Government of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Northern Ireland

Executive Executive Committee First Minister Peter Robinson MLA deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA Northern Ireland Civil Service Departments Assembly Acts Statutory rules Speaker William Hay MLA Committees Members (MLA) Elections in Northern Ireland Constituencies Political parties Last election Next election Northern Irish Law Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Courts of Northern Ireland NI in the UK Her Majesty's Government Secretary of State Owen Paterson MP Parliament of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Office Reserved and excepted matters Direct Rule Grand Committee Select Committee Elections List of Northern Irish MPs NI in the EU European Parliament Elections European Parliament constituency Local Government Local government in Northern Ireland Counties Districts

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view · talk · edit

The Government of Northern Ireland is, generally speaking, whatever political body exercises political authority over Northern Ireland. A number of separate systems of government exist or have existed in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland was created as a separate legal entity on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920.^[1] The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster, being four counties with unionist majorities, and Fermanagh and Tyrone two ^[2] of the five Ulster counties which had nationalist majorities. In large part unionists, at least in the north east region, supported its creation while nationalists were opposed. Subsequently, on 6 December 1922, the island of Ireland became an independent dominion known as the Irish Free State but Northern Ireland immediately exercised its right to opt out of the new Dominion.

The first government of Northern Ireland was the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, which exercised such authority from 1922 to 1972. A Northern Ireland Executive was created following the signing of the Sunningdale Agreement in 1974, while the current Northern Ireland Executive under the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, was created in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, and has intermittently been in existence from 1998 to the present. Ireland has also been governed by ministers under the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during periods of direct rule.

References

1. ^ Statutory Rules & Orders published by authority, 1921 (No. 533); Additional source for 3 May 1921 date: Alvin Jackson, Home Rule - An Irish History, Oxford University Press, 2004, p198.
2. ^ The Irish Election of 1918