Impasse in Northern Ireland talks

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are to wrap up talks in Scotland with the Northern Ireland parties with a position paper outlining the steps towards power sharing.

After a long and frustrating day of negotiations in St Andrews on Thursday, Sinn Fein and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists (DUP) appeared to be incapable of agreeing who should make the first move in the choreography which would deliver power sharing.

The DUP wants Sinn Fein to join with the other parties which would form a new devolved government at Stormont in endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland before power sharing could be revived.

But Sinn Fein insisted before the second day of talks concluded on Thursday night that the DUP would have to commit itself to sharing power before republicans could take the steps they need towards signing up to policing.

Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun said on Thursday night: "We said on the way in that there were no insurmountable obstacles if the political will was there and we are still of that opinion.

"It is important that we realise that this is a huge issue, this is a huge difficulty and a huge challenge for the DUP. But if the DUP are ready and willing and able to work with the other parties to get the institutions up and running to resolve the other issues then we are more than willing to work with them on this."

While other parties accused the DUP of hindering progress at St Andrews, the party's North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds claimed Sinn Fein was becoming increasingly isolated on the policing issue.

"Everybody agrees, all the parties, the two governments, and the United States Government said it is a prerequisite for parties who aspire to be in Government to support the rule of law and policing," the former Stormont Social Development Minister said.

"We have made it clear for a long, long time now, unlike previous unionist leaders, that when the conditions are met and people are fully subscribed to exclusively democratic and peaceful means, support the rule of law and are signed up to all the basic tenets of democracy, then people have the right to aspire to be in government. That is something that most normal democrats would recognise as entirely valid. That is our position."

There was speculation as the parties prepared to head back to see the Governments' paper on the way forward that negotiations would continue after St Andrews. British and Irish Government sources insisted, however, that the parties would have to decide on whether to follow London and Dublin's outline of a deal.


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The filthy loathing Ian Paisley and the DUP will never allow this to happen because they're filled with so much hate and prejudice towards catholics that they can't see past it.

The best thing to happen in N.Ire is for that old hateful bastard Paisley to die. That would knock down one major obstacle to ever getting things sorted.

Sinn Fein can hardly be blamed for not being willing to endorse the Police Service of N.Ire since they've been akin to every bit of corruption and violence towards catholics for years. They've always been happy to turn a blind eye, and I'm sure nothing has changed.

[fritz]

Irish thank you for this post.You are right. There can be no peace or healing as long as there are people like Ian Paisley around.There is too much hatred and there will be no peace in my lifetime. But one day this island will become a nation once again.

[eefanincan]

I'll admit that I'm very ignorant of the struggles that happen in Ireland and only know what I'm told in the news. It does sound like this Paisley guy is a real jerk not someone you'd really want to have around.

You hear about all these struggles and such in Ireland, but honestly, I've meet a few people from there and they are the nicest people. I would love to visit the country one day.