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Home Secretary Priti Patel, Boris Johnson and MP Will Quince before a rally for the General Election campaign this week. AP/PA Images

Column The results of the UK general election could hugely impact the Irish border - and not for the first time

A December election does not come around often, writes Cormac Moore.

DECEMBER ELECTIONS ARE never popular, and the UK general election later this month is the first December election in nearly a century, since 1923. 

The one before that, in 1918, was highly significant, taking place immediately after the end of the First World War. Despite their rarity, all three, including the one later this month, were and are crucial for the border in Ireland.

The result of the 2019 general election that has been largely dominated by Brexit could have huge ramifications for the Irish border.

Elections to the Westminster parliament in Northern Ireland in the past have tended to reflect the divided nature of northern society, essentially standing as sectarian headcounts.

This election uniquely has seen pacts agreed between remain and Brexit supporting political parties, not all allies on the major constitutional question.

The overall result in Britain is as important for the border as the 18 seats in Northern Ireland. It could determine if there is hard or soft border, whether there is a land border or one in the Irish Sea, or if the UK will leave the EU at all.

The December 1918 election, the last all-Ireland election, cannot be underestimated in bringing about the partition of Ireland, particularly in determining the nature of that partition.

The 1918 general election, the first since 1910, was one of the most decisive in Irish history. Sinn Féin obliterated the Irish Party by winning 73 of the 105 seats available in Ireland.

The Irish Party won just six seats. Sinn Féin decided to abstain from taking its seats in Westminster, meaning there would be just a handful of Irish nationalist voices heard in the House of Commons as the future of Ireland was decided.

The election was also a spectacular success for Ulster unionists. It was a success for two parties with polar opposite viewpoints; Sinn Féin seeking complete severance from Britain and Ulster unionists looking to remain fully integrated within the union.

Of the 37 seats available in the province of Ulster, unionists won 22. In the six counties that would form Northern Ireland, the unionists won 22 of the 29 seats available, with Sinn Féin winning just three.

Remarkably, nationalists had more seats in Ulster than unionists as recently as 1913, 17 to 16. By 1918, the electorate of Ulster had moved decisively in favour of unionism. Crucially, unionists won no seats in the counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

This certainly was a factor in Ulster unionists insisting that Northern Ireland should consist of six counties, and not the entire historical nine-county Ulster province that the British government proposed.

Unionists were also bolstered by the success of their allies in Britain, the Conservative Party.

The British prime minister, David Lloyd George’s national coalition was easily re-elected. Most of the seats in the coalition were won by the Conservatives, with 339 to 136 seats for Lloyd George’s Coalition Liberals.

Afterwards, Lloyd George was sensitive to his own vulnerability in the House and felt himself on occasion to be a prisoner of the coalition. This greatly influenced his subsequent decisions on Ireland.

Ireland’s role

Ireland barely featured in this election in Britain.

In the Conservative Party manifesto, it ruled out two options on Ireland: “The one leading to a complete severance of Ireland from the British Empire, and the other the forcible submission of the six counties of Ulster to a Home Rule parliament against their will.”

After the election, Tory stranglehold on Irish policy tightened immeasurably. This was apparent when the decisive Government of Ireland Act was introduced in 1920 which led to the partition of Ireland.

The December 1923 UK general election also had an impact in determining the nature of the Irish border.

Under Article 12 of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty between the British government and Sinn Féin, Northern Ireland could opt not to join the Irish Free State, which it duly did.

As a result under the Treaty, a boundary commission would determine the border “in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions”. 

Due to the civil war in Ireland and political turmoil in Britain (between 1922 and 1924 there were three general elections and four governments in Britain), the boundary commission was put on hold.

After the December 1923 election, the British Labour Party under Ramsay MacDonald came to power for the first time in its history. It was a short-lived administration, lasting for just ten months.

The British Labour Party had previously supported home rule and opposed partition. However, as it came closer to power in Britain, its interest in and commitment to Ireland waned.

As prime minister, MacDonald made key appointments to the boundary commission. He appointed the chairperson, Richard Feetham, a judge based in South Africa.

