NORTHERN IRELAND : ECONOMY 1949-1969 : Brookborough and O’Neill
Brookborough 1949-1963 :
a) Economy before 1949 :
 The Economy of Northern Ireland had benefited and prospered during the war. It had
bounced back after the depression of the 1930s. (See notes – Northern Ireland and the War
– Sovereignty and Partition) The traditional industries of Northern Ireland – Shipbuilding
(Harland and Wolff) Engineering and Flax growin/Linen making had grown and employed
lots of people due to the demand created by providing war materials for the British army.
Agriculture had also expanded and grown and made great profits during the war due to the
demand of feeding the war time British market. ( Britain could not import food from around
the world during the war).
 By the late 1950s this war time boom and high employment had given way to a time of
rising unemployment and a decline in the traditional industries that were now struggling to
find orders and stay competitive.
 Northern Ireland was the poorest and most disadvantaged area in the UK. Average
unemployment through the 50s was 7% and was much higher than this in Catholic areas
West of the Bann. This was because of discrimination in relation to regional development
and the location of factories and job opportunities.
 Brookborough encouraged private employers to employ Protestants before any Catholics.
In the 1930s he had encouraged Protestant employers to employ “good Protestant lads and
Lassies” and had boasted at an Orange Order meeting that “I don’t have a Catholic about the
place.”
 Brookborough also followed the West of the Bann policy in economics. New factories were
put mainly in Protestant areas East of the Bann which ensured that Catholic areas West of
the Bann which had very high unemployment were denied employment opportunities and
starved of investment. ( See Discrimination for reasons )
B) Why was unemployment growing and why was the economy struggling to grow ?

The traditional industries in Northern Ireland were not getting or keeping orders for their
products abroad. Exports were declining and these companies had to start laying people off.

Shipbuilding : The demand for ships worldwide was hit by the rise of air travel and the fact
that more and more travel was done by airplane rather than by boat. Also the ship yards in
Northern Ireland were not able to produce their product at the same cost as other ship
yards in Japan and Poland and lost orders to these countries. In 1960 21,000 people were
employed by Harland and Wollf. By 1963 40% of people had been sacked and the number
working there was down to 11,500.

Linen making : Linen making factories lost orders when clothes made from cotton and
Rayon became popular around the world. In 1953 there was 76,000 people employed in
Linen making factories. By 1963 this figure was down to 33,000. Over half of the people
working in this industry had lost their job.

1955 , Northern Ireland Development Council : Brookborough set this up to try and address
the problems that the economy of Northern Ireland was facing and to come up with
solutions and a plan to create jobs. It did try to attract investment from abroad and offered
grants and cheap land for factories. It advised that money be spent on improving Northern
Ireland’s infrastructure (Roads etc) Brookborough followed the plan of the Council and
spent money on improving the road system and attracting companies from abroad to set up
factories in Northern Ireland.

These policies had little impact and the situation kept getting worse. By 1960 the
unemployment rate was 7.4% - this was 4 times higher than the unemployment rate in
Britain.

In 1961 10,000 workers lost their jobs in the shipyards alone. Brookborough set up the Hall
Committee to come up with ideas to improve things. The only idea they came up with was
that the government should help people to emigrate to other countries to find work.

It became increasingly clear to people that Brookborough did not have any answer, ideas or
solutions. People inside and outside his party began to demand his resignation. In 1963 he
resigned and O’Neill became the next leader of the Unionist Party and Northern Ireland.
O’Neill 63-69 :
1) In 1963 Brookeborough resigned and was replaced by O’Neill. He was a former minister of
finance and wanted to modernise Northern Irelands economy.
2) He invited a Professor of Economics called Wilson to produce a new plan to help grow the
economy and create jobs in the future.
WILSON PLAN 1964

Wilson said that the government would have to accept the decline of the traditional
industries and the job losses that would follow. He said that new jobs to replace the old
ones could be created by …
1) Attracting new industries from abroad.
2) Creating a new city. Many people thought this would be done by building up Derry but
O’Neill decided to create a new city called Craigavon by joining together Lurgan and
Portadown in North Armagh. This was an area East of the Bann and Nationalists saw it as
another example of development being centred in the Eastern Protestant heartlands while
the disadvantaged Catholic areas West of the Bann were ignored.
3) Investment in growth centres – roads/transport and land for industrial development. Once
again most of the growth centres were in areas East of the Bann.
4) Massive road building programme – better infrastructure.
5) Build a second University. – Again it was decided to build it in Coleraine a Protestant area
rather than Derry – this angered Nationalists who saw it as another example of the Unionist
dominated government choosing not to develop Catholic areas.
INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES


It did succeed to some extent and international companies like Michelin, Goodyear and
Dupont set up in Northern Ireland.
However all these companies were located east of the river Bann and therefore did little to
help the huge levels of unemployment in Catholic areas west of the Bann.
There was a small increase in employment; it was 7% in 1970. But in Catholic areas the
unemployment rate was double that of Protestant areas.