30 March 1972: The end of the Stormont Parliament on this day. The legislation which introduced direct rule, the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act, was passed at the House of Commons at Westminster. So after over 50 years of existence the legislature of Northern Ireland came to an end - prorogued by the British Prime Minister Edward Heath whose government had lost all faith in the Ulster Unionist party to rule over the Six Counties in any effective manner that could possibly be acceptable to both communities at one and the same time. He had summoned the Northern Premier Brian Faulkner to London on the 22 March and informed him that ‘Stormont’ long seen as a bastion of Unionist supremacy was to be wound up.

A senior British Cabinet Minister Willie Whitelaw was to be appointed Secretary of State on 26 March to administer the North and deal with day to day issues and any security matters that arose. The main reason for the suspension of Stormont was the refusal of the Unionist government to accept the loss of law and order powers to Westminster. The decision was made public on 24 March and that led to widespread protests from Loyalists with over 100,000 people taking to the streets to register their anger and outrage at what had been announced.

This was a traumatic shock to the Unionist community who saw it as outright betrayal by Westminster and a capitulation to the IRA and to the broader Catholic/Nationalist community - who conversely saw this development as Victory for their side. However there is no doubt that what happened at that time just pushed the two sides further apart and that the British were no more capable of imposing their Rule in the North than the Unionist Oligarchy had been before them. 

With the exception of a brief period in 1974, the North was to be ruled from Westminster until 1999.