Irish Examiner view: Agreement is not yet home and hosed

NI Protocol

If UK Prime Minister can get a deal through, he will have a good week.

While Mary Lou McDonald says it is “game on” and other Irish leaders such as Tánaiste Micheál Martin are also making encouraging noises, we are old enough to know that the old proverb about counting chickens is never more apposite than when it relates to the North and matters of cultural and national identity.

Jeffrey Donaldson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whose withdrawal from Stormont has paralysed the devolved government in Belfast, says that “real progress” has been made while simultaneously warning that he has not seen the final text of any agreement.