Northern Ireland power-sharing could resume within days, after two-year hiatus

The main pro-union party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said Tuesday it had reached a deal with the UK government that would end its near two-year government boycott and mark a return to power-sharing in the province.

The main pro-union party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said Tuesday it had reached a deal with the UK government that would end its near two-year government boycott and mark a return to power-sharing in the province. Jeffrey Donaldson, leader of the pro-UK DUP, made the announcement at a press conference in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The move could see the first minister position filled by a member of the nationalist Sinn Féin party for the first time since the power-sharing arrangement was put in place as part of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Sinn Féin won the most seats in the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2022. Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for almost two years since the DUP walked out in February 2022, ostensibly in protest against trade rules put in place after the UK left the EU in 2020. Brexit put strain on the carefully calibrated power-sharing deal that was intended to help maintain peace in Northern Ireland, which was wracked by a bitter sectarian conflict known as the Troubles between the 1960s and the negotiated peace of 1998. More than 3,500 people were killed in the violence, and about 47,500 people were injured.