Since 1998, Northern Ireland has devolved government within the United Kingdom. The government and Parliament of the United Kingdom are responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Reserved matters are a list of policy areas (such as civil aviation, units of measurement, and human genetics), which the Westminster Parliament may devolve to the Northern Ireland Assembly at some time in future. Excepted matters (such as international relations, taxation and elections) are never expected to be considered for devolution. On all other matters, the Northern Ireland Executive together with the 90-member Northern Ireland Assembly may legislate and govern for Northern Ireland. Additionally, devolution in Northern Ireland is dependent upon participation by members of the Northern Ireland Executive in the North/South Ministerial Council, which co-ordinates areas of co-operation (such as agriculture, education and health) between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are by single transferable vote with five representatives (Members of the Legislative Assembly, MLAs) elected from 18 parliamentary constituencies. Eighteen representatives to the lower house of the British parliament (Members of Parliament, MPs) are elected from the same constituencies using the first-past-the-post system. However, not all of these take their seats. The seven Sinn Féin MPs refuse to take the required oath to serve the British monarch. In addition, the upper house of the UK's parliament, the House of Lords, currently has some 25 appointed members from Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Office represents the British government in Northern Ireland on reserved matters. The Government of the Republic of Ireland also has the right to "put forward views and proposals" on non-devolved matters in relation to Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Office is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Much of the population of Northern Ireland identifies with one of two different ideologies: unionism (which wants the region to remain part of the United Kingdom) and Irish nationalism (which wants a united Ireland). Unionists are predominantly Ulster Protestant, most of whom belong to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland. Irish nationalists are almost wholly Roman Catholic. There is also a small minority of Ulster nationalists (those who want an independent Northern Irish state), whose religious convictions vary.
Government
The government of Northern Ireland is, generally speaking, whatever political body exercises political authority over Northern Ireland. A number of separate systems of government exist or have existed in Northern Ireland. Since 1999, it has been the Northern Ireland Executive.
Following the partition of Ireland, Northern Ireland was recognised as a separate territory within the authority of the British Crown on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920.Statutory Rules & Orders published by authority, 1921 (No. 533); Additional source for 3 May 1921 date: Alvin Jackson, Home Rule - An Irish History, Oxford University Press, 2004, p198. The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster, being four counties with unionist majorities (Antrim, Armagh, Down and Londonderry), and Fermanagh and Tyrone two of the five Ulster counties which had nationalist majorities. In large part unionists, at least in the north east region, supported its creation while nationalists were opposed. Subsequently, on 6 December 1922, the island of Ireland became an independent dominion known as the Irish Free State but Northern Ireland immediately exercised its right to opt out of the new Dominion.
The first government of Northern Ireland was the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, which exercised such authority from 1922 to 1972. A Northern Ireland Executive was created following the signing of the Sunningdale Agreement in 1974, while the current Northern Ireland Executive under the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, was created in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, and has intermittently been in existence from 1999 to the present. Northern Ireland has also been governed by ministers under the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during periods of Direct Rule.
Political representation Northern Ireland currently has the following political representation: the Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) (currently 37 unionists, 35 nationalists, 18 others neutral), which had its powers restored on 8 May 2007. 18 seats in the United Kingdom House of Commons (currently 8 unionist MPs, 9 nationalist MPs and 1 neutral MP)Due to the abstentionist nature of Sinn Féin MPs, the fact that the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871, meaning the church no longer sends representatives to the House of Lords (unlike the Church of England, which continues to send two archbishops and 24 bishops, known as Lords Spiritual), as well as the fact that bishops of the Roman Catholic Church are not represented, this has resulted in most Northern Ireland members of House of Lords (such as Eileen Paisley and David Trimble — see List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords) coming from Unionist backgrounds by default. In July 2009 Nuala O'Loan, who is married to the SDLP MLA Declan O'Loan, was appointed by Gordon Brown to this legislative body. The late Gerry Fitt, the first leader of the nationalist SDLP, sat from 1983 until 2005. there are several unionists but no nationalists on the Privy Council of the United Kingdom (see List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council). at local level there are 11 district councils
Voting patterns
