North on brink of power-share agreement

THE North was on the brink of a power-sharing breakthrough last night as Sinn Féin gave its conditional backing to the St Andrews Agreement.

As the clock ticked down to Friday’s deadline for all parties to approve the devolution deal, Dublin and London worked furiously behind the scenes to ensure ratification.

A compromise move could see the swearing in of the DUP’s Ian Paisley as First Minister and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness as Deputy Minister agreed in principle on the second stage deadline of November 24, but put off in practice until power is restored to Belfast from Westminster in March.