The political party system of Northern Ireland after the Belfast agreement
This article discusses the changes in party-political system of Northern Ireland after a long armed conflict of the Catholic and Protestant communities. For a long time the society of Northern Ireland was divided into warring confessional communities, and regional party structure corresponded to a divided society. At the present stage, after the peace agreement, the political structure began to change, adapting to the conditions of civil society. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the complexity of the process and inconsistency of the results. On the one hand, the political forces finally redirected their activities to the parliamentary direction. On the other hand, the polarization of political forces is retained and even intensified. Recent developments, in particular the results of Brexit, clearly show a split of opinion on the most important nationwide issues, which in the future could affect of the fate of Northern Ireland and on the whole of the United Kingdom.