Joseph R. Fisher

Joseph Robert Fisher (1855 – 26 October 1939) was a barrister, a newspaper editor, and an author from Ulster. Fisher alternated his career between working as a journalist at London daily newspapers, legal practice at the English Bar, editing Belfast's liberal unionist daily newspaper, and authoring books on subjects such as Irish and European politics and press law. Fisher's most prominent role was his appointment as the Unionist commissioner on the Irish Boundary Commission, the body established under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to decide on the delineation of the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.

Joseph Robert Fisher

B.L.
Born1855
Raffrey, Co. Down, Ireland
Died26 October 1939
Hampstead, London
OccupationNewspaper editor, barrister, writer
NationalityBritish
EducationRoyal Belfast Academical Institution, Belfast
Alma materQueen's University of Ireland (B.A. 1876)
Notable worksFinland and the Tsars; Law of the Press

Early life and career

Fisher was born in Raffrey, County Down, Ireland in 1855, a younger son of clergyman Ringland Fisher, minister of the local Presbyterian church.[1] He was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Belfast, and Queen's University, Galway, graduating with a B.A. in 1876.[2][3] Fisher was foreign editor of the London Daily Chronicle until 1881 and assistant editor of the London Evening Standard thereafter. He was called to the Bar at a relatively late age in 1888,[4] and practised until 1900, when he returned to Belfast.[5] In early 1900, Fisher became editor of the Northern Whig, a liberal unionist daily paper, and remained in that position until the First World War.[6][7]

Irish Boundary Commission
Main article: Irish Boundary Commission
Joseph R. Fisher (second from left) at the Irish Boundary Commission's first sitting in Ireland, 11 December 1924.

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was intended to produce a lasting solution to the demands of Irish nationalist leaders for political autonomy, known as "Home Rule", by giving Ireland limited regional self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.[8] The Act provided for separate self-governing parliaments for Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, with both remaining within the United Kingdom and both parliaments being subordinate to the Westminster parliament.[9] The parliament and governmental institutions for Northern Ireland were soon established, but the overwhelming majority of MPs returned in the election in the 26 counties gave their allegiance to Dáil Éireann, unrecognised by the British government, thus rendering "Southern Ireland" moot as a political entity and leading to an intensification of the Irish War of Independence.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the war in January 1922 and the laws that implemented the treaty established a new Irish Free State in place of "Southern Ireland" and allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the new Free State.[10] The Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland duly did so on 7 December 1922, the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State, thus partitioning Ireland.[11]

The Anglo-Irish Treaty stated that if Northern Ireland elected not to join the Free State, the interim border between the two states would be the existing boundary between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland: the county boundaries between the six North-Eastern counties and the rest of the island.[12] Article 12 of the Treaty contained a provision establishing a boundary commission that would determine the permanent boundary. The Treaty further stipulated that the commission was to have three members. The governments of the United Kingdom, of the Irish Free State and of Northern Ireland were to nominate one member each to the commission.[13]

The leaders in the Free State, both supporting and opposing the treaty, assumed that the commission would award largely-nationalist areas such as County Fermanagh, County Tyrone, South Londonderry, South Armagh and South Down, and the City of Derry to the Free State and that the remnant of Northern Ireland would not be economically viable and would eventually opt for union with the rest of the island.[14]:8 The Ulster Unionist government of Northern Ireland, however, refused to appoint the commissioner required of it, wishing to concede "not one inch" of the territory of the six parliamentary counties that had seceded.[15][16][17]

The Labour government in Great Britain and the Irish Free State government legislated to allow the British government to impose a representative on behalf of the Unionists.[18][19] Fisher had a reputation of being a staunch but liberal unionist,[7]:887[20][17] and Ramsay MacDonald announced Fisher's appointment on 18 October 1924. He was to work with two other commissioners, Richard Feetham and Eoin MacNeill.[21][17]

Agreement on Irish Border

The three commissioners set to work and spent most of 1925 visiting communities near the six-county border, taking written statements and conducting "in camera" verbal hearings.[16]:330[14] The British government's commissioner, Richard Feetham, interpreted the commission's mandate narrowly and so with Fisher's Unionist vote, there was a two-to-one majority for only minor changes to the border. On 7 November 1925, an English conservative newspaper, The Morning Post, published leaked notes of the negotiations, including a draft map that suggested that parts of east Donegal would be transferred to Northern Ireland.[14][22] That was seen as a grave embarrassment in Dublin.[14]:21–22

