The Northern Ireland Act 1974 ( ga, An tAcht um Rialtas na hÉireann) was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

that made provision for the government of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

following the collapse of the Sunningdale Agreement. The Act authorised the dissolution of the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = S ...

, and transferred its legislative powers to the

Queen in Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of ap ...

. The Act was intended as a temporary measure, staying in force for just one year. However, it made provision for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to make annual

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

extending the duration of the Act. As such, the Act remained in force until the institutions created following the 1998 Belfast Agreement were up and running in late 1999. The Act also established a Constitutional Convention, which ultimately failed to achieve cross-community consensus on new constitutional arrangements, and was permanently dissolved in 1976.

External links

Text of the Act
1974 in Northern Ireland History of Northern Ireland United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1974 Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Northern Ireland {{UK-statute-stub