Voting patterns break down as follows: 2024 Westminster election – unionists 43.3%, nationalists 39.3%, others 17.4% 2019 Westminster election – unionists 43.2%, nationalists 38.9%, others 17.9% 2017 Westminster election – unionists 49.2%, nationalists 41.2%, others 9.6% 2015 Westminster election – unionists 50.2%, nationalists 38.5%, others 11.2% 2010 Westminster election – unionists 50.5%, nationalists 42.0%, others 7.5% 2005 Westminster election – unionists 51.4%, nationalists 41.8%, others 6.8% 2001 Westminster election – unionists 52.9%, nationalists 42.7%, others 4.4% 1997 Westminster election – unionists 50.5%, nationalists 40.2%, others 9.3%
2019 European election – unionists 42.9%, nationalists 35.9%, others 21.2% 2014 European election – unionists 51.0%, nationalists 38.6%, others 10.5% 2009 European election – unionists 49.0%, nationalists 42.2%, others 8.8% 2004 European election – unionists 48.6%, nationalists 42.2%, others 9.2% 1999 European election – unionists 52.3%, nationalists 45.4%, others 2.3%
2022 Assembly election – unionists 42.2%, nationalists 40.3%, others 17.5% 2017 Assembly election – unionists 44.8%, nationalists 40.0%, others 15.5% 2016 Assembly election – unionists 48.5%, nationalists 36.4%, others 15.1% 2011 Assembly election – unionists 48.3%, nationalists 41.5%, others 10.2% 2007 Assembly election – unionists 48.6%, nationalists 42.0%, others 9.4% 2003 Assembly election – unionists 52.1%, nationalists 40.5%, others 7.4% 1998 Assembly election – unionists 50.6%, nationalists 39.7%, others 9.7%
Electoral systems In all elections in Northern Ireland the single transferable vote system of proportional representation is used except for the House of Commons elections where a "first past the post" or plurality voting system is used.
Proposed representation in the Republic Sinn Féin, currently the biggest of the nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, has campaigned for a broadening of the franchise of Northern Ireland voters to allow them to vote in elections to choose the President of Ireland. It had also demanded that all Northern Ireland Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and MPs be allowed speaking rights in the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, Dáil Éireann. It was given to understand that the Irish government accepted this and had plans to introduce legislation in the autumn of 2005. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) backed the move. However, a spokesman for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern later rowed back, stating that it had never been intended that the MPs have a right to attend plenary sessions of the Dáil, but that they would be invited to participate in Oireachtas committees dealing with Northern Ireland matters, and only if there was all-party agreement behind it. The unionist parties, along with Fine Gael, Labour and the Progressive Democrats have all declared their opposition to the move, as has much of the Irish media, with articles highly critical of the proposal published in The Irish Times and the Sunday Independent. Nonetheless, on 22 November 2007, representatives from both Sinn Féin and the SDLP, (unionists declined the invitation) attended a meeting of the Oireachtas committee reviewing the workings of the Good Friday Agreement. The 18 Northern Ireland MPs can take part in this committee's debates (as well as other relevant committees by invitation), but will not have a right to vote or to move motions and amendments.
Political parties
Political parties in Northern Ireland can be divided into three distinct categories: unionist parties, such as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and other smaller parties such as the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) nationalist parties like Sinn Féin and the SDLP cross-community parties such as the Alliance Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit (PBP).
Unionist parties The Ulster Unionist Party was historically a big tent party supported by all social classes and ran the Northern Ireland Government in a dominant-party system from its creation until 1972, although since the rise of the DUP in the 1970s, its support has been concentrated more towards the middle-class. Until 1972, the UUP representatives of the House of Commons took the Conservative Party whip, but currently sit as a party in their own right. The UUP's members of the European Parliament belonged to the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
The DUP are a more complex mixture than the other major parties, combining support from rural evangelicals and urban, secular, working-class voters. The party is firmly to the right on issues such as abortion, capital punishment, European integration and equal opportunities, although it seems to be moderating its stance on gay rights since the "Save Ulster from Sodomy" campaign of the 1980s. Conversely, the DUP often support social programmes which benefit their working class or agricultural base, for example, free public transport for the elderly and European Union agricultural subsidies. The DUP have grown in support in recent years as they were originally the only major party to oppose the Good Friday Agreement, although until September 2015 they were part of a government operating it.
The smaller, left-leaning Progressive Unionist Party and Ulster Political Research Group are linked with the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association respectively.
Nationalist parties
Similarly, on the nationalist side of the political spectrum, Sinn Féin has overtaken the traditionally dominant SDLP in recent elections. Sinn Féin is a left-wing Irish republican party, committed to espousing a United Irish republic. Traditionally the party of the urban Catholic working-class and a number of republican rural areas, since the IRA ceasefires of the mid-1990s; it has expanded its base considerably and has overtaken the long-dominant SDLP in terms of vote share.