Ulstermen in record numbers flocked to the polls last Wednesday for Northern Ireland's first provincial election in four years. Their impressive turnoutabout 70% of the eligible voterscheered moderates in the strife-torn province. That so many people participated in the balloting for local district councilmen suggested that Ulster might be taking a first step toward rational discourse rather than sectarian violence.
Not so. When the results trickled in at week's end, it was clear that the voters had returned to the traditional patterns of Orange and Green politics.
The Protestant-dominated Unionist Party, led by former Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, swept the Protestant...
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