McGuinness hails era of hope at árd fheis

SINN FÉIN’S recent decision to endorse the police in Northern Ireland “liberated the political process”, the party’s chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said last night.

“It has allowed republicans to once again seize the political initiative and place enormous pressure onto the rejectionists and the naysayers,” he told the party’s second árd fheis in recent weeks.

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) now had to accept power-sharing and all-Ireland arrangements for the first time if they wanted to be part of shaping the future of the North, Mr McGuinness added.