41-681: The Senate of Northern Ireland was the upper house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 . It was abolished with the passing of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 . In practice the Senate of Northern Ireland possessed little power and even less influence. While intended as a revising chamber, in practice, debates and votes typically simply replicated those in
82-589: A few matters excluded from its remit, the most important of which are: succession to the Crown, making of peace or war, armed forces, honours, naturalisation, some central taxes and postal services (a full list is in section 4 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 ). The Parliament did not try to infringe the terms of the Government of Ireland Act; on only one occasion did the United Kingdom government advise
123-465: A public holiday and the practices of the postal service, they arrived an hour after the election. Requests for a recount were denied. (It is doubtful whether the three votes would have been sufficient to elect a Senator under the election system, since they would not have achieved a complete single transferable vote quota alone and the Unionist votes were likely to transfer so heavily to each other that
164-574: A small percentage of votes. It had been felt by some that Northern Ireland should use the same first-past-the-post system that was in place in the rest of the UK . By the time the first-past-the-post system was implemented for the 1929 election, the Republicans had few or no candidates and pro-separatist electors were represented almost solely by the Nationalist Party . Despite the change in
205-538: A subsequent analysis of the transfers showed that these would otherwise have been sufficient to elect him. The key offices in the Senate were: During its history 142 people sat in the upper house. With the addition of the Unionist Lord Mayor of Belfast Corporation and Mayor of Londonderry Corporation , together with boycotts of the Commons at various times by nationalist parties and fragmentation of
246-534: Is now used as a committee room of the Northern Ireland Assembly . Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland , created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 , which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore order during the Troubles , resulting in
287-563: Is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the British royal family . The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Dukes were each grandsons of the first. The present holder of the title is Hugh Grosvenor , the 7th Duke, who inherited the dukedom on 9 August 2016 on the death of his father, Gerald . The present duke is a godfather of Prince George of Wales . The Duke of Westminster's seats are at Eaton Hall, Cheshire , and at Abbeystead House , Lancashire . The family's London town house
328-745: The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . However, the replacement of Southern Ireland by the Irish Free State led to the abolition of the post of Lord Lieutenant. Instead, a new office – Governor of Northern Ireland – was created on 12 December 1922. Initially the Parliament met in Belfast's City Hall but then moved to the Presbyterian Church's Assembly's College (later Union Theological College ), where it remained during
369-585: The Lord Mayor of Belfast and the Mayor of Derry . The Senate generally had the same party balance as the House of Commons, though abstaining parties and very small parties were not represented. Because of this, and its dependence on the House of Commons for election, it had virtually no political impact. The British monarch was originally to have been represented in both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by
410-488: The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava , Lord Glentoran , the Marquess of Londonderry , Lord Massereene and Ferrard , and Lord Pirrie . Lord Bangor and Lord Charlemont held Irish titles only; Lord Charlemont had been elected as an Irish representative peer and so sat in the House of Lords, Lord Bangor however did not. At least another three senators subsequently became peers by different routes. Lord Robert Grosvenor inherited
451-484: The Prime Minister , the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons. The House of Commons had 52 members, of which 48 were for territorial seats, and four were for graduates of Queen's University, Belfast (until 1969, when the four university seats were replaced by an additional four territorial seats, alongside the abolition of plural voting ). The Government of Ireland Act prescribed that elections to
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#1732787781104492-477: The Single Transferable Vote (STV), elected in blocks of twelve with each senator's term lasting for two parliaments (i.e. two terms of the House of Commons) and two ex-officio members: the Lord Mayor of Belfast and Mayor of Londonderry . Convention held that, in the event of a by-election, only members of the Commons from the same county would vote on their replacement. The election system
533-477: The 1969 election, there was one vacant seat. Other than Hugh O'Doherty , Mayor of Londonderry until 1923, all the ex officio members were Ulster Unionists. Peers of the Realm were disproportionately represented in the Senate. Nine senators were or became peers of the realm at the time of their membership of the Senate. These were the third and fourth Dukes of Abercorn , Viscount Bangor , Viscount Charlemont ,
574-651: The Commons. From 1932, when the building was completed, until 1972, the Senate of Northern Ireland met in the Senate Chamber of Parliament Buildings in Stormont on the eastern outskirts of Belfast . To make parallels with the British House of Lords , members of the Senate sat on red benches. The Senate consisted of 26 members. Twenty-four members elected by the House of Commons of Northern Ireland using
