An agreement has been reached to establish a new round of talks involving all the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the UK and Irish prime ministers, Theresa May and Leo Varadkar, have said in a joint statement.
Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland secretary, and Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, were due to unveil details at a joint press conference in Belfast on Friday afternoon.
The announcement comes a week after the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee sparked widespread calls to end the political impasse that has left Northern Ireland without a functioning government for more than 800 days.
It is understood Bradley and Coveney will ask political parties to resume talks at Stormont, the site of the mothballed assembly, after local elections on 2 May.
Power sharing between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) collapsed in January 2017 amid disputes over the Irish language and a renewable heating scheme that reflected deep mistrust and acrimony.
Brexit-fuelled uncertainty over Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland and its future within the UK have hampered efforts to restore devolved government, leaving civil servants to run what some have called a “zombified” administration.
The New IRA is the biggest of the dissident republican groups operating in Northern Ireland. It has been linked with four murders, including the shooting of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry in April 2019.
The group is believed to have formed between 2011 and 2012 after the merger of a number of smaller groups, including the Real IRA, which was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing.
Its presence is strongest in Derry, north and west Belfast, Lurgan in County Armagh, and pockets of Tyrone, including Strabane.
In January 2019 the group was responsible for a car bomb outside the courthouse in Derry. The explosives-laden car was left on Bishop Street on a Saturday night, and scores of people, including a group of teenagers, had walked past before it detonated.
The New IRA also claimed responsibility for a number of package bombs posted to targets in London and Glasgow in March 2019.
Downing Street confirmed the government was hopeful that talks could resume. A spokeswoman for the prime minister said: “It’s more important than ever now that Northern Ireland has strong political leadership, and we hope we will be able to bring the parties back together for talks as soon as possible.”
But she declined to make a direct link between McKee’s murder and the possible resumption of talks.
“I wouldn’t, out of respect, link the two,” she said. “We have talked about the importance of restoring power sharing in Northern Ireland, and the secretary of state for Northern Ireland has been working very hard behind the scenes to try to get the parties back around the table.
“The prime minister has been involved directly; she travelled to Belfast in recent months and talked to all five party leaders.”
She added: “It’s more important than ever now to ensure that we continue to work for peace in Northern Ireland, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The fatal shooting of McKee by a New IRA gunman while she was observing rioting in Derry prompted an outpouring of grief and calls for parties to work together to ensure her death was not in vain.
Mourners at her funeral in Belfast on Wednesday gave a standing ovation when Fr Martin Magill urged political leaders to end the stalemate – a rebuke that went viral.
However, there is some scepticism that unionist and nationalist leaders will overcome their differences in the short term.
Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, and Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, spent much of Thursday trading barbs and reiterating entrenched positions.
Foster repeated her offer of a twin-track approach that would restore devolution to deal with urgent problems in the health service, education and other sectors, and deal separately with problematic issues such as same-sex marriage and the Irish language.
She said the DUP could not accede to all Sinn Féin demands, describing such a scenario as a “5-0 victory”.
McDonald, speaking in a separate media interview, said Sinn Féin would not “capitulate” on an Irish-language act, saying there was nothing trivial about insisting on equality and rights.
One Irish government source said both parties were keen to avoid blame for the continued stalemate in the wake of McKee’s death but balked at making concessions.
Smaller parties are keen to return to Stormont.
“It is totally irresponsible for politicians to not come together,” said Colum Eastwood, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party. “There is no issue more important than political stability.”
