The Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly Information correct on 28 Jan 2001 What is the Assembly? Despite being a distinct state within the United Kingdom since 1921 , Northern Ireland has been governed directly from Londom for 30 years. The historic Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 set up, as well as many other things, a 'Home-Rule' Assembly that would allow Northern Ireland people to govern many of their own affairs from Belfast. This Assembly would appoint a 12-strong ruling Executive to make the real decisions. The 108 members of the Assembly were elected in June 1998, although political wrangling prevented it from taking up the reins of power until November 1999, and it only ran for 3 months before more political wrangling caused it to be suspended again. However, once the problems had been solved, the Assembly was restored in May 2000 and has ben running ever since. Timetable of the Formation of the Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly was first agreed upon as part of the Good Friday Agreement , which was ratified by the political parties on 10 April 1998.

The Agreement was ratified separately by the people of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on 10 May 1998. The Assembly was officially created at this point, although it as yet held no powers. The Assembly is unusual amoung democratic parliaments in that some decisions require separate majorities of Nationalist and Unionist members in order to be passed, rather than a single majority. There are 108 seats, with a post of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. There are also 10 ministerial posts, each representing a facet of Northern Irish government. Each Ministry also has a chairman, who must be from a different party to the Minister. The 10 Ministers along with the 2 First Ministers form the Executive, which was to be formed at a later date. Elections to the Assembly were held in June 1998, and the Assembly met in shadow format shortly afterwards. In the election, the UUP had 28 seats, SDLP 24, DUP 20, Sinn Fein 18, Alliance 6, UKUP 5, PUP 2, Women's Coalition 2 and 3 independent candidates.

The Executive was to be formed and power was due to be devolved shortly afterwards, but political wrangling, chiefly between the UUP and Sinn Fein, prevented this from happening for a long time. The Assembly did not meet during this time, and Northern Ireland continued to be run from London. On 21 September 1998, the 3 independent candidates formed the United Unionist Assembly Party. On 15 January 1999, 4 of the 5 UKUP Assembly members broke away and formed the Northern Ireland Unionist Party. In July 1999, the UK government decided to stop the political wrangling by forcing the formation of the Executive. However, the Unionist members boycotted the meeting, and the Executive was set up with only Nationalist ministers. It was dissolved again within an hour. That was technically Northern Ireland's first governing Executive, but it will probably not go down in history as such. In the summer of 1999, Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon resigned. In the Autumn of 1999, there was a review of the Good Friday Agreement in which the UUP and Sinn Fein eventually resolved their problems.

The UK government representative in Northern Ireland (Mo Mowlam) was replaced by Peter Mandelson during this time. On 29 November 1999, the Executive was formed for a second time ( read about this ). This time things went to plan. The UUP formed the Executive in return for an indication that the IRA would begin decommissioning. Details of the ministries can be found below. Seamus Mallon was reinstated as Deputy First Minister. On 2 December 1999, Roger Hutchinson was expelled from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party. He then became an independent. At 17:40 on 11 February 2000 the Executive and Assembly were suspended by the UK government ( read about this ) due to the failure of the IRA to begin decommissioning. Following the IRA's decision to allow independent inspection of a small number of its arms dumps, a proposal which was very narrowly accepted by the UUP, the Executive was reinstanted and powers returned to the Assembly on 30 May 2000. So far it has survived.

On 27 July 2000, the two DUP ministers Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds resigned to be replaced by Maurice Morrow and Gregory Campbell. This is part of their strategy of non-cooperation. On 16 November 2000, Independent Unionist Roger Hutchinson (NIUP party member from Jan to Dec 1999) joined the DUP. On 4 December 2000, SDLP leader John Hume resigned as an Assembly Member, to concentrate on his work at the UK Parliament at Westminister and in the European Parliament. He was replaced 7 days later by the SDLP's Annie Courtney. On 24 Jan 2001, the UK government representative in Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, was replaced by former Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid. On 1 July 2001, the First Minister David Trimble resigned in protest at the continued failure of the IRA to begin decommissioning. By Assembly rules, this automatically caused Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon to lose his post also. There was then 4 months of political discussions culminating in a gesture of IRA decommissioning in October 2001.

On 17 September 2001, SDLP leader John Hume retired from the leadership. On 2 November 2001, David Trimble (UUP) and Mark Durkan (SDLP) failed to be elected as First and Deputy First Ministers by one vote, when two members of the UUP (Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage) voted against their own leader. On 6 November 2001, David Trimble (UUP) and Mark Durkan (SDLP) were elected First and Deputy First Ministers when several members of the non-aligned Alliance Party temporarily redesignated themselves as Unionists in order to swing the vote in favour of Trimble and Durkan. This resulted in 31 of 60 Unionist votes in favour. All 38 Nationalists voted in favour. On 10 November 2001, Peter Weir was expelled from the UUP (see 2 Nov above). Pauline Armitage was suspended. On 11 November 2001, Mark Durkan was elected to the leadership of the SDLP.

However, he had been the only nominee so the post had been known since 28 September 2001. The 12 Ministers who sit on the Northern Ireland Executive The real power of the Assembly is the 12-strong Executive appointed by the directly elected Assembly. The first two posts are First and Deputy First Minister. Click here for the web site of these posts. First Minister: David Trimble (since 6 Nov 2001) Deputy First Minister: Mark Durkan (since 6 Nov 2001) The remaining 10 members are appointed to a Ministry, each of which is in charge of a particular aspect of government. Each Ministry also has a Chairman who must be from a different persuasion to the Minister.

