Northern Ireland: Some you win?

Only time will tell whether the results of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections will pave the way to the restoration of power-sharing at Stormont.

Conversation overhead outside a polling station;
Woman: What's this election for, anyway?
Man: It's for the Assembly.
Woman: Sure, we don't even know if we're goin' to get it back!

Elections are over, but assembly remains suspended

Interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, described the results as, challenging.

On Saturday 29 November he began a series of talks with party leaders to set an agenda for the forthcoming review of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionist Party fulfilled their dream of overtaking the Ulster Unionists to become the biggest unionist party.

Their tally of 30 seats would make them the biggest group in the Assembly; if it ever meets.

The party wants a completely new deal, rather than a review of the current set-up.

Dr Paisley says any of his people who talk to Sinn Fein will be expelled from the party.

Ulster Unionists upbeat

David Trimble of the Ulster Unionists remains remarkably upbeat, despite dropping into second place with 27 seats.

A number of those MLAs are anti-Agreement, including Mr Trimble's arch-enemy, Jeffrey Donaldson.

The other big winners were Sinn Fein, who leapfrogged the SDLP to become the biggest party on the nationalist side of the equation.

The party President, Gerry Adams, was quick to point out that, although the DUP is the biggest party, most of the seats were won by pro-Agreement parties.

SDLP hit

The party that took the biggest hit in Wednesday's election was undoubtedly the SDLP.

The retirement of its leading actors, John Hume and Seamus Mallon, has left the party struggling to maintain momentum.

Others have blamed the SDLP's exclusion from the recent talks between Tony Blair, the UUP and Sinn Fein.

This left the republican party looking like the real representatives of nationalist opinion.

Campaign to retain acute services at Omagh Hospital

Every election throws up a joker in the pack.

Dr Kieran Deeny's election as an independent MLA for West Tyrone has proved an embarrassment for the Government.

Dr Deeny topped the poll as part of a campaign to retain acute services at Omagh Hospital.

Politics Show

Jim Fitzpatrick tries to make sense of those election results, and asks; where do we go from here?

Join the Politics Show with Jim Fitzpatrick on BBC One on Sundays at Noon.

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