Introduction

Abstract

In most countries where they are held, elections decide who governs; in Northern Ireland, elections are about how the country should be governed—or whether it should be governed at all. For almost a century, a choice between alternative constitutions and national loyal­ties has been the central choice facing the voters of Northern Ireland. Elections have been concerned not so much with which party should govern Ulster, but rather with what country Northern Ireland belongs to, Great Britain or a united Ireland. Parties have disputed whether the electorate should be composed principally of Ulstermen, or citizens of the Republic of Ireland, or British voters, or some combination of these three groups. Lacking agreement about issues basic to gover­nance, one or another (and sometimes several) of the major parties to the dispute have turned from election campaigns to military cam­paigns, hoping to decide with bullets what could not be decided with ballots.

For seven years the community has been torn and wounded by deep and unhappy differences. Our people have drained the cup of suffering. Some have been touched more closely and more poignantly than others, but no one has escaped, and no home and no family has been immune. The days of our affliction have been long.

Opening statement of the chairman, Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention,8 May 1975