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House of Commons of Northern Ireland
Devolved Parliament
Arms of Northern Ireland, 1924–1972
Type
Type	Lower House of theParliament of Northern Ireland
History
Established	7 June 1921
Disbanded	30 March 1972
Leadership
Speaker	Various
Leader of the Opposition	Various
Elections
Voting system	Single transferable vote (1921–1929) First-past-the-post (1929–1972)
Meeting place
Commons Chamber Parliament Buildings,Stormont,Belfast

TheHouse of Commons of Northern Ireland was thelower house of theParliament of Northern Ireland created under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920. The upper house in thebicameral parliament was called theSenate. It was abolished with the passing of theNorthern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

The House of Commons had a membership of 52. Until 1969, 48 were from territorial constituencies and 4 were for graduates ofThe Queen's University of Belfast; in that year the QUB seats were abolished and four extra territorial constituencies created on the outskirts ofBelfast, where the population had grown. For the electoral constituencies used, seeNorthern Ireland Parliament constituencies.

The House of Commons fulfilled the normal lower house functions to be found in theWestminster System of Government. Its roles were

• to grantSupply to the Government;
• to grant to or withdraw confidence from the Government;
• to provide a talent bank from which members of the Government could be chosen. ThePrime Minister of Northern Ireland was chosen from its ranks by theGovernor of Northern Ireland.

The Government of Ireland Act required that elections to the House of Commons be by thesingle transferable vote (STV) electoral system first introduced inIreland by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919. Its inclusion in the 1920 Government of Ireland Act was deliberate. It was intended to provide electoral opportunities for non-Unionists. (A similar legal requirement had been set for Northern Ireland's sister state, the non-operativeSouthern Ireland, and also existed in theIrish 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 governingUlster Unionist Party, who viewed it as "un-British"^[1] (apart from fouruniversity constituencies, the rest of the United Kingdom usedfirst 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 four MPs from Queens University.

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The creation ofNorthern Ireland had been opposed both by many Unionists and all Nationalists, all of whom, like Unionist leaderSir Edward Carson, were opposed to thePartition of Ireland. While Unionists within Northern Ireland became reconciled to their form ofhome rule, Nationalists remained alienated from the structures of the state and pursued anabstentionist policy. TheNationalist Party, the main Nationalist party in Northern Ireland, which claimed descent from the pre-partitionIrish Parliamentary Party, boycotted the Parliament entirely until 1925, and individual members boycotted at points thereafter. Other parties, notably theNorthern 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 notablyTommy Henderson (served 1925–1953) who was famous for his near ten hour speech on the Appropriation Bill in May 1936.

In most of its activities the House of Commons deliberately used the same procedure as theParliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster. Each Parliament opened with a King's (or Queen's) Speech, though only KingGeorge V in 1921 gave it in person. From 1922 theSpeech from the Throne was delivered by theGovernor of Northern Ireland. The Governor wasthe Crown's representative who formally summoned and prorogued Parliament. The Parliament emulated some of the more bizarre traditions, such as giving a first reading to theOutlawries Bill immediately after 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 adispatch box in a chamber modelled on the British House of Commons chamber, though notably the benches and fixtures of the chamber were blue, rather than green. As at Westminster, members referred to each other in debate as "the honourable Member for the (X) division". Bills, introduced either in the Senate or the House of Commons, had to pass through first reading, second reading, committee stage, and third reading in both Houses to become law. With a very strictdivorce law, the Parliament was often asked to deal withprivate 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 MinisterTerence O'Neill later revealed that then Prime MinisterLord Brookeborough did not even have a desk in hisde 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.)

The first assembly of the House of Commons occurred inBelfast City Hall in June 1921.KingGeorge 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,Parliament met in thePresbyterian College, close to the City Hall, while newParliament Buildings was built in East Belfast at a place calledStormont. The foundation stone at Stormont was laid byJames Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, 1stGovernor of Northern Ireland, in the late 1920s. However, theWall Street crash undermined the financial viability of the building project. Plans were scaled back, with plans for a ministerial building and a court building on site being abandoned. The main building was also changed, with plans for aUnited States Capitol-style dome being abandoned, leaving a plainer neoclassical structure. The new Parliament Buildings was officially opened bythe 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 BritishHouse of Lords inWestminster. Between them hung a large chandelier fromWindsor Castle which had been given to the King by his cousin, EmperorWilhelm II of Germany, but had been put in storage during theFirst World War and remained so until given to Stormont.

TheParliament of Northern Ireland, including the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, wasprorogued in 1972 and abolished completely in 1973 leaving the title ofFather of the House defunct.

(1922–1972)
Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland
List
Lord Craigavon (1922–1940) J. M. Andrews (1940–1943) Lord Brookeborough (1943–1963) Terence O'Neill (1963–1969) James Chichester-Clark (1969–1971) Brian Faulkner (1971–1972)
v t e

Northern Ireland was dogged by allegations of Unionist misrule, and politicalgerrymandering at local government level, during the 1960s. At this time there was increasing demand for civil rights, voiced primarily by theNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association, allegations of police misbehaviour by theRoyal Ulster Constabulary and ultimately the outbreak ofthe 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 theNorthern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Parliament last sat on 28 March 1972.^[2]

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

• Hansard of House of Commons of Northern Ireland, 84 volumes 1921–1972:
  • Digitized atHathiTrust:
    • all volsexcluding 8 13 33 34 35 38 57 59 63 and 71
    • vol 8
    • some volsincluding 33 34 and 35
    • some volsincluding 57 59 63 and 71
  • Stormont Papers – partialInternet Archive record of a defunct site digitizing all 84 volumes

• House of Commons of Northern Ireland
• Defunct lower houses
• Parliament of Northern Ireland
• Government agencies established in 1921
• 1972 disestablishments in Northern Ireland

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