Separate Ways: 1926–38

Abstract

By the end of 1925 both administrations in Ireland had begun the serious task of building up their infrastructures and implementing their declared policies. The outcome of their Boundary Agreement emphasised for each the paramount need to concentrate on putting its own house in order. Their tasks were separate and urgent. But they were not to be free of association. On the one hand there existed matters of joint concern, while on the other there would be, inevitably, individual decisions from time to time that would have cross-border impact. Already, too, perceptions had developed, the one of the other, fostered by newspaper coverage and influenced by the actions and aspirations of each. Dublin still regarded partition as an aberration and looked to its demise, to the political unification of the island, and to the strengthening of its overall Catholic ethos; Belfast regarded its neighbour with suspicion but retained some hope that it might see the error of its ways and revert to membership of the United Kingdom.