In search of legitimacy: Northern Ireland since 1972

Devolution in Northern Ireland differs markedly from that which operates in Scotland and Wales. But devolution was never seen as an end in itself but as part of a complex constitutional structure. If there was concern in London about devolving power to Scotland and Wales, at times it seemed that London could not wait to devolve the penury of responsibility for Northern Ireland back to Stormont. The delay of eighteen months between the Belfast Agreement being signed and formal transfer of power as well as its discontinuous operation led to Wilson and Wilford referring to devolution in Northern Ireland as ‘an event rather than a process’.