Not an Inch

The formation of Northern Ireland is treated in this chapter. Contrary to subsequent misrepresentation, Northern Ireland was not a state, but a devolved government within the UK, with limited powers. Despite Craig’s and the UUP’s pledges of fair and impartial government, Northern Ireland had fiery and partisan beginnings, marked by pogroms and deadly ethnic riots. What follows examines how the UUP improvised amid the constraints of the Government Ireland Act and the 1921 treaty to establish constitutional, policing, territorial, legal, and economic control throughout Northern Ireland. The extensive electoral gerrymandering is explored, as well as its consequences. Cultural Catholics had restricted autonomy in their schooling system, which was not equally or proportionally funded. The chapter addresses what motivated the system of control, and how the British allowed it to develop.