In this final section of analysis, I turn to the role played in events in Northern Ireland by its domestic political parties. The reservation to this stage of comment upon their actions or inactions does not imply that these were less important or significant than those of the other major players. It reflects, rather, the reality that these domestic political or other interests played their part within a framework established by the Crown in Parliament, and reflecting, on some occasions at least, agreement between the sovereign Governments in London and Dublin.

While there was, of course, political activity – centred upon elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom – in the years between the Act of Union and the Government of Ireland Act 1920, I wish to concentrate here upon the period from the establishment of the Northern Ireland Parliament up to the introduction of direct rule in 1972, throughout which the UUP was the dominant force in local politics and in continuous control of the Stormont Government; and also the period following direct rule, during which powers to govern in Northern Ireland were either shared or withdrawn.

With the establishment of the first Dail early in 1919, attended by Sinn Fein members unwilling to participate any longer in a British Parliament, it became clear that a peaceful transition to a Home Rule Parliament within the United Kingdom was no longer achievable.

I have already discussed elsewhere the background to and nature of the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It is sufficient to repeat here that only in Northern Ireland (defined as six counties of the old province of Ulster) was it possible to work the Act. Since the area as defined was clearly the most extensive within which unionism could be assured of a governing majority, it was hardly a surprise that the UUP, now led by James Craig, won a significant majority (forty out of the fifty-two seats) in the new Northern Ireland House of Commons at the first Northern Ireland General Election of 24 May 1921. The remaining twelve seats were shared equally between the nationalists and Sinn Fein.