The following is the current list of Ministers and links to the Ministry's web site: Ministry The 108-strong Assembly is made up as follows: 27 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 24 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 21 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 18 Sinn Fein 3 Northern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP) 3 United Unionist Assembly Party (UUAP) 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) 2 Northern Ireland Womens' Coalition (NIWC) 1 United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) 1 independent Unionist assembly member The names of these are as follows (party leaders in bold face): . Roy Beggs Junior (Antrim East) William Bell (Lagan Valley) Joan Carson (Fermanagh / S. Tyrone) Fred Cobain (Belfast North) Sam Foster (Fermanagh / S.

Tyrone) John Gorman (North Down) Tommy Gallagher (F'agh / S Tyrone) Carmel Hanna (Belfast South) Maurice Morrow (Fermanagh / S Tyrone) Ian Paisley (Antrim North) Ian Paisley Junior (Antrim North) Edwin Poots (Lagan Valley) Bairbre De Brun (Belfast West) Pat Docherty (West Tyrone) Michelle Gildernew (F'agh / S Tyrone) Gerry Kelly (Belfast North) Gerry McHugh (Fermanagh / S Tyrone) Mitchell McLaughlin (Foyle) Jane Morrice (North Down) Footnotes: 1 Elected as United Kingdom Unionist Party, but split and formed the NIUP on 15 January 1999. 2 Expelled from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party on 2 December 1999. 3 Elected as independents, but formed the United Unionist Assembly party on 21 September 1998. 4 Joined the DUP on 16 November 2000. 5 Since 11 December 2000.

She replaced party leader John Hume, who resigned as an Assembly Member on 4 December 2000 to concentrate on his work at the UK Parliament at Westminister and in the European Parliament. 6 Expelled from the UUP on 10 November 2001 for voting against the party leader. Northern Ireland: Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities The Ulster Unionist Party Leaves Ruling Executive A New Coalition Government In Dec. 1998 the rival Northern Ireland politicians agreed on the organization and contents of the new coalition government, but in June 1999, the peace process again hit an impasse when the IRA refused to disarm prior to the Assembly of Northern Ireland's new provincial cabinet. Sinn Fein insisted that the IRA would only begin giving up its illegal weapons after the formation of the new government; Unionists demanded disarmament first. As a result, the Ulster Unionists boycotted the Assembly session that would have nominated the cabinet to run the new coalition government. The nascent Northern Irish government was stillborn in July 1999.

Subsequent talks on the agreement, which would have ended three decades of direct rule from London, seemed to go nowhere. Finally, at the end of November, David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists, abandoned the seemingly sacrosanct “no guns, no government” position and took a difficult leap of faith in agreeing to form a government prior to Sinn Fein's disarmament. If the IRA did not begin the destruction of their weapons by Jan. 31, 2000, however, the Ulster Unionists threatened to withdraw from the Northern Irish parliament, shutting down the new government. With the compromise in place, this government was quickly formed, and on Dec. 2, 1999, the British government formally transferred governing power to the Northern Irish parliament. David Trimble became first minister. Two leaders of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, received seats in the 4-party 12-member parliament. But by the deadline, Sinn Fein had made little progress toward disarmament. As a result, the British government suspended parliament on Feb. 12, 2000, and once again imposed direct rule.

In July 2001, after issuing one last ultimatum to the IRA to begin destroying its weapons stores, Ulster Unionist leader Trimble resigned his post as first minister. Following Trimble's departure, the IRA offered another vague and open-ended disarmament plan, only to withdraw it. But on Oct. 23, days before Britain was to suspend the Assembly, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams dramatically announced that the IRA had indeed begun disarming. As a result, Trimble was reelected as first minister. On April 8, 2002, international weapons inspectors announced that the IRA had put more stockpiled munitions “beyond use,” the euphemistic phrase applied to disarmament in the negotiations. British and Irish leaders hoped that Protestant paramilitary groups would also begin to surrender their weapons. The Council on Foreign Relations has estimated that Protestant paramilitary groups have been responsible for 30% of the civilian deaths in the Northern Irish conflict. The two main Protestant vigilante groups are the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Strongest during the 1970s, their ranks have since diminished.

While Protestant paramilitaries have observed a cease-fire since the IRA declared one, none of these groups have made any moves toward surrendering their weapons as stipulated by the Good Friday Agreement. History of the Assembly History of the Assembly Origins of the Northern Ireland Assembly (The Belfast Agreement, also known as the "Good Friday" Agreement) The Northern Ireland Assembly was established as a result of the Belfast Agreement of 10 April 1998. The Agreement was the outcome of a long process of talks between the Northern Ireland political parties and the British and Irish Governments. The Agreement was endorsed through a referendum held on 22 May 1998 and subsequently given legal force through the Northern Ireland Act 1998 . It led to the creation of a series of interrelated bodies, in particular the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has full legislative and executive authority for all matters that are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Government Departments and are known as transferred matters . Excepted matters remain the responsibility of the Westminster Parliament. Reserved matters are also dealt with by Westminster unless it is decided by the Secretary of State that some of these should be devolved to the Assembly. Excepted and reserved matters are defined in the Schedules to the NI Act.

