View source for Parliament of Northern Ireland

{{Short description|Bicameral legislature of Northern Ireland (1921–1972)}}
{{about|the pre-1972 Parliament of Northern Ireland|the current devolved legislature|Northern Ireland Assembly}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name               = Parliament of Northern Ireland
| native_name        =
| transcription_name =
| coa_pic            = Coat of Arms of Northern Ireland.svg
| coa_res            = 220px
| coa_caption        = Arms of Northern Ireland, 1924–1972
| house_type         = Bicameral
| houses             = {{plainlist|
*[[Senate of Northern Ireland|Senate]]
*[[House of Commons of Northern Ireland|House of Commons]]}}
| legislature        = Devolved Parliament
| established        = 7 June 1921
| disbanded          = 30 March 1972
| leader1_type       = [[Speaker of the Senate of Northern Ireland|Speaker of the Senate]]
| leader1            = [[Daniel Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran|Lord Glentoran]] (last)
| leader2_type       = [[Speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons|Speaker of the House]]
| leader2            = [[Ivan Neill]] (last)
| election2          =
| members            =
| house1             = [[Senate of Northern Ireland|Senate]]
| house2             = [[House of Commons of Northern Ireland|House of Commons]]
| house3             =
| voting_system1     = Elected by the Commons via [[single transferable vote|STV]]
| voting_system2     = {{plainlist|
*[[Single transferable vote]] (1921–1929)
*[[First-past-the-post]] (1929–1972)}}
| session_room       = StormontGeneral.jpg
| session_res        = 220px
| meeting_place      = [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]], [[Stormont Estate|Stormont]], [[Belfast]]
| see_also           = [[Parliament of Ireland]]
| footnotes          =
|preceded_by=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom|UK Parliament]] {{small|(1801–1921)}}|succeeded_by=[[Northern Ireland Assembly (1973)]]}}
{{Politics of Northern Ireland 1921-72}}
The '''Parliament of Northern Ireland''' was the [[home rule]] legislature of [[Northern Ireland]], created under the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]], which sat from 7 June 1921<ref>{{stormont|date=7 June 1921|volume=1|page=1|accessdate=7 August 2012}}</ref> to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore order during [[the Troubles]], resulting in the introduction of [[Direct rule over Northern Ireland|direct rule]]. It was abolished under the [[Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973]].

The Parliament of Northern Ireland was [[bicameral]], consisting of a [[House of Commons of Northern Ireland|House of Commons]] with 52 seats, and an indirectly elected [[Senate of Northern Ireland|Senate]] with 26 seats. The [[British monarch|Sovereign]] was represented by the [[Governor of Northern Ireland|governor]] (initially by the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|Lord Lieutenant]]), who granted [[royal assent]] to Acts of Parliament in Northern Ireland, but executive power rested with the [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland|prime minister]], the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons.

==House of Commons==
{{Main|House of Commons of Northern Ireland}}

The House of Commons had 52 members, of which 48 were for territorial seats, and four were for graduates of [[Queen's University of Belfast (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|Queen's University, Belfast]] (until 1969, when the four university seats were replaced by an additional four territorial seats, alongside the abolition of [[plural voting]]). The Government of Ireland Act 1920 prescribed that elections to the House of Commons should be by [[single transferable vote]] (STV), though the Parliament was given the power to alter the electoral system from three years after its first meeting. The STV system was the subject of criticism from grassroots [[Unionists (Ireland)|Unionists]], but because the three-year period ended during the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government of 1924, the [[Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland|Stormont]] government decided not to provoke the known [[egalitarian]] sympathies of many Labour backbenchers and held the second election on the same basis. The loss of eight Unionist seats in that election caused great acrimony, and in 1929, the system was changed to [[first-past-the-post]] for all territorial constituencies, though STV was retained for the university seats.

In the 1925 election, however, Republicans also lost four seats and a substantial proportion of votes. Nationalists gained the same number of seats that Republicans had lost, but had only gained a small percentage of votes. It had been felt by some{{who|date=September 2022}} that Northern Ireland should use the same first-past-the-post system that was in place in the rest of the [[UK]].

