Devolution in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Northern Ireland should not have received an invitation to the ‘10 years of devolution’ celebration party! Power was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly and its Executive Committee of Ministers on Thursday 2nd December 1999 following the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on 10th April 1998. Things went downhill quickly thereafter! The Blair Government saw devolution as a mechanism to advance the peace process by encouraging republicans and loyalists into an elected assembly and weaning them away from violence. The (then) Ulster Unionist Party leader agreed to share power with Sinn Féin on the condition that they decommissioned their weaponry. When this didn’t happen, suspension of the devolved Assembly followed on 11th February 2000. This fitful process was to continue and devolution was suspended indefinitely for the fourth time by the (then) Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, in October 2002 due to ‘a lack of trust and loss of confidence on both sides of the community’ precipitated, in part, by accusations made against Sinn Féin of intelligence gathering in Stormont - a charge vehemently denied by republicans.