View source for Senate of Northern Ireland

{{Short description|Upper house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name               = Senate 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         = Upper House
| body               = Parliament of Northern Ireland
| legislature        = Devolved Parliament
| established        = 7 June 1921
| disbanded          = 30 March 1972
| leader1_type       = [[Speaker of the Senate of Northern Ireland|Speaker]]
| leader1            = [[Daniel Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran|Lord Glentoran]] (last)
| leader2_type       = [[Leader of the Senate of Northern Ireland|Leader]]
| leader2            = Sir [[Jack Andrews]] (last)
| election2          =
| voting_system1     = Elected by the Commons via [[single transferable vote|STV]]
| session_room       = <!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: StormontSenate.JPG -->
| session_res        = 220px
| meeting_place      = Senate Chamber <br> [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]], [[Stormont Estate|Stormont]], Belfast
| see_also           = [[Parliament of Ireland]]
| footnotes          =
}}

{{Politics of Northern Ireland 1921-72}}
The '''Senate of Northern Ireland''' was the upper house of the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] created by the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]]. It was abolished with the passing of the [[Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973]].

==Powers==
In practice the Senate of Northern Ireland possessed little power and even less influence.  While intended as a revising chamber, in practice, debates and votes typically simply replicated those in the Commons.<ref>Harbinson, pp.122–123</ref>

==Location==
[[File:Senate of Northern Ireland 1921.jpg|thumb|Chamber of the Senate when at Assembly's College, in 1921]]

From 1932, when the building was completed, until 1972, the Senate of Northern Ireland met in the Senate Chamber of [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]] in [[Stormont, Belfast|Stormont]] on the eastern outskirts of Belfast. To make parallels with the British [[House of Lords]], members of the Senate sat on red benches.

==Senators==
{{see also|List of members of the Senate of Northern Ireland}}
The Senate consisted of 26 members. Twenty-four members elected by the [[House of Commons of Northern Ireland]] using the [[Single Transferable Vote]] (STV), elected in blocks of twelve with each senator's term lasting for two parliaments (i.e. two terms of the House of Commons) and two ''ex-officio'' members: the [[Lord Mayor of Belfast]] and [[Mayor of Londonderry]].  Convention held that, in the event of a by-election, only members of the Commons from the same county would vote on their replacement.<ref>Harbinson, p.122</ref> The election system was maintained even after the abolition of STV for the House of Commons.<ref>"Abolition of P.R. in Ulster", ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'', 6 March 1929, p.7</ref>

In 1925, at the end of the first parliament, the senators to retire were selected by lot.<ref>"Ulster Senate", ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'', 4 June 1925, p.2</ref> At the subsequent election, voting papers from the Nationalist MPs and [[George Henderson (Northern Ireland politician)|George Henderson]] were deemed to have been submitted late, and were not considered.  All these members had given a high preference to the Nationalist candidate, Vincent Devoto, and a subsequent analysis of the transfers showed that these would otherwise have been sufficient to elect him.<ref>"Missing voting papers", ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'', 15 July 1925, p.18</ref>

===Office-holders===
The key offices in the Senate were:

* Speaker
* 2 Deputy Speakers 
* Leader of the House
* Deputy Leader of the House (abolished in 1961).

===Political composition===

During its history 142 people sat in the upper house. With the addition of the [[Unionist (Ireland)|Unionist]] Lord Mayor of [[Belfast Corporation]] and Mayor of [[Londonderry Corporation]], together with boycotts of the Commons at various times by nationalist parties and fragmentation of the opposition into some parties too small to elect a Senator alone, the upper house proved to be even more heavily Unionist than the lower house. However a [[Nationalism (Ireland)|Nationalist]], [[Thomas Stanislaus McAllister]], served two periods as deputy speaker.<ref name="Norton 2014 p. ">{{cite book | last=Norton | first=Christopher | title=The politics of constitutional nationalism in Northern Ireland, 1932–70 between grievance and reconciliation | publisher=Manchester University Press, Palgrave Macmillan | location=Manchester New York | year=2014 | isbn=978-0-7190-5903-2 }}</ref>

The table below shows the political composition of the twenty-four elected members of the Senate, after each election.  It does not show subsequent changes of party allegiance, nor changes resulting from by-elections.  Following the 1969 election, there was one vacant seat.<ref>Harbinson, pp.178–180</ref> Other than [[Hugh O'Doherty]], Mayor of Londonderry until 1923, all the ex officio members were Ulster Unionists.