By the time the first-past-the-post system was implemented by the [[House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929]] ([[19 Geo. 5 (NI)|19 Geo. 5]]. c. 5 (N.I.)) for the 1929 election, the Republicans had few or no candidates and pro-Irish unification voters were represented almost solely by the [[Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)|Nationalist Party]]. Despite the change in the electoral system and accusations of [[gerrymandering]], the Nationalist Party lost 9.5% share of the vote, but still gained a seat. The more moderate [[Northern Ireland Labour Party]] and [[Ulster Liberal Party]] both gained in vote share but lost seats.

The boundary changes for 1929 were not made by an impartial boundary commission but by the Unionist government, for which it was accused of gerrymandering. The charges that the Stormont seats (as opposed to local council wards) were gerrymandered against Nationalists is disputed by historians<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/hnihoc.htm |title=Northern Ireland elections site |publisher=Ark.ac.uk |access-date=26 May 2013 |archive-date=6 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206073853/http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/hnihoc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> (since the number of Nationalists elected under the two systems barely changed), though it is agreed that losses under the change to single-member constituency boundaries were suffered by independent unionists, the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals]] and the [[Northern Ireland Labour Party]].{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} Population movements were so small that these boundaries were used almost everywhere until the Parliament was dissolved in 1972. In 1968 the government abolished the Queen's University constituency ([[university constituency|university constituencies]] had been abolished at [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]] with effect from 1950) and created four new constituencies in the outskirts of [[Belfast]] where populations had grown. This change helped the Unionists, as they held only two of the university seats but won all four of the newly created seats. There had, however, long been calls from outside Unionism to abolish the graduate franchise (and other anomalies) and to have "[[one man, one vote|one person one vote]]".

==Senate==
{{Main|Senate of Northern Ireland}}
The Senate was a last-minute addition to the Parliament, after the original plans for a single Senate covering both the Stormont and [[Dublin]] Parliaments were overtaken by events.

Twenty-four senators were elected by the House of Commons using the single transferable vote. The elections were carried out after each general election, with 12 members elected for two parliaments each time.{{clarify|date=August 2021}} The other two seats were held ''ex officio'' by the [[Lord Mayor of Belfast]] and the [[mayor of Derry]]. The Senate generally had the same party balance as the House of Commons, though abstaining parties and very small parties were not represented. Because of this, and its dependence on the House of Commons for election, it had virtually no political impact.

==The Crown==
The [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|British monarch]] was originally to have been represented in both Northern Ireland and [[Southern Ireland (1921–22)|Southern Ireland]] by the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]]. However, the replacement of ''Southern Ireland'' by the [[Irish Free State]] led to the abolition of the post of Lord Lieutenant. Instead, a new office – [[Governor of Northern Ireland]] – was created on 12 December 1922.

==Location==
Initially the Parliament met in Belfast's [[Belfast City Hall|City Hall]] but then moved to the Presbyterian Church's Assembly's College (later [[Union Theological College]]), where it remained during the period 1921–1932. The Commons met in the college's Gamble Library and the Senate in the chapel. In 1932, Parliament moved to the new purpose-built [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]], designed by [[Arnold Thornely|Sir Arnold Thornely]], at [[Stormont, Belfast|Stormont]], on the eastern outskirts of the city. "Stormont" came to be a [[synecdoche]] referring both to the Parliament itself and to the Northern Ireland government.

