GOVERNMENT AND THE PARTY SYSTEM

The same struggle for independence which produced the party system of the Irish Republic also produced the Northern Irish State. In a situation of diminishing British control the Government of Northern Ireland was constituted in 1921 for the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, with its administrative centre in Belfast. The rest of Ireland became a self-governing dominion. Thereafter the two parts of Ireland moved apart, although the nationalists both within and outside the North continued to demand unification of the island. In 1937 the new (Southern) Irish Constitution applied in theory everywhere. In 1949 the Irish Free State formally became the Republic of Ireland, following the passing of the Republic of Ireland Act (1948). In response, the Westminster Parliament in the Ireland Act (1949) gave a specific guarantee that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom with legislative devolution over matters not of concern to the U.K. as a whole.

The Parliament was not sovereign. However, its institutions were modelled on those of Westminster. The legislature comprised the Crown, represented by a Governor, a House of Commons and a Senate. From 1929 elections were held on a simple plurality system in single member districts. The Senate consisted of 26 members and all but two ex-officio members were elected, by proportional representation, by the Lower House.