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N. Ireland returns to self-rule

Hasan Suroor

Paisley, McGuinness take office as First and Deputy First Ministers

— PHOTO: AP

PUTTING PAST BEHIND: (From left) Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Ireland's Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Britain's Northern Ireland Minister Peter Hain and Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley in the Stormont Parliament Building on Tuesday.

LONDON: Defying sceptics, leaders from the two extreme ends of Northern Ireland's sectarian divide on Tuesday set aside their long history of mutual hostility and joined a power-sharing administration that would, for the first time, see the hardline Democratic Unionist Party — the largest Protestant group — and Sinn Fein, representing the Catholics, work together.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern travelled to Belfast to witness the "historic'' moment when the DUP's Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness were sworn in as First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively.

There were scenes of unprecedented bonhomie between erstwhile political foes as Mr. Paisley and Mr. McGuinness sat down for tea with Mr. Blair, Mr. Ahern and Peter Hain Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

The moment, telecast "live'', was watched by millions around the world.

New dawn

With the formation of the Government, hailed as a historic new "dawn'', nearly five years of direct rule from London came to an end and Northern Ireland returned to democratic self-governance. Direct rule was imposed in October 2002 after the Assembly was dissolved amid allegations of spying against IRA.

Glowing with optimism, both sides vowed to push the stalled peace process forward. Mr. Paisley, once a bitter opponent of any deal with Sinn Fein, spoke with the zeal of a new convert describing the DUP-Sinn Fein accord as a prescription for "peace and prosperity''.

"I believe we're starting on a road which will bring us back to peace and to prosperity," he said.

Mr. McGuinness voiced confidence that his party and the DUP could deliver peace together.

"We've already taken joint decisions, but that was in the context of not having power," he said stressing the significance of power-sharing.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who was forced to make a series of concessions to make the deal with DUP possible, said: "There is a huge goodwill for the return of the power-sharing institutions and growing support for our proposals to build an Ireland of equals.''

Compromise

Mr. Blair rejected criticism that the agreement involved too many compromises and said sometime hard decisions were needed to achieve an important end. "There are people who still think that the compromises that were made along the way were unacceptable. But sometimes politics is about that in order to achieve a better end — and there are always two kinds of people in politics — those who stand aside and commentate and those who get their hands dirty and do," he told the BBC. Given the unpredictability of Northern Ireland politics, however, seasoned observers warned against too much optimism.

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