Word: northerners
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...Tuesday, March 9, the Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to the local government at Stormont, as the neoclassical building where the province's parliament meets is known. If the measure is passed, as is expected, a new post of Justice Minister will be created at the Assembly in April, carrying responsibility for the province's police, prisons and courts, hitherto controlled by London's Northern Ireland office. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast...
...move marks an important milestone in the peace process. Although many aspects of daily life in Northern Ireland - sports, housing, education - are divided along Catholic-Protestant lines, few issues are as contentious as policing. For decades, the Catholic minority has viewed the predominantly Protestant police force with deep mistrust. Many Catholic neighborhoods were no-go areas for security forces; republican politicians, such as those in Sinn Fein (now the largest Catholic-backed party in the province), would tell supporters not to assist the police...
...Since 2001, though, Sinn Fein has officially backed the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland; party members now occupy seats on the watchdog body that oversees the force. In return for this support, republicans felt, there was an implied agreement that Northern Ireland's government would take control of policing and justice matters. After years of Protestant outcry, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) recently backed the move. Sinn Fein has agreed to support a new group overseeing contentious parades by the Protestant Orange Order. The accord has steadied the ship at Stormont, but the power-sharing government, particularly the beleaguered...
...most troublesome opposition for the DUP comes in the form of the anti-power-sharing Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). The party has no seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly but has growing support among conservative, Evangelical Protestants, in part because a scandal involving Robinson's wife Iris (who obtained $80,000 from property developers to help her 19-year-old lover establish a café business) has rocked the bigger party's Evangelical base. Many expect the TUV to do well in the upcoming British general election. "The DUP is very worried," says Rick Wilford, a professor of politics...
...three-way split of the Protestant vote among the DUP, the TUV and the moderate Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) could throw power sharing into complete disarray and allow Sinn Fein to emerge as Northern Ireland's largest party. That would mean a Sinn Fein politician, most likely Martin McGuinness, would assume the role of First Minister. The prospect of serving as McGuinness's deputy would be anathema to most Protestant politicians, and the government could well fall apart. (See pictures of the British army leaving Northern Ireland...