You are in > manchester.com  > News > Northern Ireland 'not a normal society'

Politics

Northern Ireland 'not a normal society'

11/06/2008

Ten years after the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland is still not a 'normal' society, a report has claimed.

The report published by Queen's University Belfast today is based on the annual Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey and claims there is a "lack of consensus on issues that are central to the functioning of a peaceful democracy".

Robin Wilson, co-leader of a devolution research project in Northern Ireland, claims the survey shows key issues such as the right to protest, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and opposition to political violence, are all currently missing in Northern Ireland.

"This is worrying and it indicates that we are not yet a 'normal' society," Mr Wilson said.

"While the survey results show some positive trends in Northern Ireland's journey to becoming 'normal', the lack of agreement on these important issues indicates that we still have some way to go."

Today's survey shows that one third of respondents had some sympathy for the reason behind loyalist or republican violence.

Mr Wilson also raises concern that the same percentage of respondents thought protest marches should not be permitted and over a half thought the authorities should have the right to detain people for as long as they wanted without placing them on trial.

"[The] continuing dominance of nationalistic politics – which is focused on the maintenance or the removal of the border – has seen the 'bread and butter' issues that the electorate are concerned about, such as the future of academic selection, deadlocked on communal lines, and the devolution of policing and justice indefinitely postponed," Mr Wilson concluded.