615-507: The House of Commons should be by single transferable vote (STV), though the Parliament was given the power to alter the electoral system from three years after its first meeting. The STV system was the subject of criticism from grassroots Unionists , but because the three-year period ended during the Labour government of 1924, the Stormont government decided not to provoke the known egalitarian sympathies of many Labour backbenchers and held
656-574: The King to withhold royal assent. This was the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) which abolished proportional representation in local government elections; the issue was referred to London and royal assent was eventually given. The output of legislation was high for a devolved Parliament, though some of the Acts were adaptations of recently passed acts by the United Kingdom parliament. It
697-517: The Nationalist candidate would not reach quota throughout the rounds of counting.) From later in 1925 to 1927, the Nationalist Party members took their seats for the first time. For the 1929 general election the Unionists replaced the proportional representation system blamed for their bad performance in 1925. The new boundaries set the pattern for politics until Stormont was abolished;
738-584: The Order for seven years for visiting nationalist MP Joe Devlin on his deathbed. A fully digitised copy of the Commons' debates (187,000 printed pages of Parliamentary Debates) is available online. Duke of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster . It
779-402: The Order, one because his daughter married a Catholic, one to become Minister of Community Relations in 1970, and the third was expelled for attending a Catholic religious ceremony. Of the 95 Stormont MPs who did not become cabinet ministers, 87 were Orangemen. Every unionist senator, with one exception, between 1921 and 1969 was an Orangeman. One of these senators, James Gyle , was suspended from
820-535: The Parliament was dissolved in 1972. In 1968 the government abolished the Queen's University constituency ( university constituencies had been abolished at Westminster with effect from 1950) and created four new constituencies in the outskirts of Belfast where populations had grown. This change helped the Unionists, as they held only two of the university seats but won all four of the newly created seats. There had, however, long been calls from outside Unionism to abolish
861-674: The Stormont seats (as opposed to local council wards) were gerrymandered against Nationalists is disputed by historians (since the number of Nationalists elected under the two systems barely changed), though it is agreed that losses under the change to single-member constituency boundaries were suffered by independent unionists, the Liberals and the Northern Ireland Labour Party . Population movements were so small that these boundaries were used almost everywhere until
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#1732787781104902-494: The Unionists never fell below 33 seats. In the 1930s, the phrase " A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People " was a debated term. The 1938 general election was called when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain was negotiating a settlement of outstanding disputes with Éamon de Valera, whose new constitution laid claim to Northern Ireland, and the 1949 election
943-576: The Unionists split over O'Neill's tentative reforms at the 1969 general election and Ian Paisley 's Protestant Unionist Party began to win by-elections. The new nationalist party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party , withdrew from Stormont in July 1971 over the refusal of an inquiry into Royal Ulster Constabulary actions in Derry . Stormont was abolished and Direct Rule from Westminster
984-495: The electoral system and accusations of gerrymandering , the Nationalist Party lost 9.5% share of the vote, but still gained a seat. The more moderate Northern Ireland Labour Party and Ulster Liberal Party both gained in vote share but lost seats. The boundary changes for 1929 were not made by an impartial boundary commission but by the Unionist government, for which it was accused of gerrymandering. The charges that
1025-548: The expected report of the Boundary Commission required by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922. The Boundary Commission was expected to recommend the transfer of many border areas to the Irish Free State , and the Unionist election slogan was "Not an Inch!". They lost eight seats in Belfast and County Antrim , where the issue of the border had far less resonance. Sinn Féin had fought in 1921, but by 1925
1066-580: The graduate franchise (and other anomalies) and to have " one person one vote ". The Senate was a last-minute addition to the Parliament, after the original plans for a single Senate covering both the Stormont and Dublin Parliaments were overtaken by events. Twenty-four senators were elected by the House of Commons using the single transferable vote. The elections were carried out after each general election, with 12 members elected for two parliaments each time. The other two seats were held ex officio by
1107-569: The introduction of direct rule . It was abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 . The Parliament of Northern Ireland was bicameral , consisting of a House of Commons with 52 seats, and an indirectly elected Senate with 26 seats. The Sovereign was represented by the Governor (initially by the Lord Lieutenant ), who granted royal assent to Acts of Parliament in Northern Ireland, but executive power rested with
1148-472: The opposition into some parties too small to elect a Senator alone, the upper house proved to be even more heavily Unionist than the lower house. However a Nationalist , Thomas Stanislaus McAllister , served two periods as deputy speaker. The table below shows the political composition of the twenty-four elected members of the Senate, after each election. It does not show subsequent changes of party allegiance, nor changes resulting from by-elections. Following