The Belfast Agreement also led to the establishment of: A North/South Ministerial Council to bring together those with executive responsibilities in Northern Ireland and the Irish Governments to develop consultation, co-operation and action within the island of Ireland. All Council decisions must be agreed by the two sides. A British-Irish Council to exchange information, discuss, consult and use best endeavours to reach agreement on co-operation on matters of mutual interest within the competence of the relevant Administrations. Membership comprises representatives of the British and Irish Governments, devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together with representatives of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. A British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference comprising senior representatives from both Governments to promote bilateral co-operation at all levels on matters of mutual interest. A consultative Civic Forum, comprising representatives of business, trades unions and other civic sectors in Northern Ireland to act as a consultative mechanism on social, economic and cultural issues. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister acting together nominate Ministers to attend the North/South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council and to report to the Assembly following each meeting of these bodies. They also ensure that the Executive is represented at meetings of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

The First Minister and Deputy First Minister, acting together, also make arrangements for the operation of the Civic Forum. These arrangements require Assembly approval. The Northern Ireland Assembly The Assembly was elected on 25 June 1998 under the terms of the Northern Ireland (Elections) Act 1998 . It was called the New Northern Ireland Assembly to distinguish it from the Northern Ireland Assembly for which legislative provision remained at that time under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 stated that the Assembly would be known as the "New Northern Ireland Assembly" in the pre-devolution or "shadow" period and that at the date of devolution it would be called the "Northern Ireland Assembly". The New Northern Ireland Assembly met for the first time on 1 July 1998 in Castle Buildings on the Stormont Estate. The then Secretary of State the Rt Hon Dr Marjorie Mowlam MP appointed Lord Alderdice as Initial Presiding Officer for the first sitting of the Assembly with the intention that the Assembly would then elect a Presiding Officer.

In the event, no election for a Presiding Officer was held and on the date of devolution, as provided for in the Northern Ireland Act 1998, Lord Alderdice, as the incumbent, was confirmed in office. The Standing Orders of the Assembly, which took effect from the date of devolution, provided for the Presiding Officer to be addressed as "Speaker". At the first meeting of the Assembly, the Rt Hon David Trimble MP was elected as First Minister (Designate) and Mr Seamus Mallon MP as Deputy First Minister (Designate). The refurbishment of the Assembly Chamber in Parliament Buildings was completed during the summer months, and since the second sitting on 14 September 1998 the Assembly has met in that Chamber. How The Northern Ireland Assembly Operates The Northern Ireland Assembly consists of 108 elected Members - six from each of the 18 Westminster constituencies. Its role is primarily to scrutinise and make decisions on the issues dealt with by Government Departments and to consider and make legislation. A First Minister and a Deputy First Minister are elected to lead the Executive Committee of Ministers.

They must stand for election jointly and to be elected they must have cross-community support by the parallel consent formula, which means that a majority of both the Members who have designated themselves Nationalists and those who have designated themselves Unionists and a majority of the whole Assembly, must vote in favour. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister head the Executive Committee of Ministers and acting jointly, determine the total number of Ministers in the Executive. The parties elected to the Assembly choose Ministerial portfolios and select Ministers in proportion to their party strength. Each party has a designated nominating officer and the d'Hondt procedure is used for the appointment of Ministers. Statutory Departmental Committees are also established to advise and assist each Minister in the formulation of policy for his/her Department and to scrutinise the work of that Department. Committee Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons are elected using the d'Hondt procedure . Committee membership is filled based on party strengths in accordance with Standing Order 47 . There is also a number Standing and Ad Hoc Committees. For details of committee membership and work, please follow this link . The Speaker The Office of the Presiding Officer of the Assembly, known as "the Speaker", is held by Mr William Hay MLA.

The Speaker presides over the proceedings of the Assembly, is Chairperson of the Business Committee and Chairperson of the Assembly Commission. The Speaker has a scrutiny role in relation to the competence of legislation prior to the First and Final Stages of a Bill. He selects amendments to Bills and Motions for debate and selects questions for oral answer. Following the first reading of a Bill the Speaker sends a copy to the Human Rights Commission and on the completion of all the Stages of a Bill he sends it to the Secretary of State requesting Royal Assent. The Speaker receives VIP visitors from the British Isles and overseas to Parliament Buildings, including Heads of State, Ambassadors and senior politicians. The Speaker also hosts and attends a range of events designed to promote an understanding of the Assembly as an institution and to develop links with the wider Northern Ireland community as well as within the UK and internationally. Standing Orders require the Assembly to elect three Deputy Speakers, currently Mr John Dallat MLA, Mr David McClarty MLA and Mr Francie Molloy MLA. The Assembly Commission and the Business Committee The Assembly Commission , which is the corporate body of the Assembly, is responsible for providing the Assembly with "property, staff and services".

It consists of five members of the Assembly and is chaired by the Speaker. The Business Committee consists of the Whips from the various political parties. It makes arrangements for the business of the Assembly. Details of the membership and workings of these bodies can be found by following the above links. The Pre Devolution or "Shadow" period In the early months of the Shadow Assembly, some further elements were added to its basic structure by means of amendments to Standing Orders. One such change created the Committee of the Centre (now known as the Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister) to examine and report on various functions carried out in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. During the six months from September 1998 much of the necessary preparatory work for devolution was done. This included the establishment of a Committee to draw up Standing Orders for the procedures to govern operations of the Assembly and also the formation of a Shadow Assembly Commission, which became the Assembly Commission after devolution. Agreement was reached on the creation of new departmental structures. These were approved by the Assembly on 18 January 1999 and form the basis of the present Northern Ireland Departments .

At the same time, the Assembly approved various areas for North/South co-operation. On 16 February 1999 the Assembly approved the numbers and titles of the new Departments and also provided for the composition and operation of the Civic Forum. Details of all these arrangements can be found in a report of 15 February 1999 from the First Minister (Designate) and the Deputy First Minister (Designate) (NNIA7). With the approval of Standing Orders on 9 March 1999 this preparatory work was completed. The Shadow Assembly did not meet again in plenary session until 15 July 1999. Despite the fact that agreement had not been reached on the formation of an Executive, the Assembly met on 15 July 1999 to activate the d'Hondt procedure for the nomination of Ministers. However, only Sinn Fein and the SDLP made nominations. Since, under Additional Initial Standing Orders, Ministers could only hold office if their nominations included three designated Unionists and three designated Nationalists the conditions for their appointment had not been met and the Assembly was adjourned.

