Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris speaks to the press on College Green in London on Jan. 30.HENRY NICHOLLS/Getty Images
Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party agreed Tuesday to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days – with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein holding the post of first minister for the first time.
After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the U.K. government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions.”
The breakthrough after months of inconclusive negotiations came after the U.K. government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until Feb. 8 to restore the collapsed administration or face new elections.
“All the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return,” Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said. He said he would publish details of the U.K. government’s new proposals on Wednesday, after briefing Northern Ireland’s main political parties.
The DUP walked out in February, 2022, in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to the government with Sinn Fein. Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists.
The walkout left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system. Amid mounting public frustration, teachers, nurses and other public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike this month calling on politicians to return to the government and give them a long-delayed pay raise.
The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than £3-billion ($5.1-billion) for its public services, but only if the executive in Belfast gets back up and running.
Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, said the DUP leader had concluded the party’s boycott had reached “the end of the road.”
“Jeffrey Donaldson thought that the time was running out,” she said. “This was his opportunity, he had to jump.”
Northern Ireland’s political deadlock stems from the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the U.K. left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
The checks were established to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbour, the Republic of Ireland – a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The DUP, though, says the new east-west customs border undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.
In February, 2023, the U.K. and the EU agreed on a deal to ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. But it was not enough for the DUP, which continued its government boycott.
Mr. Donaldson said further measures agreed by the British government will mean “zero checks, zero customs paperwork” on Northern Ireland-bound goods.
The changes will require legislation in Britain’s Parliament. The government does not expect it to face strong opposition – but Brexit remains a thorny and unpredictable issue.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration welcomed the “progress” in Northern Ireland. But Mr. Kirby cautioned to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that “there’s still some legislation that has to be inked.”
The DUP’s change of heart faces opposition from some hard-line unionists, who fiercely guard Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the DUP meeting venue outside Belfast late Monday, waving placards saying, “Stop DUP sellout.”
Mr. Donaldson said last week that he had received threats over his attempts to negotiate a return to the government.
“I think my party has displayed far more courage than those who threaten or try to bully or try to misrepresent us,” he said Tuesday. “We are determined to take our place in taking Northern Ireland forward.”
The situation has been complicated by Northern Ireland’s changing political landscape. Unionists were the largest force in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its establishment in 1998 until 2022, when Sinn Fein won the most seats in an election.
That gives the nationalist party, which aims to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the republic, the right to hold the post of first minister in the restored government. The DUP will fill the post of deputy – a bitter pill for many unionists to swallow.
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said the appointment of Northern Ireland’s first nationalist leader would be “a moment of great significance” that will bring a united Ireland closer.
Prof. Hayward agreed it was “hugely significant in symbolic terms, if not in practical terms, because it’s a joint position” with the deputy role.
“International headlines about that – the first time you have a Sinn Fein first minister – are the kind of headlines that that the DUP have been dreading,” she said.