Irish and UK leaders are in Belfast to celebrate the end of Northern Ireland’s political deadlock

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The leaders of the U.K. and Ireland are in Belfast to meet Northern Ireland’s newly revived government. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar visited the new administration at Belfast’s Stormont Castle on Monday. Members of the assembly appointed a power-sharing government on Saturday after two years of political crisis. The hiatus was sparked when the main British unionist party walked out of the power-sharing administration to protest post-Brexit trading arrangements. The party was coaxed into returning last week. The ministers in Belfast wasted no time in pressing Sunak’s government for more money to restore the region’s creaking public services.