DUP in Killarney - Important, positive step for North

HIGHLY promising moves towards breaking the North’s political logjam were taken yesterday when leading unionists of the DUP made an unprecedented visit to the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in Killarney.

It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of this initiative, spearheaded as it was by the party’s deputy leader, Peter Robinson, and involving three other Westminster MPs.

Ironically, the hard-line DUP politicians have stolen a march on more moderate unionists, an initiative aptly described by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as “a hugely important step”. Now the North’s largest political party, it is trying to soften its protest image.

Mr Robinson’s claim that the DUP is not delaying restoration of devolution in the North, and would gladly enter a power-sharing administration with a fully democratic Sinn Féin, illustrates how dramatically the North’s political landscape is changing.