The restoration of the North’s power-sharing Assembly is still possible, the Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy has told the party’s ardfheis. Northern Ireland has been without a power-sharing government since January 2017, when it collapsed following a row over a botched renewable heating scheme. He was one of a number of Sinn Féin elected representatives who spoke to the thousand-strong crowd at the party’s ardfheis in the Millennium Forum in Derry on Saturday morning. The Upper Bann MLA, John O’Dowd, who is challenging Ms O’Neill for the position of vice president, spoke on a Bill of rights. He had supported a proposal to accommodate asylum seekers in Ballinamore, despite a protest from a local community group.

Source: The Irish Times November 16, 2019 13:52 UTC