The future of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland is hanging by a slender thread with First Minister Peter Robinson’s decision Thursday to step down, along with all but one of his ministers, because of a series of disputes.
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Mr Storey, alleged former head of IRA intelligence, was one of three men, aged 45, 58 and 59, who were arrested in Belfast on Wednesday morning as part of the police investigation.
For now, Robinson will be replaced by his finance minister, Arlene Foster, but every other minister belonging to his party will also resign.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said that there was a “limited opportunity” to avert the collapse of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing administration, and if it fell, it could be some time before it resumed. They remain in custody but have not been charged.
Ms. Villiers told reporters that solutions had been found in the past “through the leaders of Northern Ireland sitting around a table”.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson has stepped aside and other DUP ministers are to resign as a result of the political crisis at Stormont.
The DUP had sought the adjournment after police said they suspected the IRA of involvement in a murder last month.
Prominent figures… Republican party Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams (right) and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness after a proposal by the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party to adjourn the Assembly was defeated.
In London, Cameron said Friday he was extremely anxious about the political crisis in Northern Ireland, where the power-sharing government is on the brink of collapse in the gravest crisis since a 1998 peace deal ended years of sectarian violence.
Mr Robinson issued the ultimatum yesterday following the arrest of three leading republicans, including Sinn Fein’s northern chairman Bobby Storey, over the fatal shooting of former IRA man Mr McGuigan.
He said the Irish Government is “willing and available” to support parties in the North “day and night” in the interest of “getting the Executive and the Assembly back on track”.
This has ramped up pressure on Sinn Fein, given the paramilitary group was supposed to no longer exist.
Secretary of State Theresa Villiers has said re-instigating an independent authority to look at decommissioning command structures was one of the most “credible” options.
Villiers described the situation as a “complete breakdown in the working relationships within the Executive”.
He said it was now time for unionist parties to stand with him in condemning violent activity.
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Adams said that even a fractured Northern Executive was “better than what it replaced” and said that the party should stay “patient, focused and calm”.
