It’s been a long time coming – two years, or maybe 103 years, depending on your historical starting point.
Northern Ireland now has a power-sharing government again, with British unionists joining Irish nationalists in the administration. This breaks the two-year political deadlock created by the British government’s Brexit blunders.
The most significant of these came when the then-prime minister Boris Johnson undermined Northern Ireland’s unionist community by – in effect – creating a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Unionists strongly resisted this manoeuvre arguing that it undermined the union of the UK that they have cherished for more than a century.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out of Belfast’s Stormont parliament and the government was frozen. What is astonishing, and at the same time hugely encouraging, for those of us who hope for a permanent peace on the island of Ireland, is that the DUP has now returned to Stormont, enabling Northern Ireland to have a functioning power-sharing government again.
Even more extraordinary, there’s a profound historical shift. Northern Ireland is now led for the first time by an Irish nationalist First Minister, Michelle O’Neill. She will work alongside her deputy from the DUP, Emma Little-Pengelly.
These two women have a lot on their shoulders. They represent the coming together of two communities – the mostly Protestant unionist community and the mostly Catholic Irish nationalist community.
In the past, Catholics suffered greatly from discrimination in employment, housing and other matters, while in the worst times of the “Troubles” (from the 1960s until the 1990s), both communities endured killings and bombings. Some families were intimidated out of their homes and more than 3,000 people were killed in shootings and bombings.
I lived in Northern Ireland during much of these times. There was often mutual suspicion between people in both communities, but there was also a great deal of goodwill and friendship across traditional religious boundaries. Most people were desperate for peace.
And now we are at what could be a truly hopeful turning point. That’s because Stormont was created after Ireland was partitioned in 1921 along sectarian lines. The plan was to ensure that Northern Ireland would always have a Protestant and unionist majority, while what would become the Irish Republic would be largely Catholic.
In the worst of the Troubles, both communities endured killings and bombings. Families were intimidated out of their homes and more than 3,000 people died
It was assumed that the Belfast parliament would never be run by Irish nationalists – and especially not by Sinn Fein. Stormont was sometimes called a “Protestant parliament for a Protestant people”. For their part, those in Sinn Fein, including Ms O’Neill, always believed that the very existence of Northern Ireland was a historic wrong. Their aspiration was and remains for Ireland to be united into one state, ending British rule on any part of the island.
The name “Sinn Fein” is usually translated from Irish into English as “We Ourselves” and the party has a long history as the political wing of the violent terrorist group, the IRA. But things have moved on.
The fact that Sinn Fein is in government with the DUP means that both sides have swallowed diverging long-term aspirations in the hope of improving citizens’ lives right now. This could eventually lead to a united Ireland, although both main political parties are tiptoeing around the sometimes incendiary “national question”. Ms O’Neill is trying hard not to alarm unionists.
But perhaps even more astonishing is that Sinn Fein is now on course to become the biggest political party on both sides of the Irish border.
The next general election in the Irish Republic has to be held by March 2025 and Sinn Fein’s leader there, Mary Lou McDonald, is on course to become Taoiseach, Ireland’s prime minister in the Dublin parliament.
Ms McDonald is also careful in the way she speaks of reunification, while retaining her long-term goal of a united Ireland. She greeted the news of Ms O’Neill’s new role with a quote from the Irish poet William Butler Yeats: “All changed, changed utterly.” That is undeniably true. In the optimism of the moment, however, perhaps Ms McDonald omitted the next (and less optimistic) line of Yeats’s poem when he wrote that “a terrible beauty is born”.
Since this is a moment for optimism and since Ireland has also produced many other great poets, I would suggest we should leave the Anglo-Irish Yeats at this point and switch to a more modern writer, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Northern Ireland’s very own Seamus Heaney.
I met Seamus a few times and admired him enormously. He passed away in 2013. He would have loved this moment of hope and possible reconciliation. Perhaps he even predicted it. After all, in one of his greatest inspirational poems, he wrote:
History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
Hope and history are rhyming on the island of Ireland right now. May it last. We can hope.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
FA CUP FINAL
Manchester City 6
(D Silva 26', Sterling 38', 81', 87', De Bruyne 61', Jesus 68')
Watford 0
Man of the match: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
RECORD%20BREAKER
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The specs: Macan Turbo
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 639hp
Torque: 1,130Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Touring range: 591km
Price: From Dh412,500
On sale: Deliveries start in October
The years Ramadan fell in May
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Sunday's Super Four matches
Dubai, 3.30pm
India v Pakistan
Abu Dhabi, 3.30pm
Bangladesh v Afghanistan
Read more from Johann Chacko
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
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Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
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The five pillars of Islam
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
More coverage from the Future Forum
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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The years Ramadan fell in May
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
Poacher
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
More on Quran memorisation:
Guns N’ Roses’s last gig before Abu Dhabi was in Hong Kong on November 21. We were there – and here’s what they played, and in what order. You were warned.
- It’s So Easy
- Mr Brownstone
- Chinese Democracy
- Welcome to the Jungle
- Double Talkin’ Jive
- Better
- Estranged
- Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
- Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)
- Rocket Queen
- You Could Be Mine
- Shadow of Your Love
- Attitude (Misfits cover)
- Civil War
- Coma
- Love Theme from The Godfather (movie cover)
- Sweet Child O’ Mine
- Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
- Wish You Were Here (instrumental Pink Floyd cover)
- November Rain
- Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)
- Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
- Nightrain
Encore:
- Patience
- Don’t Cry
- The Seeker (The Who cover)
- Paradise City
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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