Dr No says yes: Paisley and Adams agree Ulster deal
Updated on 26 March 2007
Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley has agreed to share power with old enemies Sinn Fein - and held historic face-to-face talks with Gerry Adams.
His nickname is Dr No, but as the search for a final solution in Northern Ireland nears the end of the road, he has finally said yes.
The British government had threatened to dissolve the Belfast assembly if the parties failed to agree a deal, but backed down when it became clear that Dr Paisley would sit down with Republicans.
News of the deal broke this morning, with the revelation that Messrs Paisley and Adams were due to meet in private. They then appeared next to each other in public - an unimaginable scene until today.
Apparently and inevitably, even the precise seating arrangements for today's encounter was haggled over till the last minute - should they sit opposite each other? Side-by-side?
Well, that dispute was settled by having Messrs Paisley and Adams sitting adjacent to each other around the angle of one of the points in a diamond-shaped table.
'This is a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland. In a sense everything we've done in the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment'Tony Blair
Tony Blair welcomed the historic deal reached between the province's main Protestant and Catholic political parties.
"This is a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland. In a sense everything we've done in the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment," he said.
Both men arrived at Stormont early this morning, amid an excited buzz at the thought that Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly may soon be up and running again, more than four years after its suspension.
Key events to date
Oct 2002 - Spy ring allegations, raid on Sinn Fein offices.
Nov 2003 - DUP becomes biggest Unionist party.
Dec 2004 - £26.5 million stolen from Northern Bank.
July 2005 - Gerry Adams announces "purely peaceful and democratic methods."
Jan 2007 - Sinn Fein votes to support policing.
Man who said no surrender
One of them was hunted by the British army and assumed to be the leader of the IRA's so called "Belfast Brigade"
The other's war cry was "no surrender". A politician who made intransigence his life's work in the name of keeping Northern Ireland British.
Today's volte face is a moment of triumph for a departing British prime minister but why did it take all of Blair's premiership in coming?
Go back to 1998 and the Good Friday Agreement. A power sharing executive for the province was backed by voters on both sides of the border, though with the IRA refusing to give up its weapons Ian Paisley was having none of it.
Later that year was the bombing of Omagh. Some 29 were killed by an IRA splinter group in the largest single atrocity of the troubles. It was a wake up call for many Republicans inclined to sue for peace, but Omagh only prolonged the Unionists' sense of mistrust.
In 1999, power sharing began at Stormont but it broke down in a matter of months over the IRA's refusal to disarm.
It strengthened the hand of Paisley and his followers who effectively forced the more moderate David Trimble to resign as First Minister.
Devolution suspended
But in 2002, devolution was once again suspended after allegations of an IRA spying operation at Stormont, and then it was three long years before the IRA finally said, in July 2005, that its armed campaign was over.
Sinn Fein earlier this year voted to back Ulster's new police force and it was time for Ian Paisley - by now undisputed leader of Northern Ireland's largest elected party, to compromise at last.
They say any conflict only truly ends when its extremists rather than moderates are ready to make peace. When they've got all that they are likely to get.
