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A BID IS under way to have the Stormont Assembly recalled next week.
Sinn Féin is attempting to bring the recall on Wednesday – the day before trade unions are planning one of the largest public sector strikes Northern Ireland has seen in recent history.
Thursday is also the deadline for Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris to call fresh Assembly elections if devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been restored.
The Assembly has been effectively collapsed for almost two years. The DUP is refusing to participate until unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements are addressed.
Sinn Féin’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said her party has initiated an Assembly recall to restore the Executive and “urgently deliver a fair pay deal for public sector workers”.
The recall motion will require the backing of 30 MLAs to succeed.
It urges that the Assembly meets urgently to elect a Speaker and Deputy Speakers, appoint ministers and back a motion which endorses fair pay settlements for public sector workers.
We have initiated a recall of the Assembly next week to restore the Executive, and urgently deliver a fair pay deal for public sector workers.
— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) January 12, 2024
It is decision time for the DUP. There can be no more delays or excuses.
Our public sector workers play a pivotal role right across our…
It also calls for the DUP to “respect the democratic outcome of the May 2022 Assembly election” in which Sinn Fein made history by becoming the first nationalist or republican party to top the Stormont poll and entitling it to nominate the first nationalist or republican First Minister.
Finally it emphasises the “pressing need to urgently reinstate the Executive to tackle the unprecedented challenges confronting citizens and our public services, particularly the immediate matter of public sector pay”.
The DUP has insisted it will not end its blockade until it secures legislative assurances from the Government on Northern Ireland’s trading position within the UK.
Heaton-Harris has said his talks with the DUP over the Windsor Framework have concluded, although leader Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted engagement is continuing.
Heaton-Harris has invited the main Stormont parties to take part in bilateral talks at Hillsborough Castle on Monday about the Stormont stalemate.
O’Neill also pressed the DUP today to make a decision on re-entering the Assembly.
“It is decision time for the DUP,” she said.
“There can be no more delays or excuses. Our public sector workers play a pivotal role right across our society, working in our hospitals, schools, on trains and buses, and within the civil service.
“The DUP cannot continue to leave workers and families in the lurch any longer.”
Earlier DUP MP Gavin Robinson insisted there is no legal basis for joint authority rule in Northern Ireland if devolved government is not restored.
Robinson was reacting after Conservative MP and chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Robert Buckland said any alternative to the DUP agreeing a deal to restore the Stormont Executive would likely mean the “involvement of the Irish government”.
The DUP deputy leader accused Buckland of making “hollow threats”.
During an appearance on the BBC’s The View programme, Buckland said that a return to direct rule for Northern Ireland would mean “triggering certain aspects of the Good Friday Agreement” and “involvement of the Irish government, ultimately”.
When asked if “old-style direct rule of the past” was off the table, he responded: “I think so.”
Robinson responded: “Sir Robert Buckland seems to be confused. It’s not often he is wrong, but on this he is.
“The Republic of Ireland has no legal basis for governing Northern Ireland. Such a step would be a further breach of the Belfast and successor agreements.”
He added: “It is the arrangements flowing from the Northern Ireland Protocol alone that are stopping the formation of an Executive.
“We are focused on getting this right and restoring the balance. We will not be distracted by Sir Robert’s confused viewpoint.
“Rather than issue hollow threats about some version of joint authority, Sir Robert and his colleagues would be better to focus on restoring Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market.
“Replacing the protocol with arrangements that unionists, as well as nationalists, can support will provide a solid foundation for the restoration of devolution on a cross-community basis.”
Previous talks between Heaton-Harris and the main Stormont parties over a £3.3 billion (€3.8 billion) financial package to accompany the return of devolution broke up at Hillsborough Castle in December without any agreement to restore the Assembly and Executive.
The package would include money to make an outstanding pay award to public sector workers.
With their pay demands still unmet, unions are planning a major strike across Northern Ireland on 18 January.
Buckland denied that the UK Government was using the strikes in Northern Ireland as a means to pressure the DUP into a deal.
He said: “I think on one level it’s maybe a cynical view about how the UK government would view the valued contribution that public service workers make in Northern Ireland.
“The reality is this facing all of us – all of us as elected politicians have responsibilities to face up to.
“Sometimes we have to make decisions that we don’t particularly like, we don’t live in a perfect world.
“The DUP are part of this imperfect world. There isn’t a perfect solution for them.
“But there is a solution and a solution that can deliver for their constituents, many of whom are public sector workers, in a way that I think would redound to their credit.
“That’s why I think now is the time for leadership, for courage if you like – an overused word sometimes, but one that might apply in this case – to allow the Executive to be formed as quickly as possible.”
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He looks nothing like Liam Neeson!
Should this not have been state property since it was made ?
Not if it was made by his family.
And was it ?
Jaysus I couldn’t tell you, but I would imagine so if his grand-niece had it.
There was no autopsy or coronial inquiry so it could only have been made by his family.
A true Irish hero
Poignant and creepy at the same time.
WTF is a death mask?
It’s a quaint little British execution ritual that was practical in the days before cameras, but was continued even after the advent of cameras, and which former British colonies such as Malaysia and Singapore still do today. When someone is executed, and as only a handful of officials are allowed to be present, a plaster cast of the executed persons face is made postmortem as proof that they had been executed, and could then be publicly displayed. I don’t know why one would have been made of Collins.
Would love to have seen it go to Collin’s barracks in Cork.
Yes he was a true son of Cork, until ye shot him.
@ Brian , that was sheer brilliance
Dev’s crowd shot him !
Lol, Brian :)
They should leave us at least keep the bullet then.
…but they were still from Cork!
A true irish warrior.alot of lives could of been saved had he not been killed
ffs gimme a break,what about having some respect for people who had a profound impact on our history without being so flippant,can’t you people take sometime out and be more informed,I hate stupid comments
Won’t be queuing up to see that, not even if it was Elvis’s!!
Free world is great! You actually don’t have too!
Dev set him up. COLLINS knew he signed his death warrant when he signed the treaty. He also knew the orange thugs of Carson et Al were armed to the teeth , British officers in Kildale were allowed not to engage loyalists forces and the blood thirsty Churchill made it very clear to Collins that not signing the treaty would result in huge deaths, mainly Catholic. It was a stepping stone and De Velera is no hero of mine. Using collins as a scapegoat. He only escaped execution in 1916 because he was American.
Michael Collins true Irish hero.
God rest him.
My daughters in the background pic
Béal na mBláth not Béal Na mBláth.
A hero……..also a ‘terrorist’ if he existed today. Just read the laws brought in recently. Red thumb this comment away but you know its true. This govt who lay wreaths at his grave, would all be screaming for his arrest. Because traitors wouldnt be around long if he was here.
Cop on. Terrorists . FFS. He got rid of the British terrorists and if that means shooting black and tans and the Cairo gang then that makes him a liberator of Ireland from British rule. War is not meant to be nice.
did you not get what i meant you complete idiot. Im highlighting the hypocracy of our govt who call him a hero while doing being complete traitors to this country. Are you one of those thickos who think loosing our soveignity is fine unless its to the british?
It wasn’t presented by Collins’ nieces, it was acquired for the visitor’s centre by Private Noel McDonnell. Helen Collins and Mary Claire O’Malley were just there to view it on the day.
Anybody care to explain WTF a death mask is?
have your say