Adams: Southern parties fear rise of Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams says his party's rise in the Northern Assembly elections this week came despite all the main political parties in the Republic campaigning on behalf of the SDLP.

Mr Adams said in Belfast today that the southern establishment parties had travelled north to help the SDLP because they feared Sinn Féin's rise in the Republic.

Meanwhile, the SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Agreement had been damaged by the election, but not destroyed.

Speaking following his meeting with the Northern Secretary Paul Murphy, Mr Durkan said the DUP had wanted to be the major party in unionism, and Sinn Féin to be the largest nationalist party, so they could declare the Agreement unworkable.

Those who had argued that the DUP were moderates in disguise are going to be proved wrong, he said.