==Legislation==

{{see|List of acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland}}

Stormont was given power to legislate over almost all aspects of Northern Ireland life, with only a few matters excluded from its remit, the most important of which are: succession to the Crown, making of peace or war, armed forces, honours, naturalisation, some central taxes and postal services (a full list is in section 4 of the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]]). The parliament did not try to infringe the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920; on only one occasion did the United Kingdom government advise the king to withhold royal assent. This was the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland){{which|date=November 2021}} which abolished proportional representation in local government elections; the issue was referred to London and royal assent was eventually given. The output of legislation was high for a devolved parliament, though some of the acts were adaptations of recently passed acts by the United Kingdom parliament.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} It was nominally prohibited by section 16 of the schedule to the [[Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922]] from making any law which directly or indirectly discriminated against a religion, although this provision had little effect.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}

==Brief history==
[[File:Ulster Welcomes Her King & Queen (10990906846).jpg|thumbnail|left|Robinson and Cleaver Department Store in Belfast, decorated for the State Opening of the first Northern Ireland parliament. 22 June 1921.]]
[[File:De Britse koning George V en koningin Mary tijdens de eerste opening van het Noord-Ierse, SFA022822086.jpg|thumb|George V and Queen Mary during the opening of the Parliament of Northern Ireland
 (1921)]]
The [[1921 Northern Ireland general election|1921 general election]] was explicitly fought on the issue of [[Partition of Ireland|partition]], being in effect a referendum on approval of the concept of a Northern Ireland administration. Thereafter, general election timing was up to the Prime Minister. In the 1921 election the Nationalist Party did not take their seats, employing a policy of [[Abstentionism]]. Just before the election the southern  nationalist (and future [[Father of the House (United Kingdom)]]) [[T. P. O'Connor]] made clear his feelings on nationalists taking their seats in the Parliament of Northern Ireland: "...the Nationalists are determined not to give even the fig leaf of respectability to the whole rotten arrangement by attending the [northern] Parliament."<ref>{{cite book |last=McCluskey |first=Fergal |date=2014 |title=The Irish Revolution, 1912–23 |url= |location=Dublin |publisher=Four Courts Press |page=102 |isbn=978-1-84682-300-8 |access-date=}}</ref> Elections almost always took place at a time when the issue of partition had been raised in a new crisis.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} This generally guaranteed the loyalty of [[Protestant]] voters to the [[Ulster Unionist Party|Unionist Party]]. Independent Unionist candidates and the [[Northern Ireland Labour Party]] were usually accused of being splitters or dupes of the [[Irish nationalists|Nationalists]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}

The [[1925 Northern Ireland general election|1925 general election]] was called to tie in with the expected report of the [[Irish Boundary Commission|Boundary Commission]] required by the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] of 1922. The Boundary Commission was expected to recommend the transfer of many border areas to the [[Irish Free State]], and the Unionist election slogan was "Not an Inch!". They lost eight seats in Belfast and [[County Antrim]], where the issue of the border had far less resonance. [[History of Sinn Féin|Sinn Féin]] had fought in 1921, but by 1925 was suffering the effects of its split over the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]]. [[Éamon de Valera]]'s Sinn Féin fought as [[Irish republicanism|Republicans]] but won only two seats. The border was never changed.

A minor row erupted in 1925 when the elections to the Senate took place. Eleven Unionists and one Labour Senator were elected, despite there being a block of three composed of two non-abstaining Nationalists and a dissident Unionist. The latter three had mailed their votes, but due to a public holiday and the practices of the postal service, they arrived an hour after the election. Requests for a recount were denied. (It is doubtful whether the three votes would have been sufficient to elect a Senator under the election system, since they would not have achieved a complete [[single transferable vote]] quota alone and the Unionist votes were likely to transfer so heavily to each other that the Nationalist candidate would not reach quota throughout the rounds of counting.){{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} From later in 1925 to 1927, the [[Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)|Nationalist Party]] members took their seats for the first time.

For the [[1929 Northern Ireland general election|1929 general election]] the Unionists replaced the [[proportional representation]] system blamed for their bad performance in 1925.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}} The new boundaries set the pattern for politics until Stormont was abolished; the Unionists never fell below 33 seats. In the 1930s, the phrase "[[A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People]]" was a debated term.<ref>{{stormont|date=24 April 1934|volume=16|page=1095|accessdate=7 August 2012}}</ref>{{Dubious|date=May 2010}} The [[1938 Northern Ireland general election|1938 general election]] was called when the [[prime minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Neville Chamberlain]] was negotiating a settlement of outstanding disputes with Éamon de Valera, whose new [[Constitution of Ireland|constitution]] laid claim to Northern Ireland, and the [[1949 Northern Ireland general election|1949 election]] was called when the [[Irish government]] declared itself a [[Republic of Ireland|republic]].

