Robert Lynch - The Partition of Ireland: 1918-1925

THE PARTITION OF IRELAND

Partition represents the most fundamental revolution in modern Irish history. By 1925 the country had been divided into two states embodying rival religious and political identities, an outcome unthinkable only a decade before. While often analysed through the lens of elite high politics, partition was by definition a mass participation event, where decision-making was shaped by elections, propaganda and savage acts of violence in defence of, or in opposition to, the new settlement. By examining the complex interaction of nationalism, religion and politics, Robert Lynch seeks to understand how partition was constructed and imagined by Irish people themselves, arguing for a relocation of partition at the centre of historical understandings of events in Ireland which spanned the First World War. Lynch highlights the deep confusion and expediency which lay behind the partition plan, and how it failed to provide answers to the complex and enduring problems of Irish identity.

Robert Lynch has worked, taught and researched at the universities of Stirling, Oxford, Trinity College Dublin, Warwick and Queens University Belfast. He has published numerous articles and books on the early history of Northern Ireland and the partition era, including The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, 19201922 (2006) and most recently contributing to The Irish Revolution (2017). He has also published a number of articles in journals such as the Journal for British Studies and Irish Historical Studies .

THE PARTITION OF IRELAND 19181925

Robert Lynch

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #0604/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the Universitys mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107007734 DOI: 10.1017/9781139017619 Cambridge University Press 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2019 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lynch, Robert John, author. Title: The partition of Ireland 19181925 / Robert Lynch. Description: United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2019?] | Identifiers: LCCN 2018057272 | ISBN 9781107007734 Subjects: LCSH: Ireland History Partition, 1921. | Ireland History 19101921. | Ireland History 1922 Classification: LCC DA962 .L964 2019 | DDC 941.5082/1dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018057272 ISBN 978-1-107-00773-4 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-18958-3 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

For Michael Hopkinson, a dear friend, and a true gentleman

Contents

Chronology

1912	11 April	Third Home Rule bill introduced in the House of Commons
28 September	Ulster s Solemn League and Covenant signed on Ulster Day
1913	31 January	Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) founded
24 September	Ulster Unionist Council calls for the creation of the Ulster provisional government if the Home Rule is enacted
25 November	Irish Volunteers founded at Rotunda in Dublin
1914	20 March	Curragh mutiny
24 April	Weapons landed at Larne to arm UVF
25 May	Third Home Rule bill passed for third time by the House of Commons
26 July	Weapons landed at Howth for Irish Volunteers
15 September	Third Home Rule Act suspended for duration of the war pending an amendment for special treatment for Ulster
1916	29 April	Easter Rising in Dublin
1 July	36th (Ulster) Division decimated on the first day of the Somme offensive
23 December	Remaining internees released from Frongoch internment camp and Reading gaol
1917	5 February	Count Plunkett wins by-election victory in North Roscommon
16 June	Remaining prisoners released
10 July	Eamon de Valera wins by-election in East Clare
25 July	Irish Convention opens in Dublin
26 October	De Valera elected president of Sinn Fin
1918	9 April	Military Service bill introduced, clearing the way for the possible extension of conscription in Ireland
18 April	Anti-conscription conference held in Dublin
11 November	Armistice ends the First World War
14 December	Sinn Fin wins seventy-three Irish seats in the general election
1919	21 January	Dil ireann convened at Mansion House in Dublin
1 April	Eamon de Valera elected president of Dil
28 June	Treaty of Versailles signed
1920	25 February	Government of Ireland Act introduced in the House of Commons
4 April	Irish Republican Army (IRA) launches attacks on over 300 unoccupied Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks across Ireland
June	Sinn Fin and the nationalists make substantial gains in local elections following on from victories in urban elections in January
21 July	Shipyard expulsions in Belfast lead to three days of rioting
6 August	Dil instigate the Belfast Boycott
1 November	Recruitment started for new Ulster Special Constabulary
23 December	Government of Ireland Act becomes law
1921	24 May	Unionists win substantial victory in elections to the new Northern Ireland parliament
22 June	Northern Ireland parliament opened by King George V
14 July	Sustained sectarian rioting in Belfast
11 July	Truce implemented, ending War of Independence
11 October	Anglo-Irish negotiations begin in London
22 November	Security and policing powers transferred to the new Northern Ireland government
6 December	Anglo-Irish Treaty signed
1922	7 January	Dil approves the treaty
21 January	First Craig Collins Pact
12 February	Violence erupts in Belfast after IRA shootings along the border, leading to almost thirty deaths in three days
30 March	Second Craig Collins Pact
7 April

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