Sinn Fein

LONDON -- Britain put in motion yesterday plans to start the new Northern Ireland government under the freshly revived peace agreement, but immediate progress was halted by a dispute between the rival Ulster Unionist and Sinn Fein parties."

LONDON -- In his most upbeat statement yet that Northern Ireland may be nearing a political accord to end decades of violence, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that the outline of a settlement was "agonizingly close."Acknowledging that 'we've obviously got to get the detail right," Blair insisted that a deal could be struck by an Easter deadline. The package of proposals could be submitted to voters on both sides of the Irish border in a May referendum."I'm still optimistic, maybe stubbornly optimistic, but I'm optimistic that we can get to that deadline, provided there's the good will there for people to negotiate," Blair told Britain's ITN television news.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Ulster's main Protestant party said last night that it would not join the political wing of the Irish Republican Army in government as scheduled today, a decision that will stall the Northern Ireland peace agreement.David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionists, spurned a series of last-minute appeals and concessions from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying they had failed to sway his party's members from their conviction that they cannot share power with Sinn Fein as long as its IRA allies refuse to start disarming.

LONDON -- The Irish Republican Army killed two policemen near Belfast yesterday, and Britain immediately announced that it had broken contacts for peace talks with Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing.Yesterday's IRA ambush apparently carried one devastating message: Prepare for a long, hot summer of violent clashes in Northern Ireland.That was the fear expressed by politicians and citizens after the IRA claimed responsibility for the lunchtime ambush that left two policemen dead in Lurgan, a rural town 35 miles southwest of Belfast.

Today is another significant landmark in the process of transforming life on this island. Today is a good day for Ireland." - GERRY ADAMS, president of Sinn Fein, on the new power-sharing government in Northern Ireland; the Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness were sworn in yesterday as first minister and deputy first minister, respectively

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, yesterday formally rejected crucial points the peace initiative for Northern Ireland that was advanced in December by the Irish and British governments.Officials and analysts in Ireland and Northern Ireland said the Sinn Fein resolutions on the initiative, known as the Downing Street Declaration, were tantamount to total rejection and a serious setback for efforts to end the sectarian guerrilla war involving the British province's Protestant majority and its Roman Catholic minority.

THE ASSASSINATIONS of two policemen in Lurgan -- leaving five children fatherless -- came after two meetings and before a third between British officials and Sinn Fein, about conditions for that organization's return to peace negotiations for Northern Ireland.The executions came within three weeks and ten miles of the controversial Orange Order parade scheduled for Portadown that, last year, provoked riots in the Catholic neighborhood of Drumcree. Negotiations with the organizers had offered some hope of altering the route.

YOUR JUNE 22 editorial, ''Setbacks in Northern Ireland," made several valid arguments, but missed the boat in regard to Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein.Though the IRA's Manchester bombing cannot be condoned, your subsequent dismissal of Sinn Fein's role in the peace process is totally out of line.Sinn Fein is a legal political party, and its leader, Mr. Adams, is the most influential Republican politician of our time. His convincing of the IRA leadership that politics could bring change is what spawned the recent cease-fire and, consequently, the current peace talks.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The Irish Republican Army plans to extend its traditional Christmas cease-fire by a single day to four days -- starting Thursday -- but said it is impossible to extend it further until it gains a consensus on the new Anglo-Irish peace plan, sources said yesterday.The Republican movement -- made up of the IRA and the political party Sinn Fein -- was said to be trying to slow down the hype and anticipation of a quick settlement. On Saturday, Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Fein and, reputedly, one-time IRA military commander, said the party will "initiate a process of nationwide consultations" before giving a detailed response to the peace proposal issued last week.

The first weekend in February saw the annual conference of Sinn Fein at Mansion House, the residence of the lord mayor of Dublin. Sinn Fein is the above-ground political wing of the Irish Republican movement of which the Irish Republican Army is the illegal military wing. Sinn Fein has hit a high above 10 percent of the vote in Northern Ireland and about 3 percent in the Irish Republic. Its president, Gerry Adams, was elected to the British House of Commons from West Belfast but refused to take his seat.