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Ireland faces weeks of coalition talks before it gets a new government, as the country's two major centre-right parties work to form a stable administration. With all but a handful of seats filled in the 174-seat legislature on Monday after three days of counting election ballots, Fianna Fail had won 46 seats and Fine Gael 38. The two parties, who have governed in coalition since 2020, look set to fall just short of the 88 needed for a majority without third-party support. The people have spoken, let us now get on with the work, said Fianna Fail leader Michel Martin. Left-of-center party Sinn Fein won at least 37 seats in Friday's election but is unlikely to be part of the next government. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have a longstanding refusal to work with Sinn Fein, partly because of its historic ties with the Irish Republican Army during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The outcome of the election is now clear. The numbers are there for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael
The UK government on Tuesday gave Northern Ireland politicians until February 8 to restore the collapsed regional government in Belfast, after a deadline this month passed without an end to the deadlock. The extension comes amid signs Northern Ireland's largest British unionist party is close to deciding whether to end a boycott that has kept the power-sharing administration on ice for almost two years. The British government is legally obliged to call new Northern Ireland elections now that a previous deadline of January 18 has passed. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would bring a bill to Parliament on Wednesday to set a new date of February 8. He said significant progress had been made towards reviving the Northern Ireland Executive, and the short extension would give sufficient time for it to bear fruit. The Democratic Unionist Party walked out in February 2022 in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to government w
Northern Ireland's political deadlock deepened Friday when the UK government delayed calling an early election for the Belfast-based Assembly after a deadline to restore the mothballed administration expired. The limbo means more uncertainty and delays to government decision-making at a time when many people in Northern Ireland are struggling with soaring food and energy prices. A deadline for the Northern Ireland Assembly to elect a governing executive passed at midnight Thursday amid a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Under the rules of Northern Ireland's power-sharing politics, a new election must be held within 12 weeks. Civil servants will keep essential services running in the meantime. U.K. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had been expected to announce a mid-December poll date. Instead, he said he was holding talks with the main political parties. I hear when parties say they really do not want an election at all, he said. But he added that under the ...
Northern Irish police said Thursday they had found a bomb attached to a truck which was intended to go off as the UK left the European Union. The Continuity IRA (Irish Republican Army), a dissident paramilitary group, were blamed for planting what detectives said was a viable device. Dissident republicans like the Continuity IRA seek Northern Ireland's integration into the Republic of Ireland through violent means. Police said a sketchy warning call was made to a media outlet on January 31 -- the day the United Kingdom left the EU -- about a device on a truck in Belfast docks, due to take a ferry to mainland Britain. Searches were conducted and nothing was found. But on Monday, a more detailed warning call said the device had been attached to a truck trailer belonging to a particular haulage company. It was found inland at an industrial estate in Lurgan, southwest of Belfast, and was made safe by British army bomb disposal experts. Police believe the Continuity IRA thought the t