After the election is before the election. Nowhere is this motto for democratic politicians clearer than in Northern Ireland, where the regional parliament will be reassembled this Thursday. Ever since the Emerald Isle was divided into the republic in the south and the British north-east 101 years ago, politicians there have been faced with almost irreconcilable differences: the Protestant majority, who have long been accustomed to power, and the long-suppressed Catholic minority. Royalist, London-looking Unionists and Irish, Dublin-oriented Republicans. The industrial city of Belfast facing the open sea and the deeply conservative rural area.
