Devolution in Northern Ireland twenty-five years on: the more things change, the more they stay the same

This article assesses 25 years of devolution in Northern Ireland. It shows that devolution in Northern Ireland has had mixed and very paradoxical results. The introduction, highlighting the fact that Northern Irish devolution was part of a long and multi-levelled peace process, shows the fundamental differences with Wales and Scotland. In the first section, the article shows that the consociational power-sharing institutions established in Stormont after the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement have significantly contributed to ending intercommunal violence in the province. Yet, in the second section, it shows that, in practice, these institutions have simultaneously failed to transcend the ethno-communal divide, which they instead contributed to entrenching and institutionalizing.