Bertie Ahern is reported as saying in a speech this evening at Trinity College that the Irish and British governments are prepared to make changes to the operation of the 1998 Peace Agreement in order to restore the Northern Assembly at Stormont. Ahern would change agreement to restore assembly Ambrose Uprichard
An Irish Times report outlines suggested proposals of a phased process to be put forward by the Irish and British Governments in an attempt to secure agreement between the political parties here.According to the Times chief political correspondent, Mark Brennock, The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday the plan would see the Northern Assembly restored first in “shadow” form, with the power-sharing Executive to be functioning by spring. This would be part of a deal involving a permanent end to the …
GERRY Adams MP is off to America, no doubt to prepare Irish American opinion for whatever the IRA is about to do – probably further acts of decommissioning and finally going away, you know. He will perhaps have a more difficult job without the help of Joe Cahill this time. Meanwhile, Jim Allister MEP has set out the DUP’s bottom line.PA quotes Allister as saying: “The essentials for stable institutions are the following: “Executive office only for those demonstrably and …
IF you were Secretary of State Paul Murphy, what would you tell the UDA/UPRG or PUP/UVF representatives at today’s meeting? On Talkback earlier, Sunday World reporter Hugh Jordan suggested that the UDA was moving into ‘security’ and that they would be offered millions to become legal businesses. That should suit two of the convicted extortionists on the other side of Murphy’s table anyway… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
According to the Irish Times, the Irish and British Governments have decided not to allow the party election strategies of the DUP and SF to take precedence over political progress – Ahern says North deadline is November 25th: The Taoiseach has said talks between the parties in the North cannot continue beyond November 25th. If no deal is agreed by then, the Irish and British governments will present a joint proposal for implementing the Belfast Agreement, writes Denis Staunton in …
ACCORDING to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: “We can`t go on indefinitely but we`re not at the stage of calling it just yet. We made a lot of progress in a lot of weeks but not enough. Where we are at, it`s ongoing work, and it`s quite difficult, we`re trying to make progress and it`s true to say we are in some difficult areas.” How sadly predictable. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
THE DUP and Sinn Fein are in London, as efforts continue to restore the political institutions. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Gene McKenna highlights the DUP’s refusal to negotiate with Sinn Fein directly as one of the things holding the process back. However it seems unlikely that the party would have the room to manouvre on its election pledge. The shadow boxing continues. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: …
The further apart they seem. Liam Clark in the Sunday Times quotes Peter Robinson “the process isn’t blocked or stymied in any way” and “a Sinn Féin source” – “The Brits will not let it fall through this side of May. It is not in Tony Blair’s interests to have it lying in bits during the general election campaign.”.. you know, I think Tony Blair might have something else occupying his thoughts.According to the DUP deputy leader, “While there is …
According to anonymous (again) briefings given to The Irish Examiner’s Harry McGee, there’s quite a carrot being dangled in front of the DUP. Or, rather, it’s being dangled in front of the public for the DUP to reach for… or not.The article contains what, at first glance, may appear to be a final “ground-breaking movement” (copyright G Adams) “The IRA will formally declare it is being disbanded before, or during, March 2005 if the staged process that will flow from …
Hearts and Minds. Mark Durkan wants things up front and clear from the DUP on whether it really wants power sharing, and cites Castlereagh, Lisburn, Ballymena and Coleraine as evidene of his rival evidential reluctance to share power in practice. Nigell Dodds, responds with Newry and Mourne, Down, Armagh as situations where the DUP is permanently out of the loop. Interesting if necessarily reductive discussion in advance of a comprehensive settlement. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has …
A YEAR after the ‘choreographed sequence’ spectacularly fell apart, Brian Rowan sounds out the chances of movement from the IRA. Rowan recounts a question Gerry Adams asked in the Irish Voice recently: “If the governments are satisfied with what they have proclaimed the IRA is going to do, then who are they waiting on?” Adams then answers his question that it is “obviously the DUP”. Well, the DUP are also waiting on the Government’s paper as much as anyone (after …
The Irish Times’ editorial today deserves a closer look. Ostensibly on the subject of interpreting Dermot Ahern’s remarks as being about “a fair playing field for democracy”, the editorial makes a comment that should be highlighted, “There are conflicting views in Government about the likelihood of success. It depends, ultimately, on the political strategy of Sinn Féin and the DUP for the elections in Britain and Northern Ireland next year”.This echoes my own comment previously that “parties are clearly putting …
BOTH the SDLP and Sinn Fein are questioning the DUP’s commitment to power sharing, given their previous experience of the DUP in district councils. The DUP response points out that it hasn’t held the top post in Belfast during this term – although that hardly justifies the decades of exclusion where the DUP blocked nationalists from holding senior positions. The DUP has much convincing to do on this one. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
In the Belfast Telegraph, Mark Durkan dampens hopes of an outbreak of pragmatic, rather than optimistic, politics here by calling the speculation that “the SDLP has decided on an opposition role in a restored Assembly” ‘misplaced’. The key words here may be “has decided” – that decision having not yet been taken. But the missing acknowledgement would seem to be that other parties are clearly putting party-political objectives to the fore. Pete Baker
THE British Irish Inter-Parlimentary Body meets in Wales today, where political developments in NI will be discussed. Over the weekend, Bertie Ahern said that while fundamentals must remain, he could countenance some changes to the operation of the Agreement. Surely the two governments must publish their ‘take it or leave it’ paper this week? Expect words like ‘limbo’ and ‘drift’ in various newspaper columns if the politicians don’t get a chance to reject something by Friday, although an optimistic Dermot …
According to the Sunday Independent, Peter Robinson has stated that in principle he has no objections to a target date on the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Stormont. However, he has insisted that it cannot happen until both nationalists and unionists are fully confident local politicians are up to the job. For Sinn Fein’s part, Pat Doherty has said that his party is not against making ministers more accountable. Not quite the same hymn sheet, but… Mick …
Brian Lennon reflects on the stretching of deadlines, which in marked contrast to George Mitchell’s necessarily forced deadline of Good Friday 1998, seems to have bought time for the two main protagonists to get their own separate houses ready to do a deal with the other. Brian is Senior Programme Advisor with Community Dialogue, adn the article is an abstract from their latest report Peace Comes Dropping Slow. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on …
The UUP’s latest proposal to break the deadlock is to make the advisory Ministerial Code in the Belfast Agreement be given statutory authority. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
In the second edition of Ireland’s new political weekly The Village Arlene Foster rebutts the claim by made most recently by several nationalist commentators that the DUP’s pitch for accountablity is in fact a back door route to majority rule.She cites the party’s keynote Devolution Now (PDF) document, in which “…the DUP set out its support for weighted majorities and cross community support”. Then she asks: “No matter how false and mischievous the claims, how come this bigotry towards the …
