Putting the border in place: Customs regulation in the making of the Irish border, 1921-1945

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 421-431

  Nash, Catherine ^a   Dennis, Lorraine ^b   Graham, Brian ^b  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Customs regulation; Irish border; Partition

Indexed keywords

BORDER REGION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; LEGISLATION; POLITICAL POWER; REGULATORY FRAMEWORK;

NORTHERN IRELAND; UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 78149412240     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: 10958614     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2010.01.004     Document Type: Article

References (79)

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8. Painter, Prosaic geographies of stateness (note 13), 765.
9. See note 16.
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16. See note 14; J. Torpey, The Invention of the Passport. Surveillance, Citizenship and the State, 2000.
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19. Rankin, The role of the Irish boundary commission in the entrenchment of the Irish border (note 11), 434.
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22. Northern Standard, 6 April 1923.
23. 'Irish Free State Consequential Provisions Bill covering legal aspects of separation', TNA, BT 229/64.
24. See note 12, who point to the tensions between the consolidation of the border by the Irish state and its official anti-partitionist stance.
25. 'Loss of business in Newry (in report from Hugh McCartan to Kevin O'Shiel)', UCD Archives, P/V/2, April 1923.
26. 'Irish land boundary: draft order, public notice and leaflet in respect of change in custom procedure', TNA, CUST 49/641.
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28. M.J. Braddick, The Nerves of the State: Taxation and the financing of the English State, 1558-1714, 49-67.
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30. 'Border trade & revenue statistics, inc. postal traffic across border; customs procedures' (note 35), 4 January 1923. Date noted as 15 September 1922 in correspondence of 4 January 1923.
31. The border was also militarized to a much lesser extent in response to the IRA border campaign of the mid 1950s to early 1960s.
32. 'Border trade & revenue statistics, inc. postal traffic across border; customs procedures' (note 35), 3 January 1923.
33. See note 40. The Irish government used the term 'frontier post' and the British government used the term 'frontier station' though the function of both was synonymous, that is, a preliminary check to prevent smuggling. They were known locally as 'customs huts'. In order to avoid confusion, they are referred to here as 'customs posts'.
34. See for example the Derry Journal, 26 March 1923, 6 and the Derry People and Donegal News, 24 March 1923, 7.
35. Denton and Fahy, The Northern Ireland Land Boundary (note 37), 22.
36. 'Position of Newtown Butler Land Boundary post', TNA, CUST 49/875.
37. 'Report by J.J. O'Connell on the Military Customs Brigade on border', NLI, Ms, 133.
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39. 'Attacks on Customs Barrier huts', NAI, H5/686.
40. Frontier Sentinel, 7 April 1923, 3.
41. 'Destruction of Corragunt Bridge', Military Archives, DOD MS277.
42. The National Archive, Kew (henceforth TNA); Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast (PRONI); National Archive of Ireland, Dublin (NA).
43. Frontier Sentinel, 23 February 1924, 7.
44. County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (2); Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway (1); Great Northern Railway (GNR) (15); Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway (1); Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (1).
45. Confidential letter book relating to staff and land boundary, PRONI, CUST 1/4/7, 25 January 1923.
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48. Leaflet on Customs & Excise Tariff, NAI, S 3049.
49. TNA, CUST 49/641, 28 March 1923.
50. Frontier Sentinel, 18 April 1925, 5.
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52. NAI, DFA/GR404/2, 17 December 1927.
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54. TNA, CUS/1/3/1/51, 15 January 1932.
55. Frontier Sentinel, 25 November 1939, 1.
56. TNA, CUST 106/688.
57. The Office of the Attorney General, The customs (land frontier) regulations, 1923, made by the Minister of Finance under Section 13 of the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922, to apply to the importation and exportation of any goods into and from the Irish Free State by land, (accessed 5 May 2005).
58. PRONI, CAB/4/77. The collection of revenue was a reserved matter under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920.
59. Land annuities were collected by the Irish and Northern Irish governments and directed to the British government for re-payment of loans to tenant farmers made under the Land Acts of 1891-1909.
60. Manchester Guardian, 16 June 1932, archived at TNA CUST 143/120.
61. G. Sheridan, When Turkeys Chewed Tobacco: Memories from South-west Ulster, 2001, 70.
62. Revenue controls on land boundary, TNA, CUST 49/666.
63. Derry Weekly News and Tyrone Herald, 31 March 1923, 5.
64. C. Nash and B.J. Graham, Border crossings: new approaches to the Irish border. Irish Studies Review, forthcoming.
65. P.J. Duffy, Continuity and change in the border landscapes, in: B.S. Turner (Ed), The Debateable [sic] Land: Ireland's Border Counties, 2002, 20-30, 23.
66. Duffy, Continuity and change in the border landscapes (note 70), 23.
67. Donegal Democrat, 7 January 1933, 7.
68. 'Register of Seizure Book for Enniskillen Customs', PRONI, CUS/1/7/1/1.
69. 'Incidences of smuggling', TNA, CUST 49/2342, 12 December 1932.
70. 'Circulars from Customs House, London to NI Customs re: the land boundary', PRONI, CUS/1/7/3/1-6, 1933 and 1934.
71. Donegal Democrat, 22 July 1933.
72. 'Seizure of sheep on border by Northern Government Customs Officials from J. McGovern, Glangevlin, Co Cavan', NAI, H283/21.
73. Emergency Powers Act 1939, (accessed 21 January 2007).
74. 'Evasion of export prohibitions on Irish land boundary', TNA, CUST 106/434, 23 October 1940.
75. C. Robertson, Locating the border, Social Identities 14 (2008) 447-456.
76. 'Purchase of foodstuffs by people travelling on Belfast excursion trains to border towns in Republic', NAI, JUS 8/868, 3 October 1940.
77. 'Combatting smuggling-no shops within three miles', NAI, S 13247 A.
78. Duffy, Continuity and change in the border landscapes (note 70).
79. A. Paasi and E. Prokkola, Territorial dynamics, cross-border work and everyday life in the Finnish-Swedish border area, Space and Polity 12 (2008) 13-29.