Belfast’s old foes to mark historic deal with trip to the White House

By David McKittrick, Ireland correspondent
Saturday, 6 February 2010

Barack Obama last night set the American presidential seal of approval on Northern Ireland's political breakthrough by commending those involved and inviting them to the White House next month.

His praise for what he termed "an important step on the pathway to greater peace and prosperity for all communities on the island" came after days and nights of tortuous negotiations finally met with success.

President Obama will meet First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in Washington on St Patrick's Day, as well as Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen. Mr Cowen and Gordon Brown travelled to Belfast yesterday with Mr Brown declaring the deal would close "the last chapter of a long and troubled story".

The two parties which had been at odds for many months, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein, both signalled their satisfaction with an intricately composed 21-page document. Thrashed out during exhaustingly long sessions, it lays down that powers over policing and justice are to be transferred from London to Belfast on 12 April. This is in line with the goals of Sinn Fein, London and Dublin ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/belfastrsquos-old-foes-to-mark-historic-deal-with-trip-to-the-white-house-1890900.html

There are still bloody-minded holdouts (a man was beat to death last spring while I was there, and later in the year someone tried and failed to set off a car-bomb outside a police station) -- but still, so much progress has been made. This is cause for great hope for the future.

Hekate

she had this added to her plate while in London.