Irish and U.K. leaders are in Belfast to celebrate the end of Northern Ireland's political deadlock

Leaders of the UK and Ireland meet Northern Ireland's new government, which requests more funding for public services.

The leaders of the U.K. and Ireland went to Belfast on Monday to meet Northern Ireland’s newly revived government and bask in a good-news moment after two years of political crisis.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar visited the new administration at Belfast's Stormont Castle as its ministers met for the first time. The ministers wasted no time before pressing London for more money to patch up Northern Ireland’s creaking public services.

Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly appointed a power-sharing government on Saturday after a two-year hiatus sparked when the main British unionist party walked out in February 2022.

The Democratic Unionist Party boycotted the administration to protest post-Brexit trading arrangements that it said undermined Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. The party was coaxed into returning last week after the U.K. promised to eliminate most checks on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration in Belfast must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists. The U.K. and the Republic of Ireland both have roles as guarantors of the peace.

The new administration is led by First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein, the party allied with the Irish Republican Army during Northern Ireland’s decades of violence known as “The Troubles.” Her appointment was historic, marking the first time an Irish nationalist, who aspires to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the republic, has held the post.

In practice, nationalists and unionists will continue to govern in uneasy balance. The post of deputy first minister – held by Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP – is officially equal to the first minister, and neither can govern without the other.