US Senator George Mitchell presided over a review of the political process which began on 6 September and concluded on 19 November 1999. The Assembly met on 29 November 1999. Ten Ministers (click here to view the current list of Ministers), three each from the UUP and the SDLP and two each from the DUP and Sinn Fein, were nominated at this meeting as well as the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons for the 10 Statutory Departmental Committees - details of their membership and work to the end of the 2007 - 2011 mandate (Work during the 2011 - 2015 mandate is available here . Membership of the Statutory Departmental Committees was subsequently agreed among the Party Whips in accordance with Standing Orders and formally announced to the Assembly the next day. On 30 November 1999 the Secretary of State made the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Commencement Order No 5), resulting in the devolution of powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2 December 1999.

Lord Alderdice was confirmed as Speaker upon devolution and continued to serve in that capacity until his retirement on 29 February 2004. The Assembly after devolution On 14 December 1999, the Assembly approved the appointment of two Junior Ministers, one each from the UUP and the SDLP. Standing Orders made provision for six Standing Committees - Committee on Procedures , the Business Committee , the Public Accounts Committee , the Committee on Standards and Privileges and the Audit Committee . The Speaker chairs the Business Committee and nominates the Deputy Chairpersons who act in his absence. On 15 December 1999, the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons of the other five Standing Committees were nominated according to the d'Hondt procedure. On 11 February 2000, following reports from the International Commission on Decommissioning that it had "received no information from the IRA as to when decommissioning will start", the then Secretary of State, Rt Hon Peter Mandelson MP, under powers derived from the Northern Ireland Act 2000 , suspended the Executive and restored Direct Rule.

An agreement was subsequently reached that allowed the restoration of devolution with effect from 30 May 2000. The continuing argument about decommissioning led to the resignation of David Trimble as First Minister on 1 July 2001 followed, on 18 October 2001, by other UUP Ministers. To allow time to resolve that situation the Secretary of State ordered 24-hour suspensions of the Assembly on 10 August and 22 September 2001. David Trimble was eventually re-elected on 5 November 2001 as First Minister along with Mark Durkan as Deputy First Minister to replace Seamus Mallon who had retired. In the 11 months up to the most recent period of suspension, which began on 14 October 2002, the Executive, the Assembly and its Committees met regularly. Business transacted included the following: The Executive produced a Draft Programme for Government (subtitled 'Reinvestment and Reform') and a Draft Budget for 2003-04.

The various Committees published nearly 50 reports on such diverse subjects as the foot-and-mouth-disease outbreak in Northern Ireland, protection of children and vulnerable adults, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, fur farming, the Water Service (leakage management and water efficiency) and housing and homelessness. The Assembly debated and passed 17 Acts in 2001 and 14 in 2002. Members also began the practice of presenting public petitions on constituency related issues. The first of these was presented on 15 January 2002 by Maurice Morrow MLA on the subject of Trillick Agricultural Office. There were many important and well-attended debates on such varied topics as the future of education, the Health Service, public accounts, telecommunications and the Children's Commissioner. Members raised matters of importance in their own constituencies by means of Adjournment debates. The final Adjournment debate, which was the last matter for discussion in the first mandate, was on the subject of the future of the Mater Hospital in Belfast.

On Tuesday 8 October 2002 the Assembly debated a DUP motion expressing concern at the implications of a search of the Sinn Fein offices at Parliament Buildings on 4 October 2002 and the subsequent arrest of three Sinn Fein party members on spying charges. This led directly to the suspension of the Assembly by the Secretary of State on 14 October 2002. Suspension and Restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly On 14 October 2002 Rt Hon Dr John Reid MP, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, wrote to the Speaker informing him of his decision to suspend the devolved institutions. The Speaker relayed the Secretary of State's message to the Assembly that morning. Business proceeded as planned that day, with suspension taking effect from midnight on 14 October 2002. Following the suspension of the Assembly, legislation being considered by the Assembly was processed instead through Westminster, where it took the form of Orders in Council. The Assembly was formally dissolved on 28 April 2003 in anticipation of an election in May 2003. The Secretary of State decided to postpone the election and it eventually took place on 26 November 2003.

The results of the election changed the balance of power in the Assembly. In the first mandate, the Ulster Unionist Party was the largest party followed by the SDLP, the DUP and Sinn Fein. Following the November 2003 election, the party representation in the NI Assembly is as follows: DUP PUP 1 seat The Assembly was restored to a state of suspension following the November 2003 election and since January 2004, political parties have been engaged in a review of the Belfast Agreement aimed at restoring the devolved institutions. Following the passing of the Northern Ireland Act 2006 the Secretary of State created a non-legislative fixed-term Assembly , whose membership consisted of the 108 members elected in the November 2003 election. This met for the first time on 15 May 2006, its remit was to make preparations for the restoration of devolved government to Northern Ireland and for a fully restored Assembly. Its discussions informed the next round of talks called by the British and Irish Governments, held at St Andrews in October 2006. The St Andrews Agreement of 13 October 2006 led to the establishment of the Transitional Assembly .

The Northern Ireland (St.Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 set out a timetable to restore devolution in Northern Ireland and also set the date for the third election to the Northern Ireland Assembly as 7 March 2007. Devolution was to be restored on 26 March 2007 and it was the function of the Transitional Assembly to take the necessary steps for this to happen. At the election, the DUP and SF again had the largest number of MLAs elected. While power was not restored by 26 March an historic meeting took place between Dr Ian Paisley (the leader of the DUP at that time) and Gerry Adams (the leader of SF) at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Both parties made a commitment to set up an Executive Committee in a Northern Ireland Assembly to which devolved powers were restored on 8 May 2007. The Executive Committee includes four Democratic Unionist Ministers, three Sinn Fein Ministers, two Ulster Unionist Ministers, and one Social Democratic and Labour Party Minister.

