Economic consequences of partition bite as Derry is isolated from Irish Free State

In the second and final part of our series on the 100th anniversary of the signing of The Anglo-Irish Treaty, Matthew Leslie speaks to Dr Adrian Grant of Ulster University to look at how life changed for people in Derry and how nationalist hopes of the city joining the Irish Free State were raised and then dashed. 

Derry's fate was sealed and all hope of becoming part of a new Ireland was gone as unionists both in the city and in the new devolved Northern Irish government in Belfast set about imposing, what its first Prime-Minister James Craig would years later in 1934 refer to Northern Ireland as, “a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State”.

With the new border firmly established, Derry finally went from a city in Ireland's north to a city on a frontier, cut off from its Co. Donegal trading partner and all the latter's trade links towards the south.

Development was stunted with Belfast reaping the benefits as the new seat of Government.

Nationalists began to consider their future in the new Derry. Some stayed on either by choice of by not having to means to start afresh elsewhere.

Others who could move on and saw their futures lying in the Irish Free State and the wider world left. Some, fearing that their IRA pasts in the War of Independence would come back to haunt them if they stayed in the new Protestant state decided they had to leave.

Unionists in the city, especially the business community, continued as before with a disparity between them and nationalists in the city began to grow – a process that would reach a powderkeg situation by the late 1960s.

Dr Adrian Grant of Ulster University said: “There is no doubt that the economic impact was hugely significant.

“The fact that Derry now had an international boundary a couple of miles outside of its city centre meant it was stunted from development for that reason alone.

“One of the most significant things that happened after partition was that there was economic neglect of the north west while Belfast in the east developed.

“All of the things that came to the fore many years later such as setting up a new university in Coleraine instead of Derry, housing and discrimination in employment, are linked back to what happened shortly after partition.

_{Dr Adrian Grant of Ulster University}

“With regards to employment in the city, for nationalists, there wasn't a huge change in circumstance when you look at the pre and post-partition eras.

“Essentially, all that changed was the national government. Most government jobs were decided on a local basis by the local council and as that had mostly been under unionist control.

“So if you're talking about local council jobs and local authority jobs, not much changed. There always had been discrimination with those jobs and that continued post-partition.

“Commercial jobs were the same. Most of the businesses in Derry were owned by unionists and so that continued after partition as well.

“The structure of national government changed so that had an impact too. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) replaced the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).

“Unionists had always been very suspicious of the RIC because it was made up principally of Irish Catholics from the South.

“So a lot of the police on the streets in Derry and Belfast were men with southern accents.

“That was part of the calculation in forming the RUC was to have a localised police force. With that came a majority Protestant and unionist police force.

“Following partition, there was a significant exodus of Derry's population to parts of Donegal and other parts of the 26 counties under the Free State.

“They were mainly Republicans who were forced to leave because had they remained, they would have been interned.

“Many of them didn't come back because they had settled in the South or moved onto to emigrate.

“If you look at the IRA pension funds that were put together in the 1930s and of the Derry brigades in particular, the-then current addresses of those eligible for a military service pension from their time in the Republican Movement, a lot of them would have Buncrana addresses, Molville addresses and so on.

“A lot of them would have joined the guards and be stationed in various locations in the South and of course a lot of Derry brigade members had addresses in both Canada and America.

“Of course there were those who stayed on in Derry but a fairly significant movement of people left the city after partition.

“A famous example would be (former Taoiseach of Ireland) Charles Haughey whose parents were from Swatragh in Co. Derry.

“His father, Seán, was a member of the IRA during the War of Independence and then moved south after partition with Charles growing up a Dubliner.”

On a local political level, the new Northern Irish government set about making sure that cities such as Derry would find it hard to be under nationalist control again.

Against advice from the British Government in London, the system of proportional representation would be done away with and not seen again in Local Government elections until 1973 which, coincidentally enough, saw nationalists win back control of the council.

Dr Grant added: “The proportional representation system that enabled nationalists to win control of the local council in 1920 was done away with the first chance the new authority in the North got.

“All the work the nationalists had been putting into the propaganda around arguing for Derry to go into the Free State, they lost that political leverage that they had by 1923.

“With proportional representation gone, Derry and other parts of the North, went straight back into unionist hands.

“That system of voting was later abolished in 1927 for general elections to the Northern Ireland Parliament as well.

“The British government was against that but they eventually allowed the unionists to do that.”

Read more:

Derry "the centre of attention" in the Partition question

When unionists lost control of Derry

Ground shifts away from Derry's nationalists as Partition lines are drawn up

Collins' plan to destabilise north and bring Derry to Irish Free State fold died with his death

Unionist business sector thwarts nationalist hopes of Derry Boundary Commission reprieve