The Democratic Union Party of Northern Ireland (DUP) and Jerry Adams’ Sinn Fein agree to reentering the Stormont Assembly///BY CRIMSON TAZVINZWA

Sinn Fein has agreed to back a deal to restore powersharing at Stormont in a historic powersharing agreement; confirms the return of devolved government in Northern Ireland after a three-year absence.

The DUP and Sinn Fein today announced the agreement that if successful will certainly restore devolution to Northern Ireland in a short period of time than previously anticpated by political pundits.

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The DUP and Sinn Fein leaders confirmed the deal in statements in Stormont that would have been unthinkable a few months, if not weeks, ago.

The significance of the deal was swiftly hailed by Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, who said:

” This is a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland but also for the people and the history of these islands.”

Making the announcement on Friday evening McDonald said:

“We now have the basis to restore power sharing, and we’re up for that.

“There’s no doubt there are serious challenges ahead; the impact of Brexit, austerity and other pressing issues.

“But the biggest and most significant challenge will be ensuring we have genuine power sharing build on equality, respect and integrity.”

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• Sinn Fein agrees draft deal to restore power sharing agreement
• DUP earlier in the day gave tentative support to the deal, and McDonald, the party president said: ‘Today is a red letter day for the recognition of Irish identity’
• DUP and Sinn Fein agree to deal proposed by the Boris Johnson and the Irish iden
• New deal is victory for Boris’s young governmment which is keen to deliver on both global and domestic agenda; and BREXIT looming – January 2020 deadline
• Not the first time we have seen this headline; ‘Sinn Fein and DUP strike power-sharing deal’

McDonald also said she is willing to put celebrating the Twelfth of July across the island of Ireland on the table in talks on a future Irish border poll.

Ms McDonald told the Irish Independent that “everything should be on the table” when asked specifically about the Protestant celebration of William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne.

“I’ll tell you how we do it, we do it by having them [unionists] front and centre in the conversation and asking them, because I would be absolutely astonished if for people of a unionist persuasion the issue around the Twelfth of July was not raised,” she said.