The Partition of Ireland

Essay # 60353

A look at why Ireland was partitioned under the terms of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act.

1,369 words () | 10 sources | MLA | 2005 Ireland

Paper Summary:

This paper details the background reasons behind the partition of Ireland and the inevitability of it happening. It then goes on to discuss the events as they happened immediately prior to the 1921 treaty and how the partition was cemented in the following years.

From the Paper:

"John Redmond died in 1918 and left the Irish Parliamentary Party in tatters; it had been decapitated and was already on an uneasy base because of Lloyd George's earlier proposals and the wave of support for Sinn Fein after the 1916 rising. The IPP suffered a great defeat in the 1918 elections, returning just 6 candidates. The Ulster Unionists won 26 seats and Sinn Fein 73. These figures seem to give Sinn Fein a broader electoral support than it realistically had. Almost a quarter of the seats were uncontested where only a Sinn Fein candidate stood and while they had 69.5% of the seats they only gained 53.5% of the vote. With this apparent mandate Sinn Fein went ahead and set up Dail Eireann but this was not attended by the Ulster Unionists or the now almost defunct Irish Parliamentary Party., they chose instead to go to Westminster where the Ulster Unionists were the only Irish voices to be heard. "