Feetham, with a very vague clause from the Treaty to work off, decided not to conduct a plebiscite in border areas, choosing instead to assume a quasi-judicial approach and ruling out wholesale transfers to the south or the north.

With the northern government refusing to appoint its commissioner, MacDonald’s government intervened by selecting Joseph R Fisher, a barrister and former editor of the Belfast unionist leaning newspaper, the Northern Whig.

The northern government could not have selected a better candidate to advance the unionist cause. Fisher even privately advocated the inclusion of Donegal into Northern Ireland.

Even though MacDonald was in power for just ten months, the appointments of Feetham and Fisher to the boundary commission were crucial in retaining the northern territory as it was before, as it still remains to this date.

Despite many polls predicting an overall majority for the Conservative Party, the impact of the upcoming UK election on the Irish border still has to be determined.

However, if it resembles the last two December UK elections, it’s bound to have a major effect. 

Cormac Moore is author of Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland, recently published by Merrion Press. 

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Mar 10th 2021, 10:59 AM

    There is no possibility of Irish unity while sinn fein and the DUP are the main voices in northern politics . Two bitter, sectarian sides of the same coin, they need each other, feed off each other. But while either or both of them are on the pitch, nobody can win the game.

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    Mute postmanbill
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    Mar 10th 2021, 11:04 AM

    @John Mulligan: Well said John, could not agree with you more.

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    Mute Padraig O'Shea
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    Mar 15th 2021, 5:48 PM

    @John Mulligan: rubbished

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:40 PM

    @John Mulligan: Nonsense

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    Mute Alan Wright
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    Mar 10th 2021, 11:00 AM

    Here’s a simple “FactFind” for the Journal. Who placed the ad’s in US papers for a United Ireland? After that fact is checked, please amend your click bait headline in the other article.

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    Mute Diarmuid Hunt
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:09 PM

    @Alan Wright: They stated “Friend of Sinn Féin”, have you found different?

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Mar 15th 2021, 4:54 PM

    A border poll is pointless as long as the large number of unionists who identify as British in the north are ignored or conveniently not part of such a process. They won’t go quietly and will not shy from fighting for what they hold close to their hearts. Like most Republicans I want a United Ireland….. but not at any cost

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Mar 15th 2021, 5:38 PM

    @Marc Power: so once again you democracy within this island is to be suspended because of actual or perceived threats of Unionist/ loyalist violence. That was how the dysfunctional state was created in first place.

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Mar 15th 2021, 5:52 PM

    @Marc Power: no one is advocating excluding or ignoring unionism, you’re confusing their unwillingness to engage in any form of discussion as them being ignored. But the Unionist veto is gone forever.

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:36 PM

    @M Bowe: I never said that so please stop stating nonsense and read my post again

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:46 PM

    @Marc Power: a border poll is pointless if
    1/ unionism is ignored
    2/ they won’t go quietly and will fight
    3/ you want unification but not at any price, ie the costs of above.
    You are precisely saying that a democratic poll is pointless because of those factors.

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    Mute Richard Russell
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:08 PM

    I will vote no. It will cost us at least €10 billion which of course will but an end to Limerick to Cork motorway plus other projects. We would also have to put up with the bigotry of DUP and Sinn Fein. The only people who vote yes will be the shiners and some FF’ s

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    Mute O Swetenham
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:18 PM

    @Richard Russell: “The only people who vote yes will be the shiners and FF’s”

    Do you honestly think that’s true?? Really?

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    Mute Justin Gillespie
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:23 PM

    @O Swetenham: How people will vote will depend on the proposition put in front of them.
    I have yet to see any proposal telling me what a united Ireland will actually look like.

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    Mute O Swetenham
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:27 PM

    @Justin Gillespie: absolutely true. Couldn’t agree more, but I think suggesting that “only shinners and some ff’s” would vote for a United Ireland is a strange assumption.

