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Government of Ireland Act 1920

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or (inaccurately) as the Fourth Home Rule Act and informally known as the Partition Act.[3] The Act was intended to partition Ireland into two self-governing polities: the six north-eastern counties were to form "Northern Ireland", while the larger part of the country was to form "Southern Ireland". Both territories were to remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and provision was made for their future reunification through a Council of Ireland. The Act was passed by the British Parliament in November 1920, received royal assent in December and came into force on 3 May 1921.[4][5]

Long title

An Act to provide for the better Government of Ireland.

David Lloyd George (Commons)

23 December 1920

3 May 1921[1][2]

  • 2 December 1999
    (UK)
  • 8 May 2007
    (Republic of Ireland)

The smaller Northern Ireland was duly created with a devolved government and remained in the UK. The larger Southern Ireland was not recognized by most of its citizens, who instead recognized the self-declared Irish Republic in the ongoing Irish War of Independence. The conflict resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921. Under the treaty, Ireland would leave the UK (with the option for Northern Ireland to opt out and remain in the UK, which it immediately did) in December 1922 and become the Irish Free State, which would later evolve into today's Republic of Ireland. The institutions set up under this Act for Northern Ireland continued to function until they were suspended by the British parliament in 1972 as a consequence of the Troubles.


The remaining provisions of the Act still in force in Northern Ireland were repealed under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Developments in Ireland[edit]

During the Great War, Irish politics moved decisively in a different direction. Several events, including the Easter Rising of 1916, the subsequent reaction of the British Government and the Conscription Crisis of 1918, had altered the state of Irish politics and contributed to Sinn Féin becoming the dominant voice of Irish nationalism. Sinn Féin, standing for 'an independent sovereign Ireland', won 73 of the 105 parliamentary seats on the island in the 1918 general election.[7] Its elected members established their own parliament, Dáil Éireann, which declared the country's independence as the Irish Republic. Dáil Éireann, after a number of meetings, was declared illegal in September 1919 by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount French.


When the Act became law on 23 December 1920 it was already out of touch with realities in Ireland. The long-standing demand for home rule had been replaced among nationalists by a demand for complete independence (an Irish Republic).[8] The Republic's army was waging the Irish War of Independence against British rule, which had reached a nadir in late 1920.

Structures of the governmental system[edit]

At the apex of the governmental system was to be the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who would be the Monarch's representative in both of the Irish home rule regions. The system was based on colonial constitutional theories. Executive authority was to be vested in the crown and, in theory, not answerable to either parliament. The Lord Lieutenant would appoint a cabinet that did not need parliamentary support. No provision existed for a prime minister.


Such structures matched the theory in the British dominions, such as Canada and Australia, where in powers belonged to the governor-general and there was no normal responsibility to parliament. In reality, governments had long come to be chosen from parliament and to be answerable to it. Prime ministerial offices had come into de facto existence.[a] Such developments were also expected to happen in Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, but technically were not required under the Act.

Potential for Irish unity[edit]

As well as sharing the same viceroy, a Council of Ireland was to be composed of 20 members from each Parliament. The Council would co-ordinate matters of common concern to the two parliaments (transport, health, agriculture etc).[17] Each Parliament was to possess the ability, in identical motions, to vote powers to the Council, which Britain intended should evolve into a single Irish Parliament.[18][19] The Council had little real power - the provisions of the Act called for the Council to promote consultations which could lead to eventual unity.[20] The Council never met.

Aftermath[edit]

Northern Ireland[edit]

The Parliament of Northern Ireland came into being in June 1921. At its inauguration, in Belfast City Hall, King George V made a famous appeal for Anglo-Irish and north–south reconciliation. The speech, drafted by the government of David Lloyd George on recommendations from Jan Smuts[b] Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, with the enthusiastic backing of the King, opened the door for formal contact between the British Government and the Republican administration of Éamon de Valera.


Though it was superseded in large part, its repeal remained a matter of controversy until accomplished in the 1990s (under the provisions of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement).[5]

Southern Ireland[edit]

All 128 MPs elected to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland in the May 1921 elections were returned unopposed; 124 of them, representing Sinn Féin, declared themselves TDs (Teachtaí Dála, Irish for Dáil Deputies) and assembled as the Second Dáil of the Irish Republic.


With only the four Independent Unionist MPs, who had been elected for the Dublin University constituency and fifteen appointed senators turning up for the state opening of the Parliament of Southern Ireland at the Royal College of Science in Dublin (now Government Buildings) in June 1921, the new legislature was suspended. Southern Ireland was ruled, for the time being, directly from London as it had been before the Government of Ireland Act.


The Provisional Government of the Irish Free State was constituted on 14 January 1922 "at a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland". That meeting was not convened as a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland nor as a meeting of the Dáil. Instead, it was convened by Arthur Griffith as "Chairman of the Irish Delegation of Plenipotentiaries" (who had signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty) under the terms of the Treaty.[c]


Elections in June 1922 were followed by the meeting of the Third Dáil, which worked as a Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution for the Irish Free State. For the purposes of British law the constitution was confirmed by the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922; the new state then came into being on 6 December 1922.

Consequences[edit]

The Treaty provided for the ability of Northern Ireland's Parliament, by formal address, to opt out of the new Irish Free State, which as expected, the Parliament of Northern Ireland brought into effect on 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State). An Irish Boundary Commission was set up to redraw the border between the new Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, but it remained unchanged in return for financial concessions and the British and Irish governments agreed to suppress its report. In regards to the possible loss of territory due to the Boundary Commissions findings, on 25 January 1922 James Craig, the 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland stated: "“I will never give in to any re-arrangement of the boundary that leaves our Ulster area less than it is under the Government of Ireland Act”[21] The newly formed Government of Northern Ireland refused to appoint a representative to the Boundary Commission. The Council of Ireland never functioned as hoped (as an embryonic all-Ireland parliament), as the new governments decided to find a better mechanism in January 1922.[22]


In consequence of the establishment of the Irish Free State, the British parliament passed the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922, which made a number of adjustments to Northern Ireland's system of government as set up by the 1920 Act. Most notably, the office of Lord Lieutenant was abolished, being replaced by the new office of Governor of Northern Ireland.

Repeal[edit]

The final provisions of the 1920 Act remaining in force in the United Kingdom were repealed under the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, after the Good Friday Agreement. In the republic, the Statute Law Revision Act 2007 repealed the Act almost 85 years after Constitution of the Irish Free State replaced it as the basic constitutional law.[23]

. legislation.gov.uk. 23 December 1920. Retrieved 14 August 2020.

"Government of Ireland Act 1920 [as enacted]"

. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1918-04-18 et seq.

"Bills index: Government of Ireland Bill"

Quekett, Arthur S. (1928). . The Constitution Of Northern Ireland. Vol. Part I. Belfast: HMSO.

The Origin and Development of the Constitution

Quekett, Arthur S. (1933). . The Constitution Of Northern Ireland. Vol. Part II. Belfast: HMSO.

The Government of Ireland Act, 1920 and Subsequent Enactments

links to original and 1990s versions and related legislation, from legislation.gov.uk

Government of Ireland Act 1920 (repealed 2.12.1999)

Archived 7 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine digitization of first and last pages of the House of Lords copy of the act in the Parliamentary Archives

HL/PO/PU/1/1920/10&11G5c67

full original text from BAILII

Government of Ireland Act 1920

matches in debates Hansard 1803–2005

"Government of Ireland Act 1920"