LITMIR.BIZ

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the truce of 11 July, the identification system was abandoned. Whilst hostilities ceased in the south, the birth of Northern Ireland in the summer of 1921 had witnessed another wave of intense sectarian violence engulfing Belfast, resulting in ‘the highest number of casualties since the shipyard expulsions of the previous summer’.46

      After a RIC constable was killed in Belfast on 10 June, three Catholics were dragged from their homes the following night and shot dead as a reprisal. Two more Catholics were killed similarly after a ‘B’ Special was shot on 12 June. There was intense rioting in York Street, where 150 Catholic families were driven from their homes. Catholic families were forced to live in schools, halls and other makeshift accommodation. A bomb was thrown into the Catholic Dock Lane, killing one man and injuring twenty. Fourteen people were killed in Belfast in June 1921 – ten Catholics and four Protestants.47 On the eve of the truce, 10 July 1921, fourteen people were killed and over 150 Catholic homes burnt down. It became known as Belfast’s ‘Bloody Sunday’.48 The timing of the truce, 11 July, a day before the most testing day in Ulster, further inflamed the sectarian violence. As a result of the truce, the Specials were demobilised, and the IRA was officially recognised, a move vehemently opposed by the northern government:

      the withdrawal of the protection hitherto afforded, by which peace was secured in this area, cannot be justified, in view of the occurrences during the past week, beginning with the murderous attack by Sinn Fein Gunmen on the Police in Belfast on Sunday last, and culminating in last night’s riots, when many persons were shot, including a young girl killed, and Mr. Grant, M.P. [Labour Member for Duncairn], and District-Inspector of Police wounded.49

      There were many Specials to demobilise. According to Michael Farrell, by July 1921, there were 3,515 ‘A’ Specials, just under 16,000 ‘B’ Specials and 1,310 ‘C’ Specials.50 The truce, which by and large held in the south, was ‘not observed by either side in the north,’ according to IRA member Tom Fitzpatrick. Another IRA member, Roger McCorley, claimed that in Belfast, ‘the Truce itself lasted six hours only’.51 The truce saw the IRA gain new respect from the Catholic community and many new recruits, mockingly dubbed ‘Trucileers’ by IRA veterans.52 With the demobilisation of the Specials, loyalists joined the revived UVF and new vigilante groups such as the ‘Imperial Guards’ and ‘Cromwell Clubs’. They filled the void left by the Specials until full responsibility of policing was handed over to the northern government in November 1921.53 This move, on top of transferring other services at the same time, further increased the legitimacy of the northern jurisdiction, which beforehand was seen merely as a ‘glorified county council’.54 Patrick Buckland maintains that even with services transferred, the northern government was ‘given responsibility without real power’.55

      When Northern Ireland came into being in the summer of 1921, the jurisdiction had very limited powers. In its first year of existence, Westminster controlled about 88 per cent of Northern Ireland’s revenue and 60 per cent of its expenditure.56 Its fiscal functions were extremely restricted, with Westminster reserving the power to levy income tax and customs and excise.57 On the same day that the northern government came into existence, 7 June, the Belfast Gazette was issued for the first time to publish government notices, announcing the specific functions of each government department ‘without prejudice to the powers and duties of existing departments and authorities pending the transfer of services’.58 The northern domain had come into existence, but it needed to be equipped with government services. The transfer of services was stalled due to only one of the Irish jurisdictions being operational under the Government of Ireland Act. The British government insisted that both Irish governments needed to be in place in order for this to happen, something that was acutely embarrassing for the northern government. It had no control over its policing or its laws.

      With the creation of a border, there were numerous teething problems, many of a legal nature. Soon after Northern Ireland came into being, the Manorhamilton Board of Guardians in County Leitrim heard a case of a man in distress seeking relief. The man had recently received four shillings of relief money from Enniskillen, now part of a new jurisdiction.59 A Donegal man who was summoned to the Derry Petty Sessions Court for selling adulterated buttermilk claimed the Derry magistrates had no jurisdiction over Donegal. The case was adjourned.60 Two judges, one who was County Court judge for counties Armagh and Louth and the other who was County Court judge for counties Monaghan and Fermanagh, solved the problem caused by partition, with one taking on responsibility for the two counties in Northern Ireland and the other for counties Monaghan and Louth.61 The Law Society claimed that solicitors in Ireland now had to contend themselves with three legal systems instead of one, which had been the case for centuries.62

      Samuel Watt, Permanent Secretary to the northern Ministry of Home Affairs, contended that by delaying the transfer of services, ‘the whole of the northern government will prove to be a farce, and that the northern parliament will be nothing more than a debating society, as it will not have the power to legislate on or discuss any matter arising out of the services to be transferred’.63 The northern House of Commons was adjourned for a lengthy period, from 24 June until 20 September 1921. A cabinet meeting beforehand believed ‘the Government would be in a very unsatisfactory position when Parliament met on September 20th, without any Financial powers, and with no Departments for the Ministers which had been set up’.64 On resuming in September, Craig and his government were inundated with questions regarding the delay in the transfer of services, particularly in relation to policing. At one session on 27 September, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dawson-Bates, was unable to satisfactorily answer questions relating to issues such as non-compliant county councils (Tyrone and Fermanagh), state grants, road maintenance and motor licenses due to the northern government still waiting to have control over the local government for the area.65 Craig stated:

      my chief reason for asking for so prolonged an interval was that I hoped we would have been in a position to secure the transfer of various services under the Government of Ireland Act, that my Ministers would have their departments in thorough-going order, and that we could report, at all events, to the House, not necessarily the possibility of immediate legislation but at all events that the full machinery of Government was now in your hands, and that you would be able to proceed, as we have all been looking forward to, with the carrying out of the Act passed by the Imperial Parliament.66

      One of the main reasons for the delay in the transfer of services was the changed situation in Ireland due to the truce with Sinn Féin. This led to a change in the prioritising of the Irish question for the British government. According to John McColgan, ‘in the summer of 1921 a new phase emerged in which the task of transferring full powers to the government of Northern Ireland was subordinated to the requirements of the larger Irish policy – the need to reach agreement with the South’.67 This was reflected in Dublin Castle’s tardiness in assisting Ernest Clark in establishing a civil service for Northern Ireland. Craig complained to Hamar Greenwood about the delay in the transfer of services and staff from Dublin Castle. There was also bad blood between Dublin Castle and Belfast, where ‘stories were circulating Dublin departments to the effect that the better posts in the prospective Northern administration were being reserved for certain officials in London and Dublin departments with influence in the North’. Clark countered by stating ‘that the various departments in Dublin are selecting their “duds” for submission to the civil service committee as suitable for transfer’.68 The northern government also expressed dissatisfaction with the civil service examinations being only held in Dublin and wanted a centre established in Belfast for the ‘forthcoming Typists’ Examination in September’.69

      The role for Catholics in the northern civil service was uncertain from the start. At a cabinet meeting, the Ulster Ex-Service Association objected to the appointment of J.V. Coyle to the Department of Agriculture. Archdale, the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, stated that ‘Mr. Coyle was a Roman Catholic, a loyalist he had known for 20 years and he proposed to appoint him as his Head of one of his branches.’ At the same meeting, the government committed to ‘enrol members of all creeds in their Staff provided their loyalty was unquestioned’.70 However, when the British Treasury recommended H.P. Boland for appointment to a senior post in the new Northern Ireland civil service as an official with ‘a wide and varied experience of civil service administration … intimately concerned with the reorganisation of several large departments’, and who had

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