The Rt Hon Peter Robinson MP MLA is currently the First Minister and Martin McGuinness MP MLA is currently deputy First Minister (the two Junior ministers are currently, Robin Newton MLA from DUP and Gerry Kelly MLA from SF). Following the March 2007 election, the party representation in the NI Assembly is as follows: Democratic Unionist Party List of books and articles about Northern Ireland | Online Research Library: Questia Northern Ireland Ireland, Northern Northern Ireland, division of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2011 pop. 1,810,863), 5,462 sq mi (14,147 sq km), NE Ireland. Made up of six of the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster in NE Ireland, it is frequently called Ulster. The capital is Belfast . Land, People, Economy, and Government The land is mountainous and has few natural resources. It comprises 26 districts. English is the official language. The population is 48% Protestant and 45% Catholic. Farming (livestock, dairy products, cereals, potatoes) is the largest single occupation.

Heavy industry is concentrated in and around Belfast, one of the chief ports of the British Isles. Machinery and equipment manufacturing, food processing, and textile and electronics manufacturing are the leading industries; papermaking, furniture manufacturing, and shipbuilding are also important. Northern Ireland's fine linens are famous. The Northern Ireland Assembly has limited devolved powers from the British Parliament, and often has been suspended since its establishment in 1999. The government is based on a power-sharing arrangement that requires that its members include a minimum number of both Protestants and Catholics, and that those members have the support of the representatives elected by their respective communities. Northern Ireland has 18 representatives in the British Parliament. History A Troubled History Northern Ireland's relatively distinct history began in the early 17th cent., when, after the suppression of an Irish rebellion, much land was confiscated by the British crown and "planted" with Scottish and English settlers. Ulster took on a Protestant character as compared with the rest of Ireland; but there was no question of political separation until the late 19th cent. when William Gladstone presented (1886) his first proposal for Home Rule for Ireland.

The largely Protestant population of the north feared domination under Home Rule by the Catholic majority in the south. In addition, industrial Ulster was bound economically more to England than to the rest of Ireland. Successive schemes for Home Rule widened the rift, so that by the outbreak of World War I civil war in Ireland was an immediate danger. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 attempted to solve the problem by enacting Home Rule separately for the two parts of Ireland, thus creating the province of Northern Ireland. However, the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland (see Ireland, Republic of ), which was established in 1922, refused to recognize the finality of the partition; and violence erupted frequently on both sides of the border. The late 1960s marked a new stage in the region's troubled history. The Catholic minority, which suffered economic and political discrimination, had grown steadily through immigration from the Republic. In 1968 civil-rights protests by Catholics led to widespread violence.

Prime Minister Terence O'Neill had sought to end anti-Catholic bias as part of his policy of fostering closer ties between Ulster and the Irish Republic, but opponents within his ruling Unionist party forced his resignation in Apr., 1969. His successor, James Chichester-Clark, was unable to restrain the growing unrest and in August called in British troops to help restore order. The IRA and Sectarian Struggle At the end of 1969 a split occurred in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is the illegal military arm of the Sinn Fein party; the new "provisional" wing of the IRA was made up of radical nationalists. Brian Faulkner became leader of the Unionist party and prime minister of Northern Ireland in Mar., 1971, and began a policy of imprisoning IRA and other militants. However, the IRA and the Ulster Defense Association, a Protestant terrorist group, continued and even intensified their activities. On Mar. 30, 1972, the British prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the government and appointed William Whitelaw secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Westminster's direct rule over the province was renewed in Mar., 1973.

An assembly was formed in June, 1972, with the Unionist party, a moderate pro-British group, in the majority. In November the Unionist party formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Labor party (SDLP), the major Catholic group, and the nonsectarian Alliance party. A Northern Ireland Executive was formed to exercise day-to-day administration. In late 1973, the British prime minister, the head of the Executive, and the Irish Republic's prime minister agreed to form a Council of Ireland to promote closer cooperation between Ulster and the Republic. However, both the IRA and Protestant extremists sought to destroy the Executive and the Council, as they found power-sharing between Protestants and Catholics unacceptable. In 1974, hard-line Ulster Protestants won 11 of the province's 12 seats in the British House of Commons and pledged to renegotiate Ulster's constitution in order to end the Protestant-Catholic coalition and progress toward a Council of Ireland. In May, 1974, militant Protestants sponsored a general strike in the province, and the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed on May 28.

The British government then took direct control of the province with the passage of the Northern Ireland Act of 1974. Meanwhile, bombings and other terrorist activities had spread to Dublin and London. In 1979 Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA, and in 1981 protests broke out in Belfast over the death by hunger strike of Bobby Sands, an IRA member of Parliament. Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s terrorist violence by the IRA and other groups remained a problem. An assembly formed in 1982 to propose plans for strengthening legislative and executive autonomy in Northern Ireland was dissolved in 1986 for its lack of progress. In 1985, an Anglo-Irish accord sought to lay the groundwork for talks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Dublin agreed not to contest Northern Ireland's allegiance to Great Britain in exchange for British acknowledgment of the Republic's interest in how Northern Ireland is run. A 1993 Anglo-Irish declaration offered to open negotiations to all parties willing to renounce violence, and in 1994 the IRA and, later, Protestant paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire.

Formal talks began in 1995. A resumption of violence (1996) by the IRA threatened to derail the peace process, but negotiations to seek a political settlement went ahead. In July, 1997, the IRA declared a new cease-fire, and talks begun in September of that year included Sinn Féin. The result was an accord reached in 1998 that provided for a new Northern Ireland Assembly as well as a North-South Ministerial Council to deal with issues of joint interest to the province and the Irish Republic. The Republic of Ireland also agreed to give up territorial claims on Northern Ireland. The formation of a new government was slowed, however, by disagreement over the disarmament of paramilitary groups, but in Dec., 1999, a multiparty government was formed after further negotiations, and Britain ended direct rule of the province. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble became leader of the Northern Irish government. In Feb., 2000, however, Britain suspended self-government after the IRA refused to agree to disarm, but subsequent concessions by the IRA led to the resumption of self-government in May.

