purpose/ reason of the 1920 gavernment of ireland act.?

Answer 1

This piece of legislation as passed after a number of attempts at giving Ireland a limited degree of home rule had proved abortive and there had been something approaching civil war in the south of the country. The Act divided Ireland into two territories, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, each intended to be self-governing except in areas specifically reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom: chief amongst these were matters relating to the Crown, to defence, foreign affairs, international trade, and currency.

"Southern Ireland" was to be all of Ireland except for "the parliamentary counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, and the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry" which were to constitute "Northern Ireland". Northern Ireland as defined by the Act, amounting to six of the nine counties of Ulster, was seen as the maximum area within which Unionists could be expected to have a safe majority. This was in spite of the fact that counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had Catholic Nationalist majorities.

At the apex of the governmental system was to be the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who would be chief executive of both Irish home rule states. The system was based on colonial constitutional theories. Executive authority was to be vested in the crown, and in theory not answerable to either parliament. The Lord Lieutenant would appoint a cabinet that did not need parliamentary support. No provision existed for a prime minister.

Such structures matched the theory in the colonial constitutions in Canada and Australia, where in theory powers belonged to the governor-general and there was no theoretical responsibility to parliament. In reality, governments had long come to chosen from parliament and to be answerable to it. Prime ministerial offices had come into de facto existence.[3] Such developments were also expected to happen in Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, but technically were not required under the Act.

A Council of Ireland would co-ordinate matters of common concern to the two parliaments, with each parliament possessing the ability, in identical motions, to vote powers to the Council, which it was hoped would evolve into a single Irish parliament in time. Both parts of Ireland would continue to send a number of MPs to the Westminster parliament. Elections for both lower houses took place in May 1921.

Answer 2

Simple to place an unnatural border between the 'province of Ulster' and the rest of the island of Ireland. It was meant to be kept under review with the establishment of the border commission but of course as we all know the border is still there!