History
Following a referendum on the Belfast Agreement on 23 May 1998 and subsequent the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Assembly was established in 1998 with a view to assuming devolved powers from the Westminster Parliament. On 1 July 1998, David Trimble (UUP) and Seamus Mallon (SDLP) were nominated and elected First Minister and Deputy First Minister designates respectively. Eventually, on 2 December 1999, power was devolved and Trimble and Mallon formally took office as joint heads of the Northern Ireland Executive.
On 6 November 2001, Mark Durkan (SDLP) became Deputy First Minister after Seamus Mallon's retirement. The Executive and the two positions were suspended between 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007 following a breakdown in trust between the parties.
On 8 May 2007, Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) were nominated and appointed First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively in line with the announcement by their two parties on 26 March 2007.
Paisley announced his intention to resign on 4 March 2008. His deputy as DUP leader, Peter Robinson was ratified as Democratic Unionist Party leader designate on 17 April 2008 and took office in that role on 31 May 2008. As leader-designate of the largest designated unionist party in the Northern Ireland Assembly he was also in effect the First Minister designate and became First Minister on 5 June 2008.
Separately, between 12 February 2000 and 30 May 2000, and 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007, however, devolution was suspended, and along with it the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister became the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. There were also two 24-hour periods of suspension on 11 August 2001 and 22 September 2001. to allow timetables for negotiation to restart.
Read more about this topic: First Minister And Deputy First Minister
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“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)