N. Ireland remains in limbo as talks deadline passes
Power-sharing assembly between Irish nationalists, pro-British unionists remains suspended as talks collapse
27 March 2017•Update: 28 March 2017
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
A deadline to form a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland passed Monday with Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists failing to reach and leaving the local parliament suspended.
The region’s two biggest parties -- the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and Sinn Fein -- failed to strike a deal following a snap election held on March 2.
Sinn Fein already said the talks had “run their course” Sunday.
“Sinn Fein will not be supporting nominations for [Assembly] Speaker or the Executive tomorrow,” Michelle O’Neill, the party’s leader in Northern Ireland, said Sunday.
However, DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster accused Sinn Fein of collapsing the talks process.
Foster said Sinn Fein had behaved “as if they were the only participants whose mandate mattered”.
The U.K.'s Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said he was "determined to see a functioning Executive in place at Stormont...and this remains the UK government’s continuing priority".
A scheduled Assembly sitting Monday to appoint the first and deputy first ministers was suspended before the deadline was reached at 4 p.m. local time (1500GMT).
If the sides fail to reach a deal, the British government may call another election or seek ways to extend the talks deadline.
The previous administration had collapsed with the resignation of its Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness over a botched energy saving deal called RHI in January.
McGuinness, a key Sinn Fein figure, died last week and was buried at a high-profile funeral Thursday.
Other issues about recognition of the Irish language and the legacy of violence from the 1968-1998 Troubles further soured relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
The pro-British DUP lost support in the March 2 election but managed to remain the biggest party, with a single-seat margin in the Assembly over Sinn Fein.