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    Mute shake n’ break
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    Mar 16th 2021, 12:53 AM

    @Richard Russell: an ignorant comment with a nonsense figure thrown in! You haven’t even bothered researching what the northern irish economy has to offer. We may have a chance to make our country bigger and better but you’d rather spend it on a flipping road from cork to limerick.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Mar 15th 2021, 4:49 PM

    Answer: NI decided they want a border poll. If they vote yes. ROI decide if we want them.

    Remainder of U.K. and ROI should not interfere till NI figure out what the want.

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    Mute Sheila McNulty
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    Mar 15th 2021, 5:31 PM

    @Shawn O’Ceallaghan: Do they honestly think this is going to happen with a border poll ,get real we will end up back in the Troubles it will cause a lot of problems,

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    Mute Gerard
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:16 PM

    It can’t be “Eff the unionists, because they lost”. That’s not how you treat somebody just because you disagree with their opinion. You’d have to do things like provide for schools where Irish is indeed an optional subject. And that’d just be the tip of the iceberg.

    Reunification is supposedly the only goal of nationalism, so if you can achieve that, any other olive branches you can offer to unionists should be on the table.

    The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner. If nationalists win, people need to be prepared to be gracious winners. That’s all.

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    Mute John Hetherton
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:41 PM

    @Gerard: well Gerard that is indeed an interesting position to take. The majority of the population of Ireland wanted independence in 1919/1920, but hey the brits and the unionists didn’t agree hence we are where we are today. Sauce for the goose then, but not acceptable now according to your stance

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    Mute John Hetherton
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:41 PM

    @Gerard: well Gerard that is indeed an interesting position to take. The majority of the population of Ireland wanted independence in 1919/1920, but hey the brits and the unionists didn’t agree hence we are where we are today. Sauce for the goose then, but not acceptable now according to your stance

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    Mute jp tobin
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:46 PM

    2250 would be a good date

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    Mute Paul Hussey
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:38 PM

    The only people who would have a vote are the people of northern Ireland. 90 % of the unionist population would vote no about 30% of the Catholic population would vote no. Can’t see it going thru. The people in the south can’t vote. As the population of GB can’t vote.

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    Mute LiamMac2018
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    Mar 16th 2021, 12:03 AM

    @Paul Hussey: actually, people in the republic will also have to vote on it. So yeah, nah, you’re wrong there

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    Mute Patrick Corr
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    Mar 15th 2021, 5:47 PM

    3rd and 4th paragraphs copied and pasted twice consecutively.

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    Mute leartius
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    Mar 15th 2021, 7:43 PM

    It’s SF making political gain while this government staggers along drunk on this own PR spin. While Leo is busy dancing a tango around the fuzz. Micheál has gone virtual to impress. A welcome distraction on capitol hill. Even St Paddy himself would be applauded how community divides have being ripped open in America. All in the interest of one man. Who not only lost an election but also lost a coup attempt. Still leads a political party and holds court in this Florida palace. What good are virtual shamrocks when democracy is under attack.

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    Mute Matt
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:53 PM

    Ah sure why not. It wont amount to much. Just more time wasting. The only time ireland will be free is when the liffy flows backwards.

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    Mute Martin Dunn
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    Mar 15th 2021, 7:19 PM

    Should voters on both sides of the border agree ………….

    If we are a national community we must have sensitivity to all shades of Irishness … even the Ulster Scot who has resided on this island for centuries ..

    A majority or even a two thirds majority for anything does not define agree …..
    there is enormous need for agreement and that takes patience and time and understanding …there is no need for a vote ever …… just let it happen
    Any vote will simply drive us apart

    4
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    Mute Gerard
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    Mar 15th 2021, 6:20 PM

    It can’t be “Eff the unionists, because they lost”. That’s not how you treat somebody just because you disagree with their opinion. You’d have to do things like provide for schools where Irish is indeed an optional subject. And that’d just be the tip of the iceberg.

    Reunification is supposedly the only goal of nationalism, so if you can achieve that, any other olive branches you can offer to unionists should be on the table.

    Cost issues would evaporate over time, because the social divide issues would. Reunification is a one way door, and sooner or later, most unionists would see it was a lost cause.

    The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner. If nationalists win, people need to be prepared to be gracious winners. That’s all.

    4
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