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Fisher was responsible for the leak. Fisher had told Florence Reid, the wife of D. D. Reid, M.P., the leader of the Ulster Unionists in the Westminster parliament, that the report would make no major changes. Fisher had also written to Edward Carson, former leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance, assuring him that Carson's 'handiwork' in creating Northern Irish state would survive.[3][23] Irish government ministers suspected Fisher of being the source, Fisher being a Unionist newspaperman.[24][25]

The press leak, whether or not by Fisher, effectively ended the Commission's work.[25] The Irish government's commissioner, Eoin MacNeill, resigned two weeks later on 20 November, though Fisher and Feetham, the remaining commissioners, continued their work without MacNeill.[26][23]

The leak and resignation caused the boundary negotiations to be swept into a wider agreement, concluded on 3 December 1925 between the British and Irish governments. The publication of the Commission's award would have an immediate legal effect and so before that could occur, the Free State government entered into talks with the British and Northern Ireland governments.[23] Further, the Irish Free State's trade deficit was growing and was unable to meet existing levels of social spending, but the Free State was also faced with obligations under Article 5 of the Treaty to pay a pro-rata share of the public debt of the United Kingdom.[27]

The Conservative government that had replaced Ramsay MacDonald's short Labour-Liberal coalition wanted to avoid Irish disputes.[28]

The December agreement resolved the financial obligations of the Treaty in exchange for leaving the border unchanged. Early that evening, Fisher and Feetham were briefed by the three prime ministers together with Winston Churchill, as Chancellor of the Exchequer.[29] The two remaining commissioners expressed their view of the problems that would result from a failure to adjust what they saw as the border's more absurd anomalies, particularly Protestant east Donegal (for which "Derry was the market town"); Pettigo and Belleek, County Fermanagh (both of which straddled the border); and the Drummully and Clones areas of County Monaghan, parts of which were accessible by road only from Northern Ireland.[30] The politicians requested of the commissioners that the report be "burned or buried". The inter-governmental discussion about suppressing the report, and the report itself remained a secret until 1969.[7]:330 Ultimately, the agreement to make no changes was concluded by the three governments and the Commission rubber-stamped it. The publication or not of the Commission's report became a legal irrelevance but has always remained controversial.[31][32]

Later life

Aged 70 at the end of the Commission's work, Fisher retired to London; his address was in barristers' chambers in Essex Court, Middle Temple. He died, unmarried, on 26 October 1939 at 12 Lancaster Drive, Hampstead, close to the Swiss Cottage Tube station.[3][33]

