ABSTRACT
The protracted and interrupted process of securing a durable, if interim, political accord in Northern Ireland seems, finally, to have been secured by means of the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.1 Following the acceptance of its requirements, all of Northern Ireland’s parties agreed to give power-sharing devolved governance another try. On 8 May 2007 Dr Ian Paisley, the Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), accepted the nomination as First Minister in the reconvened Northern Ireland Assembly, and Martin McGuinness, the deputy leader of Sinn Féin (SF), accepted the nomination as Deputy First Minister.The modern process of seeking an accord dates back to the 1998 Belfast Agreement, by which a devolved power-sharing assembly, accompanied by a North-South Ireland Ministerial Council and an East-West British-Irish Council, was established. Given the history of Northern Ireland, and the continuing divisions between unionist and nationalist-republican communities and politicians, one might have expected the very establishment of stable devolved governance to be a major achievement in itself. So it has proved, marking out Northern Ireland as entirely distinctive in the politics of devolution in the UK.
