The Opposition
The creation of Northern Ireland had been opposed both by many Unionists and all Nationalists, all of whom, like Unionist Leader Edward Carson, were opposed to the partition of the island. While Unionists within Northern Ireland became reconciled to their form of home rule, Nationalists remained alienated from the structures of the state and pursued an abstentionist policy. The Nationalist Party, the main Nationalist party in Northern Ireland, which claimed descent from the pre-partition Irish Parliamentary Party, boycotted the parliament entirely until 1925, and individual members boycotted at points thereafter. Other parties, notably the Northern Ireland Labour Party did however take their seats. The absence of the main opposition party from parliament led to accusations of in effect "one party rule".
For many years the most effective opposition came from various independent Unionists, most notably Tommy Henderson (served 1925-1953) who was famous for his near ten hour speech on the Appropriation Bill in May 1936.
Read more about this topic: House Of Commons Of Northern Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word opposition:
“It is human agitation, with all the vulgarity of needs small and great, with its flagrant disgust for the police who repress it, it is the agitation of all men ... that alone determines revolutionary mental forms, in opposition to bourgeois mental forms.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)
“A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)