{"id":6249,"date":"2020-01-15T10:44:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T10:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=6249"},"modified":"2020-01-15T10:44:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T10:44:31","slug":"northern-irelands-government-is-back-up-and-running-heres-how-it-happened-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/northern-irelands-government-is-back-up-and-running-heres-how-it-happened-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s government is back up and running \u2013 here\u2019s how it happened and why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Northern Ireland government is back up and running after the British and Irish governments jointly announced a draft deal<\/a> to resolve the continued political stalemate in the region, exactly three years to the day since power-sharing broke down. A few days later, the deal has now been formally agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been widely suggested that the Westminster elections, and losses suffered by both the DUP and Sinn F\u00e9in, were the main reason they suddenly agreed to return to sharing power. The threat of a fresh assembly election for Northern Ireland, which could see their dominance further eroded, may well have influenced their thinking. Recent gains by moderate parties, arguably reflecting the frustration of voters at the inability of Sinn F\u00e9in and the DUP to compromise, surely focused minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the key sticking points had been Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s insistence on legislation to help promote and protect the Irish language in Northern Ireland. Many unionists were staunchly opposed, seeing this as part of a broader project by Sinn F\u00e9in to gradually undermine the \u201cBritishness\u201d of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new deal allows compromise on this issue. It promises to appoint an Irish language commissioner, and standards that pubic bodies will have to meet to provide services in Irish<\/a>. However, balancing things out, Sinn F\u00e9in did not get the stand-alone Irish language act which it had demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To continue reading, please click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article originally appeared in The Conversation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0featured\u00a0image<\/a><\/em>\u00a0has been used courtesy of a\u00a0<\/em>Creative Commons license.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After three years without devolved government, the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ agreement has led to a restoration of power-sharing. Dr Peter McLoughlin explores how and why parties came to an agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2461,"featured_media":6251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[911,912,913,94,882,286,586],"class_list":["post-6249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-and-democracy","tag-duo","tag-ni-assembly","tag-ni-executive","tag-northern-ireland-assembly","tag-northern-ireland-executive","tag-sinn-fein","tag-stormont"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"