House of Commons of Northern Ireland

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House of Commons of Northern Ireland
Devolved Parliament
First-past-the-post (1929–1972)
Meeting place
Commons Chamber
Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Belfast

The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the

bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished with the passing of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973
.

Membership

The House of Commons had a membership of 52. Until 1969, 48 were from territorial constituencies and 4 were for graduates of

The Queen's University of Belfast; in that year the QUB seats were abolished and four extra territorial constituencies created on the outskirts of Belfast, where the population had grown. For the electoral constituencies used, see Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies
.

Functions

The House of Commons fulfilled the normal lower house functions to be found in the

Westminster System
of Government. Its roles were

Electoral system

The Government of Ireland Act required that elections to the House of Commons be by the

Southern Ireland, and also existed in the Irish Free State
).

Under the Act the Parliament of Northern Ireland was given the legislative power to alter the electoral system from three years after its first meeting. The use of STV was criticised strongly among the grassroots of the governing

First Past the Post
). The loss of eight seats by the UUP in the second parliamentary election caused a major row within the party. Rather than deal with questions as to why it faced declining popularity the party replaced STV by the non-proportional (and so less helpful to minorities) First Past the Post. However STV was retained for the election of the 4 MPs from Queens University.

The Opposition

The creation of

Sir Edward Carson, were opposed to the Partition of Ireland. While Unionists within Northern Ireland became reconciled to their form of home rule, Nationalists remained alienated from the structures of the state and pursued an abstentionist policy. The Nationalist Party, the main Nationalist party in Northern Ireland, which claimed descent from the pre-partition Irish Parliamentary Party, boycotted the Parliament entirely until 1925, and individual members boycotted at points thereafter. Other parties, notably the Northern Ireland Labour Party
, did however take their seats. The absence of the main opposition party from parliament led to accusations of in effect "one party rule".

For many years the most effective opposition came from various independent Unionists, most notably Tommy Henderson (served 1925–1953) who was famous for his near ten hour speech on the Appropriation Bill in May 1936.

Procedure

In most of its activities the House of Commons deliberately used the same procedure as the

Speech from the Throne
as a token gesture of defiance of Royal authority. The same sessional orders were then agreed relating to members returned for two constituencies.

Ministers spoke from a

private bills
promoted by divorcing couples. Because of the much smaller size of the House, only one member was required to act as a teller for each side during a division and they were counted among those voting in the division. The Parliament established virtually the same parliamentary and committee structure as Westminster.

However, the minimal workload of Parliament, and the small number of bills that required passage, meant that Parliament could hold short sessions and meet for short working hours. The workload was so small that future Prime Minister Terence O'Neill later revealed that then Prime Minister Lord Brookeborough did not even have a desk in his de facto residence, Stormont House. (Stormont House was nominally the residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, but as speakers chose to live elsewhere, Prime Ministers used it as their residence, and turned their official residence, Stormont Castle, into an office for their senior civil servants.)

Venue

Chamber of the House of Commons when at Assembly's College, in 1921

The first assembly of the House of Commons occurred in Belfast City Hall in June 1921.

King George V
gave a famed address where he called for reconciliation between Irish people and for Northern Ireland to be free of discrimination against the minority.

For its first decade,

The Prince of Wales
in 1932.

The House of Commons and Senate chambers were located across the Central Hall (nowadays usually known as the Great Hall) from each other, replicating the link between the House of Commons and British

First World War
and remained so until given to Stormont.

Fathers of the House

Name Entered House Became Father Left House Party
J. M. Andrews 1921 1929 1953 Ulster Unionist
Cahir Healy 1925 1953 1965 Nationalist
Lord Brookeborough 1929 1965 1968 Ulster Unionist
Sir Norman Stronge 1938 1968 1969 Ulster Unionist
Terence O'Neill
1946 1969 1970 Ulster Unionist
Brian Faulkner
1949 1970 1972 Ulster Unionist

The Parliament of Northern Ireland, including the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, was prorogued in 1972 and abolished completely in 1973 leaving the title of Father of the House defunct.

The end

Northern Ireland was dogged by allegations of Unionist misrule, and political gerrymandering at local government level, during the 1960s. At this time there was increasing demand for civil rights, voiced primarily by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, allegations of police misbehaviour by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and ultimately the outbreak of The Troubles. In 1972, using its legal powers under the Government of Ireland Act the British government prorogued (suspended) the Northern Ireland Parliament and Government initially for a year, before in 1973 abolishing it entirely with the passing of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Parliament last sat on 28 March 1972.[1]

Parliament Buildings are now the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a successor legislature.

References

  1. ^ Parliamentary Debates of Northern Ireland (accessed 7 August 2012), Volume 84 (1972) / Page 1586, 28 March 1972.

External links

  • Stormont Papers – The complete record of debates of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.