Irish Boundary Commission

To avoid the possibility of further disputes, the British, Free State, and Northern Ireland governments agreed to suppress the overall report, and on 3 December 1925, instead of any changes being made, the existing border was confirmed by W. T. Cosgrave for the Free State, Sir James Craig for Northern Ireland, and Stanley Baldwin for the British government, as part of a wider agreement which included a resolution of outstanding financial disagreements.

[4] During the discussions that led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the British prime minister David Lloyd George raised the possibility of a Boundary Commission as a way of breaking the deadlock.

[4][5][nb 1] However, the final treaty included the statement that economic and geographical factors were also to be taken into account, and Lloyd George assured James Craig that "mere rectifications of the Boundary are involved, with give and take on both sides.

Collins was said to believe that the commission would cede almost half of the area of the six counties and that the financial provisions of the Act would make a small northern state unsustainable: Forces of persuasion and pressure are embodied in the Treaty of Peace which has been signed by the Irish and British plenipotentiaries to induce North East Ulster to join in a United Ireland.

[4] In March 1922 Michael Collins and James Craig signed the "Craig–Collins Agreement", an attempt by them to deal with the boundary question without recourse to the British government.

[13] War broke out in the Irish Free State between pro and anti-treaty forces, causing a delay with the appointment of the Boundary Commission, which did not occur until 1924.

[20] The commission then conducted a preliminary tour of the border area in mid-December, acquainting themselves with conditions there and holding informal meetings with various local politicians, council members and police and ecclesiastical bodies.

[23][nb 3] A series of formal hearings were then held in Ireland from 3 March to 2 July 1925 in Armagh, Rostrevor, Newcastle, Enniskillen, Derry and Omagh, with the commission meeting directly with those peoples and bodies who had submitted representations.

[25] Despite the wishes of the Irish delegation, Justice Feetham kept the deliberations to a small area either side of the existing frontier, thereby precluding the wide-scale transfers of territory that the Free State had envisaged.

Nationalist opinion was represented by a committee of Nationalists inhabitants of Derry, the Londonderry Poor Law Union and the Committee of Donegal Businessmen, all of whom desired that the city of Derry be ceded to the Irish Free State or, failing that, that the border be redrawn so as to follow the River Foyle out to Lough Foyle, thus leaving the majority of the city within the Free State (minus the Waterside district).

[33] The Shirt and Collar Manufacturers' Federation favoured maintaining the existing border, arguing that much of their trade depended on ease of access to the British market.

[34] Both Nationalists and Unionists stated that County Donegal depended on Derry as the nearest large town, and that the imposition of a customs barrier between them considerably hampered trade, with Unionists arguing that this was a case for including the county within Northern Ireland, and Nationalists arguing that it was cause for including Derry within the Free State.

[35] The commission argued against the transfer of Derry to the Free State on basis that, whilst it had a Catholic majority, at 54.9% this was not large enough to justify such a decisive change to the existing frontier.

[38] Had the commission's recommendations been adopted, the Donegal towns of Muff, Killea, Carrigans, Bridgend and St Johnston would have been transferred to Northern Ireland.

[39] Unionists also contended that the whole of Lough Foyle should be considered as part of County Londonderry, a position disputed by the Free State, with the British government not expressing an opinion on the matter either way.

[56] The Unionists argued that Newry, Armagh and other areas were too economically interlinked with the rest of Northern Ireland to be removed and included within a separate jurisdiction.

[57] The commission recommended the transfer to the Free State of a thin slice of land encompassing Derrynoose, Tynan and Middletown, and the whole of South Armagh (encompassing Cullyhanna, Creggan, Crossmaglen, Cullaville, Dromintee, Forkhill, Jonesborough, Lislea, Meigh, Mullaghbawn and Silverbridge), based on their Catholic majorities and the fact that they were not economically dependent on Newry or the rest of Armagh.

"[60] Owing to its geographical position, the inclusion of Newry in Northern Ireland thereby precluded any serious consideration of transfers from County Down to the Free State.

[61] On 7 November 1925 an English Conservative newspaper, The Morning Post, published leaked notes of the negotiations, including a draft map.

[4] The leaked report included, accurately, the Boundary Commission recommendation that parts of east Donegal would be transferred to Northern Ireland.

There they were perceived as being contrary to the overarching purpose of the commission, which they considered was to award the more Nationalist parts of Northern Ireland to the Free State.

[6][4] In late November members of the Irish government visited London and Chequers; their view was that Article 12 was only intended to award areas within the six counties of Northern Ireland to the Free State, whereas the British insisted that the entire 1920 boundary was adjustable in either direction.

[65] Cosgrave emphasised that his government might fall but, after receiving a memo from Joe Brennan, a senior civil servant, he arrived at the idea of a larger solution which would include interstate financial matters.

[67] Under the terms of Article 5 of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State had agreed to pay its share of the Imperial debt (the British claim was £157 million): (5) The Irish Free State shall assume liability for the service of the Public Debt of the United Kingdom as existing at the date hereof and towards the payment of war pensions as existing at that date in such proportion as may be fair and equitable, having regard to any just claims on the part of Ireland by way of set-off or counter-claim, the amount of such sums being determined in default of agreement by the arbitration of one or more independent persons being citizens of the British Empire.This had not been paid by 1925, in part due to the heavy costs incurred in and after the Irish Civil War of 1922–23.

The main essence of the intergovernmental agreement was that the 1920 boundary would stay as it was, and, in return, the UK would not demand payment of the amount agreed under the treaty.

On the final day of debate, Cosgrave revealed that one of the reasons for independence, the elimination of poverty caused by London's over-taxation of Ireland, had not been solved even after four years of freedom: In our negotiations we went on one issue alone, and that was our ability to pay.

Kevin O'Higgins pondered: ...whether the Boundary Commission at any time was a wonderful piece of constructive statesmanship, the shoving up of a line, four, five or ten miles, leaving the Nationalists north of that line in a smaller minority than is at present the case, leaving the pull towards union, the pull towards the south, smaller and weaker than is at present the case.On 9 December a deputation of Irish nationalists from Northern Ireland arrived to make their views known to the Dáil, but were turned away.

Both the Irish President of the Executive Council and the Northern Ireland Prime Minister agreed in the negotiations on 3 December to bury the report as part of a wider intergovernmental settlement.

However, W. T. Cosgrave said that he:...believed that it would be in the interests of Irish peace that the Report should be burned or buried, because another set of circumstances had arrived, and a bigger settlement had been reached beyond any that the Award of the Commission could achieve.

[81]Sir James Craig added that: If the settlement succeeded it would be a great disservice to Ireland, North and South, to have a map produced showing what would have been the position of the persons on the Border had the Award been made.