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Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes – 24.5% – making it the most popular party and a strong contender to be included in the next government. Leo Varadkar’s ruling Fine Gael party slid to 20.8%, coming third, and Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, also slipped, falling to 22.1% in second place. The rest of the vote was split between the Greens, on 7.1%, and small leftwing parties and independent candidates.
Party disrupts Ireland’s centrist tradition by taking almost a quarter of votes
Sinn Féin will try to form a government in Ireland after apparently winning more votes than any other party in Saturday’s general election – a historic result that upended the political system.
The party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, told cheering supporters on Sunday that a “revolution” had occurred and she would try to form a ruling coalition with other parties. “This is no longer a two-party system,” she said.
Issues such as high rents and homelessness fuelled party’s 22.3% exit poll result
Sinn Féin’s breakthrough in Ireland’s general election was decades in the making, but not even Sinn Féin saw it coming.
Once a revolutionary party associated with guns and balaclavas, a toxic brand, it slowly edged from the fringe into the mainstream, inch by inch, and then on Saturday made a giant leap.
Republican party is hoping poll surge will translate into a parliamentary breakthrough
Voters are going to the polls in Ireland after a tumultuous general election campaign during which Sinn Féin has surged into contention as a potential party of government.
The republican party hopes a rise in popularity among young and urban voters will translate into enough parliamentary gains to make it a kingmaker or participant in Ireland’s next coalition government.
Party leader says voters want change as poll puts it in top position for general election
Sinn Féin has stepped up its criticism of Ireland’s political establishment as polls show the party poised for a historic breakthrough in Saturday’s general election.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader, said on Tuesday that Irish people wanted a change from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, centrist rivals that have dominated Irish politics for a century.
Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill stress need for unity as they take up senior roles
The Northern Ireland assembly has reopened for business three years almost to the day after it and the power-sharing executive in the region collapsed.
At an unprecedented Saturday sitting of the regional parliament, assembly members elected Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey as the chamber’s speaker, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, Arlene Foster, as first minister and Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, as deputy first minister.
Many stumbling blocks lie in path of government, including referendum on Irish unity
The agreement hinged on the issues of language and culture. Sinn Féin insists on an Irish language act that would put Irish on an equal par with English in Northern Ireland, not unlike the situation with Welsh in Wales. Unionists oppose this but the two governments appear to have hit upon a compromise whereby the rights of Irish speakers are balanced with rights for the Ulster Scots/loyalist tradition.
Stormont to elect new speaker and nominate ministers as part of power-sharing deal
Northern Ireland’s assembly will reopen on Saturday after a three-year suspension following a historic deal that has resurrected power-sharing government in the region. The Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, said history had been made at the climax of the post-Christmas political negotiations at Stormont.
The parliament will elect a speaker and nominate ministers to a devolved administration around Saturday lunchtime.
Political figures say they want to get back around the table in the wake of the election
Political leaders in Northern Ireland have signalled that they want to revive the Stormont assembly and executive in the wake of the general election and talks to break the deadlock of nearly three years look likely to begin on Monday.
Northern Ireland secretary of state Julian Smith said he spoke with the heads of all the unionist and nationalist parties, including Sinn Féin and the DUP, on Sunday morning and later tweeted: “Good calls with all five party leaders this morning. Look forward to starting positive process tomorrow to get Stormont back up and running.”
Belfast prosecutors considering action against ‘Stakeknife’ and his British army handlers
A police inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in the history of British intelligence has recommended that more than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members be considered for prosecution, the Guardian has learned.
Operation Kenova, the multimillion-pound investigation into “Stakeknife” – the army agent at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles – has now sent files identifying military commanders and at least one IRA veteran with a so-called “get-out-of-jail” card to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast.
Moves follows speculation Northern Irish party leader could stand in snap election
Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, has ruled out standing as an MP if a general election is called.
She is currently an MLA – member of the legislative assembly – at Stormont but the seat of Northern Ireland’s devolved government has been suspended since 2017 after the collapse of a power-sharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
PM set out to prove his pledge to the ‘awesome foursome’ but not everything went to plan
Boris Johnson pledged his commitment to the “awesome foursome” of the UK when he was elected Conservative leader, and has since embarked on a whistlestop tour taking in the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But how successful were the trips? Visits that involved keeping the prime minister away from booing protesters and, in some cases, journalists? Have they allayed fears that Johnson’s hardline Brexit strategy and the continuation of the union could be mutually exclusive?
Results reveal slight loosening of traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold
Centrist parties have thrived and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has consolidated its support, results of Northern Ireland’s local elections show.
With all first preference votes now counted, the Alliance and Green parties, as well as other small parties and independents, made gains, revealing a slight loosening of the traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold. The DUP won 24.1% of first preferences, a modest increase from the 2014 local election, and Sinn Fein won 23.3%, a slight drop, confirming both parties still dominate the political landscape.
The British and Irish governments have reached an agreement to establish a new round of talks involving all the main political parties in Northern Ireland, starting on 7 May.
Theresa May and the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, credited the public response to the killing of Lyra McKee with the announcement on Friday of a fresh attempt to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Owen Jones speaks to Mary Lou McDonald about Brexit, the implications for the peace process and the possibility of a united Ireland, and tries to answer once and for all why her party will never take its seats in the British parliament
Turning back to Marin Selmayr for a moment, Mina Andreeva, the European commission’s deputy chief spokeswoman has posted a tweet that seems intended to mollify Brexiters upset by the tone of his intervention earlier. She was responding to Fraser Nelson, editor of the pro-Brexit Spectator.
Lord Trimble, the former Ulster Unionist party leader who won a Nobel peace prize for his role in the Good Friday agreement, has announced that he and others “are planning to take the government to court over the protocol on Northern Ireland - which includes the so-called “backstop” - as it breaches the terms of the Good Friday agreement.”
The announcement came in a three sentence press statement from Global Britain, a pro-Brexit thinktank. It said:
The Nobel peace prize winner and architect of the Good Friday agreement plans to initiate judicial review proceedings to ensure that the protocol is removed from the withdrawal agreement.
Lord Trimble says that alternative arrangements - as outlined in A Better Deal And A Better Future - should be put in place instead.
The PSNI have this afternoon attacked an Easter commemoration in Lurgan, County Armagh, injuring a woman and dramatically raising tensions ahead of a weekend of commemorative events. It is understood to be the first time in years that a commemorative event has been attacked by the Crown Forces.
Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatened the confidence and supply deal keeping the Fine Gael-led administration in power Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister has said that the country does not need an election in the midst of crucial Brexit negotiations. Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister has said that the country does not need an election in the midst of crucial Brexit negotiations.
Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatens the confidence and supply deal keeping the Fine Gael-led administration in power. Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatens the confidence and supply deal keeping the Fine Gael-led administration in power.