The Pros And Cons Of The Northern Ireland Assembly

The speech, which was referred to as “Justice for Ireland” is a call for the longstanding anti-Catholic parliament to open itself to include properly elected Irish, who were predominantly Catholic. The impassioned speech may have been more well received if Mr. O’Connell had not been addressing the House of Commons with ad hominem attacks and had made use of other

Dhsspsni.gov.uk. 2014. Northern Ireland - Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. [online] Available at: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/ [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014].

The Impact of Bloody Sunday on Northern Ireland Bloody Sunday has made a very big impact on Irelandand events occurring there since 1972. According to Lord Widgery, the soldiers acted in self-defence, therefore it was not their fault and could not be blamed. Republicans were very annoyed by this verdict, so in 1998 a new inquiry was started called "The Saville Inquiry".

One reform introudced after 1997 was devolution. The centrepiece of Labour’s programme of constitutional reform was undoubtedly this. Referendums had been held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Democracy, by Abraham Lincoln’s definition, is ‘’government of the people, by the people, for the people’’ and referendums allow this to happen. They allow the people to make direct decisions on issues rather than allowing representatives to do so. This means that everyone gets a say and therefore encouraging and promoting political participation. As Dr. Adam Quinn, a senior professor of international politics at Birmingham University says, referendums “intrinsic worth is an exercise in direct democracy. Referendum campaigns engage national publics, often passive and sometimes actively excluded, in the business of political debate and decision-making. Those who see virtue in the idea of a more direct link between the popular will and the levers of power, therefore, admire them as an instrument of empowerment for the too-often neglected people”. Dr. Quinn describes how, using referendums, the majority of the public can take political matters into their own hands. This can be seen when looking at the 1997 election turnout of 76% compared to the turnout in the 1998 referendum ‘The Good Friday Agreement’ in Northern Ireland that had an 81% turnout, considerably higher than the election turnout. This would suggest that referendums do actively strengthen democracy because it allows the decision to be made by the very same people who will be affected by the

The centrepiece of Labour 's programme of constitutional reform was undoubtedly devolution. This was achieved with remarkably few problems. There now seems no likelihood that the new arrangements could be reversed, even by a Conservative administration. The election on 6 May 1999 of a Parliament in Scotland, with extensive powers of primary legislation as well as tax-raising, and an Assembly in Wales, with powers of secondary legislation only, will have a profound impact on governance within the UK. In

Devolution has not brought power closer to the people in that regional councils only have limited power and are ‘tokenistic’. The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are merely symbols of national identity, for example. Also, councils have fixed

Within the United Kingdom, a recurring issue has been raised regarding the political position of Scotland and how the Scottish Parliament could better govern the country. To establish whether the quality of life could be improved for the Scottish people, key events, devolution, and the Scottish Parliament must be evaluated and analysed. The argument for greater power in decision making and the ability to implement change for the citizens of Scotland, has been central to Scottish politics for some time.

One advantage of using referendums in the UK is that they enable the public that are over 18 to approve or disprove important constitutional changes. An example of a one being used for this purpose is the 1998 referendum which was used to determine whether Blair and the Labour Party should devolve power to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Devolution in Scotland and Wales was introduced in 1998 as the majority of the public voted ‘yes’ in

The conflict in Northern Ireland has persisted because of religious affiliations, their identities and the struggle for overall power. The morals and identities of the people and organizations of Northern Ireland

Devolution is a continuous process towards self-governance and self-sustainability in northern communities. Experimentation with devolution, have helped prepare northerners to assume political and administrative responsibilities, and develop necessary skill to adapt to and survive in a fast changing and complex

The council of ministers- This is the European Union’s main decision making body, it is composed of ministers from the National governments of each of the member states, and meets in Brussels or Luxembourg to agree legislation and policy.

The campaign had ultimately led to the creation of the Act of Ireland of 1920. This created a twenty-six county Irish Free State and six counties in Northern Ireland (Filardo-Llamas, 2013; White, 1989). This act also allowed Northern Ireland to choose whether or not to stay with Britain or become part of the Free State. Northern Ireland ultimately decided to stay with the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland created its own parliament in Stormont in Belfast (Bosi, 2012; Filardo-Llamas, 2013). The Free State was mostly inhabited by Catholics while Northern Ireland was populated mostly by Protestants (White, 1989). But the road to have a Free State did come at a price. Over 7,500 people lost their lives or were wounded between 1917 and 1923. Many lost their homes, family and friends (Hart,

The troubles emerged as the result of several years of the escalating incidents between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. The troubles have been protracted and costly in every sense of the world. From the first civil rights marches in 1968 till the signing of The Good Friday Agreement in 1998, 3,500 people died and over 35,000 were injured in Northern Ireland as the direct result of the aggressive violence , rebellion, bombings, murders, and terror tactics. The Catholic and Protestant troubles and conflicts had a significantly impact on Ireland. This serious issue had impacted the lives of individuals and families that took place or witness the gruesome events that the troubles had causes, the political change and reform of

“Parliamentary sovereignty is no longer, if it ever was, absolute” (Lord Hope). Discuss with reference to at least three challenges to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Parliamentary sovereignty is the concept that Parliament has the power to repeal, amend or create any law it wishes and therefore no body in the UK can challenge its legal validity. There are many people who would argue that this is a key principle to the UK Constitution, on the other hand, there are those who strongly believe that this idea is one of the past, and that the idea of the UK Parliament being sovereign is false. One of these people is Lord Hope, who said “Parliamentary sovereignty is no longer, if it ever was, absolute”. During the last 50 years there have been a variety of developments that have proved to be a challenge for the legitimacy of parliamentary sovereignty, and the ones which will be examined in this essay are: the devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament; The United Kingdom’s entry into the European Union in 1973; and finally the power of judicial review. Starting with the devolution of powers, these challenges will all be evaluated when discussing whether or not the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty applies to the United Kingdom. Westminster’s sovereignty has been gradually diminishing over time as varying amounts of power have been devolved to Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. In this essay, the devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament will be