Continued resistance by the IRA to disarming has threatened self-government and led Trimble to resign on July 1, 2001. Subsequently, Britain twice suspended the Northern Irish government in an attempt to avoid its complete collapse. Negotiations on disarming the IRA and other paramilitary groups, however, were relatively fruitless until late 2001, when the IRA began disarming; Trimble subsequently returned to office. The arrests in 2002 of Sinn Féin government members for intelligence gathering for the IRA threatened the power-sharing government once again, leading Britain to suspend home rule once more, but in 2005 charges against the alleged spies, one of whom was a long-time government informant, were dropped, raising questions about the entire affair. The May, 2003, elections that would have reestablished the assembly were suspended by the British government. The ostensible reason was the insufficient specificity of the IRA's commitment to the peace process, but Trimble and the moderate Unionists also seem likely to suffer losses if the elections were held. Disagreements over the way the IRA's disarming was being handled continued.

When the elections were held in Nov., 2003, the more extreme Protestant and Catholic parties, Ian Paisley 's Democratic Unionists and the Sinn Féin, outpolled their more moderate counterparts. Home rule remained suspended, but in early 2004 Britain, the Irish Republic, and Northern Irish political parties began a "review" of the 1998 agreement in hopes of reestablishing a Northern Irish government. Subsequent accusations that the IRA was involved in criminal activities threatened any future participation of Sinn Féin in a government. In Apr., 2005, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams called on the IRA to abandon the use of arms and restrict its activities to politics, and an independent report affirmed in September that the IRA had decommissioned its weapons. In Apr., 2006 the British and Irish governments called for the Northern Irish assembly to begin formation of an executive in May and complete the work before the end of November; if they failed to do so, the members of the assembly would no longer receive their salaries. The assembly reconvened in May, but there was no quick progress in forming an executive.

However, talks in October produced some progress, and the November deadline was pushed back to Mar., 2007. In Jan., 2007, Sinn Féin agreed to back the Protestant-dominated Northern Irish police force. In March, elections for the assembly led to strong showings by the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin, and later in the month the two parties agreed to form a power-sharing government in May. Ian Paisley became first minister. Also in May the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the oldest Protestant paramilitary group, announced that it was renouncing violence; it did not plan then, however, to decommission its weapons, but by June, 2009, it had decommissioned its weapons. British troops ended their military mission in Northern Ireland, which began in 1969, in July, 2007.

UDA factional clashes during the summer of 2007 led to a demand that they decommission their arms or lose funding for a loyalist project associated with the UDA; the social development minister's insistence on the deadline and cutoff of funds led to tensions in the North Irish executive in Oct., 2007, with the DUP and Sinn Féin supporting a more lenient approach to the UDA. In November the UDA announced that its fighters' weapons were being put beyond use (but not decommissioned), and in Jan., 2010, it announced that it had decommissioned its weapons. Violence by republican and unionist splinter groups, some of them operating as criminal gangs, remains a problem. Paisley retired as first minister and was succeeded by Peter Robinson, the new DUP leader, in June, 2008. A dispute over the devolution of justice and policing powers subsequently deadlocked the executive, and it continued until early 2010, when negotiations resulted in an agreement that led (Mar., 2010) to an assembly vote in favor of assuming those responsibilities, passing a significant home-rule milestone.

Peter Robinson's tenure as first minister was threatened in late 2009 by a personal and political scandal involving his wife, who was reported to have obtained money from property developers for her lover. The 2011 elections again saw the DUP and Sinn Féin finish strongly ahead in first and second. In late 2012 and early 2013 there were riots and demonstrations by Protestant loyalists in Belfast after the city council voted to greatly reduce the number of days the British flag was flown over city hall. In Sept., 2015, Robinson and most of the DUP ministers resigned for several weeks from a government deadlocked over the alleged continued existence of the IRA and over changes to social welfare programs; an agreement in November eased the crisis. The DUP's Arlene Foster was elected to succeed Robinson as first minister in Jan., 2016. Bibliography See A. Blacam, The Black North (1938); M. Wallace, Northern Ireland: Fifty Years of Self-Government (1971); P. Arthur, Northern Ireland Since 1968 (1988); B.

Rowthorn, Northern Ireland: The Political Economy of Conflict (1988); F. Gaffikin, Northern Ireland: The Thatcher Years (1990); E. Collins, Killing Rage (with M. McGovern, 1999); G. Mitchell, Making Peace (1999); P. Taylor, Loyalists (1999). The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright© 2016, The Columbia University Press. Northern Ireland: Selected full-text books and articles British and Irish Leaders Try to Calm Fears Over Ulster Peace - The New York Times The New York Times World |British and Irish Leaders Try to Calm Fears Over Ulster Peace Search Continue reading the main story The Irish and British leadership and the highest-ranking officials in Northern Ireland are trying to allay fears that the peace effort in the British province of Ulster is crumbling. The peace effort has been locked in a dispute between Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders on the issue of disarming the overwhelmingly Catholic Irish Republican Army.

