This episode of The Irish History Boys goes back 100 years to examine the high stakes of the 1925 Boundary Commission, which was established following the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to determine the final boundaries between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.

We explore the intense hopes in border areas, such as Clones, that large sections of the North would be transferred south. While nationalists were completely in the dark and relied on wild kind of guesses based on rumours of customs posts moving, the unionist leaders appeared a lot more relaxed as they seemed to know what was going on.

Additionally, the episode delves into the history of Proportional Representation (PR) in the North, noting its initial introduction as a safeguard for minority representation, but explaining how it was systematically abolished by unionists in local and parliamentary elections to maintain their political dominance and control.

Finally, we discuss the mysterious fate of the lost 1926 Northern Ireland census, a significant historical collection that disappeared soon after the boundary settlement.

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