SAOIRSE32

Reuters

By Paul Hoskins
Mon Jan 8, 2007 11:48 AM GMT

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Sinn Fein has shown remarkable leadership Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday as he sought to defuse a row over policing and reassure the party its rivals are serious about sharing power in Northern Ireland.

“Sinn Fein has demonstrated one of the most remarkable examples of leadership I have come across in modern politics,” he wrote in the Irish Times.

Blair, who last week cut short his holiday to intervene in the latest stand-off between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said both should seize a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a lasting peace”.

London and Dublin have set a March 26 deadline for the restoration of a Belfast-based, power-sharing assembly but the DUP is unwilling to sign up to the timetable until it is convinced Sinn Fein, whose largely Catholic following wants a united Ireland, is backing the police and the rule of law.

Sinn Fein has long mistrusted a legal system it views as biased in favour of Protestant unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

It has called a party conference to debate policing this month, but the DUP’s failure to respond positively to the move means it is now in jeopardy.

Senior Sinn Fein members are due to meet on Tuesday to decide whether the conference should go ahead and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said at the weekend the coming days would be key to determining if a deal can be clinched by March.

Northern Ireland has been largely peaceful since a 1998 deal to end 30 years of conflict in which 3,600 people were killed, but London resumed direct rule of the province in 2002 after the collapse of the Belfast Assembly it now hopes to reinstate.

Blair, who wants to seal a positive legacy for Northern Ireland before he leaves office this year, said Sinn Fein backing for the police would be of profound significance.

“They need to know clearly that if they do make this move … then unionism will not be found wanting,” he wrote, adding he believed the DUP was ready to govern with Sinn Fein from March provided the commitment on policing was forthcoming.

The DUP has given no such public undertaking, however, and one of the party’s MPs, Nigel Dodds, said on Sunday unionists needed to be confident of Sinn Fein support for law and order before moving.

“No one can look into a crystal ball and foresee when that’s going to be,” he added.

BN.ie

08/01/2007 - 08:23:22

Fine Gael has launched an attack on the Taoiseach over his admission that he would accept support from Sinn Féin after the next election.

Speaking over the weekend, Bertie Ahern said Fianna Fáil would not join a coalition government with the republican party after the next election.

However, he said he would accept Sinn Féin support if it was needed to prop up a minority Fianna Fáil government.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny this morning accused Mr Ahern of adopting a dramatic change in policy, claiming a vote for Fianna Fáil was now a vote for Sinn Féin.

Mr Kenny is also demanding to know if the PDs would accept Sinn Féin support should the current coalition end up with just less than half of the seats in the Dáil.

BBC

PUP leader David Ervine has been admitted to hospital

Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine is in a critical condition after falling ill suddenly at his home.

Mr Ervine, 53, is being treated in the intensive care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

He was initially taken to the Ulster Hospital at Dundonald in east Belfast but was later moved to the RVH.

Mr Ervine has been an assembly member for East Belfast since 1998 and was one of the key figures in the brokering of the loyalist ceasefire of 1994.

A spokesman for the hospital treating him said: “He is currently in the intensive care unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital and remains critically ill.”

Thoughts and prayers

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain told the BBC he had “a high regard for him”.

“He’s brought loyalist politics a considerable distance, he’s a very progressive unionist, wants to see power-sharing work and I hope he’s going to be part of that.”

Former Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid - the current home secretary - said his thoughts and prayers were with David Ervine’s family at this difficult time.

The PUP’s Northern Ireland Policing Board member Dawn Purvis said: “David took ill this morning and is being cared for in hospital. His family are with him.”

Mr Ervine, who is married with two sons, became the leader of the PUP in 2002 after replacing Belfast councillor Hugh Smyth.