Books and other publications

References
  1. "J. R. Fisher". The Journal. Great Britain: Institute of Journalists. 28–29: 32. 1940. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  2. "The Queen's University Calendar". The Queen's University Calendar. Dublin: Alexander Thom and Hodges, Foster & Co. 1874. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  3. Legg, Marie-Louise (2004). "Fisher, Joseph Robert (1855–1939)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  4. Sturgess, H.A.C. (1949). Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (from the Fifteenth Century to 1944) (PDF). London: Butterworth & Co.
  5. Addison, Henry Robert (1903). Who's Who. 55. London: A & C Black.
  6. "The Bookman". The Bookman. Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton. 17: 145. 1900. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  7. Stubbs, John O. (1990). "The Unionists and Ireland, 1914–18". The Historical Journal. Great Britain. 33 (4): 867–893. doi:10.1017/s0018246x00013790. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  8. McDonnell, Sir Michael (1908). Ireland and the Home Rule Movement. Dublin: Maunsel & Co. Limited – via Google Books.
  9. Joseph Lee, Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and society, p. 43
  10. "The Boundary Question: Debate Resumed, Dáil Éireann, 20 June 1924". Oireachteas.ie. Retrieved 30 September 2015. Article 12 of the Treaty reads: 'If before the expiration of the said month an address is presented to his Majesty by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland to that effect, the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland.' By implication, that is a declaration that it extended, but after the exercise of its option the power was no longer extended.
  11. For further discussion, see: Dáil Éireann – Volume 7 – 20 June 1924 The Boundary Question – Debate Resumed.
  12. Section 1(2) of the Government of Ireland Act 1920
  13. Final text of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland as signed. from British & Irish Delegations. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. Vol.1. No.214. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  14. Rankin, Kieran J. (2006). "The provenance and dissolution of the Irish Boundary Commission" (PDF). Working Papers in British-Irish Studies. Ireland: Institute for British-Irish Studies, University College Dublin (79). Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  15. "Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland as signed in London". 6 December 1921. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  16. Gibbons, Ivan (Autumn 2009). "The First British Labour Government and The Irish Boundary Commission 1924". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Great Britain: Irish Province of the Society of Jesus. 98 (391): 321–333. JSTOR 25660684.
  17. "Ulster Editor on Boundary Board" (PDF). The New York Times. New York City. 19 October 1924. p. 1. Retrieved 10 September 2014. Mr. Fisher is believed to hold conciliatory views...
  18. "Irish Free State (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1924 (Hansard)". hansard.millbanksystems.com.
  19. "Treaty (Confirmation of Supplemental Agreement) Act, 1924; electronic Irish Statute Book". irishstatutebook.ie.
  20. "Fisher, Joseph R." Who's Who. Vol. 53. 1901. p. 421. Clubs – Reform
  21. "Irish Boundary. Third Commissioner. Mr. J. R. Fisher Appointed". Northern Advocate. 24 October 1924. p. 1. Retrieved 10 September 2014. Mr. MacDonald announced that Mr. Joseph R. Fisher has been appointed the third member of the Irish Boundary Commission
  22. See for notes of the negotiations, including a draft map.
  23. Rankin, Kieran J. (2005). "The Creation and Consolidation of the Irish Border" (PDF). Ibis Working Papers. Centre for International Borders, Queen's University Belfast. ISSN 1649-0304. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  24. "No. 345 NAI DT S1801C Speech by William T. Cosgrave at Emyvale, Co Monaghan, 22 November 1925". Difp.ie. 22 November 1925. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  25. "Extract from minutes of a meeting of the Executive Council (C.2/224), 10 November 1925". Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. 10 November 1925. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  26. "Resumé of a statement by Eoin MacNeill at a meeting of the Executive Council, No. 343 NAI DT S1801O, 21 Nov 1925". Difp.ie. 21 November 1925. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  27. "Draft notes of a conference held in the Board Room, Treasury, Whitehall, London (Secret) (C.A./H./48 – 2nd Minutes), 12.00 noon, 1 December 1925 No. 359 NAI DT S4720A". Difp.ie. 1 December 1925. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  28. Matthews, Kevin (1 March 2001). "Stanley Baldwin's 'Irish Question'". The Historical Journal. 43 (4 (Dec. 2000)): 1027–1049. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00001485. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  29. "Notes of a conference with the Irish Boundary Commission held in Stanley Baldwin's Room, House of Commons (Secret) (C.P.503(25))". Difp.ie. 3 December 1925. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  30. "LAND WITHOUT LAW Monaghan villagers left beyond the law by Garda cutbacks". TheJournal.ie. Dublin. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2014. Drummully in Co. Monaghan can't be reached by Gardaí – because there's no unmarked car to cross the Fermanagh border
  31. "An Teorainn" [The Border (documentary series on the dramatic history of the border)]. BBC Two television. 2009.
  32. de Barra, Caoimhín (29 November 2017). "Ireland is right not to trust the British on the border. History shows why". The Guardian.
  33. "Google Maps: Swiss Cottage". Google Maps.
  34. The Encyclopædia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences. Volume 10, edited by Hugh Chisholm
  35. "Fisher, Joseph R." Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. pp. 600–601.
  36. Fisher, Joseph Robert (1899). Finland and the Tsars, 1809–1899. London: Edward Arnold – via Internet Archive.
  37. Fisher, Joseph R. (1911). The End of the Irish Parliament. Edward Arnold – via Internet Archive. The End of the Irish Parliament (1911).
  38. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). London: A & C Black. 1911. ISBN 9780889203471.
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