Robin Wilson founded the Belfast-based think-tank Democratic Dialogue. He now works as an independent researcher

Recent articles

A spate of killings by extreme paramilitary groups highlight the social pressures and political tensions that surround Northern Ireland's post-1998 settlement, says Robin Wilson.

Robin Wilson (Belfast, Policy Analyst): The suggestion that the various secretaries of state for the nations and regions should be wrapped up into one department has made sense ever since devolution was established in the initial years of ‘New’ Labour. But devolution to Scotland, Wales and (always shakily) Northern Ireland was, paradoxically, characterised by the patrician English trope of amateurish muddling through. And so the repeated case made by the Constitution Unit for a formal system of intergovernmental relations, as in Canada or Australia—and of which the unified department would have been one element, along with Lords reform to make the second chamber a voice for the nations and regions—fell on deaf Whitehall ears. Other departments in effect became ‘English’ departments, even when their actions had implications for devolved counterparts.

A decision to move belatedly towards having a single minister for the devolved jurisdictions at the cabinet table—a further step from the rather awkward job-sharing of recent years—would certainly be welcome, if media speculation is borne out. But a fly in the ointment remains Northern Ireland—and if such a move were premised on a belief that imminent devolution of policing and justice powers would slot in the last piece of the jigsaw of a settlement for the troubled region, this could turn out to be a mistaken assumption.

The controversy surrounding the murder of Denis Donaldson, a former senior Sinn Féin official who spied for Britain, underlines the need for political transparency and responsibility in Northern Ireland, says Robin Wilson of Democratic Dialogue.

Stephen Howe’s dissection of Ulster Loyalist culture suggests that a link between new institutions and changed ways of thinking is the route to a settled society, says Robin Wilson of Democratic Dialogue.

Five fearless, grieving sisters may break the back of Europe’s most successful terrorist movement, writes Robin Wilson in Northern Ireland