Northern Ireland's Devolved Institutions: A triumph of hope over experience?

Drawing on findings from the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, this article reports that the level of popular understanding of the NI devolution 'settlement' was low, but that this was no bar to its initial support, nor to the general expectation that the Assembly would make a (positive) difference to the lives of its citizens. The article focuses upon the attitudes of Catholics and Protestants to the nascent Assembly and, in particular, reveals differences between them in terms of their anticipation of the potential benefits of devolution and their beliefs about the durability of the institutions created by the Belfast Agreement. The fieldwork coincided with the first phase of devolution and thereby conveys a clear and contemporary picture of public opinion when those institutions began to function. It underlines the delicacy of Protestant opinion towards the Agreement, a fact that has become increasingly apparent over the ensuing period.