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Northern Ireland's Normal Politics?

As a consequence of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Unionists and Republicans were to engage in the shared governance of Northern Ireland.

Changes in Unionist politics included recognition of the Irishness of the minority and an acceptance of the need for an Irish dimension to political arrangements. Changes on the Republican side have included an end to the boycotting of Northern Ireland’s political institutions and an end to “armed struggle.” This article looks at the developments that led to the creation of a power-sharing government in 2007 led by political opposites in Northern Ireland—the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. This is the first time that Northern Ireland will be run by a government in which all the main nationalist and unionist parties have agreed to run Northern Ireland together.