The Good Friday Agreement appeared like sunshine in Northern Ireland – a miracle of political leadership that consigned the Troubles to history.
Signed on 10 April 1998, it ushered in an era of peace that has endured and is held up as a model for resolving conflicts around the world. Yet Northern Ireland will mark the 28th anniversary of the agreement on Friday with disappointment.
There is gratitude that there are no more shootings and bombings – but also disillusionment with politics – leading to despair. The Stormont estate outside Belfast, which hosts the region’s executive and assembly, has become synonymous with dysfunction.
The main parties of the power-sharing coalition, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), are locked in a long-standing feud that has seriously disrupted rule of law and governance, creating a perception of drift and neglect. An opinion poll in January found that only one in four people believed that the devolved government had improved their lives.
“There’s no one really in charge. There’s no strategy. No one is taking even a medium-term sense of control or direction,” said Claire Hanna, MP and leader of the opposition Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP).
The health service is in crisis, with emergency services severely overwhelmed and patients facing the longest waiting times in the UK. Roads are crumbling and water infrastructure is near collapse, hampering housing construction. Meanwhile, pollution has turned Lough Neagh, which supplies 40% of drinking water, into a foul-smelling lake infested with antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Environment Minister Andrew Muir said the Good Friday Agreement was a historic achievement, but almost three decades later, Stormont was struggling to deliver practical benefits. “The challenges I have faced as minister perhaps clearly demonstrate the need for reform in those institutions,” he said.
Muir, of the centrist Alliance Party, said that the power-sharing structure enabled the parties to block previously agreed policies, such as the establishment of an independent environmental protection agency. He said, “Too often the institutions as they are designed encourage rather than encourage cooperation and consensus and enable crisis, collapse, gridlock, and delay.”
Two years ago, Stormont enjoyed a brief glow of goodwill. After repeated collapses – during which the DUP and Sinn Féin took turns boycotting power-sharing, putting Stormont in trouble – the devolved government was reinstated in February 2024.
The elevation of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as the first nationalist First Minister filled the occasion with a sense of history. He welcomed a new morning. “The public rightly demands that we cooperate, work and work together.”
Emma Little-Pengley, the DUP’s deputy first minister – a post with similar power but less prestige – also struck the same cordial note. “There can be a new approach, not one dominating the other, but recognizing each other’s concerns and finding solutions together.”
But relations between the two big parties – which govern in coalition with the Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) – soured. Ministers have sparred over job titles, the Irish language, commemorations and road signs, while Assembly members have sparred over minor matters while passing only 12 bills, most of which were related to housekeeping.
Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots lamented that members were delivering pre-written comments to use as social media clips. He was criticized for traveling to Barbados at full expense while the Legislative Assembly was in session.
Assembly members were further humiliated by approving a pay rise which will see their annual salary rise from £53,000 to £67,200 from this month. “We have a talking shop that fails at basic governance,” wrote Belfast Telegraph columnist Suzanne Breen. “Political failure is being rewarded, and that’s a blow to all types of voters.”
Malachi O’Doherty, author of How to Fix Northern Ireland, said the main problem was that about 80% of the electorate voted along tribal lines. “What we have got is a political system that is fundamentally built around a communal competition. No political party is punished for poor performance.”
O’Doherty said that the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, which changed Stormont rules, had exacerbated the problem by intensifying competition between Sinn Féin and the DUP and squeezing out more moderate nationalist and unionist alternatives. He predicted that the next assembly election in 2027 would again be dominated by the Sinn Féin–DUP battle for First Minister. “It’s all identity politics, everything else is peripheral.”
Analysts say the DUP has fought alongside Sinn Féin to consolidate its base and fend off challenges from rival unionists. Such friction could also benefit Sinn Féin by uniting nationalist voters. Neither party responded to requests for comment.
O’Doherty said there was no longer any need to force both sides into loveless marriages, and that the majority system would allow them to alternate power with the support of centrist parties, which would have moderate influence.
Environment Minister Muir said power-sharing is still necessary, but should be improved so that no one party can block proposals or dismantle institutions – particularly those that dispute science. “There should be no room for people to use a veto around measures designed to protect our environment.”
SDLP has three changes proposed: Remove the symbolic hierarchy of the First and Deputy First Minister titles by calling them Joint First Ministers; Changes in voting rules for Assembly Speaker; Remove the single-party veto on executive formation. “Power-sharing can work,” Hanna said. “This is how the parties are choosing to conduct it.”
Some people think the frustration has become too much. Paul Beau, a historian and cross-party peer who played an advisory role in the Good Friday Agreement, said Stormont should have done “a little better”, but what mattered was the permanent framework for the historic agreement.
“The real issue is peace and community psychiatry. Psychiatry in Northern Ireland doesn’t mean looking at your mistakes, it means being rude to another tradition. I never thought that – given the nature of the people, the division – it could be better.”
Despite all its faults, Stormont was not a failure, Beau said. “It’s working, because the peace is maintained.”
