the Dominion of Canada’. However, following a referendum in the 26 counties of The Irish Free State in 1937, a new constitution (Bunreacht na hEireann) was adopted, that eventually led to the formation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, when Commonwealth membership was terminated. Consequently, the hoped for re-unification of the island within the Commonwealth would never happen
So, Northern Ireland, far from being ‘calved off and annexed…’ actually remained a part of the United Kingdom, whilst the Republic of Ireland seceded from the same Union!
Now as for the assertion from ‘Una Due Tfc’ that, ‘bare (sic) in mind Catholics were not allowed to vote…’, and ‘Nutloose’s’ statement ‘Allowing them the vote would have been a start.’ What a load of old tosh! Catholics always had the right to vote in Northern Ireland. Some Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland gained the right to vote with the partial relaxation of the Penal Laws in the 1790s, and all restrictions on Catholics voting in the United Kingdom were removed in 1829. This carried over into Northern Ireland in 1922 for General Elections, and thus, as a matter of law, there was no distinction between Catholic and Protestant voters.
Where the difference came was that the Parliament of Northern Ireland (Stormont) did not follow Westminster in changes to the Parliamentary franchise from 1945 - one man, one vote (or, if we’re being all 2020s ‘one person, one vote’). And up until 1969, plural voting was still allowed for local government elections in Great Britain and Northern Ireland - strangely, no taking to the streets and the murder of your neighbours in GB! - but in addition, also it also applied to for Parliamentary elections in Northern Ireland.
This meant that that, as in Great Britain, all people over the age of 21, could vote in Parliamentary elections, however, unlike the situation in Great Britain, non-ratepayers did not have a vote in local government elections, and certain individuals such as Company Directors, could warrant an extra vote depending on the size of their company.And this is why the NI Civil Rights Movement had a genuine grievance.
However, the lack of local Government votes for non-ratepayers was not deliberately aimed at Roman Catholics, it affected many Protestants as well – my father included. However, what did not help Roman Catholics was the gerrymandering of Local Government electoral boundaries, nor discrimination in the allocation of houses to Catholic families. Nevertheless, as a friend of mine said - 'Protestants may have got their slum quicker...but it was still a slum'. As a personal example, my 86 year old Grandmother had an outside toilet at her house until she died in the mid-1980s, and my uncle, aunt and six cousins lived beside my Granny in a three-bedroomed 'cellar; house, also with an outside loo!
In summary, can what happened in Northern Ireland from 1921 to the imposition of direct rule following the prorogation of Stormont in 1972 ever be excused? Never!
However, are there explanations why this discrimination took place – well, yes, possibly, and thankfully they are of a different time. When the state of Northern Ireland came into being in May 1921 one third of places in the Judiciary, the Civil Service and the Police were set aside specifically for Roman Catholics. However, Catholic churchmen such as Cardinal Joseph McCrory preached that Catholics should have nothing to do with the new structures or the new country. Furthermore, in 1931 he stated that ‘the Protestant Church in Ireland – and the same is true of the Protestant Church anywhere – is not only not the rightful representative of the early Irish Church, but it is not even a part of the Church of Christ. That is my proposition’. Consequently, for the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland a Trojan Horse was apparently amongst them, and the days of 1641, 1688, 1798, and 1916 would be played out all over again. And from 1969 onwards they could have been said to be correct!
However, to end on a positive note I would like to echo the words of ‘Hovis’ – and not only did I live through the daily news reports…I lived through the actualities on the streets - ‘I prefer the NI of today. It isn't perfect but it's light years away from the mess that was the 1970/80s.’ Spot on!!!