The Good Friday Agreement is the fecking problem! It is written so as to encourage sectarian divide, i.e. each side votes in their representatives and they try to sort things out.
Northern Ireland's other problems need sorting before this ever gets a chance of being sorted out. The people of Northern Ireland are being forced to vote for people that best represent their group, not to vote for who is best for the country. For a start all the parties are right of centre, there is no real socialist choice. It wouldn't matter if there was though.
In NI the top 25% of the population has 56% of the wealth, while the bottom 25% has 6% (figures I heard quoted today. They could be a little out, but they are basically in the right area). With a divide like that you're always going to have problems and you're always going to have polarisation. Usually the polarisation is between left and right, but because of the Good Friday Agreement it is forced into being between Republican and Loyalist.
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