ABSTRACT
The causes of partition have been variously interpreted. It has been castigated as a characteristic creation of British imperialism, with its devious strategies of ‘divide and rule’. Meanwhile, between 1915–1919, a convergence of opinion occurred at the highest level in British political life, with regard to the Irish question; it found expression in the content of the Government of Ireland Act, in 1920. The circumstances of Northern Ireland’s birth permanently distorted its political structures. Nonetheless, Britain’s acute concern that the Treaty should be implemented and therefore that the provisional government should establish its authority enabled the southern leadership to exercise a degree of influence over Northern Ireland affairs. The British cabinet was largely uninterested in Northern Ireland’s problems, but it was responsive to southern claims and criticisms and therefore wary of taking any action which could be interpreted as a breach of the spirit of the Treaty.
