Power-sharing deal - Singing from the same sheet at last

The British Government, with the full backing of the Irish Government, promised to dissolve the Assembly in Northern Ireland, if it was not up and running by midnight last night. But this decision has now been postponed for a further six weeks.

In one sense it seemed that the brinksmanship of Ian Paisley had carried the day, but yet the vibes from Stormont yesterday were very positive.

Dr Paisley and Gerry Adams finally sat down together for the first time and came to an agreement on establishing a power-sharing Executive.

“We move forward from today in an entirely new spirit and with every expectation of success,” Dr Paisley declared. Maybe “Dr No” had not yet actually said, “Yes,” but he has effectively promised that he would say so on May 8th.

Mr Adams endorsed “the unequivocal commitment.” In the circumstances the British and Irish Governments have agreed to facilitate the two parties.

An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed yesterday’s agreement as “unprecedented and very positive,” while Prime Minister Tony Blair noted that his government had been striving for such an agreement over the past decade. With the promise of an historic breakthrough in the offing, it would have been crazy not to agree to the six-week delay.

The task ahead is not just to bring about changes that have been needed over the last decade or even the past thirty years, but differences that have been allowed to develop and fester over more than three hundred years.

Power sharing will involve the cooperation of not just the two extreme parties, but of the broad spectrum of Northern society. The Executive will include four DUP Ministers, three Sinn Féin, two members of the Ulster Unionist Party, and one from the SDLP.

Progress so far has been largely symbolic, but symbolism has been allowed to play an inordinate role in the politics of Northern Ireland. Its importance should not be underestimated, because symbolic matters have long overshadowed and obscured the daily concerns of the people.

Leaders of the DUP and Sinn Féin are seeking a meeting with Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, to agree to an economic package, and they have asked the British government to delay the implementation of water charges, which were due to be introduced today.

Working together, the two parties can undoubtedly be much more effective than acting separately. This promises real prospects for tackling matters like dissatisfaction with the current state of the health service, local charges, and the provision of more playgrounds.

These are the things that dominate politics in a normal society, but normal politics have been hampered by the primacy afforded to symbolism over practicality for too long in Northern Ireland. By getting together to tackle the things that really matter in the everyday lives of people, both communities could soon realise that they have much more in common with each other than the things that divide them.

That is the first real step to normalcy, and now they may be on the one road together at long last.