During the [[Second World War]], the Stormont government called on Westminster to introduce [[conscription]] several times, as this was already the case in Great Britain. The [[British government]] consistently refused, remembering how a similar attempt in 1918 had backfired dramatically, as [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] opposition made it unworkable. Much of the population of serving age were either in essential jobs or had already joined up voluntarily, making the potential yield of conscription low.

1965 saw a significant change, in that the Nationalists accepted office as the [[Official Opposition]]. This was intended as a reward for the attempts made by [[Terence O'Neill]] to end discrimination against [[Catholic]]s and normalise relations with the Republic. However, the Unionists split over O'Neill's tentative reforms at the [[1969 Northern Ireland general election|1969 general election]] and [[Ian Paisley]]'s [[Protestant Unionist Party]] began to win by-elections. The new nationalist party, the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]], withdrew from Stormont in July 1971 over the refusal of an inquiry into [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] actions in [[Derry]].

Stormont was abolished and [[Direct rule over Northern Ireland|Direct Rule]] from Westminster was introduced in March 1972, just six weeks after [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]], when the Unionist government refused to hand over responsibility for law and order to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]]. In its 50-year history, only one piece of legislation was passed that was introduced by a Nationalist member, the Wild Birds Protection Act.{{which|reason= The Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 refers to the "Wild Birds Protection Acts (Northern Ireland) 1931 to 1968" so there must have been more than one|date=September 2019}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro234.shtml |title=BBC iPlayer – TV – Factual – History |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |access-date=26 May 2013 }}{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> In October 1971, as the [[Troubles]] worsened, [[Gerard Newe]] had been appointed as a junior minister at Stormont, in an attempt to improve community relations. Fifty years after it came into existence, Newe was the first Catholic to serve in a Northern Ireland government, but because he was neither an MP nor a Senator, his appointment could last only six months.

The influence of the [[Orange Institution|Orange Order]] in the governance of Northern Ireland was far-reaching. All of the six prime ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Order, as were all but three cabinet ministers until 1969. Three of the ministers later left the Order, one because his daughter married a Catholic, one to become Minister of Community Relations in 1970, and the third was expelled for attending a Catholic religious ceremony. Of the 95 Stormont MPs who did not become cabinet ministers, 87 were Orangemen. Every unionist senator, with one exception, between 1921 and 1969 was an Orangeman. One of these senators, [[James Woods Gyle|James Gyle]], was suspended from the Order for seven years for visiting nationalist MP [[Joseph Devlin|Joe Devlin]] on his deathbed.

A fully digitised copy of the Commons' debates (187,000 printed pages of Parliamentary Debates) is available online.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102210053/http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 January 2007 |title=The Stormont Papers – Home |publisher=ahds.ac.uk |access-date=23 October 2018 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Northern Ireland Assembly (1973)]]
* [[Northern Ireland Assembly]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Costello, Frank. "King George V's Speech at Stormont (1921): Prelude to the Anglo-Irish Truce," ''Eire-Ireland'', (1987), pp.&nbsp;43–57.
* Follis, Bryan A. ''A state under siege: the establishment of Northern Ireland, 1920–1925'' (1995).
* Officer, David. "In search of order, permanence and stability: building Stormont, 1921–32." in Richard English and Graham Walker, eds. ''Unionism in Modern Ireland'' (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1996), pp 130–147.

==External links==
*[http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/intro.html UK Election Results site – Intro to the NI Parliament]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120516083736/http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/index.html The Stormont Papers: Parliamentary Debates]
{{NIgov 22-72}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parliament Of Northern Ireland}}
[[Category:Parliament of Northern Ireland| ]]
[[Category:Defunct bicameral legislatures]]
[[Category:Historical Irish legislatures]]
[[Category:Political history of Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1921 establishments in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1973 disestablishments in Northern Ireland]]

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