1189-479: The period 1921–1932. The Commons met in the college's Gamble Library and the Senate in the chapel. In 1932, Parliament moved to the new purpose-built Parliament Buildings , designed by Sir Arnold Thornely , at Stormont , on the eastern outskirts of the city. "Stormont" came to be a synecdoche referring both to the Parliament itself and to the Northern Ireland government. Stormont was given power to legislate over almost all aspects of Northern Ireland life, with only
1230-603: The population of serving age were either in essential jobs or had already joined up voluntarily, making the potential yield of conscription low. 1965 saw a significant change, in that the Nationalists accepted office as the Official Opposition . This was intended as a reward for the attempts made by Terence O'Neill to end discrimination against Catholics and normalise relations with the Republic. However,
1271-455: The second election on the same basis. The loss of eight Unionist seats in that election caused great acrimony, and in 1929, the system was changed to first-past-the-post for all territorial constituencies, though STV was retained for the university seats. In the 1925 election, however, Republicans also lost four seats and a substantial proportion of votes. Nationalists gained the same number of seats that Republicans had lost, but had only gained
Senate of Northern Ireland - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-471: The title of Duke of Westminster from his brother, Sir Basil Brooke was created Viscount Brookeborough and Victor Cooke was created a life peer as Baron Cooke of Islandreagh . The Senate, along with the House of Commons , was prorogued by the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 , and abolished completely by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 . The old Senate Chamber
1353-691: Was Grosvenor House , Park Lane , while Halkyn Castle was built as a sporting lodge for the family in the early 1800s. The traditional burial place of the Dukes is the Old Churchyard adjacent to St Mary's Church, Eccleston . Richard Grosvenor was created Baronet of Eaton in January 1622. Sir Richard Grosvenor, the 7th Baronet, was created Baron Grosvenor in 1761, and in 1784 became both Viscount Belgrave ( Belgrave, Cheshire ) and Earl Grosvenor under George III . The title Marquess of Westminster
1394-483: Was bestowed upon Robert Grosvenor, the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, at the coronation of William IV in 1831. In 1677 Sir Thomas Grosvenor wed Mary Davies. Her dowry included 500 acres to the west of what was then the boundary of London. The subsidiary titles are: Marquess of Westminster (created 1831), Earl Grosvenor (1784), Viscount Belgrave , of Belgrave in the County of Chester (1784), and Baron Grosvenor , of Eaton in
1435-590: Was called when the Irish government declared itself a republic . During the Second World War , the Stormont government called on Westminster to introduce conscription several times, as this was already the case in Great Britain. The British government consistently refused, remembering how a similar attempt in 1918 had backfired dramatically, as nationalist opposition made it unworkable. Much of
1476-702: Was introduced in March 1972, just six weeks after Bloody Sunday , when the Unionist government refused to hand over responsibility for law and order to Westminster . In its 50-year history, only one piece of legislation was passed that was introduced by a Nationalist member, the Wild Birds Protection Act. In October 1971, as the Troubles worsened, Gerard Newe had been appointed as a junior minister at Stormont, in an attempt to improve community relations. Fifty years after it came into existence, Newe
1517-482: Was maintained even after the abolition of STV for the House of Commons. In 1925, at the end of the first parliament, the senators to retire were selected by lot. At the subsequent election, voting papers from the Nationalist MPs and George Henderson were deemed to have been submitted late, and were not considered. All these members had given a high preference to the Nationalist candidate, Vincent Devoto, and
1558-495: Was nominally prohibited by section 16 of the Schedule to the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 from making any law which directly or indirectly discriminated against a religion, although this provision had little effect. The 1921 general election was explicitly fought on the issue of partition , being in effect a referendum on approval of the concept of a Northern Ireland administration. Thereafter, general election timing
1599-465: Was suffering the effects of its split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty . Éamon de Valera 's Sinn Féin fought as Republicans but won only two seats. The border was never changed. A minor row erupted in 1925 when the elections to the Senate took place. Eleven Unionists and one Labour Senator were elected, despite there being a block of three composed of two non-abstaining Nationalists and a dissident Unionist. The latter three had mailed their votes, but due to
1640-475: Was the first Catholic to serve in a Northern Ireland government, but because he was neither an MP nor a Senator, his appointment could last only six months. The influence of the Orange Order in the governance of Northern Ireland was far-reaching. All of the six prime ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Order, as were all but three cabinet ministers until 1969. Three of the ministers later left
1681-610: Was up to the Prime Minister. Elections almost always took place at a time when the issue of partition had been raised in a new crisis. This generally guaranteed the loyalty of Protestant voters to the Unionist Party . Independent Unionist candidates and the Northern Ireland Labour Party were usually accused of being splitters or dupes of the Nationalists . The 1925 general election was called to tie in with