Today, Seamus Mallon, the Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a new body created as part of the peace effort, called for a compromise retreat from ''brinkmanship'' that could collapse the peace effort. Referring to David Trimble, the Protestant who is First Minister under the new cooperative political arrangement, and Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the I.R.A.'s political wing, Mr. Mallon, a mainstream Catholic, said a solution to the dispute could be found ''if they both blink somewhat at the same time.'' ''One of the difficulties of Northern Irish politics is that people always see the ball in the other fellow's court,'' he continued. Advertisement Continue reading the main story There was no blinking today, though. Mr. Trimble was holding to his position that Sinn Fein would not be allowed to participate fully in the Assembly until the I.R.A. begins to disarm. The I.R.A. and Sinn Fein gave no sign they would change their position that there would be no disarmament in the coming weeks. On Saturday, Mr. Trimble and Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland acknowledged that the disarmament issue was threatening to disrupt, if not collapse, the Northern Ireland peace effort.

After meeting in Mr. Ahern's office here for 40 minutes, the two leaders agreed that, with a crucial deadline on Feb. 15 for a vote on new government structures for home rule, disarmament was still a ''significant hurdle.'' The meeting came after a week in which Mr. Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Mo Mowlam, the British Northern Ireland Secretary, sought to keep the effort alive. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Both have sought to assure colleagues and the public that the peace effort will survive the vote in February on structures that are to be put into effect by the end of March. The new structures are intended to give the Roman Catholic minority more power and increase the influence of the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Irish Republic in the northern province of Ulster. The vote is to pave the way for Britain's return of home rule powers to the province through the Assembly in Belfast, the northern capital. In recent days, Mr. Trimble and Ms. Mowlam have publicly addressed indications that the province was edging back into sectarian warfare. Ms.

Mowlam called for an end to ''punishment beatings'' by Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups, calling the beatings ''atrocious, barbarous behavior.'' The number of such beatings of civilians by paramilitary groups has been accelerating in recent weeks, involving more than 20 attacks. There has been a series of other attacks and episodes. Discussing the peace effort, a highly respected Assembly member said, ''This thing is going down.'' Some members of the British Parliament have called for a halt to the early release of Northern Irish paramilitary prisoners from British jails, being carried out under the peace effort, until the violence in the North subsides. Ms. Mowlam, with the support of Prime Minister Tony Blair, said there was no reason to curtail the early releases, and some experts say doing so would increase the potential for violence. Mr. Trimble has vowed to keep Sinn Fein from ministers' posts in the new Northern Ireland provisional goverment until the I.R.A begins to disarm. The I.R.A. has refused repeatedly, and Sinn Fein notes, accurately, that there there is no requirement in the peace ageement approved last spring for disarmament before May 2000.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story The impasse has threatened the establishment of an Assembly executive that is to be given home rule powers by the British Government. Without Sinn Fein in the executive, officials and experts say, the new body would be futile, and the I.R.A. might end its 17-month cease-fire. Mr. Trimble's authority in the Assembly is also threatened by dissident Protestant unionists who fear that he will make a last-minute deal with Sinn Fein that would give it significant influence. Mr. Trimble contends, though, that members of Sinn Fein ''are trying to sabotage the process'' by failing to persuade the I.R.A. to disarm. He declined to say whether he would accept a statement by the I.R.A. or Sinn Fein that the campaign of violence was permanently ended, in lieu of actual disarming. Ireland, Northern: History Ireland, Northern History A Troubled History Northern Ireland's relatively distinct history began in the early 17th cent., when, after the suppression of an Irish rebellion, much land was confiscated by the British crown and "planted" with Scottish and English settlers.

Ulster took on a Protestant character as compared with the rest of Ireland; but there was no question of political separation until the late 19th cent. when William Gladstone presented (1886) his first proposal for Home Rule for Ireland. The largely Protestant population of the north feared domination under Home Rule by the Catholic majority in the south. In addition, industrial Ulster was bound economically more to England than to the rest of Ireland. Successive schemes for Home Rule widened the rift, so that by the outbreak of World War I civil war in Ireland was an immediate danger. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 attempted to solve the problem by enacting Home Rule separately for the two parts of Ireland, thus creating the province of Northern Ireland. However, the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland (see Ireland, Republic of ), which was established in 1922, refused to recognize the finality of the partition; and violence erupted frequently on both sides of the border. The late 1960s marked a new stage in the region's troubled history. The Catholic minority, which suffered economic and political discrimination, had grown steadily through immigration from the Republic.

In 1968 civil-rights protests by Catholics led to widespread violence. Prime Minister Terence O'Neill had sought to end anti-Catholic bias as part of his policy of fostering closer ties between Ulster and the Irish Republic, but opponents within his ruling Unionist party forced his resignation in Apr., 1969. His successor, James Chichester-Clark, was unable to restrain the growing unrest and in August called in British troops to help restore order. The IRA and Sectarian Struggle At the end of 1969 a split occurred in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is the illegal military arm of the Sinn Fein party; the new "provisional" wing of the IRA was made up of radical nationalists. Brian Faulkner became leader of the Unionist party and prime minister of Northern Ireland in Mar., 1971, and began a policy of imprisoning IRA and other militants. However, the IRA and the Ulster Defense Association, a Protestant terrorist group, continued and even intensified their activities. On Mar. 30, 1972, the British prime minister, Edward Heath, suspended the government and appointed William Whitelaw secretary of state for Northern Ireland.

Westminster's direct rule over the province was renewed in Mar., 1973. An assembly was formed in June, 1972, with the Unionist party, a moderate pro-British group, in the majority. In November the Unionist party formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Labor party (SDLP), the major Catholic group, and the nonsectarian Alliance party. A Northern Ireland Executive was formed to exercise day-to-day administration. In late 1973, the British prime minister, the head of the Executive, and the Irish Republic's prime minister agreed to form a Council of Ireland to promote closer cooperation between Ulster and the Republic. However, both the IRA and Protestant extremists sought to destroy the Executive and the Council, as they found power-sharing between Protestants and Catholics unacceptable. In 1974, hard-line Ulster Protestants won 11 of the province's 12 seats in the British House of Commons and pledged to renegotiate Ulster's constitution in order to end the Protestant-Catholic coalition and progress toward a Council of Ireland.

