PBS
Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party agreed Tuesday to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days — with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein holding the post of first minister for the first time.
After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the U.K. government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions.”
The breakthrough after months of inconclusive negotiations came after the U.K. government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until Feb. 8 to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and the local government or face new elections.
“All the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return,” Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said. He said he would publish details of the U.K. government’s new proposals on Wednesday, after briefing Northern Ireland’s main political parties.
The DUP walked out in February 2022 in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to the government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists.
The walkout left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system. Amid mounting public frustration, teachers, nurses and other public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike this month calling on politicians to return to the government and give them a long-delayed pay raise.
The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for its public services, but only if the executive in Belfast gets back up and running.
Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, said the DUP leader had concluded the party’s boycott had reached “the end of the road.”
“Jeffrey Donaldson thought that the time was running out,” she said. “This was his opportunity, he had to jump.”
Northern Ireland’s political deadlock stems from the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the U.K. left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
