A deadline given to the Northern Ireland Assembly by Westminster to form a new devolved government expired at midnight yesterday. As a consequence, a bill passed in July by British MPs will now take effect, mandating the British government to implement more detailed legislation concerning same-sex marriage and abortion between now and early 2020. For now, abortion has effectively been decriminalised in Northern Ireland. A last-ditch effort by the DUP and a few other unionist MLAs to prevent the expiration of the deadline was blocked by several other parties inclusing SF, who refused to attend the first sitting of the Stormont assembly in over a 1000 days, with the latter party describing yesterday's actions as a "cynical political stunt".
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc...eland-50128860
Personally, while I'm glad for those who have now finally been given access to rights already enjoyed by other British and Irish citizens, it is a pity that not even this ultimatum has managed to return functional government to Stormont. Especially given the tumultuous process that has been Brexit and the importance of Northern Ireland therein, the potential benefit of cross-community negotiation could have been of particular use. I expect neither of the major parties would have been interested in the slightest though.