In May, 1974, militant Protestants sponsored a general strike in the province, and the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed on May 28. The British government then took direct control of the province with the passage of the Northern Ireland Act of 1974. Meanwhile, bombings and other terrorist activities had spread to Dublin and London. In 1979 Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA, and in 1981 protests broke out in Belfast over the death by hunger strike of Bobby Sands, an IRA member of Parliament. Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s terrorist violence by the IRA and other groups remained a problem. An assembly formed in 1982 to propose plans for strengthening legislative and executive autonomy in Northern Ireland was dissolved in 1986 for its lack of progress. In 1985, an Anglo-Irish accord sought to lay the groundwork for talks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Dublin agreed not to contest Northern Ireland's allegiance to Great Britain in exchange for British acknowledgment of the Republic's interest in how Northern Ireland is run.

A 1993 Anglo-Irish declaration offered to open negotiations to all parties willing to renounce violence, and in 1994 the IRA and, later, Protestant paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire. Formal talks began in 1995. A resumption of violence (1996) by the IRA threatened to derail the peace process, but negotiations to seek a political settlement went ahead. In July, 1997, the IRA declared a new cease-fire, and talks begun in September of that year included Sinn Féin. The result was an accord reached in 1998 that provided for a new Northern Ireland Assembly as well as a North-South Ministerial Council to deal with issues of joint interest to the province and the Irish Republic. The Republic of Ireland also agreed to give up territorial claims on Northern Ireland. The formation of a new government was slowed, however, by disagreement over the disarmament of paramilitary groups, but in Dec., 1999, a multiparty government was formed after further negotiations, and Britain ended direct rule of the province. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble became leader of the Northern Irish government.

In Feb., 2000, however, Britain suspended self-government after the IRA refused to agree to disarm, but subsequent concessions by the IRA led to the resumption of self-government in May. Continued resistance by the IRA to disarming has threatened self-government and led Trimble to resign on July 1, 2001. Subsequently, Britain twice suspended the Northern Irish government in an attempt to avoid its complete collapse. Negotiations on disarming the IRA and other paramilitary groups, however, were relatively fruitless until late 2001, when the IRA began disarming; Trimble subsequently returned to office. The arrests in 2002 of Sinn Féin government members for intelligence gathering for the IRA threatened the power-sharing government once again, leading Britain to suspend home rule once more, but in 2005 charges against the alleged spies, one of whom was a long-time government informant, were dropped, raising questions about the entire affair. The May, 2003, elections that would have reestablished the assembly were suspended by the British government.

The ostensible reason was the insufficient specificity of the IRA's commitment to the peace process, but Trimble and the moderate Unionists also seem likely to suffer losses if the elections were held. Disagreements over the way the IRA's disarming was being handled continued. When the elections were held in Nov., 2003, the more extreme Protestant and Catholic parties, Ian Paisley 's Democratic Unionists and the Sinn Féin, outpolled their more moderate counterparts. Home rule remained suspended, but in early 2004 Britain, the Irish Republic, and Northern Irish political parties began a "review" of the 1998 agreement in hopes of reestablishing a Northern Irish government. Subsequent accusations that the IRA was involved in criminal activities threatened any future participation of Sinn Féin in a government. In Apr., 2005, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams called on the IRA to abandon the use of arms and restrict its activities to politics, and an independent report affirmed in September that the IRA had decommissioned its weapons.

In Apr., 2006 the British and Irish governments called for the Northern Irish assembly to begin formation of an executive in May and complete the work before the end of November; if they failed to do so, the members of the assembly would no longer receive their salaries. The assembly reconvened in May, but there was no quick progress in forming an executive. However, talks in October produced some progress, and the November deadline was pushed back to Mar., 2007. In Jan., 2007, Sinn Féin agreed to back the Protestant-dominated Northern Irish police force. In March, elections for the assembly led to strong showings by the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin, and later in the month the two parties agreed to form a power-sharing government in May. Ian Paisley became first minister. Also in May the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the oldest Protestant paramilitary group, announced that it was renouncing violence; it did not plan then, however, to decommission its weapons, but by June, 2009, it had decommissioned its weapons.

British troops ended their military mission in Northern Ireland, which began in 1969, in July, 2007. UDA factional clashes during the summer of 2007 led to a demand that they decommission their arms or lose funding for a loyalist project associated with the UDA; the social development minister's insistence on the deadline and cutoff of funds led to tensions in the North Irish executive in Oct., 2007, with the DUP and Sinn Féin supporting a more lenient approach to the UDA. In November the UDA announced that its fighters' weapons were being put beyond use (but not decommissioned), and in Jan., 2010, it announced that it had decommissioned its weapons. Violence by republican and unionist splinter groups, some of them operating as criminal gangs, remains a problem. Paisley retired as first minister and was succeeded by Peter Robinson, the new DUP leader, in June, 2008.

A dispute over the devolution of justice and policing powers subsequently deadlocked the executive, and it continued until early 2010, when negotiations resulted in an agreement that led (Mar., 2010) to an assembly vote in favor of assuming those responsibilities, passing a significant home-rule milestone. Peter Robinson's tenure as first minister was threatened in late 2009 by a personal and political scandal involving his wife, who was reported to have obtained money from property developers for her lover. The 2011 elections again saw the DUP and Sinn Féin finish strongly ahead in first and second. In late 2012 and early 2013 there were riots and demonstrations by Protestant loyalists in Belfast after the city council voted to greatly reduce the number of days the British flag was flown over city hall. Sections in this article:

Question: In 1999 who became First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive?
Answer: DAVID TRIMBLE