Repartition of Ireland

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The repartition of Ireland has been suggested as a possible solution to the Troubles. It implies that the essential problem was that the partition of Ireland was gerrymandered, and as a result Northern Ireland contains a large Irish nationalist minority. Much of the nationalist population lives in the south and west of the province, but a significant percentage lives in Belfast and some smaller communities in the north and east.^[1]

The idea was first mooted at the time the border was drawn up. Some Irish republicans, including Cahir Healy, while objecting to the partition in principle, argued in particular that County Fermanagh and County Tyrone should not be included in the North, as they had a majority nationalist population. John Redmond also indicated that he would be prepared to accept this option.

The Boundary Commission agreed the current border in 1925, in part because the new Irish Free State was unable to pay its share of the former imperial debt.

Repartition resurfaced as an option with the start of The Troubles. Civil servants in London prepared a "last ditch" plan, for possible use in the event of a full scale civil war which would see Roman Catholic inhabitants of the north east forceably moved to Fermanagh, Southern Derry, Tyrone, South Armagh and South Down, and Protestant residents in those areas moved into the Protestant majority areas. The nationalist areas would then have been ceded to the Republic of Ireland. An alternative plan simply involved "moving individual Catholics from their homes in Northern Ireland to new homes in the Republic". The plan was kept secret at the time and was revealed in 2002.^[2]^[3]

Pollsters have rarely asked the population of Northern Ireland about their attitudes to repartition but it was asked twice in the early 1980s. In June 1981 and February 1982 the percentages of Protestants agreeing to repartition was 9% and 8%; the percentages for Catholics were 22% and 24%.^[4]

In 1972 the Conservative MP Julian Critchley published a pamphlet for the Bow Group advocating repartition, titled Ireland: A New Partition. In 1986 the economic historian of Queen's University of Belfast, Liam Kennedy, published a book-length study of repartition called Two Ulsters: A Case for Repartition.

During the late 1980s, repartition was repeatedly proposed by assorted individuals and small groups. It became popular in some sections of the Ulster nationalist movement, who were keen to establish a state with a large Protestant majority. Conversely, the Ulster Movement for Self-Determination proposed an enlarged state of Ulster, including all the historic province. This state, were it to have been created, would have had a nationalist majority.

On 16 January 1994, the Dublin-based Sunday Independent newspaper published a plan allegedly by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) which was dubbed the "Doomsday document". Purporting to be a plan for a civil war situation, it contained maps of a repartitioned Northern Ireland which appeared to be based on Liam Kennedy's earlier maps but with the added twist that some areas where shaded and earmarked for ethnic cleansing.^[5]

Margaret Thatcher revealed in 1998 that when it became obvious that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was in trouble, she too had considered repartition, although again she had not pursued the scheme.^[6]

A variation on repartition calls for a united Ireland, with unionist communities able to opt for a degree of self-government or co-operation with Great Britain. None of these proposals are currently supported by any political party in Ireland.