Same with NI. There's a (apocryphal?) story about UK civil servants coming to Belfast shortly after the Brexit vote and being briefed about NI. A map of our six counties was used. One UK civil servant asked the name of the blue coloured county in the middle, to be told it was in fact a lake.
The story is much older: in the version that I heard, the question was asked by the newly-arrived Humphrey Atkins, who received the embarrassed reply, "Er, that's Lough Neagh, Secretary of State".
I wouldn't be surprised if the same event has repeated itself over the decades. The portfolio is rarely given as a reward, and the SoS has never been a NI MP or peer. So there's no incentive to know anything. Karen Bradley had to be told that Unionists did not want a United Ireland, for example.
But going back to the impact of devolution: it had an appreciably negative impact on the calibre of the NIO and with no Assembly at the time, we didn't have much of a seat at the Brexit table. But this isn't an argument against devolution: it's a criticism of UKG myopia.
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