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Election
![[Ulster Unionist Party|Unionist]]
![[Northern Ireland Labour Party|Labour]]
![[Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)|Nationalist]]
![[Independent Unionist|Ind. Unionist]]
![[Independent (politician)|Independent]]
|-
|1921
|24
|0
|0
|0
|0
|-
|1925
|23
|[[Robert Dorman|1]]
|0
|0
|0
|-
|1929
|20
|[[Robert Dorman|1]]
|3
|0
|0
|-
|1933
|18
|0
|5
|[[James Woods Gyle|1]]
|0
|-
|1937
|20
|0
|4
|0
|0
|-
|1945
|18
|[[William James Smyth|1]]
|2
|[[William McConnell Wilton|1]]
|0
|-
|1949
|17
|[[William James Smyth|1]]
|5
|[[William McConnell Wilton|1]]
|0
|-
|1953
|18
|0
|5
|0
|[[John Patrick Donaghy|1]]
|-
|1957
|19
|0
|4
|0
|[[John Patrick Donaghy|1]]
|-
|1962
|18
|[[Arnold Schofield|1]]
|4
|0
|[[John Patrick Donaghy|1]]
|-
|1965
|18
|2
|4
|0
|0
|-
|1969
|16
|2
|5
|0
|0
|}

===Peerages===
[[Peers of the Realm]] were disproportionately represented in the Senate. Nine senators were or became peers of the realm at the time of their membership of the Senate. These were [[James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn]], [[James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Abercorn]], [[Maxwell Ward, 6th Viscount Bangor]], [[James Edward Caulfeild, 8th Viscount Charlemont]], [[Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava]], [[Daniel Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran]], [[Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry]], [[Algernon Skeffington, 12th Viscount Massereene]], and [[William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie]]. Lord Bangor and Lord Charlemont held Irish titles only; Lord Charlemont had been elected as an [[List of Irish representative peers|Irish representative peer]] and so sat in the House of Lords, Lord Bangor however did not. At least another three senators subsequently became peers by different routes. [[Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster|Lord Robert Grosvenor]] inherited the title of [[Duke of Westminster]] from his brother, Sir [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Basil Brooke]] was created [[Viscount Brookeborough]] and Victor Cooke was created a [[life peer]] as [[Victor Cooke, Baron Cooke of Islandreagh|Baron Cooke of Islandreagh]].<ref>Whyte 2002</ref>

==Abolition==

The Senate, along with the [[House of Commons of Northern Ireland|House of Commons]], was [[legislative session#Procedure in Commonwealth realms|prorogue]]d by the [[Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972]], and abolished completely by the [[Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973]]. The old Senate Chamber is now used as a committee room of the [[Northern Ireland Assembly]].

==See also==
* [[List of members of the Senate of Northern Ireland]]

==References==
===Sources===
* {{cite book |first=John F.|last=Harbinson |title=The Ulster Unionist Party, 1882–1973 |year=1974 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=9780856400766 |url=https://archive.org/details/ulsterunionistpa00john_0|url-access=registration}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/hnisen.htm|title=Members of the Northern Ireland Senate, 1921-72|last=Whyte|first=Nicholas|date=17 February 2002|work=[[Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive]]|access-date=31 August 2017}}
* {{cite book |title=Parliamentary debates (official report) Northern Ireland. The Senate. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100744901 |publisher=H.M.S.O. on behalf of the government of Northern Ireland |location=Belfast |volume=56 vols |date=1921–1972 |oclc=876621671 |via=HathiTrust }} (vols 1 and 2 are missing from the HathiTrust scans; vol 52 is not catalogued but [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0001752815&seq=1231 appended to vol 51])

===Citations===
{{reflist}}
{{Irish legislatures}}
{{National upper houses}}

[[Category:Senate of Northern Ireland| ]]
[[Category:Parliament of Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Defunct upper houses]]
[[Category:1921 establishments in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1972 disestablishments in Northern Ireland]]