Irish border poll | The Constitution Unit Blog

The Unit is holding a public event on Wednesday 9 June to launch the final report of its Working Group on Irish Unification Referendums, a technical study of the process by which the question of a united Ireland should be discussed and decided. Alan Whysall, Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Unit and a member of the group, considers why readers of this blog based in Great Britain should be interested in the group’s work.

As recent polling shows, there is no strongly felt wish in the rest of the UK that Northern Ireland should remain within it.

But the implications of unity should be a concern. Referendums on it may in some circumstances not be far from being triggered.

In Britain, some eminent figures, for example here, here and here, have recently suggested that unity may simply be inevitable, perhaps desirable, and has to be faced up to.

In fact, as is brought out by the report, the journey to unity is by no means inevitable; but if it is embarked on, it is liable to be long and difficult. It may end in a peaceful accommodation – or, potentially, in renewed conflict and division.

The ramifications of that would inevitably entangle Great Britain.

And much – including whether opinion moves further in favour of unity at all – depends on handling by governments. The British and Irish governments have traditionally been the motor of advance and the coordinators of rescue missions in Northern Ireland politics.

But this requires trust in the governments, and partnership between them. The Irish government is always mistrusted by many unionists. Polling suggests that the present British government is mistrusted by almost every shade of political opinion in Northern Ireland. And relations between the two governments are probably at their worst for 30 years.

Brexit, and the way it has been pursued, have heightened tensions and polarised political discourse. And it has brought unity back onto the political agenda: five years ago, few thought that it was feasible in this generation, or probably the next.

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In 1973, the UK government organised the country’s first referendum, on the subject of whether or not Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK. Now, as Brexit and its potential consequences make another border poll look like an increasing possibility, David Torrance looks back on the poll, its background, and its later constitutional significance.

Introduction

The first constitutional referendum in the history of the United Kingdom took place on 8 March 1973. It was held nearly four years after the beginning of ‘The Troubles’ – a sharp deterioration in the security and political situation in Northern Ireland.

What became known as the ‘border poll’ (although it was also called a ‘referendum’ or ‘plebiscite’, no one could quite agree on terminology) emerged as a means by which to ‘take the border out of politics’, or so it was hoped. In discussions with the Government of Northern Ireland (NIG) on 22 March 1972, the UK government proposed transferring responsibility for law and order from Belfast to London, phasing out internment, and periodic plebiscites.

The last two were, in principle, acceptable to the NIG, but an erosion of its ‘transferred’ powers under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was not. The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Brian Faulkner) and his Cabinet later resigned, and on 30 March the Parliament of Northern Ireland – known as ‘Stormont’ – was prorogued and Direct Rule from Westminster introduced for the first time since 1921.

The referendum announcement

Speaking in the Commons on 24 March 1972, Prime Minister Edward Heath said:

‘We… propose in due course to invite Parliament to provide for a system of regular plebiscites in Northern Ireland about the Border, the first to be held as soon as practicable in the near future and others at intervals of a substantial period of years thereafter.’

In effect, Heath was proposing to transfer the principle of ‘consent’ from the prorogued Parliament of Northern Ireland (enshrined in the Ireland Act 1949) to its people, ‘the Border’ representing a proxy for a much broader constitutional question. Continue reading →

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Irish unity: why Britain should reflect

‘Taking the border out of politics’ – the Northern Ireland referendum of March 1973

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