Reinforcing partition through fiscal policy

ABSTRACT

On 1 April 1923, a ‘temporary frontier’ on imported goods was placed on the boundary line between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. This temporary frontier lasted for over 70 years, only being rescinded due to the introduction of the Single Market throughout the European Union in 1993. It was the Irish Free State government that introduced the measure that in essence created a hard land border on the island, and not the Northern Ireland government, with its prime minister Sir James Craig claiming that ‘Those in the South who proposed to erect that barrier wall, and not the North, would be responsible for partition. There was no such thing as partition if they had not a Customs barrier between the North and the South’ (Irish Times, 10 March 1923). Despite the Free State government’s public utterances opposing partition, its decision to erect customs barriers helped to cement partition. This article looks at why the fledgling Irish Free State government chose to erect customs barriers, why the Northern Ireland government opposed the move, and how it drove a further wedge between both jurisdictions, politically, economically and socially.

KEYWORDS:

• Northern Ireland
• Irish Free State
• Irish border
• customs barriers
• fiscal independence
• financial autonomy
• hard land border
• statehood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Cormac Moore

Cormac Moore is a historian-in-residence with Dublin City Council. He has a PhD from De Montfort University in Leicester.