Assembly elections expected to be called by UK government if members fail to install a speaker
Northern Ireland assembly members will return to Stormont in a last-gasp bid on Thursday to restore the Northern Ireland executive before fresh assembly elections are called.
It comes after the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, held last-ditch talks with the region’s party leaders to try to restore devolved government and avert an assembly election.
Continue reading...NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris indicates second poll of the year in mid-December unless power sharing quickly restored
Northern Ireland will face assembly elections before Christmas unless power-sharing is restored in the next 10 days, the government has confirmed.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, hinted at an 8 or 15 December polling day during evidence at a House of Commons select committee. It would be the second election for Northern Ireland this year.
Continue reading...Delay to protocol resolution likely to pause Stormont elections that were expected this year
The UK has given a six-month deadline for the Northern Ireland protocol row to be resolved, indicating Liz Truss is far more relaxed about the absence of a devolved government in Stormont than previously indicated.
An April 2023 date for the resolution of the Brexit row emerged after a meeting between the prime minister and the US president, Joe Biden, and would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement.
Continue reading...Refusal to nominate speaker will derail legislature and raise stakes in London’s dispute with Brussels
The Democratic Unionist party has vowed to paralyse the Stormont assembly and block the formation of an executive in a dramatic escalation of its campaign against the Northern Ireland protocol.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said his party would refuse to nominate a speaker when the assembly meets for its inaugural session on Friday afternoon, a move that will derail the legislature and raise the stakes in a dispute over the protocol between London and Brussels.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin has called for debate on Irish unification, but many obstacles exist to a referendum on the issue
Sinn Féin hailed its first victory in a Northern Ireland assembly election as a defining moment for the British-controlled region and called for a debate on a united Ireland.
The party’s president, Mary Lou McDonald, had a simple message for unionists on Saturday, telling them: “Don’t be scared, the future is bright for us all.”
Continue reading...Leader Mary Lou McDonald raises issue of unification as nationalists become biggest party in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has slipped into political crisis after Sinn Féin’s triumph in the assembly election triggered calls for a referendum on a united Ireland and the Democratic Unionist party vowed to block the formation of a new power-sharing executive at Stormont.
Jubilant Sinn Féin supporters celebrated across the region on Saturday when final vote counts confirmed a historic victory that turned the former IRA mouthpiece into the biggest party, with the right to nominate the first minister.
Continue reading...With Sinn Féin set to become the biggest party at Stormont for the first time, O’Neill says the results mark a ‘new era’ for ‘our politics and for our people’
The elections to the Northern Ireland assembly are quite different to most UK elections. Members of the assembly are elected to 18 multi-member constituencies by single transferable vote.
Each constituency has five representatives, totalling 90 overall. Voters assign preferences to candidates on a ballot slip. If a candidate gets enough first-preference votes, they win a seat, and if not, second and then third preferences – and so on – are counted until all seats are filled.
Because of this, multiple counts are needed in each constituency, which means results can take a while to compile. It is possible for the first count not to result in the award of a seat. Another consequence is that it is not clear whether a party has increased or decreased its total seats in a constituency or overall, until all seats have been awarded.
By the terms of the Good Friday agreement the government of Northern Ireland is shared between the two main communities: nationalists, who favour closer ties with the Republic of Ireland, and unionists, for whom Northern Ireland’s position in the UK is more important. The largest party in the assembly appoints the first minister, and the largest party from the other community appoints the deputy first minister.
Some parties with cross-community support or whose supporters do not identify strongly with either community think this arrangement perpetuates divisions, but in practice since 1998 the largest party has always been from the unionist community and the second-largest from the nationalist.
Continue reading...DUP will refuse to join new administration until UK government addresses post-Brexit trade border deal
Sinn Féin was celebrating a historic victory in the Stormont assembly election on Saturday despite warnings from the Democratic Unionist party that it would block the formation of a new power-sharing executive until the Northern Ireland protocol was changed.
As counting resumed ahead of the allocation of final seats, it was clear that Sinn Féin, with 29% first preference votes, had overtaken the DUP, which won 21.3%. It meant the all-Ireland republican party would be entitled to nominate its deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, as the Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister.
Continue reading...After leading party to victory in Stormont, former Dungannon mayor is set to make history
In May 1993, as the IRA edged towards the end of its armed campaign, Michelle O’Neill was beginning her own struggle. She was a 16-year-old working-class schoolgirl from Clonoe, a small village in County Tyrone, with a newborn baby.
