Word: fein
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Protestant Ulster Unionist Party agreed to drop their demand that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) begin disarming before they formed a government that includes Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing. The IRA has appointed a representative to meet with a disarmament commission...
...compromises on both sides are significant. For years, the Ulster Unionist Party would not consider any alternative to exclusive Protestant rule of Northern Ireland, nor would the IRA relent in its violent pursuit of a united Ireland. Now, the Protestant political parties have accepted Sinn Fein representatives into the new cabinet, as well as closer cooperation between their new government and that of the Republic of Ireland. The Catholic political parties have accepted that a unified Ireland may never become a reality...
...process are exemplified by the boycott of the cabinet's first meeting by two of its 12 ministers. These two, as members of the hardcore Protestant Democratic Unionist Party, have agreed to serve as ministers of the cabinet, but never want to be in the same room as Sinn Fein's two representative ministers...
...deal a leap of faith by people on both sides who have lost friends and relatives during the 30-year conflict and are understandably wary. But optimism is suddenly once again the order of the day now that the Ulster Unionist Party has voted to allow its enemy, Sinn Fein, into the region's nascent government without first making a least a token effort to disarm its military wing, the IRA. The condition, which has already rubbed Sinn Fein members the wrong way, is that the IRA will have to begin disarming by January 31. "We've jumped," Unionist leader...
...everyone in Trimble's party is comfortable with his leap. Concerned about letting Sinn Fein in without first seeing some automatic weapons made into plowshares, only 58 percent of the membership approved of the deal. One Ulster MOP called it "akin to turkeys voting for Christmas." Still, what's important isn't so much the weapons as it is the people using them, and this deal is an important and necessary leap of faith to put George Mitchell's historic peace deal back on track...