Northern Ireland

I flew over to Belfast recently for a meeting of the UK Volunteering Forum and met with the CEOs of Volunteering England, Volunteer Development Agency (NI), Volunteer Development Scotland and numerous civil servants from those national governments and assemblies. It was very constructive and enjoyable. At that time there was political deadlock over policing and justice in Northern Ireland and the whole devolution programme seemed very precarious. But now the deadlock is broken and devolution in NI has a future – let’s hope it is a long one.