ABSTRACT
Since the imposition of direct rule in 1972, attempts to restore a settled scheme of devolution to Northern Ireland have proceeded fitfully and unsuccessfully. This chapter explores the continuities and discontinuities involved in the attempts to construct a regional assembly and, more briefly, the procedures that have been developed to handle Northern Ireland matters within the Westminster parliament. The speed with which the Stormont regime was prorogued provided an object lesson in the subordinate nature of the Northern Ireland parliament. The Northern Ireland Act of 1974 sets out new arrangements for the governance of the province, based upon the NI Temporary Provisions Act of 1972. By the time the Conservatives were returned to office in May 1979, the party under Margaret Thatcher's leadership had come, or so it appeared, to eschew any grand designs for returning devolved government to Northern Ireland.
