Northern Ireland Talks Near Collapse

In the NY Times article Northern Ireland Talks Near Collapse, Northern Ireland's two main parties, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party, exceed their Friday deadline to come up with a proposal regarding the police and justice powers. Both the the British and Irish prime ministers attended the first three days of the talks, spending hours talking with the heads of the two parties. Wednesday, Cowan and Brown both left with an ultimatum, come up with a solution by Friday or they will impliment their own proposals and lay out an unilateral schedule for carrying them out. Catholic Sinn Fein and the Protestant DUP's cleavage ultimately lies with the disagreement on whether to join Ireland or remain part of Britain.

This article emphasizes the social cleavages present in Northern Ireland. Both party leaders have expressed little desire to give in to their rival party's agenda. In the past three decades, 3600 deaths can be attributed to violence between social cleavages in Northern Ireland.

Photo credit to the European Pressphoto Agency

Grade this post.