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When the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921 it made provision for a boundary commission to be set up should Northern Ireland opt out of joining the Irish Free State. This commission was to determine the border according to the wishes of the inhabitants of the border areas. Northern Ireland opted out of the Free State in December 1922 and the Boundary Commission convened in December 1924 and sat until the following July.
South Armagh and south Down were areas in which the border was highly contested and a quite a number of local Nationalists and Unionists made submissions to the Commission. These included businessmen, church men, farmers, professionals and public servants. The submissions are now kept in the National Archives of the United Kingdom at Kew but a number of submissions in draft form are included in the Reside Collection at Newry and Mourne Museum.
The following quotations from submissions made on behalf of local organisations by six leading people from the area illustrate the varying opinions about Partition and the location of the border at the time.
William M. Cronin, Town Clerk of Newry, Newry Urban District Council,
Secretary of the Newry Port Sanitary Authority and Representative for Newry Urban District Council on Down County Council
‘Not only would it be highly detrimental to the commercial interests of Newry if in the fixing of the boundary the town was deprived of any portion of its natural commercial hinterland but it would be also injurious to the best interests of the portion cut off. I therefore support the claim that the entire area comprised Poor Law Union of Newry and Kilkeel should be retained in the Irish Free State as desired by the majority of the inhabitants of the said Unions … ‘
Matthew H. McCann, Director of Bakery firm ‘Arthur McCann Limited’,
Newry Union (Armagh)
‘Since the establishment of the Customs Barrier on the present temporary Boundary the out-put from my bakeries has been considerably reduced owing to the fact that the confectionery made by my firm cannot now be carried by my carts over the Customs barrier. The reason for this is that a protective duty of three pence and three-fifths per pound weight has been imposed on confectionery in the Free State, with the result that my firm cannot possibly compete with the Free State bakeries’.
William Johnson, Solicitor,
Principal Property Owners, Traders, Lodging house-Keepers and Residents, Urban District of Warrenpoint
‘if I thought it would be to the economic interest of Warrenpoint, as a seaside resort, to be transferred to the Irish Free State, believe me, I would say so; but so long as we have in Ireland two States, the North of Ireland State and the Irish Free State, I am firmly convinced – much as I would like to see a united Ireland; but that is an ideal that will take years to bring about – but until that comes about, Warrenpoint’s economic interests, in my opinion, are as a part of Northern Ireland’.
Frank Fisher, Justice of the Peace, Coal Importer and Ship Owner
Newry Chamber of Commerce
‘So far as the linen trade is concerned, I do not believe one of them would touch us… These linen people are very bigoted people. They would not touch the Free State – in fact they have told us that’.
‘If Newry goes Free State I believe we will immediately lose the Linen Mills and I believe the result will be that one half of the Newry Coal trade will be destroyed’.
John Foster, Vice President Newry Chamber of Commerce, Draper
Newry Chamber of Commerce
‘If Newry and the portion of South Armagh lying south of the town were transferred to the Free State, Newry would be ruined, as practically the whole of the town, villages and country districts from which Newry at present draws 95% of the 60% of its retail trade would be cut off from it, and the towns of Banbridge, Portadown and Armagh would benefit at its expense …’.
Reverend Felix Canon McNally, Parish Priest Upper Kilevey [Killeavy], Catholic Chaplain to the Newry Union Workhouse
Newry Union (Armagh)
‘no objection whatever to give an Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty, but he had the strongest objection to prejudice himself by taking an Oath of Allegiance to the said Northern Parliament which had only temporary control over him as Official Chaplain to the Workhouse…Witness refused to make the Declaration of Allegiance to that Parliament, and in consequence he has been deprived of his Salary from the date that the said Law came into Operation’.
These quotations give a flavour of opinions about the border and how it was interpreted and experienced in the day-to-day lives of those who live in south Armagh and south Down.
Documents from the Reside Collection relating to the work of the Boundary Commission in the Newry and Mourne area are on display in the Newry and Mourne Museum’s temporary exhibition, The Legacy: Newry 1920 – 1930, which explores the impact of Partition on the Newry and Mourne area.
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the exhibition galleries on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2.00 pm. These must be booked in advance by calling our Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museum@nmandd.org for further information.
Please visit our new website at www.visitmournemountains.co.uk