The road ahead looked rocky. She had not finished school and perhaps never would, because that was the fate of many unmarried teenage mothers in Northern Ireland. Some teachers at her Catholic grammar school were not supportive.
Continue reading...Paul Givan’s move triggers parallel departure of deputy first minister and could bring forward elections
The first minister of Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist party’s Paul Givan, has resigned, plunging the devolved government at Stormont into turmoil two years after power-sharing with Sinn Féin was restored.
His resignation, over Brexit checks in the Irish Sea, will also bring the parallel departure of the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, under the power-sharing arrangements.
Continue reading...The party is riding high in polls and could complete a seismic shift in Irish politics in three years’ time
Just 30 years ago the IRA was bombing Downing Street, launching three mortar bombs at No 10 while John Major presided over a cabinet meeting.
In 2021, Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the IRA for much of the Troubles, has moved into pole position to lead the Irish government in what could be the biggest shake-up of the state’s politics since its foundation 100 years ago.
Continue reading...The foreign secretary, now chief negotiator with the EU, wants ‘a comprehensive solution’
The UK’s newly appointed chief post-Brexit negotiator, Liz Truss, said she would speak to her EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, on Tuesday amid renewed calls to rip up the controversial Northern Ireland protocol.
The cabinet minister, who is also the foreign secretary, said she wanted to negotiate “a comprehensive solution” to the agreement, which requires post-Brexit checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
Continue reading...Missiles and fireworks thrown at demonstration in loyalist area with trouble also on nationalist side of peace wall
Two children have been arrested following disorder in Belfast after a rally against the Brexit protocol. Police came under attack with missiles and fireworks close to a peace line on Wednesday evening.
The disorder came on Lanark Way in the loyalist Shankill Road area; there was also disorder on the nationalist Springfield Road side of the peace wall. Two males, aged 12 and 15 years, were arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour and released on bail as police inquiries continued.
Continue reading...European human rights commissioner warns Northern Ireland secretary that amnesty is ‘deeply problematic’
Boris Johnson’s plan to impose a statute of limitations to end all prosecutions related to the Troubles before 1998 could be in breach of international law, a European human rights commissioner has told the government.
Dunja Mijatović of the Council of Europe has written to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, saying the UK’s proposals appear indistinguishable from an unconditional amnesty for those not yet convicted.
Continue reading...Two-thirds of people say a border poll should be held at some point in the wake of Brexit
Two-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland believe there should be a vote over its place in the UK, but only 37% want it to take place within the next five years, according to a new poll for the Observer.
Some 31% of voters said there should be a vote at some point about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK but after 2026, the LucidTalk poll found. A further 29% said there should never be such a vote. There is currently a seven-point lead for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK should any vote take place.
Continue reading...Michelle O’Neill concerned about site of unionist bonfire, as tensions rise over post-Brexit trading rules
Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister has urged people to celebrate peacefully before the start of the loyalist parade season, as tensions increase over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill – who is deputy to the new first minister, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), in the power-sharing administration – called particularly for calm over a bonfire set up in a contentious site in north Belfast.
Continue reading...Westminster-backed deal to legislate for Irish language protections saves Northern Ireland executive from collapse
Sinn Féin will nominate Michelle O’Neill as deputy first minister at Stormont after the party president, Mary Lou McDonald, said she received a commitment from the UK government to legislate for Irish language protections at Westminster.
McDonald earlier said she was going to meet the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, as her party and the DUP attempted to avert a fresh political crisis at Stormont.
Continue reading...Standoff between DUP and Sinn Féin blocking ratification of Arlene Foster’s designated successor
A dispute between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) over an Irish-language act is threatening to derail the Northern Ireland assembly and executive.
Arlene Foster formally resigned as first minister at 1pm on Monday but a standoff between the two biggest parties at Stormont is blocking her designated successor, Paul Givan, 39, from taking the post.
Continue reading...Mary Lou McDonald says she is sorry the late Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle was killed by IRA bomb in 1979
The Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, has apologised for the IRA’s 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle.
Speaking after the funeral of Prince Philip, she told Times Radio she was sorry that Mountbatten, 79, had been killed when the fishing boat he was on was blown up by an IRA bomb.
Continue reading...Limited supply of chocolate eggs launched by former Sinn Féin president only available in Belfast
Gerry Adams has launched his latest bid for Irish unity, this time in the form of a chocolate egg.
In a video shared on Twitter, the former Sinn Féin president unveiled a “very, very, very special package that we have put together at considerable expense” – a chocolate egg wrapped in a sheet of paper that says #Time4Unity.
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