Le Référendum britannique sur la frontière en Irlande du Nord (Border Poil), 8 mars 1973

On the 24th of March 1972, the British PM, Edward Heath, announced that the Stormont Parliament was prorogued and that « periodic plebiscites » would take place on the sensitive question of the Border, « in the hope of taking (it) out of the day-to-day political scene » . R. Deutsch surveys the events and the campaign leading to the Poll and describes, in detail, the referendum of the 8th of March 1973 : security measures, the casting of the votes, the peculiar Irish custom of « vote early but vote often ! » and the abstention policy of the Catholics/Nationalists. The second part gives full results and detailed analyses : this referendum provided a record participation of the Protestants/ Unionists since 1921 while the Catholics/Nationalists' policy of boycott was very successful. But several observers agree that a substantial portion of the Catholic electorate did support the Union. The British Government did provide for a Border Poll to be held every ten years. Will one, then, take place in 1983 ? At the time of writing (May 1982) London & Belfast did not plan one. However the results of the NI Assembly Elections of October 1982 could force Whitehall to change its views. The author concludes that « the referendum can do little to assist in solving the Irish problem ».Deutsch Richard. Le Référendum britannique sur la frontière en Irlande du Nord (Border Poil), 8 mars 1973. In: Études irlandaises, n°7, 1982. pp. 175-192