Road to Partition: how the border was drawn up A very different border could have been chosen, but by the time the Better Government of Ireland act passed on 23 December 1920, the line between what would become Northern Ireland and the rest of the island had been drawn. • 21 Dec 2020 In early 1919 Lloyd George's coalition government was engaged in the realignment of European borders at the Paris Peace Conference but, by the Autumn of that year, attention was focused again on the Irish question. Conscious that the outdated 1914 Home Rule Act was on the Statute Book and would operate automatically after the European treaties were finalised, the Prime Minister set up a special cabinet committee under the chairmanship of Unionist Walter Long to advise on new Home Rule legislation.