Northern Ireland will inaugurate tomorrow the historic power-sharing government it hopes will finally lock in peace in the province and bury decades of sectarian bloodshed and terrorism.
The Northern Ireland Assembly, where Protestants and Catholics will share power, is to be revived after four-and-a-half years when the peace process at times seemed in limbo.
Firebrand Protestant preacher Ian Paisley is to become the province's first minister, with Catholic convicted terrorist Martin McGuinness as his deputy -- a deal which would have been utterly unthinkable even five years ago.
That the two sides have been able to come together in government is an extraordinary triumph for years of painstaking progress -- and a triumph the outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be keen to claim as his own.
He and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern will be present at tomorrow's ceremony inaugurating the new administration at Stormont, with Blair, expected to announce his resignation plans later in the week, hoping to bow out on a high.
Blair wants lasting peace in Northern Ireland to be the cornerstone of his legacy, rather than the unpopular war in Iraq. Meanwhile Ahern -- who faces a tough May 24 general election -- could also do with a dose of reflected glory.
The devolved Belfast assembly was created by the April 1998 Good Friday peace accord which largely ended 30 bloody years of "the Troubles" between the two communities.
But it was suspended in 2002 when cross-community trust broke down due to allegations of a spy ring at Stormont and power was returned to London.
Desperate for success in Northern Ireland before quitting office, Blair, alongside Ahern, hauled in the province's party leaders last November and issued a final ultimatum: Sort it out among yourselves by March 26 or see the province run from London indefinitely.
Elections were called on March 7, in which the hardliners in both communities were emboldened.
Paisley's Democratic Unionists (DUP), a conservative Protestant party which strongly favors Northern Ireland remaining a part of the UK, topped the polls.
Their foes Sinn Fein came second. The Catholic socialists of Gerry Adams and his No. 2 McGuinness favor integration into the Republic of Ireland, and are the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The DUP got four ministries, Sinn Fein three, the Ulster Unionists (UUP -- moderate Protestant conservatives) two, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP -- Catholic, moderate) one.
The IRA renounced violence and dismantled its arsenal in 2005. On Jan. 28, Sinn Fein recognized the Northern Irish police and justice system -- a painful and historic step which proved just about enough to convince the DUP that they were fit for government.
Both communities were keen to get power back from London.
But Paisley, dubbed "Doctor No" for his decades of intransigence, took it to the March 26 deadline to say yes to sharing power -- and only then yes in several weeks' time, and with an improved financial package to kickstart the province's long-suffering economy, hence the wait until tomorrow.
Indeed, Paisley, 81, had refused to speak to Adams before their crunch deadline day meeting.
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