Government of Ireland Act 1920

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For the purposes of this Act, Northern Ireland shall consist of the parliamentary counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, and the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry.

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The seats of the Goverments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland shall be at Dublin and Belfast, respectively, or such places as the Parliaments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland may respectively determine.

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Save as may be otherwise provided by Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, the existing law relating to the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom shall apply with the necessary modifications to the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland . . . F13

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Any articles which are brought into Great Britain or the Isle of Man from Ireland, or into Ireland from Great Britain or the Isle of Man, shall be deemed to be articles exported or imported for the purposes of the forms to be used, and the information to be furnished under the M1Customs Consolidation Act 1876 or any Act amending that Act, but for not any other purpose.

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Purchase annuities payable in respect of land situate in Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively, including any arrears thereof due or accruing due on the appointed day, shall be collected by the Governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the amounts so collected shall be paid into their respective Exchequers, but nothing in this Act shall confer on either such Government any powers with respect to the redemption of purchase annuities.

In each year a sum equal to the amount payable in that year in respect of purchase annuities shall be paid into the Irish Land Purchase fund or account, or other appropriate fund or account, out of moneys provided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Where after the appointed day an existing purchase annuity is redeemed, a sum equal to the annuity shall be paid out of moneys provided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the Exchequer of Northern Ireland, in each year so long as the purchase annuity would, if not redeemed, have continued to be payable.

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For the purposes of this Act—

• the expression “purchase annuities," . . . F19, includes annuities for the repayment of advances made under any of the Land Purchase Acts prior to the M2Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1891, and annuities for the repayment of advances made under the M3Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906 or under any other Act relating to land purchase in Ireland;

• the expression “existing purchase annuity” means a purchase annuity payable in respect of an advance made in pursuance of a purchase agreement entered into, or, in the case of a purchase annuity payable under the M4Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906 in pursuance of a scheme approved before the passing of this Act;

• the expression “new purchase annuity” means a purchase annuity payable in respect of an advance made in pursuance of a purchase agreement entered into or, in the case of a purchase annuity payable under the M5Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906 in pursuance of a scheme approved, after the passing of this Act.

The power of collecting and enforcing the payment of sums due on account of loans made before the appointed day to authorities and persons in Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland out of the local loans fund, the development fund, the road improvement fund or other similar public fund, shall be transferred to the Governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively, and the amounts so collected by them shall be paid into their respective Exchequers:

A sum equal to the amount due in respect of such loans shall in each year be paid into the appropriate fund out of moneys provided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and shall, subject to the deduction of such sum as the Joint Exchequer Board think just to cover such loss as may be anticipated to result from payments on account of any such loans proving to be irrecoverable, be made good by deductions from the F20Northern Ireland residuary share of reserved taxes in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury.

Where an instrument is chargeable with stamp duty in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland, and has been stamped in any one of those countries, the instrument shall, to the extent of the duty it bears, be deemed to be stamped in the other country:

Where composition for stamp duty is made or agreed to be made in any one of such countries, any instrument which by virtue of the composition is exempt from the payment of duty in that country shall, for the purposes of this section, be treated in any other such country as having been stamped in the first-mentioned country with a stamp denoting the amount of duty which, but for the composition, would have been chargeable on that instrument:

Subject to the provisions of this Act and any modifications or adaptations made by Irish Transfer Orders under this Act, all enactments relating to the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland and the judges and officers thereof shall apply to the Supreme Court of Judicature in Northern Ireland and the judges and officers thereof, as they apply to the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland and the judges and officers thereof, and as if for references to the High Court of Justice in Ireland there were substituted references to the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland and as if for references to the Court of Appeal in Ireland there were substituted references to the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland.

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It is hereby declared that existing enactments relative to unlawful oaths or unlawful assemblies in Ireland do not apply to the meetings or proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ireland, or of any lodge or society recognised by that Grand Lodge.

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No law made by the Parliament of Northern Ireland . . . F57 shall have effect so as to prejudice or diminish the rights or privileges of any existing or pensioned officer of a local authority under the provisions of the Local Government (Ireland) Acts 1898 to 1919 . . . F58

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This Act may be cited as the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

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