Paisley and McGuinness take office

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness today became the North’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister after taking the pledge of office.

With British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other VIPs watching in the Northern Ireland Assembly’s public gallery, the Democratic Unionist leader and the former IRA commander swept aside decades of enmity as they were sworn in as First and Deputy First Minister.