Introduction
The Good Friday agreement appeared over Northern Ireland like a sunburst – a remarkable political achievement that ended the Troubles.
Signed on 10 April 1998, it initiated a lasting peace and is often cited as a global model for conflict resolution. However, as Northern Ireland approaches the agreement’s 28th anniversary this Friday, the mood is one of gloom.
While there is appreciation that violent conflict has ceased, there is also growing disenchantment, bordering on despair, with the political situation. The Stormont estate near Belfast, home to the region’s executive and assembly, has become emblematic of dysfunction.
Political Dysfunction and Public Disillusionment
The power-sharing coalition’s main parties, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), remain locked in persistent feuding that has severely impeded legislation and governance, fostering a widespread perception of drift and neglect. A January opinion poll revealed that only one in four people believed the devolved government had improved their lives.
“There is nobody really in charge. There is no strategy. Nobody’s taking even a medium-term sense of control or direction,” said Claire Hanna, an MP and leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which is in opposition.
The health service is in crisis, with emergency services severely overstretched and patients experiencing some of the UK’s longest waiting times. Infrastructure is deteriorating: roads are crumbling, and water systems are nearing collapse, hindering housing development. Pollution has transformed Lough Neagh, which supplies 40% of drinking water, into a polluted lake beset by algal blooms.
Environmental Challenges and Institutional Struggles
Andrew Muir, the environment minister, acknowledged the Good Friday agreement as a historic achievement but noted that nearly three decades later, Stormont struggles to deliver tangible benefits.
“The challenges that I have faced as minister perhaps demonstrate very clearly the need for reform of those institutions,” he said.
Muir, a member of the Alliance Party, explained that the power-sharing framework allows parties to block previously agreed policies, such as the establishment of an independent Environmental Protection Agency.
“Far too often the institutions as they’re designed incentivise and enable crisis and collapse and deadlock and delay rather than collaboration and consensus,” he said.
Brief Respite and Renewed Tensions
Two years ago, Stormont experienced a brief period of goodwill. After repeated collapses—during which the DUP and Sinn Féin alternated boycotting power-sharing, leaving Stormont inactive—devolved government was restored.
The appointment of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as the first nationalist first minister marked a significant moment. She described it as a new dawn.
“The public rightly demands that we cooperate, deliver and work together.”
Emma Little-Pengelly, the DUP’s deputy first minister—a position with equal power but less prestige—echoed this conciliatory tone.
“There can be no dominating from one to the other, but a new approach of recognising the concerns of each other and finding solutions together.”
However, relations between the two dominant parties—which govern in coalition with the Alliance and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)—deteriorated. Ministers have quarreled over job titles, the Irish language, commemorations, and street signage, while assembly members have focused on minor issues, passing only 12 bills, mostly housekeeping measures.
The assembly speaker, Edwin Poots, lamented that members were delivering pre-scripted remarks intended for social media clips. He faced criticism for taking an all-expenses-paid trip to Barbados while the assembly was in session.
Assembly members further drew public ire by approving a pay increase that will raise their annual salaries from £53,000 to £67,200 starting this month.
“We have a talking shop that fails at basic governance,” wrote Suzanne Breen, a Belfast Telegraph columnist. “Political failure is being rewarded, and it’s a kick in the teeth to voters of all hues.”
Structural Issues and Sectarian Politics
John O’Doherty, author of How to Fix Northern Ireland, identified the core problem as the fact that approximately 80% of voters cast ballots along tribal lines.
“What we’ve got is a political system which is constructed around basically a sectarian contest. No political party gets penalised for poor performance.”
O’Doherty noted that the 2006 St Andrews agreement, which modified Stormont’s rules, exacerbated the issue by intensifying competition between Sinn Féin and the DUP and marginalizing more moderate nationalist and unionist parties. He predicted that the 2027 assembly election would again be dominated by the Sinn Féin-DUP contest for first minister.
“It’s all identity politics, everything else is peripheral.”
Analysts suggest the DUP has engaged in confrontations with Sinn Féin to energize its base and counter challenges from rival unionists. Such tensions can also benefit Sinn Féin by mobilizing nationalist voters. Neither party responded to requests for comment.
O’Doherty argued that the need to force the two parties into an uneasy coalition is no longer necessary, proposing a majority system that would allow them to alternate in power with support from centrist parties that could moderate governance.
Calls for Reform
Andrew Muir emphasized that power-sharing remains necessary but requires reform to prevent any single party from blocking proposals or collapsing institutions, particularly those related to scientific consensus.
“There should be no place for people to use vetoes around measures that are designed to protect our environment.”
The SDLP has proposed reforms including removing the symbolic hierarchy of the first and deputy first minister titles by renaming them joint first ministers, adjusting voting rules for the assembly speaker, and eliminating the single-party veto on executive formation.
“Power-sharing can work,” said Claire Hanna. “It’s how parties are choosing to operate it.”
Perspectives on the Current State
Some observers consider the prevailing gloom exaggerated. Paul Bew, a historian and cross-party peer who advised on the Good Friday agreement, stated that while Stormont could perform better, the enduring framework for historic compromise remains crucial.
“The real point is peace, and community psychotherapy. Psychotherapy in Northern Ireland doesn’t mean that you look at your own faults, it means being rude to the other tradition. I never thought that – given the nature of the people, the divisions – it could be any better.”
Despite its shortcomings, Bew asserted that Stormont is not a failure.
“It’s working, because the peace has held.”
