Following the partition of Ireland  in 1922 Ulster Unionists/ Loyalists were empowered to build the institutions of a new state designed to ensure their ongoing control. They marginalized the nationalist community, the progressive labor movement, and those unionists not committed to the realization of a sectarian state.

The new devolved administration controlled by the main Unionist party, the Ulster unionist Party (UUP), ensured their control through gerrymandering of constituencies; the use of Special Powers and the formation of a sectarian police force; the use of social and economic policies designed  in the interest of the majority unionist population; voting rights that gave some people (mostly non Catholic} up to six votes, and gave no vote to adults who did not own or rent property (mostly Catholics); exclusion of the minority population from public service positions; and many other forms of discrimination particularly in the areas of housing, education and employment.