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LONDON, April 19 (AP) — Politicians in Northern Ireland have figured this out. Some of them don’t like it.
Unionist lawmakers were outraged by a unified voice from the leaders of Britain, the European Union and the two US presidents urging them to restore the mothballed Belfast government and reap more returns on economic investment in Northern Ireland.
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“There is no prosperity without peace, and there is no peace without prosperity,” U.S. trade envoy Joe Kennedy III told a conference in Belfast on Wednesday.
It was the latest in a string of messages urging the DUP to end a political crisis that has overshadowed the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday peace deal that ended a long war known as “Trouble”. 30 years of sectarian bloodshed.
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The semi-autonomous Belfast government has been suspended since it went on strike over a post-Brexit customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK more than a year ago.
Under the power-sharing rules established by the Good Friday Agreement, Britain’s main unionist party and the Irish nationalist party must govern together.
The DUP boycott left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a government to make key decisions as soaring living costs and backlogs overwhelmed a crumbling public health system.
At the anniversary event, peacemakers including former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, emphasized the economic benefits of restoring the government – and if the crisis persists exist.
During a visit to Belfast last week, Biden linked U.S. investment in Northern Ireland’s booming tech sector to resolving the political crisis.
Kennedy, a scion of a US political dynasty and Biden’s economic envoy to Northern Ireland, said he would like to see an increase of the 230 US businesses already operating in Northern Ireland, employing a total of 30,000 people.
But, he said, businesses “need clarity and certainty”.
“They want to know what might change and how and when. The sooner the answers to these questions are found, the better it will be for Northern Ireland’s economy,” he said.
DUP politicians hit back at economic message with carrots and sticks. MP Ian Paisley Jr. told Time Radio it was “bullshit” to suggest that “if we had an executive in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland) all of a sudden there would be another El Dorado” Eight Ways”.
Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the DUP would not be “coerced into submission”.
A deal reached between Britain and the EU in February would remove many of the customs checks that have riled the DUP and ease the EU’s role in setting the rules for Northern Ireland. The deal has been welcomed by politicians in London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington.
But Donaldson said that was not enough for the DUP to end the strike.
Still, many politicians and officials remain optimistic that the party will eventually back down — perhaps after local elections on May 18, the first test of voter opinion since the DUP began boycotting. That’s when the party may learn whether its tough stance paid a price or won votes.
The DUP is known for its stubbornness, but it has also shown to be adaptable. It opposed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 before eventually switching sides and entering government.
Duncan Morrow, professor of political science at the University of Ulster in Belfast, said the DUP now had “no allies” and little room for maneuver.
“The DUP faces a huge dilemma,” he said. “Given they’re under so much pressure, how are they going to turn the return (of the government) into anything other than failure?” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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